monteskewed

2009-11-17T06:00:00.000+01:00

Bumper Sticker of the Week

2009-11-13T07:00:00.001+01:00

Evangelism: has it seen its day?

This American Life had a recent very interesting interview about evangelism as a scam, a basic bait-and-switch pattern that the church didn't learn from imitating Jesus, but rather shamelessly adopted from corporate America. The interview with Jim Henderson is interesting and worth a listen [link].

He also has an interesting movement being spearheaded through his site: offthemap.com

and a great video that you can use for your own stuff on vimeo:

The Spiritual Discipline of Serving from Recycle Your Faith on Vimeo.

Thanks to Matt for the connection.

2009-11-12T09:42:00.000+01:00

Blogging Towards Sunday November 15

Mark 13:1-8; 1 Samuel 2:1-10

Apocalyptic world destruction seems to make bank at the movie theatre. Something in us is attracted to talking about the end of the world, fathoming what we would do with limited life, pulled towards the endorphin - producing fear of death. The texts this week include the beginning of a long apocalyptic speech by Jesus. We often react to such talk in one of two ways:

1) We condemn the world and withdraw, contenting ourselves with our own "salvation" and not fretting about the destruction of the rest of the world. We reduce salvation to a spiritual liberation, rather than a holistic-all-life-encompassing commitment.

2) We take the moral high ground, judging and criticizing the world in which we live yet without engaging it beyond a rhetorical self-aggrandizing and self-justifying stance.

Jesus speaks in order to jar those that follow him into action, action that's centered on the salvation of the whole world: not just spiritual, but for the whole person: economically, socially, politically, materialistically. We are looking for hope, a promise of liberation, something wider, deeper and more holistic than anything our politicians and governmental systems can provide us with today. I think that's why movies like 2012 are so popular, that and also the sci-fi effects.

In these texts I hear the Spirit calling us to live now, for the world today, fighting in the footsteps of Jesus to co-create a world that resembles the vision spoken in Hannah's song in 1 Samuel 2 much more than that in 2012. It's much more about having your feet on the ground, than taking the high moral ground, loving our neighbor than merely loving those in our clan, living out our faith with our money, work, rest and relationships than merely giving lip-service. We, I, need to be motivated not by the fear of impending destruction but much more by the inspiration of discipleship.

2009-11-11T18:06:00.002+01:00

A Day of Memory : November 11th

I spoke this morning in the town of Vernouillet at an inter-religious ceremony commemorating November 11th, end official end of WW1. The theme of "solidarity for peace" - quite a French theme and experience, and one that has been poignant for today. It began with the moderator introducing me (I spoke with a Priest, Rabbi and Almost Imam [sounds like the beginning of a joke]) as the newbie and an American. He began crying, expressing his gratitude for the Americans who came and died in Europe twice in 30 years for freedom. Moving and unexpected.

I've been thinking about peace, solidarity and nonviolence - that's what I talked about. I spoke of André and Magda Trocmé who helped saved thousands of Jewish refugees during WW2 by their leadership of a French Reformed Church parish in southern France, and unwavering faith commitment to the belief that it's impossible to love God if we don't love our neighbor in concrete actions. They moved a large community of people to a place in which the notions of family and community were redefined by the teaching of Jesus. Turns out she died in the village I was in, and was friends with several people who were present this morning.

I find myself wondering about the application of such Jesus-centered ethics in our life together within the church and as the church within the world. Where do we lose that perspective? Where do we cross the line of fear that leads to paralysis and racism? I wonder in particular as I reflect upon the vote yesterday by the Presbytery of San Francisco to ordain Lisa Larges, a follower of Jesus who is also a lesbian. [ARTICLES: Huffington Post, Presbyterian Outlook ] [Relive the meeting on Twitter by searching the tag #sfpby].

I'm stuck with the prayer of Oscar Romero I discovered this past week....food for thought in this day of remembrance so that we don't forget and commit the same mistakes as we go forward.

Peace is not the product of terror or fear.

Peace is not the silence of cemeteries.

Peace is not the silent result of violent repression.

Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all.

Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity.

It is right and it is duty.

In it each one has a place in this beautiful family,

with the Epiphany brightens for us with God's light.

2009-11-10T06:00:00.000+01:00

Bumper Sticker of the Week

2009-11-09T11:06:00.003+01:00

Can Virtual Church Be Literally Fulfilling?

