Communication(4) in a Virtual World

Is Communication as we know it

over the hill?

Is Literacy going the way of Harry Potter?

Snape?

Voledmort?

or Dumbeldore?

Should I be circulating my resume as Pastor-Dancerella?

I enjoyed a great article on SFGate this morning: "Kids reading fewer books despite Harry Potter hoopla" Read the entire article here.

Here's some of the excerpts I found poignant:

"We seem to be doing better than ever at teaching younger kids to read, but when kids enter adolescence, their reading - and reading ability - falls off. The power of the electronic, commercial entertainment media seems to be taking teenagers away from reading."

also

"While some experts worry that a drop-off in reading is an early warning sign of a culture in collapse, others interpret the results as part of a general shift toward electronic-based commnications, which will simply require new ways of measuring potential. 'You have to be careful when you say kids are reading less,' says Michael Kamil, a professor of education at Staford University. 'It doesn't mean they are incapable of reading. It means they choose to do other things instead.'"

It made me think:

1. Have the new medias and new techonologies available to us transformed the way we communicate in such a way, or to such an extent, that we can't go back? Is it all for good? Or is it a mixed bag? Maybe we are reading more - yet differently. Is it about quanity or quality? How do we quantify literacy in an image-based culture in which we spoon fed 30 second bits of information so that we don't change the channel, turn the page, or lose our attention?

2. What does it mean that children (those most immersed in our new communicative culture) read less and less? Is that a sign of the decay, decline and iminent destruction of our culture/society? Or is it an indicator/consequence of a radical worldview shift? Are we shifting back to some dark ages cultural world in which the priveleged (maybe in the future based on intelligence and reading capability) will rule the world in a big-brother-Brave-New-World sort of way?

3. What does this mean for the way we relate and communicate with each other? I've blogged a lot this past week about communication....are we struggling to communicate (an inalienable part of the human condition I believe) in new and particular ways because of the media shift that's emerging and already partially happened? Are we still fully human if we communicate principally and primarily via technology-enhanced means? It's like email converstaion...it's great! Helpful. Efficient. Fast. But I don't believe it can replace face to face conversations, dialogues and communication. I think it enhances it...but only in a complimentary not a sustitutionary way. Does it make us more passive and reactionary than active and participatory?

4. Specifically what does this shift mean for the way tha we relate and communicate with each other in the context of Christian community, in particular a local church? Here's an example: My daughter received her wildest-dream-come-true present for her birthday recently - Bella Dancerella. If you have no idea what Bella Dancerella is let me bring you up to speed. It's an example or incarnation of what the new media/technology are doing to our communicative reality. Basically it's a DVD dance class. It comes with all the goods - a ballet bar, some dance steps on a nifty plastic carpet (different carpets for different ballets) and some DVDs of Bella - the best ballet dancer (according to her)...who dances her way through swan lake while teaching the watcher the moves. Basically it's a dance class that you don't have to leave home to do. It's a dance community of like-minded friends that are all virtual. And Bella is also an expert at cheerleading, tap, hip-hop, you-name-it, she'll teach it to you in the safety, comfort and isolation of your own home. Here's a youtube clip I uploaded to give you a taste of what it's like.



It's a good thing. I love it. My kids adore it. Yet what does it mean? Are we headed towards some radical sci-fi futuristic imagined reality becoming what we live here and now? Will the future resemble somthing like the school scene in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure where the learning, teaching, and classroom setting are virtual? For education it is actually amazing - the new seemingly limitless opportunities. But what would that mean for things in which community - being with other people - is foundation, paramount and the raison d'etre? I think of Christian Worship - a time and a space in which we gather in community because our common faith gathers us together. Can you gather in such a way through virtual community? Does that cheapen the experience? Are we fooling ourselves into accepting the isolation that most of us seem to constantly be running from in our modern urban life? And what will happen to our gathering "worship" or "church" in which we gather around and are primarily gathered by a written text? Should I be circulating my resume or be enrolling in more programming classes so that I can create my own Pastor-Dancerella type worship videos that can be streamed live to every ipod/mp3 player and iphone in my parish neighborhood? Church isn't a spectator sport. You can't watch it, download it, or observe it. You have to participate in it. So what will the future hold?

