Bring on That Fire

This is my manuscript from the sermon I preached at First Presbyterian Church when I was home.

Luke 12:49-56

"I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” He said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?

There is fire and brimstone language in these passages. Even in my beloved Common English Bible translation! Why is this language there? The typical image we hold of Jesus is the Prince of Peace, why now is he saying that he came to bring destruction? These are the questions that I want to address this morning. There is an old joke about seminary students preaching. Maybe you’ve heard it before. It is the beginning of the school year, and to help introduce her to the congregation, the seminary intern has been invited to preach. The congregation is excited to hear her sermon, because they’ve taken on the role as a ‘teaching church’ and have a seminary intern every year. Just before the sermon, one woman leans over to her neighbor, who recently joined the church, and whispers, “Here it comes, the seminary intern is preaching. It’s time for our annual lecture on what is wrong with the church!”

This is not what I am trying to do this morning. It just was a coincidence that Luke 12:49-56 was the lectionary reading for today. J

N.T. Wright uses a story about Beethoven to help explain just what this passage is doing smack-dab in the middle of Luke. Sometimes when Beethoven was performing for audiences he liked to play a trick on them. (Especially if he thought that they weren’t completely paying attention or if they weren’t “interested enough” in music.) Just after he played the final notes of the piano movement, he would bring his entire arm down on the keyboard. The harsh sound normally shocked his audience, and he would laugh at the slightly cruel joke. Wright explains that this passage from Luke belongs because there is always pain found in beauty. What Jesus did for humanity is a beautiful thing, but it was a painful death, and watching Israel reject him must have been a painful thing for God as well.

Jesus asks the crowds, “why can’t you judge the present times as well?” In this passage, Jesus tells the crowd that change is coming (meaning his death and resurrection), but also the hostile Roman take-over that happened in 70 A.D. Luke was most likely writing around this time. He is telling the Church universal that Jesus has charged them to interpret current events and address issues that arise. Clearly Rome isn’t an issue for us today in 2013. It isn’t a new thing to suggest that the “Rome” of our time is technology, greed or power. Intolerance to change: to accept those who are considered ‘the other’ is something that many churches struggle with. In some Christian circles, divorce is not an option, so abused spouses are told to go back to their abuser by their pastor, priest or deacon. I would argue that these viewpoints are a “Rome” of our time.

But today I am not talking about sexual and domestic violence. Instead, I want to talk about denominations. Specifically Christian denominations.

There has been a magazine article circulating amongst my Facebook friends (specifically the Presbyterian ones) for a few weeks now. I didn’t read it until after I started working on this sermon. I can’t help but think that the article and our passage from Luke are connected.

The article I am talking about is from Relevant Magazine. For those of you who have never heard of Relevant Magazine, it is a Christian lifestyle magazine for that 18-35 year old audience. Their tagline is “God. Life. Progressive Culture.” I discovered them last year via their podcast. They interview musicians and authors. One of my favorite episodes was when they interviewed Rob Bell about his book, Love Wins. The article I read recently is entitled, “The End of Denominations? Why we need to stop dividing the Church”. Tyler Edwards, who wrote the op-ed piece, considers denominations confusing. Normally when you meet someone (especially if that person is a conservative, evangelical Christian) one of the first questions they will ask you is about your religious affiliation. “What is your denomination?” is a question I’ve been asked more times than I can remember. Edwards is trying to address the issue as to why there are so many different denominations. He writes,

“We divide the Church like an OCD kid with a bag of skittles. Rather than enjoying all the different flavors, we compulsively sort them. The Church was created to unite followers in Christ under His mission and banner. We are supposed to be one body with many parts, but what we have become is a stockpile of different parts. We have churches instead of the Church. We have uniformity instead of unity. Apparently, we can’t have people who believe different things about Biblical issues come to the same building to worship […] God. That would just be chaos!”