CNN recently posted a breaking news video entitled "Is virtual worship fulfilling?" [LINK to the video report]. [LINK to lifechurch.tv] Interesting video that asks a question that's been being discussed for several years in certain corners and sub-populations of the church community.

I found striking the commentators remarks towards the beginning. It's high ceilings, windows and everyone together - those are the things that remind her of church. In an age of transformation and redefinition of most of our experiences in daily life because of technological advancement, our approach to pluralism and cultural diversity and the global market-place, church - religious community and experience - also needs to be redefined, or does it?

In my own experience as pastor, having served churches in California and currently in France I find that people are looking for fulfillment.

1. They want connection, relationship, to be touched in a world in which we usually avoid each other, have few real interactions and live anonymously in massive urban centers.

2. They want meaning for what they do: work, rest, relationships, commitments. Not just to talk about it. They want to articulate a meaning for their actions, and find that their actions make meaning in the world.

3. They hunger for a faith and faith-community is pertinent and incarnate in the world in which we live, not just one that criticizes and avoids the one in which we are.

Can you do that on a computer screen? I don't think so. Yet it's also important. Is virtual worship fulfilling? Yes I think so. Yet the virtual part can't replace what can only be experienced "literally" in person, in a real community context.

I've found that individuals are hungry for change, yet the larger system of the church is reluctant, historically much more focused on maintenance of historical traditions and past glories than upon reinterpreting tradition in view of becoming pertinent. It makes me think of this funny video that a cousin recently showed me. If the church takes too long, we just might become like this help desk.

2009-11-05T10:17:00.000+01:00

Blogging Towards Sunday, November 8th

Mark 12:38-44

Familiar text that we often regulate to a stereotypical reading that glorifies the generosity of a poor widow, I suspect that we are so blinded by her extreme example that we become incapable of living into the generous way of life Jesus is calling us to. She gives all that she has, 2 coins (lepton, worth about 1/64th of a day's wage for a typical worker). The coins weren't worth much, or anything in the day. Yet it's all she has. So she gives it by faith and in faith. Whereas the scribes make themselves known and visible by their actions and supposed generosity, she enters into the worship space and lives our her faith without seeking attention and glory. Faithfulness in action.

It's a great story. Yet often we've read it saying that it's a horrible excuse to deprive the poor even more, or a vain attempt to say that we, the good and faithful Christians, are like the widow and others are like the scribes. I suspect the text is more than just a black and white comparison between the scribe and the widow as examples of faithfulness. It's an invitation to recognize that the scribes weren't just blinded by their ambition, they were blinded to the fundamental meaning of the Torah. It's a juxtaposition between the ambiguity of institutions and systems and the demands of faithfulness.

Our churches today are often times more concerned, out of fear, to preserve themselves or maintain our historic traditions, than to risk stepping out and risking radical faithfulness in ministry. In an uncertain post-modern, and potentially post-Christian, age we're overcome by the complexity and ambiguity of life. In our shrinking churches what power do we have to make a difference? How can I as one person change or impact anything? I might be able to give a dollar to someone on BART or outside Trader Joe's, but does that change anything? How do we live faithfully, continuing the faithfulness experienced in this story of the widow, in our lives as individuals and as church communities today in our context? We're not called to be the widow, but rather to continue the faithful living that her example reflects in the teaching of Jesus. We don't have to reinvent the wheel, merely be present, attentive, listening for directions, discerning where God is already acting in our context today, here and now, and respond by joining God in that world-transforming work. It may be as small as the seemingly insignificant gift of the widow. It may be huge. The challenge of the text this week is that we're called to put faith into action, to follow Jesus according to his faith-invitation in Mark 8:34:

If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

2009-11-03T05:00:00.000+01:00

Bumper sticker of the week

Thanks to Uncle Andrew for this find.

If you see a good one email it to me.

2009-10-29T15:16:00.005+01:00

The Politics of Jesus

I found a crazy picture on Facebook the other day, portraying Jesus as the Savior of the United States of America. Ironically he's surrounded only by Americans (I guess he didn't save anyone else), of whom the drastically large majority are white or Anglo-European Males. [Click on the photo for a larger version]

He's also dressed in what my eyes looks like the outfit the king wears at the end of the LOTR Trilogy: The Return of the King. I'm not sure that's appropriate, authentic or kosher according to the historico-critcial exegetical tradition. Compare the pictures for yourself.

