“IMAGINE” - Reflections on All Saint’s Day and John Lennon’s 70th

A number of years ago, I was giving a tour of Manhattan to visitors and the evening was getting late. I was driving up Central Park West and saw the Dakota. I stopped the car and said “do you guys want to see Strawberry Fields?” It is as you know a memorial to John Lennon. So as we left the car and headed into the darkness of Central Park, I was hoping that I hadn’t forgotten where it was. I was soon reminded by the fact that I could hear someone singing on a guitar, a Beatle’s tune. So as we turned the corner and arrived at the “Imagine Memorial”, there was quite a little crowd gathered in the dark with lots of candles on the ground and a few people singing. We were reminded by this coincidence that it was John Lennon’s birthday. How incredible to end up there by chance on his birthday. I’m reminded again of his birthday because on October 9th he would have turned 70. Is that possible? I guess it is because a lot of time has passed since this group of long haired singers from Liverpool came over and sang on the Ed Sullivan show along with touring America.

Of course we all blamed Yoko Ono for the end of the Beatles. But perhaps you can’t just stay in one place your whole life, you have to move on and reinvent yourself by doing new things. John did that by not only starting another band, singing solo, but also for a number of years became a house husband. In addition to being a house husband, he was a peace activist and had a social conscious that included helping the poor of New York City.

He was always interesting whether it was with the Beatles, raising his second son or taking some rather far out pictures of himself with wife, Yoko. He did manage to offend a number of Christians when he said “the Beatles were more popular than Jesus.” He tried to explain what he meant, but it’s all been forgotten now. I do remember looking at this monument and thinking about what could have happened had he not been murdered. But, like George Gershwin, Jimmy Hendrix and JFK, we’ll never know what might have happened and what they might have done, had they lived.

Death is the great equalizer. It is the one event that everyone in the world moves towards, whether you like it or not. Philosopher Martin Heidegger once wrote that all philosophy is about “every human being’s journey to death.” It is a reality that I as a minister face often when I stand at gravesites and speak words about someone who is being put in the ground. My words as a pastor are always words of hope because that’s what I believe. Death is not the end, but a door into a more mysterious and deeper world.

There are graves that I’ve made a point of visiting. I’ve been to Eva Perrone’s grave in Buenos Aires with a herd of cats at my feet, Jim Morrison’s in Paris at Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise with beer cans, cigarette butts and old hippies hanging out lighting candles. I guess no matter how large the monument or grave, the person is still dead.

So, as we all deal with loss and the reality of death, I’m reminded of the words that “we do not grieve as if we have no hope.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13) As we approach All Saint’s Sunday, we’re reminded once again of those people who have touched our lives in huge ways. I’m not just thinking about those famous saints of old, but I’m thinking of those who have led quiet and wonderful examples of faith and goodness that have lifted our lives to new levels and inspired us to be better people and believers.

John Lennon had a song entitled “Imagine”. And in that song, he imagined a new world and a new world order and if you think deeply enough, he could be imagining heaven. After all, I’ve always agreed with Karl Barth who said “Christianity is not a religion, it is a faith.” Yes, Christianity is a faith that is about hope and that does not give up on people. It imagines a world where people aren’t struggling for possessions, at war with each other, a place where there’s no hunger, and where love has the final word. Lennon’s song has a self depreciating tone to it when he says “I know you think I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.” Well, as I see it, all those who became saints were dreamers of a better world, of a powerful message that we call the “Gospel” and of a different way of looking at how people need to treat each other.

As I think about sainthood, I’m always reminded of Luther’s famous phrase, “simul iustus et peccator” - same time sinner, same time saint. Most of the time I’m aware that I’m not a saint and don’t need to be reminded much that I’m a sinner. In the book, “Mother Teresa: Come be my Light”, Mother Teresa’s correspondence discusses her 50 year struggle with darkness and doubt and with the absence of God’s presence “If I ever become a saint, “ she wrote, “I will surely be one of darkness. I will continually be absent from heaven - to light the light of those in darkness on earth.”

