Who's first and who's last?

My thoughts are still not cristalized in terms of my last blog entry (call me minister x). My mind is full of stuff - but I'm struggling to unpack it in an expressible way.

I read 2 blogs that reflected on the same events and ask similar questions, both of which added to the simmering stews of my thoughts.

Check out

Bruce Reyes-Chow on "Why I Should Leave the Presbyterian Church (USA)"

and

Sarah Reyes on "Getting in the way of the Gospel!"

In reading the SF Chronicle today I ran across a surpsing article - again adding too much for me to handle to the stew - "Dean urges Dems to welcome young evangelicals" by Carla Marinucci.
Turns out Howard Dean was in the Bay Area yesterday, the politican of internet fame, the infamous scream, and the widely publicized proclamation that the GOP is a white Christian party. He must have met some new folks, or gotten some new advisors...or something. He spoke yesterday encouraging the Democractic party to reach out to the young evangelicals scattered in the red and blue states specifically via their Christian faith. "People don't want to go to church anymore ... and come out feeling bad because they happen to know somebody who's gay,'' he said. "People want to go to church because they know what they can do about poverty, about Darfur, about the environment.'' What is it that Howard Dean has learned through observation or quite possibly some experiential participation about the emerging Christian world-view being born pheonix-like from the ashes of the GOP-embracing, single-issue focused Christian political/propoganda machine of Focus on the Family, Fallwell and others? Dean seems to be more aware of the world, and the young-erish people (in age and world-view) that are present, passionate and purposeful in our churches both evangelical and progressive, than many of our own church community leaders!

New leadership paradigms repeatedly point to the necessity of being outward or external focused while being secure and sure of core values. Interesting that much of the church runs the gauntlet in a backwards fashion, focused on core values while being secure and sure that no external forces/thoughts/communities might actually share those, or be articulating them differently. Makes me wonder...in a stereotypical way it seems that many of the church that are consumed with the raging debate on ordination and sexual orientation share similar traits....larger, multi-staffed communities (with no shortage of people or finances) or smaller churches with very large financial endowments. It's a gross over-simplification. But interesting. Do we become so inwardly focused when we're wealthy financially or people-rich that we lock the doors refusing to looks outside what's happening rallying the troops around the flagpole of our core values so that they won't wander off? Do smaller churches - either by choice or who've become deeply dysfunctional, destructive or depressing because they've been so inwardly focused for so long - have more fluidity and freedom to rediscover their core values, articulating them in ways that resonate and enter into dialogue with the evolving thoughts, emerging values, and growing world-view all around us? Although it's overly-simple, the contrast strikes me as possibly ringing true at certain levels, at least in my limited experience and exposure. If it is true how does it resonante with Jesus' teaching that the "first will be last and the last will be first,"[Mark 10:31, Matthew19:30, 20:16 and Luke 13:30]. Granted in those places Jesus is talking about the first as those that deem themselves first in importance in the eyes of God because their righteousness and purity surpasses all the least and last in importance around them (a comparison-judgment made based on race, enthnicity, gender, class, and experience in that day). The deeper question seems to be to be about core values - what we define them as -which we share and which we don't and which we consider to be the 'first' in essential importance and which we consider to be the 'last.'

Call Me Minister X

I love the church. It’s the relational community in which I have grown in my faith. It’s the community in which I have grown as a human being, as a man, and as a person of faith. It’s the community in which I have been given to and asked to give. But I also hate the church. In an age in which decisions are increasingly being made organically and synergistically through the resources of web communities, blackberries, open-sourcing, off shoring, virtual conferencing, and relational dialogues over coffee, the church seems to be going the opposite direction. The world in which we live is moving increasingly faster in its decision-making (not that speed in itself or even efficacy is the deciding-factor) with increased fluidity, leaving room for emergent ambiguity in order to adapt and respond to the changing world and context in which we live and more and have our being. The larger church in which I practice and serve seems to remain firmly footed in the modernistic everything-is-quantifiable mode of the past, while the cultural-social-and economic context in which I find myself is moving more and more towards the emerging worldview (aka postmodernism) in which relativity, the impossibility of total objectivity, pluralism, community and experience are the quantifiers for what we live, experience and seek to understand. The church seems to be increasingly (maybe that's just my cynical observation) interested and focused upon rigid rules, codifying our beliefs, and articulating in snappy formats our essential beliefs. Yet I find myself (and I know I'm not alone) more interested in opening up the community to hear and experience more diverse perspectives, dialoguing about my beliefs and seeking to grasp how belief is essential to my daily life. Can we even live together when we have such divergent worldviews? Is consensus or agreement in such a worldview-ish diversity even possible?

When the 'modern' world view was emerging in Europe could those of the 'pre-modern' world view be in agreement or communion with them? I think of the lives, experience, and judgments of Galileo, Copernicus, Diderot, Hume or Descartes. From our vantage point they seem to have been remarkable thinkers, articulating what seems logical and reasonable. Yet in their world they were radicals advocating the overthrow - not of the status quo - but of the major way in which the world was understood and the way in which that experience was articulated. Maybe there comes a time when we either have to draw a line in the sand or start throwing the sand at each other? What did they think? Is there any other reason was so often such great thinkers seem to become recluses? Maybe withdrawing is the only option?; or maybe just distance on a regular, but limited, level?

At a contentious church meeting the other night I began to have some of these thoughts. Each time someone “called for the question,” I felt isolated. All those that stood to vote, articulating an opinion diverging from my own, seemed to be grey-haired Anglos twice or thrice my age. Now I'm not seeking to bad mouth or slander boomers, builders, and their forerunners, nor grey haired folks (I'm an emergent one myself), nor am I seeking to be a hypocrictal guilted-by-historical-white-privelege Anglo middle class male. But I felt unwelcomed as we talked, debated, and deliberated, as I do often in our poliarized-overly-political and clergy-focused reformed church community (at least that which is the majority church culture issues from the dominant culture of North America in the mid 190os) which wants to reaffirm optimistically that we should flee pluralism for the safe, familiar confines of a black-n-white world view. Our church councils vote about sexuality - who gets it and with whom - yet those who seem most irate over the issue seem to be possibly those the most in need of get'in some. It's a crass cynical over-simplification, yet the most accurate way I can articulate my thoughts and wonderings at this moment and time.

"Why can't we just get along?" some might ask. Or others might assert that I'm a relativist in my Biblically based and experientially enhanced essential belief that God calls both heterosexual and gay and lesbian people to love God, to serve God by loving our neighbors in a Christ-ly way, and to be continually open to the guidance and movement of the Holy Spirit in the ways in which we seek God's Word in our world.