Blogging Towards Sunday

July 15, 2007

Who is my neighbor?

What do I care?

This week at Fruitvale Church I'm preaching on two of the Lectionary List Scriptures proposed for Sunday, July 15th. Psalm 82 and Luke 10:25-37.

Psalm 82 is a poetic affirmation of God's justice and judgment, the declaration that the God of the Bible is on the side not of the rich and the powerful, the bold and the beautiful - but for all people, in parcticular the weak and the orphan the lowly and the destitute. It reminds me of other sciptures - the prayer of Hannah at the birth of Samuel (1 Samuel 2:1-10) and the song of Mary (the Magnificat) as he response to the news that God will come into the world through Jesus the child of her womb (Luke 1:46-56).



The passage from Luke 10 is commonly called the parable of the "Good Samaritan." Ironic as a title, for Jesus never says that the Samaritan is good. It's a striking example of the depth, honesty, and transformative teaching and presence of Jesus of Nazareth. As I've studied it every day this week in theological works and reflective meditation and prayer, I'm struck by the simplicity, truthfulness, and salvation power in Jesus' relational interaction with the lawyer (student of the Torah) that he tells this parable to as well as in his teaching.



1. The Lawyer comes to test Jesus. He thinks he's better than Jesus. He comes not wanting to learn, dialogue or deepen a relationship, but with a hidden agenda. He comes wanting to trap Jesus, to trick him into saying something foolish, or better yet to agree with what the laywer thought. Jesus surprises him, for he turns the situation around. The lawyer becomes the student, the one who is challenged in his worldview, religious convictions, and personal faith.

2. The Lawyer has the right answers but doesn't live them. There is a total disruption between his thoughts/mind and his heart/life actions. He doesn't walk his talk.



3. Jesus tells a parable that we miss because of the cultural/historical contexts. The injured man may or may not be Jewish. If he's not, then touching him makes one ritually unclean, spreading a contagion that was based upon ethnic division and a worldview based on racial superiority.



3a. The Priests were at the top of that society. They knew everything. They gave their life to following the Torah laws, living a life based on righteousness and purity because of their application of God's laws. The Priests is the ultimate "good guy" in that culture - probably both esteemed for their dedication and judged for their priveleged lives. The priest not only doesn't help but seems to go out of his way to walk around the hurt person.



3b. The Levites were in 2nd place in the hierarchical ladder of social privelege. The Priests were chosen from among the Levites. They too would be expected to help, yet would also seek to keep themselves pure, not wanting to spiritually defile themselves by touching an unclean and/or Gentile person.



3b. The Samaritans were the unwanted, black sheep. As Jesus told the story his listeners most likely would have expected the hero of the parable to be a laymen, an ordinary Jewish man. They might have expected Jesus to be teaching about the equality of all people, that ordinary Jews were as holy, righteous, and involved in God's ways in the world as the Priests and Levites. But Jesus goes farther. The hero is a Samaritan. They were like distant cousins of the Jews who had remained in Palestine during the Jewish exile in Babylon some 400-300 years earlier. They worshipped God not in Jerusalem, but in other places. They were like the bastard cousins, the ones who weren't good enough, who had a blasphemous faith, who thought there were equal but who weren't. They were the butt of the jokes - like some ethnic groups are oftentimes in jokes I hear these days.



4. Jesus teaches that faith and community gathered in God's name has nothing to do with socio-economic privelege or ethnic identity. God loves all people equally. God speaks to all people. All people - and maybe those that we oftentimes least expect to do so - speak, act, work, and live for God and God's justice - grace - and peace - in our world.