I can’t help but agree with him! It wasn’t until I started seminary that I realized just how many denominations are out there! According to the 2006 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, there are 217 Christian denominations in America. But that excludes the nondenominational churches, of which there are 35,000 congregations! We focus more on our differences in worship style and theology than what we agree on. This is not to say that we should only have 1 worship style. I do not think that people should all worship in the same manner – I think being comfortable with the style of worship is extremely important. I tend to hold straight to the Presbyterian line and prefer stoically standing still while singing hymns accompanied by an organ in a key slightly too high rather than raising my hand during praise songs led by a praise band. There is nothing wrong with either style of worship! People simply have preferences. But I worry that sometimes those preferences get in the way of being an open and loving church, accepting of all styles of worship.

Early on in my first year of seminary, I was having a conversation with one of the professors at McCormick about church being an open and accepting place. Now, there is a difference between theology and worship style, I know that. And I realize that a church’s theology is typically what makes certain people feel unwelcomed. But the fact that some people do not feel comfortable in church breaks my heart. No matter what denomination you choose to affiliate yourself with, Jesus called all of us to the same mission: which does not include ostracizing ones that we’ve pegged as ‘the other’. Her response when I told her that struck me as odd. She told me, “Sarah, everyone shouldn’t be welcome in each and every church. Sometimes you just need to leave and find a different congregation.” I was shocked! Personally, I think that anyone should be welcomed into any church, no matter what. If tomorrow I decide that I want to attend church from now on at a Pentecostal church, and they turn me away or make me feel unwelcomed because of who I am, what I believe or where I have previously worshiped, that is not ok! I understand and encourage the need and desire among Christians to worship God in different ways. We are all different people and I am not suggesting that we should change Christianity into some sort of bland, middle of the road religion. I think that our differences are what spur healthy debates and fuel change. But I do not understand how differences in belief about Jesus (was he fully man, fully divine or both), or differences in communion (what exactly happens to the elements during communion), etc gave us as Christians the right to basically segregate ourselves. Especially while worshiping the one who called us to break down those barriers.

I have another story, this one happened just a few weeks ago. As some of you may have known, I was on an archeological dig in Israel in July! It was an incredible experience, but one that I will probably not repeat. I basically dug in the ground for 8 hours a day. What I really enjoyed was getting to know my fellow dig participants during our break time each afternoon. We were mostly a group of archeology students or conservative, evangelical Christians in PhD or Masters-level programs. I was the only PCUSA participant, and probably the most liberal Christian there. (There were people more liberal than myself on the dig, but they were all atheists.) One afternoon someone asked my what my denomination is. I was not thrilled at this question, because I knew what was coming. I proceeded to tell him that I am a Presbyterian (USA of course, not PCA). He then launched into a rant about how the Presbyterian Church USA was far too liberal, they are lost, they’ve gotten away from God’s message, etc etc. I’ve heard this all before, of course. It isn’t the first time I’ve been told these things. It wasn’t until he told me that I shouldn’t be allowed to call myself a Christian that I really got offended. When did it become ok to tell someone that? When in our Christian history did this start? What I am really worried about is how the different denominations have segmented Christianity and turned brother against brother.

Jesus said that he would bring division instead of peace. Well, in my opinion, Christianity is pretty divided. In verse 49 Jesus said, “I came to cast fire upon the earth.” Which some might interpret as the fire of God or even imagery to suggest that Christians are called to battle – to fight violently against those who do not believe the same thing as us. But the story does not end there. Fire is an interesting subject. In ancient Greek and Roman traditions, fire is associated with the qualities of energy, assertiveness and passion. There is a Greek myth in which Prometheus actually takes fire from the gods to protect the helpless humans. And he was punished for this action. Often fire of the Old Testament is a symbol of destruction, particularly destruction because of God’s judgment or anger. In Luke 3:16, John the Baptist said that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. But Luke is not the end of the story. Fire in the book of Acts is not destructive or consuming. Instead it is purifying, fire is a manifestation of God, the third part of the Trinity: the Holy Spirit. It is a symbol that shows the old ways are destroyed to make way for the new, for the New Kin-dom of God. Things always seem messier after the division, before reconciliation. The division isn’t the end, just like fire is not simply a symbol of destruction. We are in the midst of it still, because, like verse 57 says, we don’t judge for ourselves what is right. How can it be the right thing when Christians cannot worship God together, in the same place?