Maybe I'm a blasphemer, a relativist, laxest, or an opportunistically optimistic Gen X-er. Maybe not. Yet what I'm seeking to do in life, faith, personal world view expansion and spiritual maturity is to be open to change (not for change's sake) but rather because I can't believe that our understanding of knowledge (whether scientific, social, philosophical or theological) can be firmly and irrefutably built upon some epistemological foundation that can be codified in a book, measured in a test tube, or analyzed through "objective" statistical analysis.

So will I burn in hell alone? I don’t think so. Yet that’s what some say indirectly to me through their actions, words and judgments. You can just call me Minister X.

HEROES ADDICTION

I've become totally addicted to HEROES, one of my guilty gluttonous TV pleasures. I'm sucked into the story line, plus the story doesn't contain any sex-kitten housewives constantly complaining and scheming, or Mr. Big solving horrible homicides, or the nympho doctors of Seattle Grace.

In watching last night's episode I couldn't remember what Sylar's original power was. Does anyone know? You can watch the episode here. Check out the graphic novel option on nbc.com here.

what if you don't know anyone else?

One of today's lectionary Bible texts for Christian worship services was John 13:31-35

31When [Judas Iscariot] had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” 34I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

I've been thinking about this after a full day of preaching, talking, listening, sharing, and dreaming. How do you share such love if you have no one to share it with? That might sound stupid, but seriously if you know no one else to share it with - or maybe have no one else who wants to hear what you have to say or witness what you're doing - how could you ever love another as we believe Christ loves us and call us to love? Most faith sharing or faith encounter discussions are between someone who pratices one faith and someone who doesn't, but how can you ever hope to have such a discussion if you know no one who doesn't think exactly like you, share the same beliefs, or same worldview?

what are you passionate about?
An editorial from Monte McClain – Pastor, Fruitvale Presbyterian Church

PASSION. It’s what makes us tick. It’s what motivates us. At times it’s what consumes us. For some it’s what eludes us. May 27th is Pentecost: the birth day of the church, the affirmation of Christian community, and the Holy Spirit given mandate for the church to be a community of faith characterized as multicultural, intergenerational, diverse and by its passion. As I reflect on where we are as a church and our Pentecostal call to be a passionate church I wonder what we’re passionate about? Looking at our nation and world today I see that we’re passionate about a great many diverse things. We’re passionate about giving the surge in Iraq more of a chance, to bring the soldiers home now, for a particular party, for a particular approach to immigration in our country, or for the new summer blockbuster movies that begin arriving this weekend. We’re passionate about the car we drive & how many miles it gets to the gallon. We’re passionate about recycling, saving money, staying healthy, losing weight, improving our neighborhood, educating our children and youth, and even the Golden State Warriors in their fairy-tale-end-of-the-season.

But what are we passionate about both as individual Christians and as a gathered community of Christian faith (a church)? In reading the Oakland Tribune this past week I was struck by the story of an East Bay Church that seems to be most passionate about spanking children so that they can be corrected and raised in the wisdom of the Lord. The article grabbed my attention, as intended, and made me wonder about my own passion and the passion of our
church community here at Fruitvale. I was troubled that the passion of a church community would be focused seemingly in its entirety around the notion of spanking as essential. It just seems to un-essential in terms of what it means to be a follower of Jesus the Christ in our massively un-churched world. Why not be passionate about serving the poor, advocating for more affordable housing, fighting the spread of AIDS in Africa, freedom in Darfur, Immigrant Rights, or the full inclusion of all people in the life and leadership of the Presbyterian Church?

So I thought about Fruitvale Presbyterian Church. What are we – what are you – passionate about? For some of us it’s that church needs to start on time, or the use of the organ in worship or how our liturgy is inclusive of our multiculturality; maybe it’s what is served at coffee hour, maybe it’s who is serving communion and how it’s done, maybe it’s about a particular mission project (NEST, COPE, Tilden School), maybe it’s what scripture is being presented and lifted up in worship, the emerging community groups, the monthly peace vigil or our efforts to reach out to our immediate neighborhoods; maybe it’s the art that’s on the walls of the sanctuary, or the artwork that shouldn’t be on the walls, maybe it’s about who will be at worship, or summer camp, or Godly Play, or what the amount in the offering plate will be. What are we passionate about? I’m not sure. What I mean is that I can picture the faces of each person who is passionate about the things listed above, but what are we passionate about as an entire congregation? Are we passionate about something that’s essential to us all or are we divided among our diverse passions for our particular pet projects or purposes? What do you think is our common passion?

Peace to you and yours, Monte

Read more of our May church newsletter by clicking on "THE VOICE" at our homepage.

Mrs. Moses

My mom is a email joke mailer. Here's a funny one that caught my eye today.

Why Bother Being Christian?

I'm in my recover-from-Sunday mode, reading through the stack of papers in order to catch up after a long day of church community related events and encounters. While eating burritos with my daughters an article caught my eye in the Oakland Tribune of today (4/30) - "Spanking Children is God's will, says El Sobrante church." You can read the article online here. The pastor of this church - as well as members of this faith community - affirm, advise and strongly encourage spanking, preferable with a rod or flexible stick. The pastor is quoted as saying, "Corporal punishment is not something you do to the child, it's something you do for the child." According to them, "your goal as a parent is to correct the child or get him back on the right path." Now maybe your mental red flags are being raised, and your saying to yourself "maybe that Monte is merely just another one of those liberal, flag-burning, gay-loving, anti-american progressive pigs that doesn't think we should spank our children - or even worse that our big brother government should make spanking actually illegal punishable by the electric chair, or at least some sort of fine." But my personal political, philisophical and cultures values are not really the issue here (at least in my limited, judgemental and openely biased opinion).

What really struck and horrified me in this article is that this church has published and continues to distribute an pamphlet entitled "Spank Your Child or Spoil Your Child." According to this pamphlet, (you can read some of it online here) parents who do not practice corporal punishment are depriving their children of the only method God says produces wisdom, and risk directly opposing God's will.

WHAT? I hear the church saying (albeit via the media service through which I was informed our the ministry and outreach actions of a nearby church community) that God teaches us best through pain, suffering, and physical punishment. I looked up at my daughters munching down on burritos, rice and beans, and thought to myself, "so - I must be a devil-loving pagan parent since I seek to teach my children about the love of God by telling them the stories of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, encouraging them to love others as we believe God loved us, to recognize every person as our neighbor, and to experience church activities and worship as celebrations of God's love and the community of faith. I'm doing all that when I should simply be beating the crap out of my daughters if they sass, fail to eat their vegetables, or don't want to go to bed. Do they believe that Jesus told his disciples to "let the little children come unto me for the kingdom of God is for such of them" because children are much easier to correct theologically through the use of a rod or some other sort of flexible stick?

