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Song for Today #12

Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment
Just been listening to this … version released in 2016 … always has a message, but seems especially powerful now.
“#WHERESTHELOVE” is a modern transformation of The Black Eyed Peas’ 2003 hit “Where’s The Love?” The 2016 update addresses various social justice issues such as the protest of unnecessary violence, police brutality, and discrimination based on race (including refugee and immigration issues), gender and religious beliefs across the world. The original version addressed many issues following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, including terrorism, racism, war, and intolerance.
[will.i.am]
People killin’, people dyin’
Children hurtin’, I hear them cryin’
Can you practice what you preachin’?
Would you turn the other cheek again?

Mama, mama, mama, tell us what the hell is goin’ on
Can we all just get along?
Father, Father, Father, help us
Send some guidance from above
‘Cause people got me, got me questioning

(Where’s the love?)
Yo, what’s going on with the world, momma?
(Where’s the love?)
Yo, people living like they ain’t got no mommas
(Where’s the love?)
I think they all distracted by the drama
And attracted to the trauma, mama
(Where’s the love?)
I think they don’t understand the concept
Or the meaning of karma
(Where’s the love?)

[Diddy]
Overseas, yeah, they trying to stop terrorism
(Where’s the love?)
Over here on the streets, the police shoot the people
Put the bullets in ’em
(Where’s the love?)
But if you only got love for your own race
(Where’s the love?)
Then you’re gonna leave space for others to discriminate
(Where’s the love?)

[will.i.am]
And to discriminate only generates hate
And when you hate, then you’re bound to get irate
Madness is what you demonstrate
And that’s exactly how hate works and operates

Man, we gotta set it straight
Take control of your mind, just meditate
And let your soul just gravitate to the love
So the whole world celebrate it

People killin’, people dyin’
Children hurtin’, I hear them cryin’
Can you practice what you preachin’?
Would you turn the other cheek again?

Mama, mama, mama, tell us what the hell is goin’ on
Can’t we all just get along?
Father, Father, Father, help us
Send some guidance from above
‘Cause people got me, got me questioning

[Taboo]
(Where’s the love?)
It just ain’t the same, always in change
(Where’s the love?)
New days are strange, is the world insane?
(Where’s the love?)
Nation droppin’ bombs, killing our little ones
(Where’s the love?)
Ongoing suffering as the youth die young
(Where’s the love?)

[The Game]
Where’s the love when a child gets murdered
Or a cop gets knocked down?
Black lives, not now, everybody matter to me
All races, y’all don’t like what I’m sayin’? Haterade, tall cases
Everybody hate somebody, guess we all racist
Black Eyed Peas do a song about love and y’all hate this
All these protest with different colored faces
We was all born with a heart, why we gotta chase it?
And every time I look around

[Taboo & Ty Dolla $ign]
Every time I look up, every time I look down
No one’s on a common ground
(Where’s the love?)
And if you never speak truth
Then you never know how love sounds
(Where’s the love?)
And if you never know love
Then you never know God, wow
(Where’s the love?)
Where’s the love, y’all? (I don’t, I don’t know)
Where’s the truth, y’all? (I don’t know)

[Justin Timberlake]
People killin’, people dyin’
Children hurtin’, I hear them cryin’
Can you practice what you preach?
Would you turn the other cheek?

Father, Father, Father, help us
Send some guidance from above
‘Cause people got me, got me questioning
(Where’s the love?)
(Where’s the love?)

[DJ Khaled]
Love is the key
(Where’s the love)
Love is the answer
(Where’s the love)
Love is the solution
(Where’s the love)

(Where’s the love)
They don’t want us to love
(Where’s the love)
Love is powerful
(Where’s the love)
(Where’s the love)

[A$AP Rocky & Jaden Smith]
My mama asked me why I never vote (never vote)
‘Cause police men want me dead and gone (dead and gone)
That election looking like a joke (such a joke)
And the weed man still sellin’ dope (oh, no)
Somebody gotta give these niggas hope (give us hope)
All he ever wanted was a smoke (my gosh)
Said he can’t breathe with his hands in the air
Layin’ on the ground, died from a choke
(Where’s the love?)

