desert spirit's fire!

To Write Love on Her Arms Day too

2009-11-13T22:56:00.000-08:00

TWLOHAD: Friday 13 November 2009

To Write Love On Her Arms...

to write love day

2009-11-13T21:10:00.000-08:00

TWLOHAD: Friday 13 November 2009, all over the world!

To Write Love On Her Arms describes its mission:

"To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery."

more:

To Write Love On Her Arms Day is a day where anyone can write the words love on their arms, to support those who are fighting against depression and those who are trying to recovering. On this day, just write love on your arms, and show it off, other people will ask why you have love written on your arms, and you tell them you are supporting to write love on her arms day, and how its benefiting a non profit organization helping stop depression, and make love the movement ♥

"what will this achieve?" It will achieve the goal of people knowing that there are other people out there with the same problem, and/or people who are supporting them with love."

some backstory

The subjects of addiction, self-injury and related are very close to me and to my heart; you could say I've been close to it in various forms most of my life and biologically and environmentally I've probably inherited some of it.

Compulsive, stereotypical, addictive and similar behaviors frequently seem to defy effective treatment and although there often is an underlying biochemical imbalance or other brain dysfunction that's frequently coupled with negative or sometimes positive psychosocial experiences, the behaviors themselves quickly carve deep, indelible neurological paths.

Bearing in mind this is my theology rather than my (currently semi-inert) testimony blog, the side of my biological family I know something about for generations has been captive to diseases, illnesses - "disorders" - of this type. Despite my dislike of labeling, I know Paul insisted on order, not disorder and Martin Luther says the Church isn't really there without order, in other words, when it is disordered (theology blog, remember).

A huge part of reluctance to reveal, discuss and seek intervention for substance abuse/addiction, compulsivities, self-injury and panic is their seeming uncontrollability and the fact insight usually comes quite easily yet barely makes a dent because of brain pathways that have formed. Whether or not they met clinical DSM criteria, most people have experienced an episode that would make them look depressed, but if you haven't been there, done that, from the outside looking in it looks as if the person with OCD or addiction needs to get a little discipline and control though often they're among the most disciplined, productive and accomplished. In the many creatives who struggle with addictions and compulsions, the creativity and productivity essentially emerge from the same source as the undesired behaviors.

TWLOHAD posters

I've illustrated this blog with one of the pair of posters I designed for this special worldwide TWLOHAD. Amidst a flurry of mostly urban, mostly colorful and coastal beach graffiti the eventful day, the website, the purpose and the promise anchors it all with the hope I describe as "To write love on each other's arms" and now I notice spellcheck doesn't like other's but accepts others and others'--but not to stereotype or label (much), remember, it's urban graffiti!

and now...

"incarnational theology" is one of the labels/tags to this post and in all this my prayer for myself and for each of us - addicted, compulsive, mood-disordered, self-injurious, suicidal, simply creatively different and/or differently creative - is a community of embrace that will celebrate our presence and encourage everyone's full participation and that God will allow all of us to become wounded healers, the divine presence of the crucified and risen Christ we were baptized to be. As I was watching and listening to Patrick Kennedy at Ted Kennedy's funeral I realized that even for someone in a large, supportive family that also has sufficient resources of every kind, this kind of illness still takes a huge toll and is costly to society and to the individual.

for every one of us to write love on each other's, others or others' arms...♥ ♥ ♥

thanksgivings - M

2009-11-13T08:42:00.000-08:00

music

Along with ice cream for alphabet letter "I", music is such a huge topic it can stand alone for today's letter M--here's my short list:

The rhythms, whispers, songs and thunders of creation, the universe, the cosmos. Summer symphony under a tent or out on the lawn alongside the river or the bay or surrounded by mountains; a blaze of brass or jumping for joy with classic rock... music from "The Fifth Evangelist," Johann Sebastian Bach; a splash of country and a celtic echo and the short list literally is endless!

L thanksgivings

2009-11-12T15:05:00.000-08:00

liturgy!

Holy time in the midst of holy space and I'm blogging today in growing green of ordinary time--actually making it "dark" rather than spring green since it's late in the season.

leopards

Especially the leopards of Sabi Sands Djuma Game Reserve in South Africa and WildEarth - it's in your nature, it's in my nature, it's in our nature and WE love our leopards!

lions

Big Cats.

Ingwe Leopard Project

ILP

K thanksgivings

2009-11-11T10:52:00.000-08:00

Kentucky

"The Bluegrass State" is a place I've visited, driven through and longed for quite a few times. I'm thinking Kentucky could qualify as a state of mind and being, too.

kindness

Kindness seems all too rare these days and trust me, I savor, appreciate and celebrate it whenever it happens and I do everything I can to initiate it whenever possible. As someone observed, "kindness is love in action."

J thanksgivings

2009-11-10T11:44:00.000-08:00

January

The first month of the year on the Julian calendar, a time for resolves about the future, yet a time for looking back and assessing stuff, too, just as Janus, Roman god of beginnings and of endings, of entrances and exits does.

joy

What other possible response to all the beauties, insanities and possibilities in this world?