I am afraid there will always be people who are racist, who think that women shouldn’t have the same rights as men, who believe that what side of town you are from determines what you can do with your life. I know these people exist. But I do not agree with them, and honestly I do not think that Jesus did either! Who did he invite to the table? The people on the outside of acceptable society; He came to bring change. Everyone is worthy. Everyone. And again, this is not to say that everyone should become like-minded. Differences are good. If we want to continue to adapt and adjust to the changes around us, we need to have new ideas. Think Tanks always have people of different backgrounds and professions. People who think differently, when working together, come up with wonderful things! Tyler Edwards (who wrote the Relevant Magazine article) makes this point as well. He writes,

“Jesus called different types of people to be His disciples because He intended for the Church to be diverse. God made us different. That’s the point. Without the tension of diversity we are not challenged to grow and to constantly dive into His Word. When everyone sees everything exactly the same, there is no healthy conflict. Instead of iron sharpening iron, we get complacent spiritual social clubs. God didn’t create the Church so we could all start acting like one another. It was created so we could all start acting like Jesus. “

It is too easy nowadays to ignore people of different denominations, or worse, to spew hateful things at them in person, during sermons, radio talk shows, online forums and on websites. We are meant to work together as Christians. Denominations are not working together. Theology is important, but Jesus didn’t call us to debate theology to the detriment of helping others. Jesus came to change the world, and we are called to be a part of that change. He said, “I came to cast fire upon the earth.”

So all I can say is, “Bring on that fire!”

Amen?

Tel Abel Beth Maacah, Daily Life

Greetings friends!

I fully intended on writing weekly blogs whilst on the dig, but that didn't happen. (Story of this blog, am I right?) The dig ended on Thursday, and right now I'm in Jerusalem, waiting in the hotel lobby for the shared taxi to take me to the hotel.

I'll try to summarize as succinctly as possible my first (and most likely, last) dig experience. If any of you thought, like I did before I arrived at the dig site the first morning, that I would just be digging in the dirt for 7 hours a day from 5:00 am - 1:00 pm, you were correct. It's true, I definitely learned things, but don't let anyone fool you into thinking that it isn't just digging in the dirt. Yes, I might sound a little negative about the experience, its true. Perhaps I just don't have the "archeology bug" like others have. Even though I was ready to be done with the digging after day 3, I still had a great time. I met some truly amazing people on the trip and had a wonderful time exploring Israel with them.

Here's a basic outline of our daily schedule (and maybe you'll understand why I was too tired to blog for the past few weeks):

