This is the title of the opening track of the album Abba Voyage. Abba Voyage is a collection of ten songs from a 70s band, that reunited a few years back and produced a fresh album: their first in over forty years! Because these are new songs, none of them turn up in any Greatest Hits collections. None of them are featured in the popular musical Mama Mia. The music feels more seasoned than their earlier body of work.
But it is Easter. And so I look for hope.
A man in a red MAGA hat went walking in Central Park, far beyond the crowds into the woods and there he was mugged and left for dead. A young Trans college student was jogging in the park and came up on the wounded man. They stopped and called 911 and waited patiently and kindly until help arrived, even at some risk that the thugs would come around and mug them too!
Several years ago, I worked with a congregation in a very upscale community, in which one of the leaders was a retired airline executive in his late 70s. In every meeting, he made clear that he was hoping for a document that gave the church a set of Best Practices on all sorts of tasks and subjects. Best Practices is a common business term, where industry consensus has formed around certain protocols which may be different than protocols a generation earlier. Often these practices relate to customer service, to corporate organization or to a changing legal landscape.
By now, the sermon has been heard around the world. It is possibly the most listened-to sermon of the century, thus far. Mostly on YouTube and assorted sites. When we go to seminary, do we not dream of hitting that one home run, clear out of the park?
Recently our local church, The United Methodist Church of Palm Springs, California, employed Gary Dexter as our first Bridge Builder. A Bridge Builder is a leader focused on a certain demographic or subset of the community, looking for opportunities of partnership and new programming that will build bridges between the church and community residents. The position applies community organizing practices in the quest to re-root a church with local people.
As we approach Thanksgiving 2024, that most American of holidays, the America that raised most of us has come to an end. There are different ways to look at it, ranging from Rome being sacked by the Vandals (a rather dreary comparison) to simply a nation being reborn at its 250 year marker, as occurred in the 1860s and again in the early to mid-Twentieth century. About every 80 years we transform. As the incoming administration takes a wrecking ball to government, for all that will be lost, there will be something fresh to rise from the rubble. It might be really good. Like New Deal-good! That 1930s fresh movement brought my family out of poverty.
