Broadway – Blessings on the Journey

calling, Community, Epiphany, Faith, Grace, Journey, Story, Vocation

What’s Your Story?

Posted on June 20, 2011 by narciejeter

I have no idea who said this but I know I didn’t make it up myself. Someone told me once that we all have a sermon and each Sunday we just preach it a lot of different ways. I’ve thought about this for awhile, and I have found this idea intriguing. In discussion with Josh back and forth over sermons or with Mike back and forth over music, there’s a part of me that does believe that each of us is given this essence, this thing within us that’s just trying to get out and that’s our story. It’s our thing to share with the world. All of us are different. And that’s what makes it beautiful. We’re not competing over who has the best one or who has the loudest or most compelling, but we each have one to share. Each of us.

I think for me it’s this incarnational theology thing. I don’t even want to know how many sermons I talk about Emmanuel – God with us, that the Great God of the universe decided to come and be one of us, that God is with us in the midst. I know I must say in the midst all the time. I don’t know why this gels with me so much, but even if I’m not preaching about it – let’s say I’m talking about human trafficking or Ruth or the early church in Acts – whatever it is, somehow I end up back with this same uncontrollable and thirsty desire to talk to people about this Savior that wants to know them. Not in an arrogant, aren’t we humans so cool, kind of way, but in a I want to know you and I created you and I have this awesome and amazing journey for you to go on. Not saying that those are always easy stories – because there’s a lot of hurt and evil and junk out there, but a God that goes with us and that gets down in the mud and muck with us – that’s a God I can follow.

I could go down a list of what I think people’s sermons/songs/stories are. Is that weird? But can you think about it? The people around you – what is their thing? What is their essence? What is that thing that they point to?

Let me put in a musical perspective. I am not a musician. I am married to one and I love him and he says I don’t count anymore as a non-musician because I’ve heard him talk so much about it. Maybe that’s true. But I love music. Y’all know I love music. My mind thinks in songs which is why I should give money to youtube because I use their videos so much. So back to music – I digress – there’s this guy Stephen Oremus – arranger, orchestrator, musical director. Randomly in July 2005 Mike and I won tickets to Wicked, the musical on Broadway. (I know, I know, I can’t shut up about Broadway, but I like it. I really, really like it.) There’s was a guy conducting or whatever you would call that and he had the best time. He was laughing and smiling and enjoying it in an amazing way. Then here we are this past May and we won tickets to the Book of Mormon Musical and here’s this conductor smiling and so enthusiastic and really loving it and lo and behold – same guy. Stephen Oremus.

Now the guy doesn’t even have a wikipedia page, and I’m tempted to write it myself because I really enjoy what he does. He arranged the music for Avenue Q and Wicked and 9 to 5 and High Fidelity and All Shook Up and the Book of Mormon and as someone who at least loves and owns the soundtrack to three of those, I can hear similarities and musical themes that are common throughout and it’s so cool. It’s just good music and arrangement. As Mike and I were talking about this he talks about how sometimes musicians don’t want to have those themes throughout – you know just like in Project Runway when the girl had all the clothes with petals – you don’t want to be stuck on the one note. But then he changed his mind and said, maybe that’s this guy’s thing. Maybe that’s his gift, his essence – his thing to give.

I don’t know. Call me crazy. But I feel like all of us have that “thing” within us that’s waiting to burst out. That gift whether it be the timid girl who then starts belting out the notes in Sister Act or even the first time Billy Graham stepped behind a pulpit or the first time you do that thing that just makes you feel beyond any word like happy, but alive or content or at purpose.

What’s that thing you want to share with the whole world? What is it that you think they just have to know? How do you share it in your own unique, God-given way?

I get the fear and the doubt and the times you may not feel it and the times when you’re frustrated or annoyed or just plain old pooped. But what’s the story of your life?

Is my story – tired, frantic mother? Is my story – I’ll be glad to talk to you when I’m fully rested and in a good mood and with the right amount of caffeine? Is my story…

If you could tell someone in three sentences or less your greatest purpose or piece of advice or rule to live by or other cliched phrase. If you could share the very essence of who God created you to be with someone, what would that look like? Words? A picture? A song? A hug? A sweater?

Think about it. What’s your thing to share? Your gift to give? What’s your story? And how is it part of the greater story around us? How are we sharing it with the world?