4:00 am -- Alarm goes off.
4:01 am -- Snooze
4:09 - 4:35 am -- Refuse to wake up, continue to hit the snooze button
4:40 am -- Finally acknowledge that I have to get up. I eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that I made the night before at dinner and possibly have time for a cup of coffee (instant coffee, which is terrible).
5:00 am -- Be on the bus that takes us to the dig site (we referred to it as a Tel, so from here on out, I'll be calling it that).
5:20 am -- Arrive at the Tel, proceed to walk up the hill and avoid the surprises that were left the day before from the cattle and horses that roam the fields.
5:30 - 7:00 am -- Dig in the dirt. Sometimes you're lucky and find something cool. More about that later.
7:15 am -- Tea break. Oh, glorious tea break.
7:25 am -- Ortal, our area leader, "Ok guys, back to work!!"
7:30 - 9:15 am -- More digging. Counting down the time until breakfast. This is typically the hottest part of the day. The sun is up now, but the wind hasn't picked up.
9:15-ish am -- Breakfast!! I think I cheered shamelessly everyday when Ortal announced breakfast.
9:16 - 10:00 am -- Lounging in the shade, eating tuna and hardboiled eggs. More instant coffee. Sometimes cookies.
10:00 - 11:30 am -- Digging. Sometimes my friend Adam would sing for us. Those were the good days. Especially when it was songs from The Lion King.
11:30 am -- JUICE BREAK! (That's me shouting it because I'm so excited for another break. Like I said, shameless.)
11:45 - 12:30 pm -- Digging in the dirt, just digging in the dirt! What a glorious feeling, I'm covered in dirt. (Please feel free to sing that to the music from Singing in the Rain. That's what I did as I typed it. You're welcome.)
12:30 - 12:50-ish pm -- Time to clean up. If you're like me, you think ok, that means we put the tools away, yeah? And then we leave? Right? We wouldn't possibly SWEEP THE DIRT OFF THE GROUND. Oh wait, that's exactly what we did. I got pretty good at it too. I should probably update my resume. Special skills: sweeping up dirt. We also took this time to clean up the bulks. (When you see pictures, the bulks are the walls between squares. Don't worry, I'll post pictures soon so this will all make sense.)
1:00 pm -- The bus comes at the bottom of the Tel to take us back to the kibbutz where we are staying.
1:20 pm -- Mad rush to the pottery washing station to be the first ones in line to fill up your pottery bucket. We have to wash all the pottery we find, but they soak in water overnight. We take the buckets of pottery from the Tel and fill them with water before heading over to lunch.
1:30 pm -- Lunch. The food was good, not great. I ate a lot of roasted chicken, rice and veggies. Like, everyday for lunch.
2:00 pm -- Take a shower. Until now, you've been covered in dirt since about 5:30am when we arrived at the Tel. The shower is a highlight of my day.
2:00 - 4:30 pm -- Lovely break time. Sometimes I would nap, or go to the pool, or just hangout outside in the shade reading. I started a book club, more about that later as well.
4:30 - 6:00 pm -- Pottery washing and sorting. We scrub the dirt off the pottery from the day before, and sort all the pottery we washed from the day before. So on Wednesday, we are washing the pottery that was collected from the Tel on Tuesday, and sorting the pottery that was collected on Monday, and washed on Tuesday. The Area leaders and Directors of the dig would sit with us and explain which pottery shards are important, and which are not. Pictures later.....
7:00 pm -- Dinner. This meal was typically terrible. The kibbutz where we stayed didn't cook any of the food, but had someone else do it. So by the time we got the food, it had typically been sitting for an hour and was soggy. Warm, but soggy. I ate a lot of cabbage.
7:45 - 8:45 pm -- Lecture time. These were typically over my head but I enjoyed the ones that the staff gave.
8:45 pm -- Make your PB&J sandwich for the next morning. Its a long morning if you don't have a sandwich before getting to the Tel.
9:00 - 10:00 pm -- This was when I typically went to bed. There were some days it was earlier (especially if we didn't have a lecture). By this time of the day, I was normally pretty tired and didn't want to stay up doing anything else. Also the internet was slow because there were a lot of people on it trying to Skype or chat with friends/family from home.

So yeah, that was my daily schedule! I have to go get on my taxi now, but I'll post more when I get to VIENNA. I am very excited to see Vienna! Send me tips/places to check out if you've been there before. 

Hello from Tel Aviv!

Hey friends!

It's been a long time since I've blogged. Mostly because I have been busy, also because keeping up with this blog isn't on the top of my priorities (sorry)!

Seminary has been an amazing experience so far. I've done things I've never thought I would - like learn Hebrew and travel to Israel. I ended the year in a completely different place than I thought I would. For my field studies, I am going to spend next year as the seminary assistant at Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church (LPPC for short). I sort of still can't believe that I'm going to be there. I thought that I needed a break from working in a church. Working at Fourth was an incredible experience. I know without the things I learned and the experiences that I had there, I wouldn't be who I am today. I definitely wouldn't be in Israel right now, I can say that for sure. But it wasn't a perfect experience. Though I enjoyed my time there, I almost think I learned more of what I don't want, rather than what I do. Fourth is an incredibly large church that does its best to help those less fortunate in the city of Chicago. Yet I never really felt welcomed there. On my very last day, someone asked me what I was doing in the basement kitchen, as if I was some random person off the streets who didn't belong.

Yeah.

I don't want to harp on and on about my problems with Fourth, because like I said, I did have a good experience overall and learned an incredible number of things. But I wanted a break. I wanted to be able to attend church again. I like church. It's good for the soul. But working during the morning services meant I either spent all day at the church so that I could attend the 4:00 service, or I just had to go without time at church. I frequently chose the latter, which eventually wore me down.

