Grace and peace are yours from the creating, liberating and sustaining presence. Amen
I don’t like it when tourists come to Singapore and think we are part of China.
That sentence comprises one of the rants in the Singapore complaint choir’s repertoire. Singapore is one of the newer complaint choirs.
The complaint choir phenomenon started a few years ago in Helsinki. Tellervo and Oliver Kalleinen took a winter walk. They whined about the cold. Their grumbling shifted to a discussion about the possibility of transforming the huge energy people use to complain into something else.
In the Finnish vocabulary there is a phrase that translates as complaints choir. The phrase means a group of people complaining simultaneously. Tellervo and Oliver decided to make real on the word “choir.” They gathered a community of complainers, who also could sing. Over 90 people rehearsed and performed lyrics more humorous than profound. Like: “In the public sauna, they never ask if it is alright to throw water on the rocks.” “Why is the chord of the vacuum cleaner too short?” “All ring tones are annoying.” “I’m tired of buying furniture I have to assemble.”
The rest is history. Now there are complaint choirs in Birmingham, England, Saint Petersburg, Russia, Hamburg, Jerusalem, Juneau, Alaska, Penn State, Chicago and beyond. Chicago also has a children’s complaint choir.
The Singapore complaint choir is a testament to the power of the complaint choir phenomenon. The government of Singapore debated as to whether a complaint choir should be permitted to sing. Finally they decided to allow the choir to perform. The reason behind their decision: To say no possibly would arouse a louder, unsanctioned complaint chorus. Why not go with the tamer, sanctioned one?
Recently, the government of Singapore cancelled all further public performances of the complaint choir until all foreigners in the choir are dismissed. The choir decided not to expel any members. Presently there is a standoff between choir and government.
Humorous complaints offered in concert disclose a profound truth: Suffering of any degree, when shared in community, unleashes a hope, which arouses a desire for change, which shakes the foundation of convention. Hence Singapore. Well, when profound complaints are offered in concert, the unleashed hope is heartier, the desire for change more revolutionary, the disturbance much more dangerous to the status quo. Example: the Jesus movement.
From today’s Second Testament Lesson: And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
These are the words of Paul, who, by the way, is making a comeback in current theological discourse. His words, to the complaint choir of Rome, tell of a Spirit, Holy no less, who emerged when and as the disconsolate Romans harvested their disparate and disconnected wailings into one barn. Their wailing coalesced into a resonant lament.
Lament loosens the shackles of empire. Empire then. Empire now.
Obama may be president. There’s quite a complaint choir lifting him up. I trust, especially during black history month, that he’s aware of those to whom he owes great if not most thanks. Rosa Parks. Rosa most often deflected gratitude. She passed it on to her lamentation choir, St. Paul’s A.M.E. Church in Montgomery. Fannie Lou Hamer. Andrew Young said that when he saw Fannie Lou Hamer emerge from a week in jail with a glow around her, he discovered the power of imprisoned lamenters. Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder of Sweet Honey and the Rock. Bernice, too, gives thanks to a lamentation choir, imprisoned with her in a make shift jail in Leesburg, Georgia—big rooms with barred windows filled way beyond capacity, 11 miles outside Albany, where I grew up. Bernice says: “In jail my voice changed, my voice deepened.” Jail was Bernice’s Julliard.
During black history month, when we give thanks for the movement, we do well not to heap too much praise on perceived leaders: Martin, Jr., Andrew, Julian Bond, John Lewis, Jesse Jackson and others. These men, all men, were not the heart of the movement. The movement did not move behind them. No, the movement refused to budge. The alleged leaders moved around the southeast, from one lamentation choir to another, inspired by each new choir, to speak truth to power courageously, unceasingly, non-violently.
Sound familiar? Like the apparent leaders of the movement, Paul moved around from one lamentation choir to another: Rome, Ephesus, Corinth, Thessalonica and beyond. From these choirs, Paul learned the power of the cross. The choirs did not learn the power of the cross from him.
The power of the cross is at the heart of movements towards reconciliation, against empire, for justice and peace. By that I don’t mean that such movements are washed in the blood of the lamb. Rather, the cross is a healing balm and a hell-raising force. Martin, Jr. ascribed to the cross the redemptive quality of unearned suffering. Martin was not talking about a masochistic God. He was talking about the Spirit, Holy no less, who emerges among and beyond the community of those who suffer from and sing about the reign of darkness, those who resonantly rant against what Walter Brueggeman calls Regal Consciousness, those who harmoniously howl at what Walter Wink names the Domination System.
Granted, Obama is a skillful speech maker. Yet, I believe, contrary to the press, that Obama is not mobilizing people by means of his rhetorical genius. Rather, choirs of discontent, way beyond mere complaining, are loosening and quickening his tongue. Hilary is truly, deeply inspiring. Obama is inspired.
Next week, a new priest will begin her ministry among you. Don’t wait to see what Pam is like, to experience what she might be or do for Emmanuel before you put your hand on the bible of her presence. When Pam arrives, sing for her, immediately. Boast about your wounds, limps, creases, cuts and curses acquired along life’s way. Boast about the suffering of others. Blow the horn of a suffering world. Your sound will produce endurance, which will produce character, which will produce hope. Your hope, as usual, will manifest as desire for justice and peace, as agitation against empire near and far, as longing for healing, as impetus for reconciliation. Sing away the veneer that is on Emmanuel’s and most any congregation’s surface. Harness your disparate and disconnected wailings into a community chorus, a choir of lamenters. Your beautiful sound will crack open Pam’s big heart, loosen her good tongue, encourage her to extend a warm and inviting hand.
Don’t wait to see if Pam is inspiring. Inspire her. In-Spirit her. Don’t try to work up the will to follow her lead. Lift her up to lead. Amen.
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