Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Hey You, New Mr. President

New Mr. President
by Rev. Laurie Furr-Vancini
on the inagauration of Barak Obama
January 20, 2009


Hey You –
Close to real skin color David-
What slingshot will you use to fight our ailments?
Mr. Spoke the Truth to Power –
Now that you are Power, listen to the truth being spoken.
Crowds cheering
pressing in, leaning in,
lingering on your words, on you on your family.
Yes we can!
A hero to heroes we cheer -
NO sports star,
NO movie star,
No rock star,
A reality star, because it is real.
With a job not to be envied – yet shared
Do justice, love kindness, a humble walk –
(please no more swagger –
we can take no more of that.)
Right now all that means more to you than the rest of us.
Or, does it? Should it?
Salt of the earth for the entire earth.
What does saltiness mean for you,
Mr. eyes of the world are on you?
How does it feel? pressure? challenge? hope? responsibility?
What does that salt taste like?
For you?
And should we expect more from you than ourselves?
No, you say. No, we cry.
Love your neighbors.
Seek peace.
Love kindness.
Sounds easy.

Will the fruits of the Spirit taste different in the White House?
I read today of the five full-time chefs.
How will you be served and eat patience, gentleness and self-control
battered and fried, sautéed, roasted slowly, bar-b-q?
Eat them all up so they are part of you – inside you –
who you are.
And spit it back out to us in words and actions.
Emotions soar.
Not merely for a black man becoming president.
But for someone to believe in.
A politician of all things!
Many, too young for the old greats.
Many filled with past hurts and cynicism.
Shuttle crashes, plane crashes, stock market crashes, warring clashes.
No great politician made sense of those.
We wept with no poet, leader, inspirer.
Help make sense
Mr. touched by the Spirit with the ability to touch others.
Make sense of no – sense. Nonsense.
Lead us onward.
Don’t ask us to go where it doesn’t make sense.
Because if you ask us to go; to do,; we will.
Can we get it right?
Can’t we get it right?
“For liberty and justice for all?”
Can it be the same as “Thy kingdom come?”
Let’s think about it.
For tonight, dance in the streets, celebrate the victory.
For tonight we go to bed resting in hope.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

welcome to the blog

I begin this with little knowledge of blogging.
The church purchased this cute red computer
with the understanding I would blog from the Holy Land in a few weeks.
Allrightee.
Step 1: Learn to blog.
Step 2: Figure out how to tell people how to access the blog.
Step 3: Create an email list of those who want to receive the blog.
Step 4: Learn to add pictures and fun stuff.
Step 5: All the other things that need to completed before I will leave on the journey.

For the next few weeks, I will work at getting the hang of this.
I hope that we will be able to have wifi access where we will be.

Peace, Pastor Laurie