Since I came in to seminary pretty sure that I didn't want to be your average white-steeple pastor, I thought that I might want to do the dual-degree program with the University of Chicago's School of Social Work. I quickly came to the conclusion that I didn't actually want to do that, but unfortunately missed the deadline to apply for field studies. It's a long story, but I basically thought that I wanted to have my field site be a non-profit organization. During the process of picking one, Lincoln Park's seminary intern decided to change her degree program, so they were left without one. LPPC is a church that has a long history of having a seminary intern from McCormick. They also are an extremely small congregation with about 90 members, who seem to be very social justice-minded. Either way, I think that this will turn out to be a very interesting experience!

I don't know if any of you have been to Tel Aviv, but its basically the Miami of the Mediterranean. The flight was relatively uneventful. There was a problem with the entertainment system, so we were delayed for an hour (on the plane) while they tried to fix it. There were still issues during the flight, so there is some sort of gift we are going to get. Not sure what it is yet. I was super busy leading up to my departure, so I hadn't had much sleep. Which is good because I slept on the plane.

Customs/border control was easy peasy. Having an American passport makes life so much easier. Definitely a blessing that I regularly forget. No stamp in the passport which was a little disappointing. Instead they gave me a card. I can stay here for 3 months. Don't worry. I'm not going to. :)

I had planned on taking a train and bus to my hostel, but I felt tired and lazy when I finally got out of the airport and took a taxi. Probably not the best use of my funds, but it was worth the convenience. 

My flight got in at 10:30am and I arrived at the hostel by about 12:00pm. Couldn't check in, so I just chilled in the lobby area. It's a smaller hostel, and it seems like everyone is really friendly. At least with each other. No one really spoke to me which I was fine with because I was so tired! After I checked in, I went to the beach for about an hour. The beach was totally packed full of people! I had a lovely conversation with an Israeli man who asked me to be his American girlfriend. I politely declined. 

Back to the hotel for a shower and a nap. Exhaustion is the name of the game, people! I wasn't really hungry (and everything is essentially closed after 4pm on Fridays because of Shabbat) so I decided to take a walk along the beach. There is a marina and I was going to take some pictures. Instead I ended up having to fend off another very eager Israeli suitor. "No I don't want to be your girlfriend. No I don't want to kiss you. Thanks but see ya never." (That's how the conversation went in my head. I think I was nicer in person.) After that, I decided to head back to the hostel for the evening. It was getting dark and since I am alone (and clearly a target for creepy men) I didn't want to spend anymore time outside. I brought some granola bars with me, and ended up eating one of those for dinner. I did some research to figure out a game plan for today (Saturday). 

 Traveling alone is never as much fun as traveling with people, but all in all, I've had a pretty good time! Tomorrow I meet up with 2 other people heading over to the kibbutz where we will be staying for the dig. Still haven't heard back from them about where we are meeting, but hopefully will soon! I'll post pictures eventually. I took some today. Fair warning - most of them are of the beach because that's where I've been spending most of my time. 

A Bare Tree

Today is Valentine's Day & yesterday was Ash Wednesday, which might play into the theme of today's blog post. It also might have nothing to do with it. That is not really up to me to decide.

During the McCormick Ash Wednesday worship service yesterday, I had an interesting thought/insight/realization. During the service, I spent most of my time looking out the window. I was listening to the sermon & songs, but a lot of my attention was spent looking at a tree outside. It might be a strange thing to write, but I feel like this tree.

This tree might not seem special in any way. But today this tree struck me as special, because I saw myself in this tree. By looking at the tree, you wouldn't assume that anything is wrong with it. It's just winter, so there aren't any leaves. There's nothing wrong with this tree- the branches are sturdy. The tree is healthy and I'm sure it's roots run deep. And yet, it is bare.

That's how I feel lately. People ask me how I'm doing and I don't have anything to say. Yes, I am busy with classes and work. But so is everyone else. I feel just like that tree. I'm still there. I am still me. The main parts of me are there and nothing is wrong or broken. But I feel bare. Like I don't have any leaves. That there is nothing about me right now that distinguishes me from the bare tree next to me. I don't feel empty; I don't feel full. I am not sad and I'm not overly cheerful. I am not without work nor am I too busy to take breaks. I'm in a nebulous half existence.