I love this song. I actually love Michael W. Smith’s entire Trilogy on the I’ll Lead You Home album. I know, I know – old school Christian music. Don’t ask me how something titled Angels Unaware fits with this, but somehow I think we live our stories. We live who we are in the good, the bad, and the ugly. On the great days and on the dark days. Whether there are angels unaware or whether we’re right there in the presence of God – we’ve been created and life breathed into us and a story placed in our hearts and on our lives. We don’t always have to have it figured out or feel like we’re good enough, but God is faithful to us and we can trust God’s grace and mercy and never-ending love is available to each of us.

I honestly think of this song every time I say, what’s your story? Matthew West says it well in the Next Thing You Know.

So what’s your story about God’s glory? How are you letting your life speak to the world?

Faith, Fear, Ministry, Priorities, Random, Young Adults

Hello!

Posted on May 20, 2011 by narciejeter

I readily admit that I am a lover of Broadway. Love it! Especially musicals. From the first time I saw Cats in the 6th grade to Wicked to Avenue Q to Phantom to Promises, Promises to In the Heights to most recently The Book of Mormon, there’s something about a story being acted out in the midst of great acting, catchy songs, and neat stages/dancing/the whole atmosphere that I just can’t get enough of. I know, I know – it’s a long way to Broadway. But there’s loads of shows that come through even wonderful South Carolina. And you could see the Legally Blonde musical on MTV or the anniversary special of Les Mis on PBS or even bootlegging from your wonderful youtube. There’s just something about being transported and watching really great art – singing, dancing, acting, the amazing orchestra – the whole experience.

So that’s the place I’m coming from when Mike won tickets to the Book of Mormon and we could see the whole thing from boxed seats and into the orchestra. I’m not the hugest fan in the world of South Park. I think it’s sometimes funny – the episodes about Tom Cruise, Scientology, Mormons, the Christian rock band, those I can find the humor and appreciate it. I’m not a fan of the overkill of language and violence but I know that is part of what they’re trying to speak to. I get that. I had no idea what to expect out of this musical. I had read about it in Entertainment Weekly and how they described it as “an atheist’s love letter to religion.”

I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, there’s some awful language. So much so in parts that I can’t even describe some of the songs. But how real and open they were to work with real issues and serious situations in the midst of the hilarity and satire, was a unique look about religion, faith, and just how cruddy or overly fake life can appear to be and yet how real and authentic it is.

I think about this how end of the world hoohah right now. When we were in New York people were wearing signs and handing out brochures in Times Square about our upcoming May 21st big day. One of the newspapers quoted a retired bus driver who had put in over $40,000 to get the word out to the “unbelievers.” That’s a whole lot of money to put out there. It also quoted a bunch of people who had already quit their jobs and sold their houses. I can’t even imagine that kind of….what’s the word….devotion? (lots of other adjectives that could be used here)

In the opening song of The Book of Mormon and also as part of the finale there’s a song called “Hello!” and it’s a melody of Mormons doing their somewhat cliched ringing of doorbells and introducing people to the Book of Mormon. I wouldn’t say the musical is completely anti-Mormon, but it certainly does poke major fun and lots of holes and questions about the legitimacy of Mormonism. It talks about these missionaries being dropped into these communities and not really caring how the people are actually doing or how they live, but only caring about witnessing. Now I’d like to get on my high horse and say that the United Methodist Church doesn’t do that – we’re working with communities, handing out bed nets, providing food, clean water, education. You can’t deny that UMCOR rocks. Very true.

But do we care enough to give our $40,000 savings to anyone or anything to get out any kind of message? I’m not saying you should start shelling out money a la to some televangelist – quite the contrary. I’m just saying, I don’t know how many of us are willing to part with our life savings for anything. And definitely not to our churches.

What do our missionaries look like? And not just our missionaries because that’s putting it off on just a few, but what do we look like as we share the Gospel? Do we share a Gospel with strings attached or just the simple bare basics in our every day lives? Do we tell people how our scripture could change their lives? Do we share how Jesus is relevant to our lives today? Have any of us shared scripture with someone else, much less a Bible? Do we think that’s too pushy or too “something”?

It’s great that we are doing Change the World weekends as a UMC. Really great. That’s what we should be doing. But all the time and all the churches. Too much to ask? Maybe so. But if we as a church – not just UMC, but all of us – aren’t doing something, living something, breathing something, actually giving a fig about something enough to put our time, hearts, and money where are mouths are, than what are we doing?

Hello!