July

Longer warmer days in this hemisphere, sauntering into high summer. Picnics, BBQs and Independence Day in the U.S. of A. Regarding the familiar Julian Calendar, my grandfather's name was Julian and north of where I currently live there's a well-known tourist town of Julian, renowned for apples, apple pies and what's probably the closest local snowfalls.

I thanks-givings

2009-11-09T20:23:00.000-08:00

Ice Cream!

It's getting late in the day, but not only am I thankful for ice cream in general, there are countless flavors to give thanks for...

a very short list:

pistachio (thus this font color)
pecan praline, especially the sort of local, award-winning Thrifty's
pineapple coconut (another Thrifty specialty)
vanilla
chocolate chip
coffee fudge

H thanks-givings

2009-11-08T15:05:00.000-08:00

Helvetica!

I really really like clean, versatile, readable and reliable Helvetica and its cognates.

heaven

on earth

horses

as I noted in one of my commonplace books and on a blog during fall 2004:

brought to las americas in the mid-16th century by Spanish conquistadores
horses have that *ephemeral quality* -- horses have heart!
Nez Perce horse--stallions and ahkal-teke
1995 Appaloosa mares: "a Palouse Horse"
Reykjavik, 5th gait--*TOLT* = slower, fast running walk
quarter horses from Virginia: 1/4 mile!
drafting=pulling
clear cutting--even age management, "skudder" and "wedge"

G thanks-givings

2009-11-07T12:02:00.000-08:00

the gospel

As Paul writes in Romans, For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, 'The one who is righteous will live by faith. ...Romans 1:16-17

Greek food

Specially the local Dino's Gyros! Their 1/4 lemon chicken lunch that's my favorite includes french fries, pita bread, tzadiki sauce, tossed green salad with Italian-style vinaigrette dressing and 1/4 chicken--I always get leg and thigh.

giraffes

fun and fantastic in every form. ...oh, this is letter G, so all those letter Fs are leftovers from yesterday.

grace

unearned, unmerited, untethered and unbounded.

F thanks-givings

2009-11-06T12:12:00.000-08:00

forgetfulness!

From Carl Sandburg: ...and the forgetfulness of our sleep is strange and beautiful in itself--and what would you rather have than sleep?

fantasy

a waking dream, an excursion into an imaginative place, a way of living "as if" so a new day will happen, or...?

ferals

mainly feral cats, but any critter or person or place or idea with a wild, uncatchable, untameable streak.

fonts

I've already admitted although I'm a designer I like comic sans. But typography and typefaces have fascinated me for a long time. Back in HS I used to sit in class and study hall and design my own. In my project for my urban sociology class I compiled a bibliography of "Graphic, Chromatic and Typographic Elements in Urban Environments."

Font also refers to the locale of many baptisms and even when a person is baptized in a river, a stream or an ocean (or maybe in a crick), that's their baptismal font.

finally, friday fives

here's a sample selection--and today is a Friday!

what's new 5

2009-11-06T06:50:00.000-08:00

Friday Five: What's New?

for today's Fun Friday Five, Songbird asks us, "Please share with us five things you like *especially* when they are new," so in growing green of Ordinary Time, here's mine:

1. freshly turned garden soil, with its smell (scent? aroma?) familiar yet fresh along with awareness that this dirt literally is part of the primal stuff of creation and full of the beginnings tomorrows and the days that follow.

2. a new bar of just-unwrapped Dial soap.

3. a new spiral-bound notebook, always wide-ruled. Even when I'm not currently taking a class I usually have a notebook going and like a lot of people, cannot resist buying one when a fabulously designed cover beckons me.

4. painted furniture! Except for a few that have an actual quality wood or *other* finish, I've painted a dozen pieces I currently own--mostly old ones someone gave me or I paid very little for as well as a couple from the Unpainted Furniture on the Roof Store. They're a wide variety of colors and bright paint lets us in on a hint of the transformation a little change can bring.

5. a sunrise, especially a subtly hued sunrise, as old as this planet and as new as the surprising promise of another resurrection dawn.

6. a new box of Crayola 64s... though it's been a few years since due to my living the Pantone-Adobe life these days I don't go through a box every six months the way I used to, the smell, the expectation and the possibilities are endless, overwhelming and exciting.

E thanks-givings

2009-11-05T09:54:00.000-08:00

Today I have only three, with only a simple explanation for each.

Exodus!

Both the biblical book of that's positioned second in the bible as well as what we do all the time leaving the last thing and on our way to the next. Above all, living as exodus people is living on the edge rather than in the center.

elephants

Social, intelligent, funny and tragic. Among the favorite denizens of Sabi Sands in South Africa

eternity

Where we are right now, where we were last week and last year and where we'll be forever.

D thanks-givings

2009-11-04T10:12:00.000-08:00

desserts

Short list includes cheesecake, apple pie, pumpkin pie (this is an autumn blog), vanilla ice cream, yellow cake with coconut frosting, hot fudge sundae, strawberry shortcake made with homemade biscuits and served with lots of butter and a ton of hand-whipped ultra-heavy cream. Chocolate lava cake, cottage pudding topped with lemon sauce (great in the winter and an excellent anytime dessert)...

dreams

Sleeping dreams, dozing off ones and daydreams, too. The stuff of futures to come...

discord, dissonance and dissidence

What would music be without some sounds and melody lines that don't quite fit the rest of the score? What would the world be without people who dare to disagree and who provocatively prophesy?