I'm horrified because this is the sort of image that is repeatedly, consistently and widely dissimenated in our culture and world as one of the snapshots that form the mosaic portrait of what a North-American Christian in 2007 looks like. I'm scandalized that folks who might (now I haven't talked with them about this so I might be incorrect and definitely am judgmental) view the Shoah, the emergence of AIDS as a global medical epidemic, or recent genocides in Rwanda and Sudan as merely punishments or "object lessons" through which God was and is seeking to teach us how to be wise, and to live in God's will - are lifted up as the definitive representation of what I believe, have based my life upon and use as the lens through which I interact with everyone and everything in the universe. Why is it that such stories and actions make the limelight the same week that the Economist reports on the nerely universally accepted vision of Capital Punishment as a Capital Mistake, and Tom Friedman of the NY Times writes an editorial on our failing school system in which we're boring not only our children to death but beating our intellectual future into paralysis. (Read it here "China needs an Einstein - so do we" or catch multimedia clips here). How come no one reported on the marvelous things that Jim Wallis or Jack Rogers did this past week?

Now I know that the media seeks to sell papers more than to tell the truth. I know that they do that by publishing sensationalist and over-the-top stories as opposed to the reputed-to-be-too-boring stuff of every day life when normal people seek to make a difference in their daily actions, decisions and purchases. But really! It's not just the media that portray or seek to further such portraits of Christians. Churches and christians themselves are also doing it. Between the paternal persecution of Dobson and his dominons, and the polarizing comments made by run-of-the-mill disciples against any follower of the way who is not a member of the NRA, Republican Party, staunchly homophobic, against the ACLU, the UN, and the separation of church and state, there is little room for anyone else who seeks to articulate the driving purpose behind their life of Christian faith in any other way. Now I might sound like I'm calling for some sort of gulag for people that believe differently than me. They have the right to their fundamentalist interpretation of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, and such a right is not only guaranteed by our Country but also essential to the diverse specturm of Christian thought. What bothers me is that so often and increasingly - not just in the media but in the minds of thoughtful, open, and intellectually curious non-Christian people I know and love - Christians are percieved as a blind band of believers in Karl Rove as the Messiah, who possess a world-view based on fear of the other, mistrust of diversity and an existential angst cuased by all things related to evolutionary biology and the modernist-scientific-perspective of knowledge. At what point did being a Christian necessitate a polarizing choice between "either/or" when the Apostle Paul portrayed fiath in Christ as a dialectical choice between "both/and" in his foundational letter to the church in Rome? It doesn't take the atheistic testimony of Sam Harris to make folks ask the question, "Why bother being Christian?" It seems that we members or the Christian Community are already giving more than enough proselytizing testimony to initiate such wondering.

The Real DaVinci Code

Star Wars Version of the Last Supper

I was researching online this past week for info and images about DaVinci's painting of the Last Supper for our Godly Play lesson, and stumbled across this fantastic version of the painting and event of the gospel.

I wonder if this may just be the original version - maybe the pope of DaVinci's day tweaked it to make it more acceptable.....hmmm. I wonder how I could contact Sophie Neveu? If you know her cell number or her email send it to me.


I found the pictue on this blog http://www.neverhappened.org/neverhappened/2005/05/star_wars_episo.html

The 911 for Community

I detoxed from tv yesterday while I took care of our sick daughter. Coming back online into the world of Media this morning I discovered - what most of you probably watched in endlessly repeating styles on MSNBC, FOX and CNN yesterday - regarding the video, picutres, and letters sent by Cho Seung-Hui to NBC. As I read through this information, trying to digest both it and my breakfast with an underlying sense of tragic dread and unease, I find myself remembering words of a conversation with a fellow pastor on Tuesday. We were talking about the future, trying to think outside of the box for and with the chuch, in order for the church community to remain faithful to the perspective, praxis and worldview of our faith tradition but to not trapped in the shackles of convention, repetition and fear-of-the-future induced flight. He told me that he'd be able to finish off his career as a pastor, continuing to receive a salary and even collect a pension, while unfortunately myself and others in my age bracket might not. This pastor's child - also a pastor in my age-bracket - is considering getting an MBA sensing the changes that might be in store for the future. Why is the church so stuck?; in particular when the world seems to be so un-stuck and increasingly flexible and adaptable?

Journalists have discovered and named the change in communication that became even more evident at Virginia Tech in response to the murder rampage of Monday. Many students checked in with their families, or friends checked in with them through blogs, facebook pages, and myspace links. In an article a Bay Area student wanted to see if a friend at VT was ok, but rather than get stuck in the mass of phone calls that would jam the telephone system, they checked the friend's facebook update which verified that they were ok. It demonstrates that technology in changing (not all by itself) the ways in which we communicate and experience community.

So I think about the church, seeking help, trying to collaborate with the dynamic forces emerging in our cultures, industries, artistic creations, and community connections....and I wonder if we're failing because the church is trying to dial up help on rotary land-lines phones, or so busy typing up our soon-to-be-mimiographed newsletters, that we're missing out on all the communication, collaboration and connectedness already happening all around us in the parallel 2.0 world through which dialogue and exchange is increasingly happening on cell phones, IMs, blogs, myspace, and facebook? The church is so busy seeking information that we're missing out on experiencing what is happening just beside us.

Here's links to some of the articles that got me thinking....

ONLINE: Studnets flock to social networking site (SF Gate, 4.18.07)

Future: Has NBC ushered in a new ear for multimedia (SF Gate 4.19.07) by Tim Goodman

MEDIA ETHICS: Tough decisions on how much to show (SF Gate 4.19.07) by Matthew B. Stannard

Virginia Tech killer: Using media for his message (SF Gate, 04/18/07) by Tim Goodman

Earth Day in East Oakland

I found this great picture last night as I surfed the web for some inspiration for our Earth Day Worship Celebration at the church I serve as pastor. Not sure which decade I should dress for come Sunday (plus don't know how warm it will be yet)



If you live in or love East Oakland here's a link to ways and places where you can get involved in your neighborhood on Saturday for Earth Day. The link is to a page of Jean Quan's website for District 4. Check it out here.