You may call me a dreamer along with

John Lennon, but I find myself believing

in the dreamer who told us to be a light

in the darkness of this world.

MEH

Thoughts on Pete Seeger

It couldn’t have been a better day. The sun was shining and the temperature was just perfect as we walked into this old beat-up theatre called the “Beacon”. It’s a theatre that’s seen a lot of shows and looks it. It’s been closed for a long time, but there was a show taking place outside that would benefit the renovation of the inside. We were going for one reason, to see Pete Seeger. Yes, he’s still alive. I thought he was 90 but actually he’s 92. As I walked through this caverness theatre with the walls peeling and the ceiling coming down, my eyes spotted this thin man. He was talking to a few people and yes he was the man. The man who sang with the Weaver’s, the man who talks about Woody Guthrie like a brother, the man who has saved the Hudson River and built the Clearwater Sloop and has travelled the world. He’s not only a piece of Americana, but a piece of my life growing up. There he was with his banjo case in hand. We strolled through the doorway and I was within a few feet of him. I was acting like a little kid.

He was old now with his best years behind him and his voice rough like sandpaper. On another level, you wouldn’t know it. He was like a kid, interested in everything going on, listening intensely to the other acts that were singing and being interrupted by other people wanting to say hello. He was smiling all the time. Life was still sweet and young and good to this old geezer. I watched him intently the whole afternoon looking for clues on how I could be so engaging when I’m 92, if I make it through tomorrow.

Pete Seeger - © 2010 FocalChange & St. John's Lutheran Church

We listened to another great folk singer who was really the star of the show, Tom Chapin. He was on top of his game as he sang his own self-composed folk songs that brought a smile to your face. Seeger had not lost his politics. You could tell that he was passionate about the environment and was interested in making the Hudson River Valley a show place for the world. Now he sings in schools with children and shows up here and there for benefits but he really can’t sing anymore, at least not like he used to. I bought a CD of his called Pete Seeger 1965. His voice was different 45 years ago, as I listened to the CD. He gave wonderful background information to each song, many of which I hadn’t heard before. He was actually saving songs that were about to die or go extinct.

Pete Seeger & Tom Chapin - © 2010 FocalChange & St. John's Lutheran Church

Finally, it came his time to get on the stage and he got up there filled with lots of energy and asked us to sing along. It’s always been his style to have the audience join in as he fed us the words. The first song he wanted us to sing along with was If I had a Hammer. We all started to sing with gusto and a few tears rolled out of my eyes as the song brings up memories of my days in Oakland, CA. The audience filled with people my age watching their hair go grayer or losing it all together, were visibly moved. I could tell from the row of teenagers behind Seeger on the stage that they didn’t know the song. How could you grow up in America and not know the words to If I had a Hammer? Wow, it took me back a bit, but then again my generation was not always good at passing things down. I’ve seen it with the way we have raised our kids and even taught them the faith. Our parents seemed to have done a better job than the baby boomers that followed.

I noticed that Pete wants us to sing along and somehow that raises his voice and makes him sound better. There is something about him leading and teaching others with a song. There is a “we-ness” about the way he operates. This came out when he led us in the song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Towards the end of the song, he stops and looks up to heaven to apologize to it’s authors, Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg and says “please forgive me, but I have to change the words.”

Somewhere over the rainbow Bluebirds fly.
Birds fly over the rainbow.
Why then, oh why can't I?
If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can't I?

He says we have to change, “I” to “ We”. This song is really not about
Dorothy, but it’s about us. He says again, it’s not me that goes over
the rainbow, it’s all of us, or none of us. That’s sort of the way that
Seeger thinks. He lives locally, he works for politics locally, but his
humanity is universal and so is his theology.

Finally, I was struck by a new song that he had helped a fellow friend and songwriter who had recently had a stroke to find the words to finish the song. Interesting enough, he sang the song called “God’s Counting on Me.”

I began to smile as I sang along - Pete Seeger the old coot, there’s a preacher inside of you and a message you have to share. God’s been counting on you for 92 years and you made a difference.

We all have that chance.