Defenders...

...of Wildlife who work to help protect endangered species, imperiled species and habitats; I particularly love their identification with wolves. As Henry David Thoreau insisted "In wildness is the preservation of the world."

deserts

For their apparently crazy, broken, stark beauty and the way boundless life teems and grows underneath it all, because of its wildness and in spite of it. For Israel the exodus desert wilderness became the place they found and formed their identity, learned how to live precariously from moment to moment, learned Who provided for them and learned to trust. Sunrise in the desert, sunsets in the desert bring hushed, holy awe along with a need to return for more healing and renewed perspective.

C thanks-givings

2009-11-03T21:03:00.000-08:00

I'm only at letter C, and I'm discovering limiting myself to only a few thankfuls for each letter is really hard; in other words, this list is not complete in the least--but you knew that already!

creativity!

Still has not failed to bring me joy, even when many of the chips have been way down. I love this quote I found in an old ad and that I've included in my favorite quotes for my Facebook profile and suntreeriver design fan page:

In the beginning...a small bell chimed. Creativity! It chimes like a small clear bell at the heart of the human spirit...

Spoken like scripture!

cats

Of all varieties, types, sizes, styles, colors and cattitudes

church

despite my frequent anger and ongoing ambivalence...

comic sans

This had to be on my list because I'm a designer and I actually like comic sans. I don't use it for *real* design projects, but it's fun for blogs like this one and for emails.

Roy DeLeon: Praying with the Body

2009-11-03T10:10:00.000-08:00

Praying with the body: bringing the psalms to life, by Roy DeLeon, OSB.

Disclaimer: I haven't started praying with this book yet, but I know it is exactly what I need! I love the 7" x 8.5" dimensions, its easy heft along with the just-right feel of the way it flexes in my hands and I love the turquoise blue cover, a color of the sea and a hue of the desert. Roy's book is in the Active Prayer Series from Paraclete Press, whose about explains:

Although Benedictine spirituality is at the heart of all that we do, we publish books that reflect the Christian experience across many cultures, time periods and houses of worship. We publish books that nourish the vibrant life of the church and its people--books about spiritual practice, formation, history, ideas, and customs.

In his forward, Paulist Father Thomas Ryan says how strange it is that Jews and Christians pretty much check their bodies at the door of synagogue or church, while Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus integrate the whole person into their spiritual practices. Strange indeed, as Fr. Thomas further observes, that despite Christianity's high theology of the body and in spite of the fact that the "great Christian festivals of Christmas, Easter, the Ascension, and Pentecost all make profound and radical statements of faith about God's esteem for our embodied being.. And In Judaism, the body-mind-spirit is a seamless entity named... by a single word..."

Christianity's central kerygma, our primary proclamation is God's incarnation in the human Jesus of Nazareth. I love reminding people that the gospel-writer Luke the physician ends his genealogy with "Adam, son of God." Formed from the substance of the same earth that grows crops to nourish us and other animals that in turn feed and provide for the ground's produce, trees that shade and shelter us, that provide lumber, leaves and reeds to form into dwelling places... And Latter-day Saint theology asserts not only did the Son become embodied and enfleshed; so also did God the Father! Theology of the Holy Spirit insists on human potential to achieve the divine nature we were created to assume. In the garden the tempter told the human A-dam, "You shall be like god," and verily, we shall be! Different Christian traditions use different words but divinization, theosis, sanctification all point toward our ultimately becoming and living both fully human and fully divine, exactly like Jesus Christ, so God becomes re-incarnate and reborn in each one of us, in the community that bears the name of Jesus Christ and in all creation. The indwelling Holy Ghost means the Divine Presence very here and very now and furthermore, in Jesus Christ we all experience the resurrection of the body.

People often refer to Christianity as spiritual, though the way of Jesus is heavily economic, highly political and hardly ascetic in its celebration of gifts from the ground, in its perspective that insists on the interdependence of all life, in its historical affirmation of human sexuality and in its charge to care for all creation, the natural environment that surrounds us, envelopes us and that is not incidental but remains integral to God's action in history. In sacramental theology we speak of the capacity of the finite to contain the infinite, pointing toward interdependence of everything created to a degree no one could or would imagine on their own.

Roy organizes the book into Alleluia, Sanctus and Amen types of prayer sessions. "Alleluias" are about new beginnings. Each includes an introit, a section of a psalm. a Silent Reflection, illustrated suggestions for "Praying with the Body, Heart and Soul," Sitting in the Presence (similar to centering prayer I sometimes practice), a possible way to live your prayer, an original Contemporary Psalm and concluding prayer. At about 2 inches wide, the margins of the books have plenty of space for the participant's own notes and each discrete session features a pullquote from the psalm one might choose to contemplate or concentrate on--or possibly not at any particular time.