5. Jesus doesn't condemn the lawyer for his pride, racism, or elitism; but rather invites him to conversion, to transformation, to freedom from the lies and -isms that trap him in a small worldview and a faith in which the God of the Bible is held prisoner in a small box. Jesus doesn't give the answer. He asks the lawyer to answer the question that the latter asked the former, "Who this is my neighbor?" - the question that started the telling of the parable. The lawyer is most likely so angry, so trapped in his worldview, so unable/unwilling to change that he answers without saying aloud the words at which he cringes "The Samaritan is the neighbor." Instead he answers correctly but with general pronouns. Jesus invites him to a radical conversion, a deep transformation of his worldview: the way in which he makes sense of life by applying his faith, makes meaning of his relationships, and defines what his community is. Jesus invites him to a larger worlview, a wider definition and experience of community - yet he seems unwilling and unable to move into it.



So what does this word mean for us? In a week of continued talks about unionization in Oakland in our stores as well as the lock out at Waste Management, when the President and Congress talk about Iraq and the future there, in regards to Libby's potential pardon, and many other events in our life together as a city/nation and our personal communities and relationships.



In my week up at Summer Camp in the Redwood Forest I was struck each day by the mysterious beauty of the forest, in particular the redwoods. I was speaking and teaching on the parable of the sower and the seed (Matthew 13:1-9). Talking about seeds with 2-3rd graders I was hit by the notion of how God defines and nurtures community incarnate in the forest around me. Redwood tress grow both from seeds and in groups. They spread out from the "mother" tree in a circle shape. Their roots are actually quite shallow, so such tall trees should easily blow over in the wind. But as they grow in groups their roots grow together, making each other stronger through their mutual growth, giving and receiving of strength. The redwood tree is a perfect icon/image of community and what Jesus is trying to teach us even today through the Parable of the Samaritan. The same question is asked of us today..."Who is our neighbor?" In an era in which our neighbors might be those that have lived here forever, or those that can afford a skyrocket high mortage, or those that are stuck in the same economic circumstances that we are it's easy to feel like we don't have a choice in who our neighbors are. Yet it's not just about fences and property lines. Who do weconsider your community? Is it just those that share ouropinions, beliefs, worldview, ethnic backgrounds? Or is it something different? How do we treat our neighbors? Is our faith or are our 'basic values' evident in how we talk with, act alongside, relate with, and live alongside those who are our neighbors?

New Preschool Opening in Redwoods Heights

I heard on the Glenfriends Web Group about a new Preschool Opening in Redwoods Heights this Fall. Can't tell you if it's good or bad, can't recommend it to you as I personally don't know anything more about it than what I've inserted below. I do remember the challenge of finding 1) a good preschool for our kids, 2) something that was local, 3) something that was affordable, and 4) something that we could get in to.

They have a nicely constructed website for the school
-http://www.oaklandgardenschool.com/

Here's the entry that I read on the Glenfriends Yahoo Group:

"Our son¹s daycare is opening a brand new preschool in Redwood Heights. It¹scalled the Oakland Garden School and has begun taking applications. It¹sgoing to be a unique and amazing school with 3 separate classrooms for eachage group. The garden is about 1/2 an acre filled with fruit trees, asandbox with a water play area, and a deck with an outdoor kitchen for thekids. Tae, the director believes in nurturing children to express themselvesas individuals. Check out their open house every Sunday 4 ­5 pm, until thelast Sunday of July. For more information, check out their website:oaklandgardenschool.com "

Communication 3

Dolores Umbridge

The Pope

Martin Buber

Flipping the Bird on the 580

What's the connection?

I escaped for a mini-mental health break yesterday to watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. As I left the Bayfair Movie Theatre and merged onto the 580 I had an "ah-ha" experience. As usual the crowd at the last stoplight was thick. When I finally got onto the on-ramp I was side by side with another car. They were in front of me, so obviously (to me at least) they should pass in front of me in the merge. They hesitated and I looked over and made eye-contact with the driver, waving him forward ahead of me. As he merged and sped ahead I saw his right hand reach up into the air. Suddenly I was pissed, expecting to see him flip me off - yet what he did was wave generously his gratitude for our merging encounter. I had expected a rejection, and yet the wave seemed to be an invitation to dialogue and relationship. It got me reflecting on urban life, communication, the Harry Potter Movie I'd just come from and some of the recent sharing around "communication" on the blog.