[apl.de.ap & Fergie]
I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders
As I’m gettin’ older y’all people gets colder
Most of us only care about money makin’
Selfishness got us followin’ the wrong direction
Wrong information I was shown by the media
Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria
Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinemas

What happened to the love
And the values of humanity?
(Where’s the love?)
What happened to the love
And the fairness and equality?
(Where’s the love?)
Instead of spreading love we’re spreading animosity
(Where’s the love?)
Lack of understanding leading us away from unity
(Where’s the love?)

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Speaking Up

Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment
Like so many others, I’ve been thinking in recent weeks about the particular injustices that continue to be the experience of Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups.
I need to know how to speak and act with integrity. 
Last year I read the book ‘Just Mercy’ about a miscarriage of justice in 1980’s Alabama.  I wrote a song about it – ‘Just Mercy’
I did wonder at the time about whether it’s OK for someone to write about a situation/experience about which you know nothing ?  How acceptable is it to create something – book, song, film, picture – about subject matter that relates to a marginalised person or group without some kind of permission ?
It almost seems arrogant.
So what do I, as a white, privileged male, need to keep in mind when I am talking, or writing about the Black Lives Matter issue ?
I had a conversation with a teacher yesterday who has been looking at the English curriculum in her secondary school, and being shocked about the almost zero representation of BAME writers.
(So much of the time we/I can be simply blind to what is out there, plain to see if only we would take the time to look).
The teacher above is now trying to raise awareness of this lack in the English curriculum, in the hope that syllabuses will work towards a more just representation of the diversity of authors.
So it’s not just about what goes on inside our heads – having the right attitudes towards the race issue, but about looking for ways to speak and act to address injustice.
The recent protests have thrown this into sharp focus.  For example, we watched as the statue of Edward Colston (English merchant involved in the slave trade), was torn down this week and thrown into Bristol harbour.
The response in Bristol seems to be a way forward – the statue was taken from the water, and as Ray Barnett, head of collections and archives at Bristol City Council explained: 

“The ropes that were tied around him, the spray paint added to him, is still there so we’ll keep him like that, preserving him as he was tipped into the dock, while the decision is made how to move on'”

The statue was then transported to the city’s M-Shed museum where it will be exhibited alongside placards from the Black Lives Matter protest on Sunday.

There are those who say the statue should not have been treated in this way.  It represents a different time in our history and should not be removed.  Yet history is being made every moment, and the spray painted statue will hopefully now be linked forever with the abomination that was the slave trade, and our complicity whenever we allow injustice to go unchallenged.
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Knowing God

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I’m reading a book called Shantaram, about Lin, an Australian living in Bombay.  It’s a long story how he got there, but this takes place in a club, where he has been taken by Khaderbai,

one of the local underworld bosses.
They have just been watching a group of gazal singers, and Lin says: “That was amazing. I’ve never heard anything like it.  So much sadness and yet so much power. Are they singing love songs ?”
The answer came from Kahderbai: “Yes, they are singing love songs, but the best and truest of all love songs. They are love songs to God.  These men are singing about loving God.”
Lin nodded, but said nothing. The silence prompted a question:
Kahderbai: “You are a Christian fellow ?”
Lin: “No, I don’t believe in God.”

Kahderbai: “There is no believing in God.  We either know God, or we do not.”

I ike that.  Faith is not so much about a head belief, but about something much deeper, a knowing, a trust.
This prompts two questions:
Can you truly say that you believe in God without knowing God ?
and
Is it possible to know God without believing in God ?
Answers on a postcard please, or send me a reply in the usual way.
Grace and peace.