Although intended for the middle of the day or mid-endeavor, "Sanctus" prayer sessions could be adapted to any time of day or year. In Roy's words, they bring us "...back to the awareness that whatever is happening in our day, on our project or journeys, God is with us." (page 33)

Somewhat parallel to compline, "Amen" prayer sessions are for the close of day or "at the conclusion of an activity or project, or at a milestone." (page 97) Similar to possibilities of praying the canonical hours, although each office has evolved and developed a specific form for a particular time of day, prayers in Praying with the Body are liturgical forms with content that can be appropriated for other times than specified. Any of these practices could be repeated many many times with variations and there's no solid reason to keep Alleluia prayer sessions solely for the beginning of a day or endeavor, not any particular rationale for being anything but open to Spirit about the whats and whens and wheres for all these prayers. The book includes many line drawings of bodily prayer positions, but those too do not need to be replicated exactly in a person's own practice. Glancing through the illustrations reminds me that sometimes my body is surprisingly bendy and other times decidedly not at all, but like yoga these can be adapted some.

Thank you, Roy! Most likely another blog will be in order after I've lived, worked and prayed along with your lovely book.

my Amazon review of Praying with the Body...prayer-body connections: bringing prayer to life!

B thanks-givings

2009-11-02T20:52:00.000-08:00

burritos!

Make your own, pickup a quick one at the taco shop, across the border or almost anywhere. Add your own extras or enjoy as is.

beach, beaches

Sand, sea, surf, summer days, winter storms...gray days, a chill in the air and skies full of sun. Memories of vacationland beaches, urban beaches, city and suburban ones. A great design subject and a universal topic of discussion that's been experienced in some form by just about everyone.

Best Friends Animal Society

This country's largest no-kill shelter, Best Friends Animal Society makes a home and is at home in Angel Canyon in Kanab, Utah. I've visited only once, but hope and expect to visit again and spend a lot more time there.

A thanks-givings

2009-11-01T20:24:00.000-08:00

about alphabetical thanks-giving for november

Jan at Yearning for God inspired me to blog alphabetical thanks and Mindy, who blogs at Bits and Odd Pieces of Mindy's Kingdom inspired me to try a daily blog for this month of November, so I'm combining them. And how cool is it that for national blog posting month "The theme for November is there is no theme for November?!"

A big "Thank You" to Tracey Delaney from Pretty Little Things - "life, art & everything else" for the blog month badge.

autumn

Here in southern California the leaves and colors don't change dramatically the way they usually do in other places I've lived--in New England fall colors tend to be dramatically gorgeous, in Utah sometimes yes and sometimes no. But I'm enjoying summer splendid taking a slumber so days cool enough for wearing warmer sweaters and corduroy jeans and jackets along with nights long enough for extended dreaming can come on stage front and center.

Adobe

Whatever would I do without Adobe software? I use InDesign every day, Photoshop most days and CS4 is the very best imaginable!

avocados...

And guacamole, a staple food of Baja California and Alta California.

animals

...that walk and that crawl on 2 feet, 3 or 4 feet or more feet, that fly through the air and swim through the sea. Each one has a bit of the Divine within them and each of them breathes the Spirit of life.

favorite music 5

2009-10-23T08:18:00.001-07:00

[in Pentecostal Reformation Red]

Favorite Music Friday 5

I love Songbird's intro:

When I was a very little girl growing up in Virginia, I never missed a Sunday going to Court Street Baptist Church. But there was something else that made Sundays special, and that was "Davey and Goliath." Every week the opening strains of the theme song would find me lying on the floor, chin on hands, looking up expectantly to watch the adventures of a clay boy and his big dog.

What I didn't realize was who wrote that music, the hymn "A Mighty Fortress is Our God."

It was the same Martin Luther who said: "I have no use for cranks who despise music, because it is a gift of God. Music drives away the Devil and makes people gay; they forget thereby all wrath, unchastity, arrogance, and the like. Next after theology, I give to music the highest place and the greatest honor."

On this Friday before Reformation Sunday, let's talk about music. Share with us five pieces of music that draw you closer to the Divine, that elevate your mood or take you to your happy place. They might be sung or instrumental, ancient or modern, sacred or popular...whatever touches you.

Some of us even love hymns. (Well, I do.)

1. I'll begin with my recurrent Beethoven theme... both the piano sonatas I love to play (I'm still at 27 of the 32 total, but will learn the remaining 5 one of these days) and like nothing else in the world, Symphonies 1, 2, 4 and 7.

2. Despite having a degree in piano and organ performance and a Haarlem diploma (I just noticed 2010 will be a summer academy year), I detest most 19th-century organ music and dislike the typical stereotypical diapason-heavy Church Organ Sound although like Songbird, I do love a lot of hymnody and I'm passionate about leading worship from a good organ. Whether I'm playing or listening, almost no sound excites me more than a well built, in-tune, expertly voiced instrument more-or-less designed after the North German Baroque, and a resonant room only enhances everything. Try the Flentrop in Busch Hall, Cambridge for a rush, though you need to be sitting in the right spot because the stone resonates and reverberates so. Remember, too, maybe especially as an organist you're playing the music, the instrument and the room. For a parting shot on this (2), I'll comment for a church almost constantly in need or reformation, restoration and renewal, an excellent diversity of quality music can help tremendously.