In the Order of the Phoenix the bad gal is Dolores Umbridge, a quasi-fascist governmental official who takes over the Hogwarts Wizadry School. She assumes control with the goal of purging the school community of the impure, the dis-obedient, and what she considers "hateful lies" among the words and thoughts of the students. She asserts her power by coercion, manipulation, and even physical abuse. She's interested foremost and entirely in achieving the results she expects, not in any way in the people she's been called to serve or with whom she lives, works, and exists. Having never shown compassion, humility or any desire for relationship, she falls - rather is taken down violently - by the children of the school when they get the chance to overthrow the shackles of her egomaniac power regime. At the end of the film she mutters to herself, "I hate children." It's in her downfall that we discover the foundation of her self-righteous, persecution-based, power-tripping: she doesn't really care about anyone, she cares only for what she perceives as "order", the "common good," and that things return to the way that they've been, the way that they should always be. She has no interest in relationship. She has no relationships. She - having taken over the school community - has neither an intellectual idea of what community is nor an experience of community.

I read of the Pope's recent comments about the Catholic church being the only true church, asserting that she alone has the apostolic succession needed, and required, in order to be the truth, authoritative church within our world. While it seems archaic, elitist, divisive, destructive, and out-to-lunch in terms of the post-modern organically connectional world in which we live (and it is) it's based upon his notion that there can only be one relationship format in the world Christian Community. It has to be based upon the primacy of the Catholic Church. That's what legitmizes his power, place, and purpose. So how can he say that and at the same time seem to place such emphasis on relationships with other Christian Communities, the community of Islam, and other religious contexts? Can he really be in relationship with others that he treats as objects, while demanding that he and the Catholic Church be the subject of and in everything. A good sumamry article is on sf gate "Pope: other Christians Not True Churches"

In an earlier communication entry I talked a bit about the work of Jewish philosopher/theologian Martin Buber and his seminal book entitled "I and Thou." He talks about relationship - community - between two subjects, in which "I" addresses not "it" but "Thou." His idea that he develops across philosophy and into Theology is that God seeks to develop, empower, and birth in and between us such subject-to-subject relationships. Such community is the essence, purpose and passion of life. It is not possible when we objectify God, each other, or ourselves. It is not possible with anonymity, for it's all based on knowing each other and being known as a subject, a creature that acts, speaks, creates, listens, responds, and constructs with others.

In the car merging onto 580 I expected the driver to flip me off in a Dolores Umbridge-sort-of-way, to treat me as an object, or as less-than-equal. I was surprised by the opposite reaction. Having done several marriage counseling sessions this week talking about the importance of communication, I was taken aback when someone actually was initiating communication in an "I and Thou" way when I had expected the opposite. Maybe we all have that expectation. Someone in one of the communities in which I live has several times told me to "F*%@ Off" whenever I had a different opinion than them, or asserted my own opinion. That person has no desire to be in relationship with me. In fact they're the closest thing I know to Dolores Umbridge in the flesh - a person with no relationships with anyone except themselves. Maybe that's what we're use to in our urban life in which we have to react before we're treated badly, assert our will before we steam-rolled by others, flip off that driver in the other car before they flip us off - or worse pull out a gun. Maybe we're communicationally-challenged because we often don't know what we most long to have: relationships, living in an "I and Thou" sort-of-community.

Maybe that's what Paul is talking about is 1 Corinthians 13:

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a
noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

Maybe we've become so use to noisy gongs and clanging cymbals, both around us and coming from our own communication, in our urban lifestyle and survival needs, that we have forgotten what Community can be like, what life-in-relationship is about, and how we're incomplete in our isolation.

Sherwood Forest Snapshots
Summer Camp @ Westminster Woods

I've had a great week some of the children of our church community at Summer Camp (Sherwood Forest to be precise) at Westminster Woods Camp and Conference Center. If you're part of our church community and know the kids enjoy the photos! And even if you're not yet a part of our faith community...enjoy the pics and any memories that they may bring up in you about laynards, campfires, crafts, archery, field games and good times!