Harmony, Cacophony & Time Out

I've been struck - as we all have - with the events of the last days.....Virginia Tech, Don Imus' radio ranting, a Music Sunday Worship Experience at our church, and then attending a Dave Brubek concert this past Sunday night. Our worship service at Fruitvale Pres. Church this past week was one in which Music was given the forefront....we had several "styles" of sermons - spoken, played, and silent reflection on the scriptures passages for the day. One of those (John 20:19-31) tells the continuing story of the post-Easter or post-resurrection experience with Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus appears and speaks to his disciples, not telling them how lazy, stupid, irritating, or unfaithful they were, after they all pretty much just abandoned him to die alone for fear of being arrested along with him. Rather Jesus shows up and say "peace to you." Then he says it again. I found myself wondering who of those gathered dared first to approach Jesus, and get a good look at him, touching his wounds, checking out to make sure the whole in his hands (actually more likely his wrists) were legit and not some costume make-up. Then Jesus says to them, "As God sent me, so I send you." I hear in that notions and catch visions of deep respect, a life-giving relationship of connectedness, cooperation and transformative trust, and a harmonious reciprocity in actions, words, and reactions. WOW....we're sent in the same way....with each other, to testify to the life-transforming experience of Christian faith that we've had in a harmonious, collaborative, reciprocal, inter-dependent way.

Sunday night I went to a Dave Brubek concert in the city. It was remarkable. He's like 800 or 85 years old, seemed to barely be able to stand up and yet filled the room with music, like the incense I light each Sunday morning fills up the sanctuary in our church building. I was stuck in an awe-inducing trance, and struck by the habitual and traditional reciprocity of harmony and collaboration in jazz - of the give and take. The saxophonist steps forward and goes for it on this whaling wicked solo...and then turns, smiling to the drummer inviting him to do the same. The give and take was beautiful - like dancers lifting and holding each other in some sort of radical ballet move...and then switching roles.. I found myself thinking about our church community, and most of my experiences in different sorts of communities. Usually there is that one (or more) complainer, that real pain-in-the-butt, who is never happy, never content, never satisfied (unless of course what was done was their vision, on their terms, in their way, at the financial expense of others) - that person symbolizes the cacophony of our human relationships....we're able to be, act, relate, speak, and live harmoniously for a while...but then we get to that place where we want everyone else to want what we want, to feel our pain, to take up our passionate defense and investment in whatever it might be (the war in Iraq, recycling, supporting Israel at all costs, the color of paint on the walls, the way that the coffee is poured). It's in that movement that we slip from harmony into cacophony - to many voices speaking against each other rather than in complimentary ways that deepen, reflect, and expand upon the others. The Dave Brubek Quartet never made that slip - at least to my ignorant lighter-waving ears - they worked with each other, playing off each other, supporting and enjoying each other....giving and taking. Why can they play like that and yet we struggle to live like that? (part of it might be that it was only a 90 minute set verses a 90 year life....) I thought about the cacophony around and from the destructive words of Don Imus last week...the fallout from it....and then the beauty of those Rutgers women who grace this week's cover of Newsweek.

Then the murderous and too tragic (almost to be true!) ramapage at Virgina Tech that happened yesterday. I heard a great interview with Lucinda Roy on Talk of the Nation Today - she wrote a great co-oped contribution for the NY Times. Read it here. What is it that makes us make that slip, that jump, that radical break from the reality that we all want - one of harmony, collaboration, mutual respect, reciprocity, and connectedness - to that parallel and paranormal reality of fear, mistrust, hateful revenge, isolation, brokeness, and eruptive violence? I don't mean to be trite, or simplistic, or flippant, but maybe it's in all of us...maybe we - and when I say we I mean me - aren't all that different deep down than Cho Seung-Hui? I'm not going to suddenly go all NRA and buy a gun at WalMart tomorrow...but maybe I'm broken deep down in the same - or similar - ways that he was? I mean I want harmony - I've just been droning on about it - but I also have that devilish desire to destroy at times, to let my cynicism loose to wreak havoc and create a cacophony that I can sit back and congratulate myself on causing.

As I write I think back to the last entries that I've been doing on the blog...about the 40 day Lent Challenge to read through the Bible...It burnt me out a bit blog-wise...but was formative for me in terms of how I reflect on the texts, testimonies and stories that make up the Bible - how they formulate a harmonious (yet often poli-tonal) message - The world is amazing. Something is broken. That brokness ends up screwing the world up as we screw ourselves up. Only someone outside the system, beyond this brokeness of the human condition - God and God in Jesus the Christ - can make things right, pay the price, or write the prescription, or turn things upside down - in order to bind the broken, make whole the divided, and resurrect that which died long ago. This transformation isn't just some sort of systemic social science, philisophical musings, or political progaganda, but a truth that we're invited to experience through relationship and make into the currency, vocabulary, and musical instruments with which we relate to and with each other in a new sort of liberating community.

Not sure what all this means...the past 40 or so days, and the events of the past 10 days....but it makes me wonder as I reflect upon one of the Scriptures I'm preaching on this coming Sunday

"Like good stewards
of the manifold grace of God,
serve one another
with whatever gift
each of you has received."

1 Peter 4:10 NRSV

Holy Week

"We are talking about

the event

that changed everything.

Everything.

What has it not changed for you?"

- Jeff Krantz & Michael Hardin. Read more on their webiste at the following link here to Preaching Peace

Friday, April 6, 2007

Lent Bible Reading Challenge Day 40

God Wipes Away All Tears

Revelation 7:9-24

Revelation is my least favorite book in the Bible. Parts are quite beautiful. The way that it was written to bring hope, give courage, and invite perseverance in the face of persecution during the rough years of the Roman Empire is amazing. Yet when we read it in an egomanic self-aggrandizing literalist way today, assuming and interpreting every word to be about us, here and now, then I must say I'm not for it. The selection - our last in this 40 day Bible Reading Challenge that I took from a list in a Lent Activity Book - portrays the wide diversity of the people that will be saved in the end. It's an appropriate sequel to the events, story, and theological world-view that we encounter in the resurrection of Jesus (affirming the value and potential of human, physical life) and those of the Pentecost Story (affirming that God wants us not as docile inactive spectators, but as active spirit-filled co-participants in the work that God is already doing in the universe brining all of our difference, diversity and uniqueness to the life vocation.)





The passage (taken from the middle of the book) concludes with a vision of wholeness and peace. In God's presence, in this community gathered from all of the nations, the ennemies of life will be defeated: grief, hurts, fear, anxiety, injustice, isolation, oppression, hunger, thirst, and death. This is the image that the writer of Revelation sought to share with those he was writing to under persecution in the Roman Empire.





Unfortunately today we twist the meaning of this text from one of hopeful perseverance and an invitation to faithfulness in the midst of living in the world that ends with God's paradise being in the world to an escapist vision of our world - true believers are whisked away to a far-off heaven leaving this screwed up world to its own demise. What then becomes paramount is not Christ's challenge to love our neighbors as God loves us, but rather to focus on our own spiritual well-being, making sure we say the correctly worded prayer to ensure that our soul makes it to paradise. In the Tribune today I read an article on page 2 that talks about a church outside of Toledo that has seen explosive growth from just such a vision, that they've effectively spread in a tech-media-savy way thanks to their previous work experience in marketing. Check it out here. (Sorry can't find the online version of the article entitled "Satan rants about Easter from on high."