3. Don't Let Me Come Home a Stranger... and other music that spirits me back to a different place and time whilst showing me hope for a future different from where and how I am right now. That can include a blast of classic rock, a charge of good ole 1980's songs or any of several other doable possibilities, including classic and more contemporary hymns.

4. Roy Harris, Symphony No. 3 in one movement, one of my all-time favorites from any genre.

5. ...a fill-in-the-spaces for later...

footgear friday 5

2009-10-16T09:10:00.000-07:00

Jan outlines today's On Your Feet! 5... and I'll start out by remembering the biblical injunction to "wear sandals" along with "take off your sandals: you are standing on holy ground." Shaking off the dusty dirt from a negative encounter with an inhospitable community is easier if you don't need to untie your shoelaces and for sure an experience of the Holy Other requires no space between you and the earth we're born from and return to. Preaching barefoot?! But of course! Proclaiming and even trying explaining the gospel is an awesome, intimidating, daunting, sacred experience of Holy Otherness, and relying on the Spirit may be a bit easier with ongoing awareness of feet unshod. Besides, when you're barefoot you feel and sense otherwise imperceptible shifts and movements in the ground beneath you. So what does that say and what might you say about the promised constant Presence of God? For those who insist on referencing Isaiah's and other ancient chroniclers' "with twain they did cover their feet," I insist on reminding them that in scripture sometimes "feet" simply means the part of the body we use for walking and for making the path that wasn't evident or even there at all before we got to that place--sometimes it means: feet. Now on to Jan's 5:

1. currently flip-flops are my favorite footwear.

2. although it's definitely not the craziest shoe, boot, or sandal I've ever worn, I'll cite my experiences going through airport security post-911 wearing taller than ankle-high boots with lots of laces. Never again; that taught me!

3. as a little kid and as an older teen, I wore sneakers/ tennies a lot and loved wearing sandals during the hot summer months. At university and in social work school in the wintery Northeast I always tried to wear sandals until around Thanksgiving - late November in this country - but didn't always make it quite to then.

4. for feet (and body) feelin' "most comfortable" I used to enjoy bare feet, especially in the house, but weather permitting, these days I'll pick a pair of flip-flops. In ages past I loved the woven leather huaraches we still can get across the border in Mexico, but for the past dozen years they've been hard to find elsewhere.

5. about socks: with closed shoes other than the chunky-heeled "heels" I occasionally wear, always, always socks. If I'm wearing jeans, long pants or a floor-length skirt, they need to be conventional ankle socks. With shorts or a short skirt, short socks (I'm not sure of the proper terminology). And our nearby 99 cents only store has wonderful, often name-brand sock bargains!

Bonus: I began this 5 with a couple of footwear facts and now I'll tell about the two pairs of wonderful custom-made brown leather sandals I had made by the First Settler Workshop in the shadow of Faneuil Hall in Boston. Also, I used to love Tevas and wore out several pairs, but now they seem way too last-century. Finally, I digitized the sandals illustrating this blog from an outline drawing I made of some of my all-time favorite sandals. Out of a dozen versions I've chosen two with "Summer in America" because the season of summer holds connotations of productive living that consistently bears ripe and healthy fruit.

blog action day: climate change

2009-10-15T01:55:00.000-07:00

Although I knew I had to blog about climate change on Blog Action Day, I'm well aware even people who are devoting their lives to the topic don't yet know enough and there are almost limitless resources online and in print. Instead of making an attempt to say something about a subject I know far too little about, I'm linking to a couple of my own blogs, to a pair of excellent sites about aspects of climate change that especially interest me and to a handful of the many relevant Bible passages and some quotes (all scriptures NRSV).

desert spirit's fire! is a theology blog and typically I assume readers have at least a smidgen of biblical knowledge and theological vocabulary. However, with more than 9,363 bloggers registered worldwide to participate [update: 31,000 blog posts, and a few people probably will blog later] in this special Blog Action Day for climate change, I'm trying to be a little more explicit than usual about some theological concepts. And here I'll comment the way some Christians and many assorted others have tended to concentrate on human creatures almost to the exclusion of the rest of God's creation has been infinitely sad and highly unbiblical.

Church and synagogue consider the biblical scriptures an ancient witness to the Presence of God in world and creation and to God's saving acts in history, yet despite its antiquity, the bible is very clear about the interwoven interrelatedness and interdependence of all creation and about God's call to humanity for responsible caretaking and stewardship of the earth. In the creation stories in the Hebrew bible book of Genesis, God's forms, "births" the proto human A-dam from the dust of the earth; in the New Testament scriptures, gospel-writer Luke concludes his genealogy with, "A-dam, son of God." Humanity created in the image of the Creator God, a reflection of Divinity shaped out of the dirt of the ground? Indeed, yes!

As lifestyle and worldview, although they acknowledge the essential integrity of spirit and body, the biblical religions are Spirit-filled yet earthbound, for the most part lived out amidst the world. In fact, Christianity's central proclamation is God's incarnation in the human Jesus of Nazareth, the Divine enfleshed in a finite human body entering history in a most conventional manner, "born of a woman, born under the law" [Galatians 4:4b], then marking days, seasons and years whilst requiring sustaining food and drink, protective shelter, and like all of creation - animal and plant - producing waste matter and ultimately returning to the ground of its origin. God in Christ Jesus needed a sustainable earth and environment in balance with itself and so does every single facet and molecule of creation.