It's located on a website that turns this picture into an educational opportunity, or a propaganda tool (depending upon your perspective). LINK.

My question in the end is about the politics of Jesus (a book I'm currently reading). Why is it that we so often say that Jesus wasn't political, that Church \ Religion shouldn't, isn't, political. Yet everything that Jesus did in the gospels seems to be political, exposing the abuse of the powers, the deception of violence as an objective power, the vision of "them" versus "us" in terms of culture, race, ethnicity and socio-economic status. Yet somehow in America, even within what we call the "multicultural" church we tend to see Jesus through a purely American lens, as if he belongs to the Democratic or Republican party or was the original framer of our constitution. Ironically he was killed because of his non-violent refusal to embrace nationalism. Why is it that we today want to use him to undo his original, timeless, message in order to serve as propaganda crutch for our nationalistic, tribalistic and\or enthocentric political agendas. Shouldn't faith be larger than just a party that seeks to get everyone under a "big tent," appoint righteous candidates in a religiously-based-nepotistic way, or force religious observation on others? What was Jesus talking about when he said give to Ceasar what is Ceasar's and to God what is God's? I don't think he was saying that they're too different realms, or merely speaking in a spiritualized, metaphorical way. Why do we struggle to recognize that the Good News of the Gospel is good news because it changes our world, not just the silence in our hearts?

Somehow we're missing something when we simply associate Jesus as a card carrying member of the NRA.

2009-10-27T12:37:00.001+01:00

Bumper Sticker of the Week

2009-10-27T12:35:00.001+01:00

Blogging towards Sunday, November 1

Mark 12:28-34

Simple words, often taken for granted. Jesus may have not been the first to pronounce this 'abbreviation' of the commandments. It was a hot topic in his day among religious scholars and leaders: which of the 613 commandments given by Moses have priority over the others? Philo of Alexandria, Josephus and Hillel all spoke on this. Yet here Jesus equates these two commandments: Love of God and love of Neighbor. They aren't to be confused and yet they can't be separated. One can't simply be a mystic, talking of love of God, abandoning oneself to the divine and invisible without caring and committing to the concrete, the here and now, the pertinence of those with whom we live. One can't simply be an activist, taking up every cause because we all are created equal with the same rights. Love of neighbor has to be more than that. Those two together are the greatest, the essential, the unavoidable.

What's interesting in the story is the respect between Jesus and the Scribe. It's the only encounter related like that in the gospels between Jesus and the religious leaders. Maybe that's how it was. Maybe that's how the gospel writers want to present it to us. The scribe responds to Jesus' question, demonstrating that it's not just about understanding, but about appropriating it, integrating and claiming it for our life. The challenge for us today is maybe who we consider our neighbor. We often don't even know our neighbors in the busyness of life. Or we think of perky Mr. Rodgers singing, or the faceless wisdom giver neighbor of Tool Time Tim. Or maybe we think a good neighbor is defined by the fence between us. Jesus is talking about community: not just those in our "tribe" but in the larger view of things. In our highly partisan world we would rather point fingers and condemn those we disagree with politically, don't know racially, or are opposed to philosophically. LOVE isn't just emotion or passion, it's showing justice, compassion, being mindful, respecting in word and deed. Part of it also involves love of self, we're to love as we love ourself. Of course many are there who love themselves too much. Yet there are also many among us that struggle to love ourselves. This could be the maladie of our post-modern world. Jesus assumes that we love ourselves, not in an egotistical way, but in a way that we recognize that we are loved by God, created for freedom and viewed as good. It's hard for us to sense that in our society today in which we have to prove our worth but what we can buy, how we look or the connections we have. In the fluidity of our modernity in which we try to make sense of life, our work, relationships and ourselves it's easy to see that things are all separated, not inter-dependent. Yet Jesus' words challenge us to see the whole, to recognize that you can't compartmentalize faith, the God calls us to live, to be alive in a way in which all of life is connected, interactive, inter-dependent and future focused. What's remarkable is not what Jesus said, but how Jesus lived this in his life and death.

How do we embody that in worship? How as worship leaders can we create a space in which that can be experienced since it's often so hard to practice, let alone imagine, in our daily life? That might just be the experiential proclamation to empower in worship around this text for post-modern people today.