Campus Ministry, change, Community, Culture, Faith, Grace, Music, Suffering, United Methodist Church

The Cycle – Suffering, Poverty

Posted on May 18, 2011May 18, 2011 by narciejeter

Rebel Diaz Cooperative — Music Space at Rebel Diaz Arts Collective

The United Methodist campus ministries went on our annual trip to New York this past week. It always a rich time with students getting to make new friends and see and learn so much from the city. It is also a blessing to be able to stay at Metropolitan Community UMC in Harlem. Their hospitality has always been a huge gift to us and a shining example of the United Methodist connection.

This year the United Methodist Seminar Program led by Jay Godfrey and Jennifer McCallum outdid themselves, scheduling 3 parts of our group in 3 different areas of the city for 3 days to learn about the communities, culture, and social action taking place. We were divided into groups going to the Bronx, Lower East Side and Harlem and had one day of service at a meals on wheels sort of thing where we actually walked to apartments and delivered meals to the elderly, one day of learning about cultures in our particular communities, and one day of seminar focusing on some of the issues in our communities and what organizations in those communities are doing to combat them.

I had spent some time doing seminars in Harlem and the Lower East Side so I was particularly interested in the Bronx. What a huge area and diverse group of people the Bronx includes. In all of the stops at museums, art collectives, a Yankees game, community action groups – each area of the Bronx was really different. They were all so proud to be “Bronxites” that their enthusiasm for their borough was infectious. We all felt like Bronxites to an extent at the end of our time. Did you know that the Bronx has more green space than any other burrough in New York? Me either.

What we heard from a lot of people and I would think the other groups would say this to, was people saying that they grew up dreaming of moving somewhere else and starting a new life, but that through whatever experience, education, epiphany moment, they decided to stay in their community and try to bring about change and keep fighting for chances and opportunities for the children growing up behind them. Many of the speakers we talked to were born and bred in these communities and the passion, devotion and pride that they felt for these places was evident in everything they said whether the good or even the challenging issues that they are still battling.

It was good for the students and me to see these people standing up for what they believe in using real, practical, and change-bringing principles to their every day, bringing voice to the voiceless.

The divide I feel when I’m talking about us going to a living wage rally or fighting on behalf of the poor versus some of the questioning looks I get from people back home, has a lot to do with people’s questions about justice and righteousness. We say we don’t believe all of the malarky about people who suffer having done something wrong or may not have lived right and have caused their suffering. We say that we need to support our mentally ill, veterans, the widows, the orphans, those that can’t help themselves. But then again, when it comes to our wallets and our own comfort, it seems easier to say and assume that if people were just working hard enough, if people just did what it takes to succeed, they would somehow pull themselves up out of these places of poverty.

We just witnessed a royal wedding where a commoner who descended from coal miners and criminals married a prince. As much as I like the fairytale and as hard as her family worked and as many names they have been called for “social climbing,” I think it paints a somewhat unfair picture of what the cycle of poverty really looks like. To say that it is hard to break that cycle is such a rough and belittling use of an adjective that it feels wrong to say. To stand up in the face of corruption, in the face of not just people but entire systems that abuse you, to demand the same rights that others enjoy when you’ve never gotten a fair shake – that is scary, it’s terrifying, it’s intimidating.

I am constantly amazed at the voices that do stand up though. I was glad to hear of a student from the Bronx talk about students in the Bronx organizing a walk out of thousands of students when the government was going to take away their right to a student metrocard to get to and from school. I was inspired listening to Intikana from Rebel Diaz Arts Collective talking about how they’re using art and music and film and all sorts of creative outlets to give people in the Bronx a way to express themselves in non-violent and constructive ways. It’s great to see young people working to bring about a new day. It’s good for all of us to see that we can make a difference, whether through our churches doing a soup kitchen, clothing closet, food pantry, or other social action. In the midst of the sometimes uphill climb and little defeats in the battle, it’s good to know that none of us are alone in this battle and that we have folks journeying with us all over the world.

From a faith perspective, we are clearly called to the poor, to the wounded, to those that need to feel that love and wholeness and new life. This isn’t just the obvious poor among us, but it’s also the single mom trying to make ends meet, it’s also our cranky next door neighbor who’s as lonely as heck, it’s also our friends, our family, the people we see at the office or grocery store or school.