Now here's my disclaimer - I'm not jealous of their success, nor meaning to judge them, nor am I working for Satan. I found that I was amazed that such marketing would be effective - most likely that's because of my world-view shaped by my culture, life in the East Bay, educational background, and my hypocritical cyncism, that you may have or may not have of already experienced in my less self-conscious moments.

I'm a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ - the visible image of God - not because of fear of damnation (I'm probably on my way there already anyway), Satan, or guilt. I'm a follower on the way of the Cross because Christian faith affirms the instrinsic value of human life, invites to working for peace, justice, and wholeness in our world through a cosmic transformation made possible by the action, vision, and meaning-making of a Savior who dies to fight injustice and evil and is raised from the dead in a victorious coup d'etat. I'm a follower not because I'm hedging my bets in a Blaise-Pascal-wager sort of way, but because I want to be transformed by the love of God made known and experienced through the revelation of Jesus of Nazareth. I want to live wholy, love generously, fight radically for solidarity and justice, and live gracefully in community in such a way that by my - and our - actions all can see that we are Christ's disciples.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Lent Bible Reading Challenge Day 39

Paul's Conversion

Acts 9:1-9

In a transformative flash of light filled with prophetic words, Saul becomes Paul, the persecuter becomes the persecuted one, the ennemy becomes friend, the power of God is not only talked about but experienced. Saul had been the chief persecuter of the early Christian church community...encouraging mobs to murder the Christian Stephen and seeking to empower and enable a faith-based genocidal purging of this church community. On his way to Damascus, Syria he encounters not the ones he's been persecuting, but rather the Risen One that they serve, claim as Lord, and proclaim. The word "conversion" in the Bible (written in Greek) means to turn around 180 degrees, to suddenly head in the opposite direction, to make a radical U-turn in the way we live, the way we love, and our world-view. The passage ends with the words "his eyes were opened but he couldn't see." I find myself wondering this morning as I reflect on the story - how are my eyes opened and yet not seeing? How are our eyes open in our faith communities to the world around us, to how we live in community, to the identity and heart of God's passion for creation, and yet not seeing? How do we - do I - need to be transformed in a road-of-Damascus-conversion way?

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Lent Bible Reading Challenge Day 38

Pentecost

Acts 2:1-3

Pentecost is the birth-day story of the Christian Church, explosively emerging 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus. The disciples are gathered together, and suddenly they are overwhelmed and transformed by the presence of God. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures in the Bible it is only the Kings, Priests and Prophets who are the chosen ones that the Spirit of God comes upon to gift them with wisdom, prophetic word, and power. Now at Pentecost the Spirit of God comes upon all men and women that are gathered in this celebration, pushing them to proclamation of Jesus as the hope that the gathered diverse crowds in Jerusalem are seeking. Their sudden preaching power is one that reflects the diversity of those present, representing the multi-cultural diversity and richness of all the world. In a sense it's the reversal of the story of the Tower of Babel in which people are scattered because of their desire to replace God. Here at Pentecost the scattered people, separated by their lingual diveristy are gathred by the sharing of a common message in all the languages of humankind, that they might be unified in their hope, spiritual experience, and call to Christ-like cooperation and connectionalism.

This is one of my favorite passages in the entire Bible - the radical affirmation of cultural and enthnic diversity as God-given, God-desired, and God-shaped is a massive message of hope and pertinence in our increasinly shrinking world in which multi-culturality in not the product of the international forces of globalisation, nor the PC propaganda of some faceless study group or think tank, but rather the will, desire, and delight of God. What a message of connections, community, and Christ-like participation. All those present are gifted...not just the ordained males of the clergy, not just the upper classed folks, nor the monied members, nor a specific ethnic class, or group with MBAs....but all those gathered in the Name of Jesus the Christ are gifted, transformed, and invited to participation and full and equal participants in the ministry of the emerging church.....how did we get so far from that in our current state as the diverse church in the world.... where church planting schemes targeted specific ethnic groups, or social classes, suggesting that churches in which everyone is similar will grow faster and more effectively than ones with a wide spectrum of economic, educational, or cultural diversity. That's not what I want.....I want to be in a faith community that's truly community reflecting the rich diversity of the East Bay Area in which I live....where I encounter every time I gather in that community the different ways in which we celebrate, experience, and anticipate God's actions, desires, and invitations in our lives, city, and world.

The suggested reading for our Bible Reading challenge is the bare bones of the story (to keep it short and sweet). You can read the whole story of Pentecost here (Acts 2).

Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Lent Bible Reading Challenge Day 37

The Resurrection

Luke 24:1-11

I flew back to Oakland from a rapid trip to Orange County tonight. On the flight I finally managed to read a thin book I bought recently talking about the historicity of Holy Week (Francois Bovon, The Last Days of Jesus). It had a lot of ideas to chew on and digest...so the 2 hours alone were a gift. Bovon traces the history of the last week of Jesus' life - what we call Holy Week - the week we're currently in. In his introduction he writes, "In history, we must remember, bare facts are irretrievable: an event can be viewed only through the mediating language that narrates and, in narrating, interprets it. Any witness will reconstruct, according to a particular understanding of the events, how the events unfolded." This isn't because of some sort of manipulative idea to provide propoganda, but because we all provide interpretations of what we experience - we see differently, feel uniquely, understand diversely, and use language in ways that are particular to our minds, bodies, cultures, age, gender, native language, and life-experiences.

He goes on talking about the week, then ending with Easter...and the resurrection accounts (what today's reading is about). It struck me in a new way...Jesus is the same yet different. He's resurrected not ressuscitated. He's old and new. He's the same yet unrecognizable. Here's what Bovon says (pp. 64-65).

"New Testament exegetes [studiers of the Bible texts] frequently distinguish between two types of Easter narratives: between appearance stories and empty-tomb stories. In the first type, the resurrected Christ appears to an individual or a group, showing himself to be fully alive. Often the wintenesses to the appearance have difficulty recongnizing the Risen One, a fact that attests to a new quality of life the Crucified now manifests. His resurrection passes beyond the resuscitation of Lazarus, for Jesus does more than merely recuperate his lost viatality. He actually recovers his divine identity, an identity now tinged by the particular experiences of his incarnation and passion. He is evidently so transformed that Mary Magdalene originally mistkes him for the gardener (John 20:15). The disciples also stuggle to recognize him during their encounter on the lake shore (John 21:4-7). In the Emmaus episode too, it takes the breaking of the bread for the two disciples' eyes to be opened to his identity (Luke 24:30-31). In the Gospel of John as well, narrative details depict the qualitatively new identity of the Risen One. A locked room on an upper floor poses no difficulty to the Johannine Christ, who enters mysteriously into the midst of those gathered there (John 20:19, 26). Lest such behavior lead some to confuse these apprearances with those of a ghost, the Lukan Christ proposes to eat in the disciples' presence and shares a morsel of grilled fish with them (Luke 24:41-43)."