2009-10-22T10:44:00.000+02:00

Clean Energy: what's broken with America

I finished reading the book "Hot, Flat and Crowded" by Thomas Freidman this past week. It's an energetic wake-up-call of a read challenging America (and the larger world) to get with it, to let good science speak louder than politics, to look long-term for solutions to our current economical and environmental problems instead of to short-term political gain by those running for office in the next 2-4 years and/or financial gain by multinationals. Newsweek recently ran an other clear and concise article on the impasse in which we sentence ourselves entitled "Clean energy should trump politics"

You have to wonder why is it that we repeatedly let politicians cower in the wake of screaming plebite citizens who have barely graduated high school and demand that we drill in the oceans, burn coal like crazy and keep gas cheap all to keep them happy today? What about their children? My children? While we let states filled with oil and coal dictate our national policy, or even continue to allow Detroit - awash in bail-out money - insist on keeping the status quo in order to sell their gas-guzzlers, or ignorant MSNBC or FOX news driven fans shape our national energy policy, while we turn a deaf ear to PhDs formed and working in that field?

I recently filled up the car that we have here in France with gas. It cost me about 50 euros. That's roughly $80 US. It's not a hummer. It's a car that's a tad smaller than a VW Bug and that it gets great gas mileage. Gas is about 1.3 euros / liter. That's about 5.2 euros a gallon, or a tad shy of $7 / gallon. While we gawk at paying $3 a gallon, it's more than double in Europe. It's not that way because they love taxes, but because such high prices discourage people from driving mindlessly. It forces you to consider take public transportation, riding a bike, consolidating your errands, or god-forbid walking. While the US Government is still to shy to enact such a gasoline tax, and while most scientists say it would do us good forcing us to drive more reasonably (and consequently produce less CO2) and also force the economy (ie. Detroit) to change and to empower the renewable energy companies to create more efficient and cost-effective alternatives to oil. Plus the tax money we would pay would stay here in America as opposed to being exported to Saudia Arabia, Iran and Venezuela.

Why do we repeatedly let plumbers, cable news entertainers and ineffective CEOs set our national agenda while we turn a deaf-ear to some of the best educated scientists on the planet?

2009-10-22T08:58:00.000+02:00

Community Empowerment

saving the dimond post office

For the past 5 months efforts have been underway to act in view of preventing the closure of the Post Office in Oakland's Dimond District near the corner of MacArthur and Fruitvale. Scheduled to close for financial reasons, in light of the larger financial balance sheet problems of the US Postal Service, the fight was organized around the character of the neighborhood, desiring to ensure that it continues to be a place of vibrancy, presence and exchange and continues to grow in that direction. It's a testament to the fiery community organizing power and passion of Oakland, in particular to the Oaklanders that call the MacArthur corridor, from the Dimond to the Laurel, home. Here's some online media blitzes on it (sorry couldn't find any bloggers covering it):

Article in SF GATE

2009-10-20T12:00:00.001+02:00

Bumper Sticker of the Week

I'm not sure if I find this funny or tragic: probably both.

2009-10-19T12:09:00.000+02:00

Blogging Towards Sunday October 25, 2009

What's the real miracle? [article]

Mark 10:46-52

This passage comes at the conclusion of a long section in Mark (chapters 8-10) which begin with another encounter with a blind man and address the notion of discipleship: what does it mean to follow Jesus? What does it cost? At the conclusion of this central part of this gospel is another healing: Bartimaeus the Blind Beggar becomes Bartimaeus the Free Follower.

Blind, he has only begging as a career option. In being healed, despite his obvious marginalization by society manifested in the ways the crowds tell him to "shut up" when Jesus passes by and he cries for help, he re-enters society not on his knees but on his feet. Jesus makes him whole: meaning that he's healed, not just his eyes, but his relational place in society, his relationships with his family, his self-view as unimportant and forgettable. He leaves behind what is quite possibly the only way he ever knew to make a living: begging. He gets up and walk forward, step by step after the One that not only invites him to a knew life but who also makes it possible in all its various levels.

Walking requires leaving where we are in order to enter the place we want to go. It's a movement not just a contemplation. Jesus invites us to walk after him, to GO - it's not just an explanation of faith, but an invitation to live it, to serve to know and be known. Faith is a being-reborn, not just in the spiritual or interior sense but in the daily sense in which we live our lives and make meaning of life.