If you want an e-copy of an photo, email me and I'll try to help you out! The kids come back on Saturday...we'll celebrate camp and share more photos in worship @ Fruitvale Church this coming Sunday.

More Garbage News

Here's the most recent recent update on the garbage situation that I received from Jennifer Crawford, a Policy Analysit for Jean Quan. It comes from their most recent e-newsletter. Read it in its entirety online here.

Keep your garbage on the curb, all 3 cans. WM is giving out contradictory information. They have hired 200 replacement workers, but are clearly not well organized. A few lucky people had their brown and fewer yet had their grey cans picked up, but most of my district's Tuesday pick-ups are still on the street. Some people were told to put their cans back, only to be missed when a random truck came by. Note: Those of us who live north of Lincoln Avenue have uninterrupted recycling (gray bin) services from California Waste Solutions, they are not affected by the lock out.

If Waste Management fails to provide collection by the end of your regular service day, report the service failure to WMAC Customer Service at 510-613-8710.

ALSO, report the failure to pick up to the City at [the]Recycling Hotline 510-238-SAVE (7283) or http://us.f833.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=recycling@oaklandnet.comWe will use this information for documentation in our legal actions, including possible rebates of your garbage fees. The hotline has increased staff to handle calls.

If you cannot wait and must haul your own garbage to the Davis Street Station, 2615 Davis St , take your WM garbage bill and they are suppose to waive the fees. One [district 4] constituent was charged and we made arrangements to have the fee rebated.

Please call the the PWA Call Center at 615-5566 if you notice any illegal dumping on the streets.
If you see a particularly bad build-up of garbage, please contact the http://us.f833.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=recycling@oaklandnet.com and copy [Jean Quan's office or your supervisor's office] . [They] are especially concerned about apartment buildings and restaurant/commercial areas and any other situation where health and safety will be affected. Luckily, most restaurants and stores use other companies.

Find updates on our Oakland Recycles webpage.

Communication 2

One80PerspectivePeople

I've been thinking since last night about communication and relationships and my recent experiences/musings I sought to articulate in last night's blog. It seems that we - and I mean me - often so easily lose perspective in the midst of dialogue and in particular debate, whether the subject is unionization in a local store, trash bins uncollected on our streets, lock-outs, family situations, property lines, school enrollment, or national policy, or causes of inequality in our city. It's so easy to move from dialogue to polarization, from discussion to dismissal. I think we live in a culture that's increasingly polarized and polarizing, in which we're required to voice our opinion more in the negative (I'm against this, or him/her as opossed to I'm for this, him/her...). We entrench our positions before beginning to dialogue so that our discussions become like the nightmare battle quagmires of WW1 like Verdun. Most conversations about President Bush, Hillary, our governor or Paris Hilton begin with such statements....He's an idiot! She's a bitch! He should go back to Hollywood! She's a loser!

Granted we don't know those folks - at least I don't - on a personal level, so generalizing comments like that are easy to say, make us feel better in our powerlessness, and often either get a laugh or piggy-back on a previous joke. Living a public life opens you up to such treatment - for good or bad. But what happens when it gets personal, on a local, community-based, or family level? I think we all too often lose perspective. In our bitterness in losing a battle, or sadness in the face of our wounds, or anger in being misunderstood, or elation is emerging victorious...we forget that it's not just "someone" on the other side, but that it is someone's someone. We forget that at the root of it all it's about people - you, me and the other guy/gal.

In reading the paper this morning I ran across an editorial by Newt Gingrinch reprinted by the Oakland Tribune about the new president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy entitled "Sarkozy's lesson for U.S." (Sac Bee E-Version). What struck me is not Newt Gingrich's policy perogative or message per say, but the example of Sarkozy who has emerged as president in a difficult time in France, when change is not just necessary, but absolutely necessary to ensure the future. I don't think he's necessarily Mother Theresa dressed up in a designer suit (most of our friends in France cried the day he was elected, but didn't go out into the street and burn cars). But I'm struck by his words (interpreted by Gingrich from Sarkozy's book) For France - and America - or even the Dimond, Laurel, Maxwell Park, whatever community we're in - to change, to make a One80, we have to not just focus on what we want, or keep our enemies/adversaries in clear-sight, or entrench our positions for battle...we have to have perspective, to not lose sight that whatever and all of what we are doing is about people - you, me, and the "forgotten (wo)man."