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Song for Today #11

Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment
One of my all time favourites. Written by Chester (Chet) Powers.  This version by the Youngbloods
Only audio – No live Youtube version I’m afraid.  It’s from another time before all this technology wizardry.
Chester Powers also went by Dino Valente and was a key member of Quicksilver Messenger Service, one of the ground breaking bands in the San Francisco psychedelic era of the mid-late sixties.
Love is but a song we sing

Fear’s the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
Though the bird is on the wing
And you may not know why

Come on, people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now

Some may come and some may go
He will surely pass
When the one that left us here
Returns for us at last
We are but a moment’s sunlight
Fading in the grass

If you hear the song I sing
You will understand, listen
You hold the key to love and fear
All in your trembling hand
Just one key unlocks them both
It’s there at your command

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Who not How ?

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I was in a conversation yesterday about what the church might look like after lockdown.  There was a bit of a presentation, and then some questions.  Most of the questions seemed to be asking ‘how’ and ‘what’ questions.
How will be be able to worship with social distancing ?
How can we use what we have learned in lockdown ?
What new expressions of church might there be in the light of church on zoom, facebook and Youtube etc?
I remember a few years ago, preparing to lead some sessions on working with difference and conflict in our church.
We had some questions to think about.  When would be the best time to do the sessions ?  Where would we hold them – in our own church, or at a neutral venue ? How many sessions would we run ?  How would we decide which of the material to use ?
All necessary questions relating to the practical delivery of the material.
However …. before we considered any of those questions, it would be more important to ask – Who would we like to be there ?
Since we had a maximum number of 24 places so that we could do some group work, we decided that rather than open it up to anyone, we would focus on who we really wanted to be there.    Having key leaders there meant that we would stand a better chance of the learning being spread through the congregation, so we invited the church council to be there, as well as leaders in different areas of church life.  This would just about fill our 24 places.  We made sure that personal invitations were sent, and on the day we had pretty much all the people we had hoped for.
So I am trying to transfer that thinking to aspects of ‘Church after Lockdown.’  One thought is to try and find out how lockdown has affected not only the church community, but our parish generally.  So forgetting the ‘what,’ and the ‘how,’ and the ‘when,’ for a moment, I started thinking about the ‘who.’
The outcome of this might be to invite a cross section of key people in our community.  Not too many to make a conversation difficult, and bearing in mind the precautions that would be necessary. So for example, a doctor, a nurse, a leader from another faith, a city councillor, another church leader from a different denomination, a business owner, a teacher, a supermarket worker, etc etc, as well as from our own community a church council member, a member of the congregation ….
I just get the sense that this exercise in focused listening would stand a chance of helping us understand our community better, and how as a Christian community we can serve our neighbourhood.
Grace and peace to all of you who are doing exactly that.
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Black Man in a White World

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Thinking about the Black Lives Matter reminded me of this song by Michael Kiwanuka – Black Man in a White World

We saw him just before lockdown.  What an amazing night. He is a such a powerful performer, singing important and wise words.

I’ve been low, I’ve been high
I’ve been told all my lies
I’ve got nothing left to pray
I’ve got nothing left to say

I’m a black man in a white world

I’m a black man in a white world
I’m a black man in a white world
I’m a black man in a white…

I’m in love but I’m still sad
I’ve found peace but I’m not glad
All my nights and all my days
I’ve been trying the wrong way

I feel like I’ve been here before
I feel that knocking on my door
I feel like I’ve been here before
I feel that knocking on my door
And I’ve lost everything I had
And I’m not angry and I’m not mad

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The Johari Window

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Years ago, a retired vicar told me about this.
It’s a way of thinking about who you are … using a diagram with four sections
It’s all about self awareness.  The window is divided into four quadrants, with each quadrant having to do with feelings. or information, or motivation
Things I am aware of about myself that I am prepared to reveal to others
Things I am aware of about myself that I keep hidden
Things I am not aware of about myself that others see
Things I am not aware of about myself that no one sees.
Have a look here if you want to explore more
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Song for Today #10