In the New Testament book of Acts, probably authored by the same Dr. Luke as the gospel, as people were gathered in Jerusalem, at that time considered the center of the world, on the Day of Pentecost (a Jewish feast commemorating the Sinai Covenant, "The Law" or Ten Commandments), rushing wind and blazes of fire physically signified the Spirit of Life indwelling all creation with a new, more universal pervasiveness, yet in continuity with the Wind that breathed upon and ordered the chaos at creation's dawn. Martin Luther, the magisterial Reformer (try "meta-Reformer") spoke of the ubiquity of the Risen and Ascended Jesus Christ. What is more, in the Church's sacraments God Self-reveals in creation's commonest stuff, in water, grain and grape, grown, nurtured, sprung and harvested from the heart of the earth.

From the UK, here's an excellent article on rainforests and climate change.

Almost daily we hear about the devastating effects of climate change on polar bears; you can follow World Wildlife Fund's Canon Polar Bear tracker.

The Holy One we know as God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God the Prophets, God and Father of Jesus the Christ has experienced the same need for clean water, plentiful produce, fresh air and stable climate as the rainforests and the polar bears.

On my blog for Earth Day 2006 I said a lot I could repeat here for Climate Change Day, including paraphrasing Walter Brueggemann, who says essentially, "Of course the trees clap their hands--no more clear-cutting! Why wouldn't the seas and everything in them roar? No more pollution!"

During early September 2008 for Musical Musings on RevGalBlogPals, I celebrated the relatively recent liturgical Season of Creation emphasis.

The Genesis 9 account of God covenanting not only with human creatures but with all creation describes how God disarms, hanging a bow high in the sky as a recurrent symbol of the covenant of grace and provision.

Genesis 9:8-10

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, "As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark."

Genesis 9:12-13

God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth."

Job 12:7-10

But ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being.

check out Job 39

and Jeremiah 8

Psalm 104 as well...and concluding Blog Action Day 2009 with a hopeful reminder, a portion of Psalm 104:10-19
You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills,
giving drink to every wild animal; the wild asses quench their thirst.
By the streams the birds of the air have their habitation; they sing among the branches.
From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for people to use, to bring forth food from the earth,
and wine to gladden the human heart, oil to make the face shine, and bread to strengthen the human heart.
The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
In them the birds build their nests; the stork has its home in the fir trees.
The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the coneys.
You have made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting.

A Call and an Oracle

2009-10-08T17:30:00.000-07:00

this is a really really old one, but bears another speaking and a new hearing...

A Call

In November of the third year of the current regime
I saw the people, the city's people
desolate, forsaken, hungry and forgotten
I saw the people, the city's people
needing bread, health and work
needing plain justice.

Then the word of Yahweh came to me and I said,
"You're asking me to speak your word, Yahweh? I did want to be your servant, but I never meant to do anything this hard! For me to be one small voice speaking against this outrage?"

but Yahweh said to me,
"If you do not proclaim my word, who will do it for my people?"
So I said,
"Here I am."

An Oracle

Hear the word of Yahweh, you that turn justice on its head, you that mock compassion
You have set yourself up in a soundproof castle with no window on the world
You ears have become deaf
You have garnered riches for yourself
You have bought and sold your carefully media-marketed image
Your heart is cold and hard
While my people hunger to be human
as they hunger for the fruit of the land
for the wages of a good job.
They hunger for all of those things which I, Yahweh, their Creator gave them because I chose them, the people, for my own
But you stole and plundered what already was theirs.

And when you ask me,
"How did I do those things, when did I do them?"
When you say,
"I have been trying to keep the peace as a follower of Jesus,"
My word to you is,
"You blaspheme! Better that you would tell the truth that you do not follow Jesus than lie and thus pervert his proclamation."
My word to you is,
"because you have refused to be open and vulnerable
because you have made a covenant with death
because you have usurped the possibility of justice
for the impossibility of a false and perilous peace that is no peace
because you have profaned the world with the price of your no-peace
because you have renounced the stewardship of the earth's resources and repudiated the responsibility of your office
I, Yahweh, declare you not-human, not-in-my-image
I declare you a despiser of my servant Jesus who showed you how to be human - but your eyes have become blind
and therefore I, Yahweh, will confound your media image,
lay waste your economic abominations
and obliterate your lack of social programs
until you cry to me for mercy
but for you I will have no mercy
because you have done no mercy, no justice.

"Give ear and hear me, you people of the city,
Forgotten and trampled upon by the wealthy but remembered and chosen by Yahweh.
Witness my word!"

celebrating Ted Kennedy

2009-09-25T23:55:00.000-07:00

Edward Moore Kennedy, February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009

Ted Kennedy served as the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts and came to be known as "The Lion of the Senate."