What's the real miracle in the story?: his healing? that his life in changed for ever? and/or that he follows after Jesus? Maybe we're so often trying to explain and understand God that we don't hear the divine invitations to find meaning in active contemplation, doing what the African proverb says: "pray with your feet"

How might we more experientially teach/embody this meaning-making miracle in worship? How can we hope to "get it" when we hear the story sitting down or immobile, when this story is about mobility, putting faith into motion and faith putting us into motion? Maybe that's the experiential EPIC way to embody the story and somehow facilitate a spirit-filled moment that might move (literally) those that are engaged by the text. This Sunday is Reformation Sunday: the time we pause to celebrate our reformed roots, in particular our doctrinal foundations in the belief that we are called to be a people "reforming and continually being reformed by the Word of God through the life and action of the Holy Spirit". I wonder what this text has to say to us in terms of what faith and community-faith-life is like in an age when we see our churches shrinking in terms of active population, finances and creativity? Maybe we've become used to our place in life, like Bartimeaus and his begging. But where Bart is able to give it up for something new, we're too afraid - or too complacent - to get up and GO.

Image by Ian Pollock

2009-10-16T11:18:00.000+02:00

Blogging Towards Sunday, October 18

Leadership Vacuum in the Church

Mark 10:35-45

There's been a ton of recent brouhaha about President Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. Some saying he hasn't done enough. Others wondering who else could have been nominated, recognizing an apparent leadership vacuum in the world of those working to and for peace. This recent picture from the Economist raising the issue - is Obama already great before he's done anything? [article] Are we so desperate for models of authentic, sincere and effectively world-transforming leadership that we reward those that seem to have promise?

This week's lectionary gospel selection raises the question of leadership. What does it mean to be a leader when also a follower of Jesus? It's not just about getting glory, seeking the best seat, or receiving a prize. I doubt many Christians would receive the Nobel prize for their discipleship, yet many view their faith-choice as the ultimate prize-winner: salvation, life in heaven, escaping the nasty and gritty world in which we live. Yet Jesus in the text this week lifts up the reality that we're called both by and in faith to transform the world, to live as Jesus lived - and died. To conform our lives to the life of the one we call teacher, master and savior. How can we expect to do that when so often we're looking for the easy way out, avoiding this world by focusing our energy on the next? How can we hope to do that when we think that a Christian leader needs to be someone who is so humble that they're nice to everyone and allow themselves to be walked upon as a doormat martyr? How do we live the baptism that we're baptized into: to serve rather than be served?

This morning I awoke to massive Facebook chatter about the racist, yet claiming to not be racist, judge in Louisiana who refused to allow an inter-racial marriage on the grounds that they aren't effective, and don't last. [article on NPR: Interracial Couple Denied Marriage License]. Who knows if the judge is Christian. But isn't this the kind of situation in which those that follow Jesus are called to stand up and lead, to fight for faith that transforms the world into a just one where the wolf will lie with the lamb, instead of focusing solely on private and personal piety in view of obtaining a pie-in-the-sky spot in the clouds? Maybe we're grown so accustomed to being served, or rather serving our owns needs of maintenance and self-affirmation, that we know long know how to serve the wider world in a missiological sense, one that affirms and exhorts the values of the gospel: freedom, grace, equality, just beloved community, love and mutual forbearance?

2009-10-15T20:01:00.001+02:00

GLO: translating the Bible for the E-world of the Net Gen

I saw this video on facebook today advertising a new sort of social-networking, e-friendly, created for Gen Net. Pretty amazing. I wonder if it'll work and how much it'd cost to buy enough for a whole church to use. I love the way in which you can easily make connections between the text, the context and our context. I guess I'm a fan, and a member of the targeted population.

2009-10-13T00:20:00.000+02:00

Bumper Sticker of the Week

2009-10-09T10:11:00.004+02:00

Blogging Towards Sunday, October 11th

Mark 10:17-31

Text familiar to many yet perhaps unknown to most of us. We think it's about a young rich ruler, yet the text never says he's a "ruler." We tend to think it's a blanket a marxist-inspired Jesus message against the rich, yet Jesus seems to be saying that no one can be saved: poor, rich; male, female; young, old; Jew, Gentile. Only God saves. Salvation - eternal life - is a gift, the eternal standard-bearing statement of the reformation - it can't be earned, won, merited or inherited, it can only be received.