I think it's something we can only experience - never truly understand....a mystery (see yesterday's entry), of course that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try, seeking to grapple mysteries with our intellects, cultures, historical research, philisophical musings, political perspectives, and humor. But maybe the answer that explains or "justifies" the questions we have isn't a fact, a simple statement of truth or even a forced acceptance of beliefe, but rather a relational step of daring to enter into a relationship with what or who emerged from that emptied tomb.

Monday, April 2, 2007

Lent Bible Reading Challenge Day 36

The Crucifixion
Luke 23:44-49

The Crucifixion. Jesus dies and as he does Luke tells of the pain of the universe by describing darkness, earthquakes and the curtain in the temple being torn in two. He's not talking about the need to redecorate, but expressing the significance of this death. The world is crumbling at the death of the Victimized Son of God. The temple curtain, which separated the Holy of Holies (the holiest spot where God's spirit dwelt on earth) from the rest of the temple (into which human beings could come) symbolizes the destruction of the distance that separated or divided God from humanity. What would it have been like for the men and women gathered there, who called Jesus friend, healer, and master, who watched him die despite their deepest hopes. Is it any wonder that they have nothing to say, that they can only watch? How is it that the death of this one Man changes the universe, transforms our personal lives, and recreates relationship between God and humanity?

Saturday, March 31, 2007
Lent Bible Reading Challenge Day 35
The Arrest of Jesus

Matthew 26:47-56

As I read this passage today - I'm struck by the fact that Jesus is betrayed with a kiss. That action that most expresses hospitality, friendship, love, acceptance, trust, passion, tenderness and relationship. It's with a kiss that Judas chooses to betray Jesus. Didn't everyone know who he was? Why didn't Judas just jump out from behind the bushes in that dark garden and shout "that one, in the dirty robe! - get him!" Or why didn't he just point him out in the safe and secure silence of a distant spot? And then everyone - the closest friends and confidants of Jesus flee. They don't just hide, or hesitate, they flee.

Friday, March 30, 2007

Lent Bible Reading Challenge Day 34

The Last Supper

Matthew 26:36-46

This passage is mysterious. Here's the last night of his life. Jesus has seemed to be so in control, so wise, so prophetic in knowing what will happen, so fearless in the face of disbelief, opposition, and even deep betrayal....yet he loses it on the last night. The passage reminds us of the mystery of what we call the incarnation: that Jesus was both human and divine, both limited and limitless, both fearless and fearful. A book I'm reading, Cross-Shattered Christ, sums it up well:



"'Mystery' does not name a puzzle that cannot be solved.

Rather, 'mystery' names that which we know,

but the more we know it,

the more we are forced to rethink everything we know."



The last night in the Garden is a mystery - the revealing of Jesus most human-ness - fear and his most divine-ness - trust. Maybe that's what made Mel Gibson's movie - the Passion of the Christ - so powerful for so many - it opens with this scene, Jesus praying quietly and passionately in the garden...and then flashes both backwards and forwards. Maybe we all live this mystery - in a different way - in each day as we travel back and forth between fear and trust?

Thursday, March 29, 2007
Lent Bible Reading Challenge Day 33
The Last Supper
Matthew 26:17-29

Is Jesus a cannibal? Someone shared with me the other day a question about communion....it sounds crazy..yet here it is. The last meal that Jesus shares with his friends is one in which he tells them to eat his body and drink his blood. ??!! I just had the image of the final scene of the movie "The Thief, the Cook, and the Lover" in which the body of a murdered person is hidden by preparing it and serving it at a sumptuous meal. YIKES! Is this what this sacramental and spiritual meal is all about? It's what the Romans accused the early Christians of, and is most likely one of the ways that they justified first persecuting and outlawing Chritianity and its followers in the Empire 2,000 years ago.

I think that Jesus was actually a great teacher, knowing that we are much better experiential learners - that we remember what we touch, smell, taste, feel, hear, and experience......much more than a simple and classic 3 point sermon. So Jesus sums it all up with this symbol, a sign - food and drink - the most common of things - that from now on will be infused with meaning made at this meal - eat and drink to remember, to remember who Jesus was and is, to remember what love looks like, costs, and demands, to remember what we are called to in life, what we are created for, and what consuming is actually all about. What a genius...in a sense every time that they (and we now...) eat - the disciples will remember. In their experiences they'll remember the meaning-making Maundy Thursday meal in the words they hear, the flakiness of the bread, the touch of the cup to their lips, the feel of a body up against theirs as they sit crowded around a table, the longing of hunger in their stomachs and thirst in the back of their throat. REMEMBER. How come it's so easy to forget that?

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Lent Bible Reading Challenge Day 32

The Entry into Jerusalem

Matthew 21:1-11

The story of Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem is the story that essential frames and shapes the celebration of what we now call Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week in the Christian Perspective. Jesus arrives (not for the first time) in Jerusalem, the capital city of his homeland - capital in terms of Politics, Economics, Culture and Religion. For our country Jerusalem would be like combining Chicago, Manhattan, DC, Seattle, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Nashville, and Houston. How is it that historians don't make much notice of this triumphal entry? Most likely it wasn't hundreds of thousands that threw their cloaks to the ground madly waving palm branches like over-caffeinated fans at the Super Bowl as Jesus passed by on a never-ridden donkey. More likely it was his disciples and the closest members of his "fan club" that cheered him on, acclaiminig him as the true king, the king of kings, the promised Messiah as he arrived in the capital city. They proclaimed and anticipated his greatness in ways different than he. They wanted him to storm the capital, and set up a new faith-based goverment by throwing down the Romans, turning out Herod and his minions, and overthrowing the centralized power of the Sadducees. They wanted a true government for the people, of the people, and by the Messiah. Yet Jesus comes as the king, but his kingdom doesn't come. For him it's more about relationship than political revolution, more about prophecy than politics, more about the left-outs than the left-overs to share with those riding his coat-tails to power. Is there any wonder that Judas - and others - were confused, feeling let-down, seeking to force Jesus to be the leader that they wanted as opposed that he sought to be. How do we see Jesus today? How do I? Is it in the authentic way he strove to be in his words, actions, presence, and relationships? Or is it in the ways that I think he should be or want him to be?