I am waiting for Spring. But when will this season end? When will my leaves come back?

The View From Reception

I know that I haven't written a blog post in quite a while. I fully intended to finish the 5 that I half wrote during the Fall Semester, but life got in the way. I had a wonderful first semester. There were definitely some ups [meeting new friends, taking classes that are completely new to me & being chosen by my class as a Deacon] & downs [navigating the balance between a social life, school & 2 jobs]. But this has been an incredible growing and learning experience for me as I continue to discern God's call for me. Thank you so much for your support during my YAV year & my first year of seminary. I am going to try and make more time in my schedule to blog during the future months. 

I have a lot of things I should be doing right now. I have a devotion due at the end of the day today that is barely written. I have a Candidate Statement to write for my University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration application. I should be reviewing Hebrew vocab so I don't forget all of it. Yet, I feel compelled to write a blog post. Because, I really do witness the most incredible things working at the reception desk at McCormick.

Last semester one of our professors left her purse at the Starbucks down the street from the school. Not her wallet, her entire purse. I guess she put it down & forgot it? That detail isn't really important. In the afternoon, someone from Starbucks came by and asked to see speak with her. She didn't even realize that her purse was missing until I called her to come down to the lobby. Nothing was missing from her purse or wallet and the man, who turned out to be the owner of this particular franchise, refused to take a tip. He simply stated that he was doing the right thing.

A few minutes ago, a man came running in through the front doors. I thought maybe he was late for a meeting and needed a parking pass. Instead he told me that one of the cars in the lot had it's lights on. He not only went up to the 3rd floor to tell the Doctoral students, but he came back down with the student's keys to turn off the lights. He then brought the keys back to the classroom and left. I haven't seen an act of kindness like that in a long time.

Earlier this morning, I got a phone call from an alum of McCormick. We are having a book discussion on Monday based on Michelle Alexander's book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. This man was calling to see if we were going to be selling copies of the book at the event. Instead of just letting me transfer him to the appropriate person, he insisted that I take down his information, find out, and call him back. Normally I do everything I can in these situations to not take messages. I don't see most faculty or staff on a regular basis, and I don't want the messages to get lost. Normally I end up just emailing them. However, on this particular occasion, I agreed. When I found the answer to his question & called him back, he then proceeded to ask me how much it was at Barnes & Noble. My frustration level with this conversation was through the roof at this point. I'm not his personal secretary. Why can't he just look it up himself? Then he had me looking at the closest locations to where he lives. This phone conversation was getting ridiculous. I could have very easily been rude to him on the phone or just passed the message along to someone else. But that's not what happened. Instead, I made a new friend and we are going to meet on Monday to discuss the book. During this ridiculous phone conversation, I learned where he was from, the story behind his name, the fact that he is disabled, and much more. As I was trying my hardest to end the conversation before he talked to me into buying it for him and bringing it to his house, I realized something. God was working though me.

On the very last day of finals for the Fall Semester, I was working & trying to finish my paper for History. Of course, I had procrastinated and assumed that I would be able to devote time while working at the desk. What I didn't know was that the Staff Christmas Party was also the same day, taking place (for some unknown reason) in the lobby. So there was to be a party happening 5 feet from me while I tried to finish my research paper on The Acts of Paul and Thecla. I was not a happy camper. Someone that I work with noticed that I was upset. She found another student worker who was done with finals to cover the desk, while I moved to a quieter area of the building.

These events are not scarce at McCormick, and that is one of the reasons I love it here so much! Everyone that is a part of the greater McCormick community is devoted to helping others. The level of competition that is so rampant in other parts of the world seems to be absent. Professors understand that life happens (mostly) outside the classroom. Students are not competing against each other for the top of the class. Ruthlessness is not a virtue here.

Unfortunately every day is not like this. I have days when no matter what happens, I can't seem to find God at work. I have times when my classmates frustrate me & I wonder why I am here. I have days when everyone who calls the McCormick phone is rude and demanding. But today is not one of those days. And I hope that today is not one of those days for you either. Sometimes it takes a little work, but I hope that you can find God working somewhere in your home, school, workplace or community today.