As I read it I'm struck by the love of Jesus. This is the only time in the gospels that it says that Jesus loved someone. He loves the man who is authentically looking for faith, seeking a just-life, who in the ends rejects Jesus' invitation to follow him as master. You can say that this text teaches the Protestant rallying cry that we are saved by faith alone through grace. That we are saved not by good works, but for good works. The question for us maybe though today is what does it mean to receive eternal life, to be saved? It is merely a way to escape the hardships and difficulty of life here and now? Is it a way to deal with today by dreaming of a better tomorrow? Jesus seems to talk about authentic faith as making a difference here and now: giving to the poor today - changing the world by faith and through hope here and now: responding to the needs of the world through the passions that God has put inside our hearts.

In the text the young man comes as an authentic seeker of faith. He's kept the commandments, giving to charities, worked hard to be righteous, just, kind and compassionate: to love as God commanded to love. Yet Jesus challenges him to go farther. To follow after Jesus as a disciple means you have to give something up. Possibly material wealth and a home, like Abraham and Sarah. Possibly the pain of the past, like Moses. Possibly the comfortableness of work and professional identity, like Peter, Andrew, James and John. Faith is a paradox. Jesus says that spirituality is a journey. To receive, you must give. To love, you must first be loved. To show compassion, you must first be shown compassion.

We talk these days about salvation, eternal life as an escape from this world into a better one. Talking in that way to reassure those that suffer and/or are deprived here. Talking in that way to reassure ourselves when we want to withdraw or don't want to risk investment in changing the way our world is here and now. Maybe our problem is that we tend to think of salvation as all about me/us, as opposed to thinking about it in terms of all of us

Jesus challenges me still today through the dialectic present in this passage. To follow him means to give up what we have. I don't know if we're called to abject poverty. In the passage the disciples received exactly what they give up (compare the two lists in v. 29-30). But we are called to give up what is possibly too familiar, that which keeps us from authentic faith, from seeking after God's heart, practicing the presence of God in our life in a sincere daily way, loving our neighbor as God has first loved us. Maybe we can't "taste" or fathom eternal life until we leave the life we've known until now behind?

2009-10-09T09:57:00.001+02:00

Needing to redefine our political vision of family

Catching up on news - and trashy news - yesterday I learned that the father of ex-Governor Sarah Palin's grandson is going to pose for Playgirl. I don't blame Levi Johnston, like the family of his child, he just wants to ride his moment of fame and possibly get of Alaska by doing so. I freely admit that I'm a politcal pramatist, leaning heavily to the liberal-side - yet ironically in this season becoming more seasoned by capitalism.

The irony of the whole situation is that here is a political family who based their whole political upswing, and continuing and emerging political machine upon the notion of "going rogue" in the sense of returning to the better days of yore when family meant everything, when we worked hard for what we earned, when America was great. Curiously enough in those days stereotypically: women didn't work and stayed home, young men wouldn't pose nude in a girlie magazine and America was forward-looking instead of history-fantasizing.

In an age in which we're overwhelmed with problems of historic size, since no one has wanted to touch the multiple third rails in our political spectrum since the 60s: health care, imploding Social Security, environmental melt-downs, an economy increasingly dependent upon foreign oil, tough immigration rules that are pushing bright foreign university students towards universities in Europe and Asia, and a tendency to lock ourselves away from fear instead of engaging the pluralistic world in which we now live. In that age we seem, at least I do, hear way too often calls to reinforce the notion of family, protect a classic definition of marriage, and keep America for Americans instead of responses - or even mere attempts at responses - to the monolithic problems we face as a nation and a world community.

If we don't wake up and smell the coffee we're going to get caught with our pants down, and it won't be in a no-carb high-workout intentional way like Levi.

2009-10-06T17:03:00.003+02:00

Bumper Sticker of the Week

I'm beginning to run low on bumper stickers and not seeing many here in France. SO - it's your moment of glory. If you see a/some good one(s) - get a picture and email it to me and I'll give you a shout out!

2009-09-29T14:50:00.002+02:00

Does death become us?