Maybe that's part of what Jesus meant in what we've come to call the "golden rule"

‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your
soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as
yourself.’ Luke 10:27

or what singer/songwriter/activist Amy Ray means in some lines of her song about Gay Rights and Religious Communities entitled "Let It Ring" on the album "Prom"

When you march stand up straight.
When you fill the world with hate
Step in time with your kind and
Let it ring

When you speak against me
Would you bring your family
Say it loud pass it down and
Let it ring

Let it ring to Jesus
‘cause he sure’d be proud of you
You made fear an institution and
it got the best of you
Let it ring in the name
of the one that set you free
Let it ring

(more lyrics here)

I'm getting preachy...so I should stop. But it does argue a point....do we need to make a One80 in the way we not only talk but even approach each other? Have we forgotten that the person on the other side is first and foremost a "person" before being "on the other side?"

Communication

Chance? Work? A Miracle?

I have been blessed in my life so far to have been impacted an mentored by many people I now cherish. I didn't necessarily appreciate and/or enjoy all of the relationships with some of them during the moment, but I now see how I have been formed and shaped (for good and bad) by them. One of them is an older woman who lived a long fruitful life of many relationships. She was the wife of a pastor who sought to sharpen other people and mature future leaders by basically taking the role of a devil's advocate. Granted many times I wanted to half-nelson her (which would have been totally inappropriate as I was in my 20s and she in her 70s when I first met her - but it sure what have felt good - until I would have had to call 911)...but I digress. The point of the matter is that she taught me a lot. One of the sayings she often repeated was a truism I learned to experience only through her consistent dronings.

"Communication is a miracle."

In my flippant reponses I thought it was stupid, so obvious, too trite to matter...yet on further relfection through life experience, theological wondering, and hopefully personal maturation through social interaction and work experience, I find Isabelle's comment to be so true that it's a bit frightening.


I've thought much about her in the past week or so. I recently posted a blog article entitled "Shop Farmer Joe's". Since then I've heard and recieved several comments by email and phone call about my words/response to the continuing and emerging situation around the unionization debate and spoiled-food-claim-debacle swiming around the Farmer Joe's store in the Dimond and the deep shared desire for meaningful and meaning-making community within the larger context of East Oakland, and specifically the Dimond District (in which I primarily work as serve as pastor of a neighborhood church). Divided between pro-union and pro-business (as we always like to spin our various and diverse positions in a positive light) they all expressed that first and foremost they are pro-neighborhood...excited about the Dimond, proud to live in East Oakland...to have stayed, to have not fled to Piedmont, Orinda, or other safer places through the Caldecot or with a different zip code. They're proud and hopeful that the emergence and opening of Farmer Joe's in the Dimond (after the oringinal store in the Laurel) is a big sign and continuing catalyst of deep, systemic and organizational transformation within our neighborhood seeking to articulate, affirm and embrace the identity - both historic and emerging - of the place in which we move and live and have our being.


In some brief and rapid online reading tonight, I ran across a hot-off-the-keyboard-presses blog entry from Kristine Dang on her Dimondites site entitled "garbage" in which she shares a bit about some of the mis-communication and dis-communication directed towards her in terms of her response and blogging on the whole Farmer Joe's situation. I'm not meaning to take sides, nor taking the easy solution of seeking to be Switzerland. But I can say I deeply appreciate her Dimondites Blog and echo her desire for community and organic, inclusive and participatory dialogue/community within the larger Dimond Context.