API Scores

More Articles and Tidbits

We were out late last night, by the time the girls were put into bed and calmed down for the night I needed to unwind so my wife and I were reading the SF Chronicle and stumbled across some good articles on the API Scores and even some stories about School Option Choices in Oakland. Didn't see them in the morning but caught them before the end of the day.

One talks about the meaning of the API, the 'success' threshold of getting an 800 for a school and the ways in which the API scoring isn't necessarily a fair or just way to evaluate the teaching level of a school. Read it here.

Another article talks about the pressure for folks to move into neighborhoods were there are good public schools. Sounds great...sounds normal...yet the couples they talk about are looking at moving into million dollar + houses in Rockridge. An option that isn't an option for many of us. It goes on to talk about the reality that even if you get that coveted house in a neighborhood uniquely gifted with a good public school -you might not necessarily get into it because of the influx of families and the explosion of entering Kindergarten-aged children in OUSD in 2007. Maybe it's because of family planning, maybe real estate planning, or maybe it's more people choosing public school because private schools aren't an option because of the shackles of massive mortgages financed only by double middle-class salaries. The articles talks about over-enrollement problems at Hillcrest, which also happened in the neighborhood and school of the same name - Redwood Heights. You can read the article here.

Fun Church Video

Check out the bloopers from different church services and weddings.

Thanks to Chuck Marut for sharing!

Oakland School Scores for 2006

If you've been reading my blog or spending any time with me you'll most likely already know plenty about my angst-ridden, neuroticly detail focused, and occasional bouts of hopelessness mixed with a dash of constant regret about trying to get our daughter into a quality and opportunity-providing Elementary School in Oakland next year. We've decided on a private school while we wait to appeal the school option non-option we were given by the district. Ironic it's a bilingual school - the one of my wildest dreams in all my visits - it just has the hang up of the out of our league price. But of course what is fixing the car, having cable, taking vacations, buying an occasional bottle of wine to go with dinner in light of educating one's children, right?

Today in the Tribune there's an article about how "Oakland schools rank low again" you can read it here if you like. So many friends have talked about how much they love Oakland, how they are "lifers" yet struggle to accept and come to grips with the reality that the District doesn't seem to improve, or transform in an overtly positive way from year to year. I guess this year's hot-off-the presses Academic Performance Index (API - the academic ranking of California schools on a 10-point scale in comparison to others California Schools). If you're in OUSD you can see the 2006 scores for your school here, or if you live elsewhere you can search for them here. Sad news for those of us for public school. Yet it tragically (and maybe it's a bit demented) makes me feel better about our choice for next year.

What does it take to turn things around, to transform a complex system? I know a load of 5-star educators working in OUSD as teachers, administrators, and support staff. How does such vision, dedication, skill, and purpose get repeatedly school-jacked by other factors such as lack of parent involvement, spending of money, bad teachers entrenched in the safety of their tenure, and lack of vision? Can one person (or even a small group as Margaret Mead has said) really change the world? What does such change cost?

Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Lent Reading Day 31

Calming the Storm:

Mark 4:36-41

Earlier in Mark 4 we learn that Jesus has been teaching the crowds all day. No doubt tired physically and exhausted mentally he sets off with his disiples to cross the Sea of Galilee. Then this storm comes up. The disciples complain and are conviced of impending death, yet we're given the picture of Jesus sleeping (serenly?) on the deck of the boat (which wasn't a titanic ocean cruiser but rather most likely a small wooden fishing craft) in the midst of the storms that arise suddenly and sweep of the Sea of Galilee even today.

I'm not sure what would have most scared me had I been there: the violent and sudden strength of the storm, or the spookey slumber of the person that I called master. Then Jesus awakes and rises and confronts both the storm and the disciples with "Peace. Be Still!" Calming the waves. Silencing the wind. Confronting the anxiety and doubt of the disciples. Inviting them to be centered as opposed to chaotic in what they've been experiencing all day long. As I read this today I hear the words of Isaiah 30:15 in the background of this story, "Thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: ' In returning and rest you shall be saved; n quietness and in trust shall be your strength.'"

It's like Jesus is speaking directly to us, to me in the conclusion of this part of the chapter..."Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?" Fear that we have to actually save ourselves, because no one else ever pulls us up by our bootstraps all the time. Faith that good will prevail, that we're meant for blessing, that what we put our faith in won't let us down, that this man from Nazareth might not just be talking about the truth, but might just actually be the truth.

"Storm on Galilee" by Rembrandt

Monday, March 26, 2007
Lent Reading Day 30

Laborers in the Vineyard:

Matthew 20:1-15

Jesus tells the parable to open eyes to the mystery and the seemingly unjust justice of God's righteousness and love. This parable about God's timetable versus the way that we as human beings view the timeclock is shocking. It sucks if you've been working all day and then those that seem to you to be slackers just show up at 4:30 and get the same 8 hour day pay as you come 5:00. Yet for those that can't get a job, those like those in the parable, that are overlooked, not hired, not wanted, not considered - to be given the chance and then to be treated with such tremendous grace is ... WOW! Funny how we want God to be fair (isn't that the first complaint voiced when there is a catastrophe, natural disaster or we don't get our way) and yet God's not interested in being fair, but in being just in grace.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Lent Reading Day 29

The Lost Sheep:

Luke 15:3-7

I've heard this story so often that I no longer hear it. Of course you'd look for the sheep....yet if I was the CEO of a major international shepherding firm I would fire the employee who would leave the 99 of the herd to look for one lost sheep. That shepherd wouldn't even get any sort of severance package. So what's the point...the shepherd in Jesus' story should be looking for different work. It can't be just about that...it has to be some sort of metaphorical paradox articulating the crazy lengths to which God will go to seek us out. What seem so trite and simple is yet quite deep and complicated...why would God love us in such an illogical, not-cost-effective way? And if we're called to love each other and ourselves in that same ditch-the-99 to look for the lost-one...than we - and I in particular - have a lot to learn.

Friday, March 23, 2007
Lent Reading Day 28

Lazarus and the Rich Man:
Luke 16:19-31

As I read this passage today I'm reminded of someone in my life who absolutely refuses to listen to what I have to say and what I think. This person claims to listen, to cooperate with me in joint ventures...and yet they absolutely refuse to hear me...they're convinced they know everything and that I'm a young - foolish idiot. What does it take to convince someone to listen - to get someone else to really hear us when we have something important, crucial, to share? This person makes me want to get in my car and express my well-known road rage in a front-page worthy matter....so what did Jesus feel like when he repeatedly was beating his head against a stone trying to share his 'bigger' vision of who God is, what God wants of us, and how God wants us to treat each other?