I facilitated my first funeral this morning since moving to France to serve as pastor of a parish of the French Reformed Church. Arriving and being unknown the mortuary staff was amazed when I shared where I came from. What? You'd leave California to come here? There were nice, professional and competent. It was like I was at one of the nicer mortuaries in my previous home of Oakland. They played music before and after the brief service I led. The room was without art, pale colored, neutral and calming in every aspect - including the idyllic pond scene complete with lillipads and light reflecting into the ceremony room. It was all about being peaceful. Yet I was struck by the way in which those professionals avoided "death." They only referred to the man who had died as "he." The casket was closed. It was as if he was there without being there, without ever being referred to in the first person (except by me) and then conveniently and efficiently carted off to the music of Bach through a hidden door on the western wall of the room.

I spoke about peace in my little homily - talking about what it is according to Christian scripture and the teachings of Jesus: not the absence of war, conflict or death, but rather the life-giving presence of the divine in our daily life and world. Why is it that when someone dies our cultures : wether American or French ... seek to downplay it, to avoid it all in order to maintain the peace, create peace and not make any waves. Death is painful. Unforgettable. Life-altering. A wound that never completely heals but that we learn to live with. Isn't peace what it means to live with loss, pain and hurt? Why do we smooth over the pain, pushing each other on to some sort of vague vision of beauty. When I looked for google images on peace here's the contrast I found: either some sort of hippie, rainbow love-in version or a nature scene with water, mist and no specifics.

At the same time I'm struck by three quotes regarding peace that seem to go much deeper than our society and culture want to permit us:

Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries. Peace is not the silent result of violent repression. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and it is duty.

Bishop Oscar Romero

“Peace it does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.”

- Anonymous

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Jesus of Nazareth (John 14:27)

We seem to want to avoid death at all costs, wether it's the search for eternal life, like in the funny 90s film "Death Becomes Her" or vocabulary-gymnastics in order to avoid naming what's unpleasant. Yet the spiritual masters of human history all life up that peace is more about presence and fullness, than denial and avoidance.

2009-09-29T14:10:00.002+02:00

Bumper Sticker of the Week

2009-09-22T11:30:00.001+02:00

Bumper Sticker of the Week

2009-09-19T12:09:00.001+02:00

Blogging Towards Sunday September 20

Mark 9:30-37

This is the second of three similarly constructed stories in Mark's

retelling of Jesus. Each time Jesus reveals or predicts that he will be killed. Each time a or the disciples reject his prediction, either pretending not to hear or not wanting to understand or even

taking Jesus on in order to set him straight. In this passage the disciples don't want to understand, they're too busy focusing on who's the greatest, thinking about what they're going to get - their name in spotlights on the marquee since they placed their bets with the 'best' teacher, the master that will take them all the way to the bank or make them famous.

It's not that being "big" or "great" is bad as much as that Jesus is trying to question what it is that makes us great. Rather than taking all the place available, it's about creating space for others. A probable word-play in the Greek and Aramaic words for "child" and "servant/slave" is Jesus' way of turning upside down the notion of greatness. The first shall be last and the last first. The child in the story was probably not as clean and perky as those in this photo. Kids were at the bottom of the social ladder. Unwanted babies would be left in the open to die (Greek Culture). Most died young. Why invest time in someone who wouldn't be around. So Jesus speaks with a paradox that's meant to challenge the way in which we see the world, each other and God.

How do we welcome others: the children, forgotten, marginalized, overlooked in our midst? The Bible often calls them the orphan, the widow and the foreigner, insisting that God is first and foremost their God. So ho are the orphans, widows and foreigners in our midst today, in our churches, in our societies? I can't help think about the ongoing debate and at-times verbally violent monologues about health care: who has it. who shouldn't. who is like Hitler. who is a liar. and who should shut up. How do we profess our discipleship in the way that we welcome others, with our words, in our dialogs, via the expression of our political convictions, with our time and resources? Often we're so busy trying to move to the head of the table and get a good spot that we don't realize we've taken up all the room.

I think of the global church - the global community of those who claim to be followers of Jesus and his teachings. How are we welcoming, including and following Jesus in the ways in which we are addressing the challenges before us: the use and place of technology, political division in our faith communities, confusion and lack of unity in terms of understanding the Bible and professing faith in an increasingly pluralistic society, the role of race and class in our communities. Jesus basically says that to follow him means to conform our lives to his, to walk after him....what does that look like for us, for you - for your church community today?