Why is it that communication has to be a miracle? In the past week I've had several conversations that went no where. There was no connection. There was no listening because there were either too many elephants in the room or unclaimed baggage needing to be unpacked. I'm not saying I was in the right all the time. Yet the sadness of these multiple encounters were that they weren't encounters or dialogues...they were more like ships passing in the night with horns blowing, or sermonettes preached to another person, or cacaphonic noise. There was no encounter, only failed manipulation, propaganda dissimenation, and endoctrination efforts. Communication is more than just getting a message across. It's more about encounter and dialogue, about two subjects talking with - not just to - each other, in a way that invites and nurtures relationships, births community, and creates initiative towards shared, joint and mutually participatory action. More and more I suspect that there is indeed something sacred about communication. Maybe it is only possible by God's presence, purpose or passion. Maybe a theologian (John V. Taylor) I once read is correct in asserting that the Spirit of God is the "Go Between God" who makes all relationships, inter-personal encounters, and community not only meaningful and meaning-making but also possible. Without something present other than just our will-to-power, or egos, or desires wether spoken or unspoken...no communicaiton, no encounter, can happen.

Reminds me of the words of the apostle Paul in the 13th chapter of his first letter written to the early Christian church community in ancient Corinth

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a
noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and
understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as
to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all
my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not
have love, I gain nothing.

Words are cheap - as the saying goes...yet Love is the thing that seems most absent in my recent non-encounters and refelections. I'm struck by Kristine's words tonight...and so many others of the past days. Maybe they're brief encounters that leave me longing for more, deeper discussion and thoughtufl dialogue, pointing towards an emerging initiative for shared action in the context of community, instilling in me a desire for love like Paul writes of or the Indigo Girls sing of when they say "love is just like breathing when it's true."

Garbage In Garbage Out

What to do with your trash?

We escaped the heat and piling trash following the Waste Management Lock-Out with a brief family trip to trash free Tahoe. Upon returning home we were welcomed by the site of trash-lined streets over which the brown and grey cans of WM loomed like Sentries. So what are we to do?

Do you leave them out? Do you bring them in? When will they be picked up?

Jean Quan's District 4 Newsletter - out in e-format today - suggests to leave you can out because you never know if they'll be picked up. Read more about that, the emerging situation and trash tips in her newsletter here.

She recommends that you check the Oakland Recycles Website for updates on info (here)

A good article appeared in yesterday's SF Gate on the situation (with interviews from our neigbhors) (here)

Fourth of July
Fireworks in Oakland

If you're looking for fireworks in the East Bay the 4th of July (not the drive by kind) here's a list from Jean Quan's office to help you locate what show might work for you and your family.

Follow this link to her most recent e-newsletter. Then scroll down to the Fireworks Hotline.

Blogging Towards Sunday

July 8, 2007

WWJD

WhatWillYouDo?

The Lectionary List Scriptures that I'm reflecting through and meditating upon this week as I prepare to guide the worship celebration at Fruitvale Church this coming Sunday include Psalm 30 and Luke 10:1-20. Here are some of my thoughts as I encounter these passages, looking for God's footprint taces and listening for the Spirit's Word for us today in these ancient words. I also surf the web to make a photo montage that I hope brings some of the symbols of the assages to life as concrete, pertinent and participatory.

Psalm 30 is interesting. One of my favorites...the bit about night and day...transformation of our feelings, fears, and flights...from terror to joy, from mourning to dancing. The poetry is masterful, (re)telling the story of salvation, deliverance, healing that the poet has experienced; offering a testimony of who God is based on the subjective experience of what God has done for this psalmist-poet. The testimony of Psalm 30 invites us to belief, and to practice/experience of a God who heals, who creates and is just. A God who restores life, transforming weeping at nightfall into joy by sunrise, who turns mourning into dancing, who seems to be like a judge/jury before which a lawyer is pleading his case.