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Grave Angels by Joe Henry.  I can’t find a link toa Youtube video, but you could probably find it on a music streaming service. 
I first heard a Joe Henry song in around 1994, and was hooked.  It was a track from the ‘Kindness of the World’ album, but I can’t remember which one.
This is a track from Invisible Hour.  I heard Joe Henry talking on a podcast a while ago.  He talked abpout his parents’ strong Christian Faith, and the way that music does a similar thing for him.  Music takes him to a place that is at the same time within him and yet beyond him.
The first two lines in this song talk about the way we know only so much about another person, even the ones we are closest to.  We are gathered together – physically in the same space, sharing life … We are hidden from view – still hiding, or at least hidden to an extent behind our innermost thoughts.  It reminds me of the Johari Window.  I’ll post on that next time, if you’re curious and want to know what that is all about.
By the way, if you want to listen to Joe Henry in conversation – it’s here: 
We are gathered together,

We are hidden from view—

In a tangle of laurel, we tear at our sorrow

Like bread and we start up anew;

Where a circus stands blazing

And steam engines brake and whine,

In a razed hobo jungle your lost and found wonder

Has risen and mixes with mine.


Then, foolish we are, in the presence of God

And what all his grave angels have done—

In love’s growling weather, if we’re dreaming together

Of a heaven apart from this one…
Apart from our own

I take this to be holy—

If futile, uncertain and dire:

Our union of fracture, our dread everlasting,

This beautiful, desperate desire.

The cloud darkens now just to harrow,

It crosses your heart like a hand,

But it’s cool like the shadow of all we can see by the

Light that we can’t understand

There’s a new year starting backwards,

From high up in naked trees,

That threw all their clothes like burning money

To the ground and all around our knees.

But we live outside of reason

And we’re called to stand out of time—

To hover above the rough river of love

That runs ahead but calls from behind.
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Christian Community

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a beautiful book ‘Life Together’ in 1938, during Hitler’s rise to power.  It’s an acknowledged classic.
He has much to say about community – here’s the heart of it:
Christian community is not based on anything that we have in common from a human point of view.  That is – it’s not to do with having similar backgrounds, or interests, or political views, or ethnicity, or social status,  etc, etc.
All of the above are about our natural, human relationships, desires and ideals.  These may well form the basis for political parties, clubs, and other activities, but the Christian community is not a common interest group. By contrast, Christian community comes into being simply because of our common faith in Jesus Christ. 
Anything else that becomes a foundation for Christian community will eventually fail, as we discover that our imperfections and our differences outweigh what humanly draws us together.
The only genuine uniting force is that common faith in Jesus.  We are one with each other only because we are all connected to Christ.
Because Christian community is founded solely on Jesus Christ, it is a spiritual, and not a human reality.  In this it differs from all other communities.  When the scriptures call something spiritual, it is talking about that which is created only by the Holy Spirit, who puts Jesus Christ into our hearts as Lord and Saviour.
Bonhoeffer, Life Together, page 18, slightly paraphrased.
So, when we look at our own Christian communities, we must keep this at the centre of our minds and hearts, to avoid some kind of visionary dreaming that would set us off looking for the perfect community through some other route.
And, when we look at our sisters and brothers in Christ, we remember that it is God who unites us in Christ.  If we lose sight of that, we will end up judging one another by some other human standard, and lose what is a most precious gift, our life together in Christ.
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Song for Today #9

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So much modern Christian worship music is clogged up with the same religious words and phrases that no longer have the power that they might have had once upon a time.  (if they ever had them).
This song is refreshing, using images that I find hopeful but not trite.
All this pain
I wonder if I’ll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change at all
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found
Could a garden come up from this ground at all

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You

You make beautiful things …

You make me new, You are making me new

You make beautiful things …