His funeral was held on a rainy Saturday, 27 August 2009 at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, built by German immigrants and "since 1878" a parish church; using geographical designations like parish and ward, churches dare describe themselves as congregations especially for a particular neighborhood. In the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Mission Church is situated amidst the have a littles and have nots, creating an apt setting for the remembrance of someone who lived his life in service to often underserved and frequently disregarded populations. I've driven past the church quite a few times, though I don't recall ever being inside.

The celebration, the liturgy, the acknowledgment of Ted Kennedy's achievements and the promise of the inbreaking Reign of Heaven began with a magnificently played and sung entrance hymn:

Holy God, we praise thy name;
Lord of all, we bow before thee;
all on earth thy scepter claim;
all in heaven above adore thee.
Infinite thy vast domain;
everlasting is thy reign.

...words to stanzas 1-4 attributed to Ignaz Franz, circa 1774; translated by Clarence Walworth, 1858 (they processed into the church singing all 8 stanzas).

Scripture readings included Wisdom 3:1-9; Psalm 72 with the recurrent response, "Justice shall flourish in his time in fullness of peace forever"; Romans 8:28-31 - "nothing can separate us from the love of God" and for the gospel, Matthew 25 - "whatever you did, for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me."

Beginning with covering the casket in white, the baptismal imagery was telling and pervasive; baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we are dressed in forgiven, sinless righteousness and each of the baptized wears a baptismal calling to a life of justice, a call to a journey to the cross if - "when" - necessary; to speaking and acting prophetically against the political, economic, social and cultural establishments. In the Spirit God calls and enables us to talk the talk and walk the walk. Figuring out and discerning a specific career path can be tough, scary and difficult, but we all receive the same baptismal call to lives of justice and equality, to living the Magnificat...Luke 1:51-55

He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.

Although the Kennedy clan originated from tribal cultures of ethnic Ireland and religious Rome that back in those days were not welcomed or accepted in elite residential or vacation communities in this country, these days commentators often call them America's Royalty, and they have become essentially a dynasty. In Greg Ferguson's words:

The ground is level at the foot of the cross...
We all are equal in the light of the cross
For the love of God is given freely to all
The ground is level, at the foot of the cross

Men and women, younger and older
Every culture, every color, every tongue
No more labels, no separation
As we stand forgiven at the cross
We all are one ...

Doesn’t matter your social position
Doesn’t matter if you’re rich or if you’re poor
Race or privilege, tribe or tradition
At the cross of Christ it can’t divide us anymore

Baptized into Christ the Kennedys are God's royalty, and the baptismal hymn from 1 Peter 2:9-10 would have been perfect for a reading at the service for Ted Kennedy:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

The grandeur and sweep of the memorial service and media coverage were worthy of a head of state--of royalty! Ted Kennedy lived and served in the traditions of liberal, activist politics and liberal, activist, prophetic Christianity. He was a coalition-building, conciliatory politician who initiated and sponsored legislation of the people, from the people and for the people. And during the funeral liturgy, the celebrating of Holy Communion, the Lord's Supper, taken, blessed, broken and given, the Eucharist, a feast of thanksgiving, reconciliation and life of all creation, for all creation.

Ted Kennedy's schooner Mya provided a wonderful icon of the sometimes rocky and rough, occasionally surprisingly smooth and glassy passages everyone needs to navigate through life. Water is the basic substance of creation, the essence of life: Water Is Life! We live baptized into water, drowned into our first death and raised to second birth of bounded freedom in Christ and we need to trust God, the One Who really is the Baptizer.

On the Friday before the funeral Ted Kennedy lay in state at the Kennedy Presidential Library, located right next door to the University of Massachusetts at Boston, an urban school for non-traditional students, many of whom go on to help change their part of the world.

Psalm 72:4a insists, "He shall defend the afflicted among the people."

President Barack Obama quoted Ted Kennedy: The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on. Indeed it does, and it will:

Infinite Thy vast domain; everlasting is Thy reign...the dream lives on!

Mary Travers, 1936-2009

2009-09-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

If I Had a Hammer

words and music by Lee Hays & Pete Seeger

If I had a hammer
I'd hammer in the morning
I'd hammer in the evening
All over this land
I'd hammer out danger
I'd hammer out a warning
I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land

If I had a bell
I'd ring it in the morning
I'd ring it in the evening
All over this land
I'd ring out danger
I'd ring out a warning
I'd ring out love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land

If I had a song
I'd sing it in the morning
I'd sing it in the evening
All over this land
I'd sing out danger
I'd sing out a warning
I'd sing out love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land

Well I've got a hammer
And I've got a bell
And I've got a song to sing
All over this land
It's the hammer of justice
It's the bell of freedom
It's the song about love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land

© 1958, 1962 (renewed), 1986 (renewed)
TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc. (BMI)

blogger @ 10...

2009-09-16T20:39:00.000-07:00

blogger has aged into double-digits
all the way into 10 whole years
a couple months back I milestoned, too
with 7 years on desert spirit's fire
this blog, my main blog
my flagship theology blog

but what now can I say today
about traveling with blogger and before?
some of it's been like a country song
parts of it seem to qualify
as genuine Pauline shipwrecks

shoreside by sands of ocean pacific
by a snack shop at a Nevada truck stop
alongside an urban state of habitation
desert designs at a nearby hot spot
cycling countlessly through crayola, pantone and adobe
blog rings and theology schemes
Jeremiah, 2^nd Isaiah, Luke and Revelation
illustration inspirations...

leading to hearing and saying
and almost everyday...
"that's something to blog about!"