One of this past week’s lectionary texts was 1 Peter 2:19-25 and it talked about suffering and following in Christ’s footsteps. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t ask God for suffering. If you suffer, you suffer, but Christ suffers with you, I get that. But I’m not asking for it like the lovely Mr. Wesley in his new year’s service. There’s two things I like in particular about this text – one that Christ suffered for us and so God knows what suffering feels like – for real without a doubt not even his fault suffering. There’s a song in the new Broadway musical, The Book of Mormon that’s called “Man Up.” I am NOT endorsing or saying you should go out and watch Book of Mormon or get the soundtrack. The story is about two Mormon missionaries in Africa and needless to say, one of them is seeing that he has a challenge before him and he’s like, hey – Jesus had to man up, so I need to too. I’m not saying that we all have to man or woman up, but the song is right in that Christ did suffer and die and he’s been there. He knows what it’s like to feel alone, tired, hungry, beaten, ridiculed, and tortured.

The other thing is that he did the suffering for us, that “by his wounds you have been healed” and he is our Shepherd leading us home. To me, this calls us in two different directions – one to realize that we realize that this LOVE and sacrifice was for us. The other is to realize that we have to share this LOVE and sacrifice with the world. We can’t say, that’s not my problem, it’s a problem over “there” with “those” people in “that” place. Nope, it’s something that we all must wrestle with as we share the light and love of Christ. This cycle of poverty only ends as we all jump into the fight, pool our resources, and leave our pride, self-protection, and rationalizations at the door.

We learned a ton in New York. It was a great trip. The thing I like about these trips is that it’s not just something we leave in New York, in this far away place, but these are things we learn and do and bring home to make a difference where we are, not just in a nice, greeting card kind of way, but for real.

How do we break the cycle of poverty in our communities? How do we break the cycle of unbelief and fear and doubt? How do we break the cycle of people believing that Jesus would just look at them with contempt and say that they deserved it because of what they did? What are our churches saying about the cycle of poverty and suffering? Anything? What message are we telling? What inner soundtrack are our lives rocking along too?

A nice, tame song by JJ Heller, “What Love Really Means.”

Man Up from the Book of Mormon – (don’t forget this is a satirical musical written by the creators of South Park and Avenue Q so listen at your own risk…this is your disclaimer, seriously.)

If someone was going to write a satirical musical about our faith? our denomination? our churches? what would it say???

Info about Rebel Diaz Arts Collective: http://rdacbx.blogspot.com/

Info about the United Methodist Seminar Program:

http://www.gbgm.umc.org/UMW/work/mission-education/seminar-program/

Faith, Family, Health, Music, Television, Tumor

So if life were a musical

Posted on June 4, 2010April 1, 2011 by narciejeter

Scratch that. Maybe I should use sports imagery. Maybe this is like halftime. Or back to the musical this could either be the orchestra warming up at the beginning of a full and fabulous Broadway show or this could be the intermission music. Either way all’s quiet on the home front. The kids went to bed reasonably early tonight. Mike is asleep already – praise God! And GiGi (Mike’s mom) has arrived safe and sound.

Tomorrow we pick up Enoch’s 3rd birthday cake, some last minute birthday gifts, and we’ll stop by the neurologist. The MRI has been moved from Saturday to Tuesday and the anesthesiologist appointment is now on Monday. So after tomorrow’s neuro there’s nothing on the appointment horizon until Monday which freaks me out a little bit but also makes me want to randomly go somewhere that’s not sitting on my couch waiting for Monday. So is the orchestra gearing up or will it spend all weekend gearing up or better yet in this not completely working analogy – are we going to play a completely different show this weekend – ie. the birthday extravaganza, everyone enjoy life and try not to freak out dance?

In reading people’s posts on the blog and facebook and comments and everything I’ve felt a wide range of emotions. I’ve cried and laughed out loud. Part of me wants to start doing the whole Wicked

“Because I Knew You” as I think about so many different people from so many different places and all of the many ways I love each of you and you have touched my life in real and not so cheesy ways. Another part of me is still just happy to be alive in general and I’ve not been able to get David Crowder’s “O Praise Him” and the video that someone posted months ago out of my head.

I’m not a total David Crowder fan – I admit that – but I do lift this song/video.

Also – please don’t read this blog or any blog for that matter and think that anyone has anything all figured out. That’s crap. No one of us has the in track to faith, theodicy, or the mysteries of life – much less who the smoke monster really was – but we do serve a God who blesses far beyond our wildest dreams and you guys are that blessing for me. So if life were a musical what would be your song? Glee people – what would be your soundtrack? What is that go to music for you that makes your soul come alive? The dear friends that light up your life?

We’re cranking up the music this weekend and there won’t be any electric slide at this three year old’s birthday party!