What does it take to open our eyes to what is happening around us? What does it take to open our eyes to the reality that our faith affirms - that we are in need of being saved everyday from the brokeness that characterizes our human condition? Now you might be wondering how it is that I'm affirming some sort of massively pessimistic calvinistic view of total and radical human deparavity as the quintessntial evil creature in creation....yet there is something broken about who we are deep inside, how we react to each other, and the world-system in which we live. We doubt ourselves - our uniqueness - making up for it by striking out at others, by doubting our self-worth, or by simply checking-out. We doubt our relationships don't we....assuming on a certain existential level that we'll be left out, that there won't be enough resources to go around for us to get some (wether that's love, time, food, shelter, energy, clothing, attention or even oil), so as we're hurt in life we gradually let mistrust emerge and become the foundation for many of the ways in which we act and react to and with one another. Looking at our world the system is broken...the rich get richer, the poor poorer, those who need have more need....their is a deep inequality, lack of justice and terrestial mistrust between the nations, the diverse cultures and different races within our world. In all of this our deep mistrust, fear, and anxiety that leads up to violence, competition, destruciton, and division ... directs us in a way more of death than life.

This brokeness of us, our relationships, and our world is what Jesus is talking about - it's what we affirm as reality through and in our faith, it's the problem or the thing that's broken that Jesus somehow fixes in his life, death, and resurrection. In him God turns the powers of the world upside down, transforming oppression into liberation, mistrust into grace, death into new life. What does it take to open our eyes to that need? .. not just some simplistic way of saying that a once-in-a-lifetime conversion-sort-of-prayer will solve all of the problems (of course it's a great start) but that we need to be saved every day, to have the liberating power of this resurrected Jesus become the currency with which we relate to one another, the vision on which we base our life, the love through which we trust that we are loved by God and then can learn from that point to love others and to love ourselves.

What does it take us to recognize that deep need within us, which on a certain level is so obvious? This is what Jesus is talking about....the rich man can't see it, or doesn't want to see it...ignoring his responsibility in continuing a broken system of injustice, and his own need for salvation. Even in his death and the afterlife he continues to treat the poor Lazarus as an errand-boy, someone of less importance than he, someone who seems to be less human. Jesus tells us this shocking parable to force our eyes open, to invite us not just to reflection but to life transformation and action. How are your eyes closed to your need for salvation, our need for salvation, and the need of the world for salvation? We're quick to think or see how others need to be saved.....it's much harder when it comes to seeing the log in our own eye, our own brokeness and then admiting it and asking for God's salvation to transform us directly and through our living-out-of-faith in the context of a community of faith. We're often so eager to judge the idea of salvation - to reject the notion of a faith that invites us to a deeper and newer way of living - to refuse the idea of sin - existential and universal brokeness that characterizes our human condition. Yet isn't that the thing that's broken - that we can't fix through our political parties, through the empowerment of the proletariat, the increasing power of technology, social programs, or modern warfare and the spread of democracy. We need a savior....and we can't save ourselves.

Thursday, March 22, 2007
Lent Reading Day 27

The Widow’s Mite:
Mark 12:41-44

GENEROSITY. What is it? I think we all tend to believe that we're generous with our time, our efforts, our money, and our life-energy. Yet how do we know what is really generous. In this parable the one who thinks that he's so generous, faithful and righteous is the fool. It's the person who seemingly has nothing that is the one held up as the example to emulate. How often do we fool ourselves? I hear Jesus saying that it's not some sort of Marxist-revolution thing he's up to - he's not just against the rich and for the poor ... it's deeper. He wants to invite and challenge people to be generous with God, each other and themselves starting from and with what God has given. What does that mean for us...in our wealth as a nation in the midst of the larger world population on planet earth?

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Lent Reading Day 26

Healing the Ten Lepers:

Luke 17:11-19

This story speaks to me of gratitude. How many times do we encounter in our own lives the lack of gratitude...maybe it's others that don't express their thanks to us, or maybe it's us that don't do the expressing... Why is it that in our urban culture to demand things, or why is it that in our church communities were often super-humanly gifted at complaining or bitching about things....and yet we're so verbally-challenged in terms of expressing our gratitude to someone else either in words, a card, a phone card, or even an email? Why are the words, "I want..." and "I don't like....." so much easier to say than "Thank you for..."?




What's striking in this story is that it's a Samaritan that returns to say thanks to Jesus. The samaritans were the bad guys, they were the culturally inferior. Often our derrogatory jokes aim at blondes, polish people, or other cultural groups. For the people of Jesus' day and land the Samaritans were the butt of all the jokes, they were the ones always looked down upon as stupid, slow, out-of-it, rejects....so here is Jesus telling a teaching story to a group of good Israelite Jews and the "good guy" in the story, the only one to return to say thanks is a Samaritan! With all the cultural and historical differences between us and Jesus' world it's easy to overlook. We're often so smug about our own goodness, which goes hand in hand with a judgement (spoken or un-spoken) of others. Maybe you're like me...I'm quick to criticize the others who don't express gratitude assuming in the same breath that I always do...yet when I look closer, I too am quick to judge the Samaritan who is much more faithful than I.



I was working with someone tonight on a project and they asked me about Jesus, saying "he was a revolutionary, right?" We get so stuck on some cheesy picture of Jesus surrounded by sparkling white sheep and perky children falling all over him that we forget - or don't ever know - what he was really like. This parable points us to the truth....the people who heard it most likely didn't say "what a nice story about inclusion" - they probably were more pissed off than inspired, more likely they muttered "who is this guy?" not in admiration of his respect but in voicing their bitter discontent with his judgemental story. There's a reason why they wanted to kill Jesus.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Lent Reading Day 24

The Golden Rule:

Matthew 7:12

"In everything

do to others

as you would have them do to you;

for this is the law and the prophets."

What radical words. Love your neighbor as yourself - that's how Luke tells it. So simple. Yet so impossibly difficult! I know in my own life it has seemed so easy, yet in the past 5 years I've realized how challengingly difficult it actually is. Until recently I hadn't had the exprience of really hating someone - hating them for their actions, how they treated me, treated my family, and then hating themeven more because they were the first to make me realy hate someone. Am I screwed up, or what? Yet in getting myself so wrapped up in my passionate feelings...I forget about the call to do to others and I would have them due to me. Look at the Freudian slip that I just said...I want people to do to me as I think I'm due....yet that's not what Jesus said. So what does that say about me? What does that say about our culture when that's how we operate?


I've been told - and studied - that Jesus isn't actually the only one to say this, and that he might not have been the first in ancient Palestine, and the Jewish worldview to proclaim this simplification of the 10 commandments, yet when I read it I'm convinced of the truth I've experienced in his words as they ring in my life, echo in my mind, shape my actions, and form my opinons.