# # #

ELCA: structured flexibility

2009-09-07T15:24:00.000-07:00

It happened recently at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Church Wide Assembly: Sexuality Report and Recommendations, executive summary; here's a brief excerpt:

The proposal suggests that this church, because of its acknowledgment of and commitment to the bound consciences of all, incorporate structured flexibility in decision-making into its policies and procedures so that synods, bishops, congregations, candidacy committees, and others involved in the candidacy process and in the process of extending calls will be free to act according to their convictions regarding both the approving or disapproving in candidacy and the extending or not extending of a call to rostered service of a person who is otherwise qualified and who is living or contemplates living in a publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationship.

When I heard someone ask, "But how can human creatures bless what the Creator God does not bless?" I needed to respond with at least a short blog. When I'm teaching I always explain the bible is a culturally conditioned and culture bound document, that we try hard, sometimes very hard, using appropriate critical and interpretive tools and skills to contextualize the words on the pages for other times, other places, particularly for the time and the place where we live right now. When I'm teaching a new group or people who don't know me well, I tell them I have high regard for scripture as a divine word but equal respect for it as a human word "with all the ambiguity that implies." It's a specific witness and as Martin Luther insisted, "what preaches Christ" carries greater weight and authority than what does not. Simply put, all scripture is not equal. Jesus Christ, God's living Word, ultimately interprets the written word of the bible. The very idea that a text could be infallible or inerrant is at right angles to any convictions that could have been held in the worlds that originated those texts originated, oftentimes were verbally conveyed and written down at some point in time.

As the Barmen Declaration signatories confessed in 1934,

Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death.

We reject the false doctrine, as though the church could and would have to acknowledge as a source of its proclamation, apart from and besides this one Word of God, still other events and powers, figures and truths, as God's revelation.

Who is this Jesus scripture attests to? Living hospitality, a faithful friend, the embodiment of covenantal, non-exploitative relationship. Both fully human and fully divine, in the power of the Spirit of Life Christ Jesus calls the Church and the churches to live as the demonstration and exhibition to the world of the Reign of God, in the Spirit enables us to the same ways of being and acting as he shows us. (Although Jesus' First Followers would not have had a clue as to the meaning of "church," and Matthew is the only gospel that includes the word ecclesia.) This Jesus is God incarnate, holiness enfleshed, the essence and reality of embracing love, of justice and righteousness for all creation. Jesus also is at home in the culture and religion into which he was born and spent his life.

People with more knowledge, education and insight than I possess have explained ways concepts and realities such as marriage and family have developed, evolved and changed; historically, there never has been a single normative style or structure for marriage or for family. Scriptures witness to God's nature and being, but just as much the word of "holy" writ reveal a particular place and time as some of the canonical texts condone practices like selling your daughter into slavery. In that case, "what would be a just price?" has been a typical response because after all, God mandates equitable compensation. Along with dietary proscriptions and prescriptions... you get the idea.

There may be one or two or a few passages against sexual activity with persons of one's own sex, and for a fact scripture forbids divorce, eating cattle and dairy at the same meal, eating cloven-hoofed ruminants and crustaceans (lobster, crab, and their ilk), wearing garments made of more than one kind of fiber (in that case, even 5% spandex for a little stretch is unscriptural, not to mention true abominations such as 50% cotton / 50% polyester). As Martin Luther insisted, all sin is idolatry, all sin amounts to violating the 1^st commandment. In addition, 20^th and 21^st century medical, psychological and behavioral research and studies have demonstrated knowledge about sexual attraction and behaviors totally unknown in recent centuries, and unheard of when scripture was recorded (and when it was canonized). I've read that about 1% of the population is hard-wired to be either 100% gay or straight; the rest of us are gradations in between. So is everyone "a little gay?" Apparently not, any more than everyone is "a little bipolar," though most people's mood and affect varies considerably from one day to the next and particularly from one season to another. Recently someone suggested there's a strong element of choice in some folks' decision to life partner with someone of the same rather than the opposite sex. The individual pointed out that in general it's a lot easier to understand and therefore to spend most of your days with someone of the same gender because a lot of our attitudes and behaviors tend to be guy things, girl things, guy type or girl type in style. Similarly, most of us have abilities and interests that could lead to employment or a career in a number of areas or disciplines, but if someone who potentially could work as a history teacher chooses a less demanding path as a classroom aide, have they abrogated God's call and purpose for their lives? Possibly to a small extent, but more than anything God's call to faithful living is about good stewardship of time, talents and opportunities and especially to kind, loving non-exploitative relationships, to considering and treating others as "thous" rather than "its."

So especially regarding open factors of circumstance, choice and opportunity, much of the ELCA's decision as well as the recently defeated Proposition 8 in California simply is about equal rights.

Today is a somewhat lazy Labor Day in the USA and Labour Day in Canada, making it feel like an excellent day to get another blog online, and I needed to say something about the recent ELCA decision; here it is...