Walter Brueggemann, an Old Testament Scholar writes about the Hebrew Scriptures, "Speech consitutues reality, and who God turns out to be in Israel depends on the utterance of the Israelites or, derivateively, the utterance of the text." (p. 65, Theology of the Old Testament) What he's saying is that we only know who God is by the testimony that's passed on to us. We we claim it's not literally "true" we miss the boat entirely. The psalmist isn't trying to convince us to believe this or that with facts, objectively accurate historic data, or scientific theories. She's telling us of her faith, the transformation experience in her life that only the God of the Isaelites could have made happen. It's in her testimony words that God comes alive for us, in her speech that God takes form and shape in our imagination. She's not trying to be objective in a PC scientific way. She's lifting up her testimony as divine revelation in a pluaralistic setting, inviting us to start our reflection in a different place than the laboratory, news room, or fact-checking history storehouse. It's a truth that's deeper than literal, wider than historical, and more human than scientific. What I find powerful about all of this is that this testimony is shockingly different. Here's is a compassionate God who can be angry, who seems to calm down and intervene based in part upon the supplication, entreating, and pleading of the psalmist basically asking God to change his mind. It's not what we tend to think of when we fathom God. It's not a God in the clouds with lightening bolts, zapping us at will. It's a God that values relationship, community, dialogue, interdependence, the other.

Luke 10:1-20

This story of Jesus sending out the 70 is striking in a similar way. Jesus seems to say some harsh things. It's not just "love everyone and hug a tree" nor is he saying "wipe everyone out who isn't a card-carrying member of the Republican party towing the family values party line." Rather Jesus sends out his followers to speak for him. Again it's their testimony that make God real, their utterance of the good news that makes God present. But Jesus wants to make sure that they're balanced...that they neither abuse others or are abused. Curiously Jesus starts with a list of "not-to-dos" (v.3-4) before continuing on to a list of "to-dos." It's all about focus, balance, and hospitality. Jesus says that Sidon and Tyre (non-Jewish towns, pagan towns, towns from the other tribes/ethnicities) that seem to get it more than the towns which have known Jesus' words, actions, and presence (Caperaum).

The Kingdom of God comes near to those that receive it...not just in a prayer, or an out-of-body experience but in concrete, corporeal hospitality. Does God change his heart? Did Jesus make up his mind based on the judgement and experience of his disciples? Seems crazy to me that an all-knowing, all-powerful God would act in such a seemingly irresponsible way. So is it a hoax? Or is it of a deeper truth than we ever imagined?

Yesterday I had a great conversation after church with some friends about doing what God asks. First of all it's hard enough to know what God wants, or as some recently have said to know "What Would Jesus Do?" But these passages seem to point to a God that wants us to participate, to act, to be involved, to offer our testimony - not in some lone ranger sort-of-way, but submitted, informed, formed, sent out. We talked yesterday about WWJD? That in the end the real point is not what Jesus did but rather What Will You/We Do? We have to know the story, claim the testimony of those who've gone before us, for ourselves...and then speak, act, relate, and live from the underlying truth, ethic, and praxis. Jesus never waited in line for an IPhone, lost friends in a drive by gang-related shooting, or crossed a picket line to buy his groceries....so how do we decide and discern how we will live and act from the deep truth that we know in our relationship with Christ?

Not sure how to preach on this, how to present it on Sunday in a way that's both experiential and revelatory, participatory and reflective. Any thoughts?

It's Not Just Fireworks

You're Hearing

Recent Shootings in East Oakland

In my email reading this morning I learned about multiple shootings - most likely gang related - that happened at Fairfax and High Streets in East Oakland this past Saturday. At our place we hear loud bangs - seemingly fireworks - all night long these days. But that might not be the case. You can read about the shootings online in an Oakland Tribune Article Here

One note I read posted to a community website talked about the irony that if the shootings that happend in Maxwell Park (and happen in the Laurel and Dimond at times) were happening in Rockridge, the Oakland Hills, or Montclair (where property values are much higher - and the related socio-economic consequences of that situation) police/city action would be happening at a quicker or more effective rate. I'm not meaning to slander anyone, merely being the messenger of an observation which often seems to be fairly accurate. A response posted encouraged folks to contact our Oakland representatives, to ask for more effective police action - whether that's by email, phone calls, letter or by actually going in person to a City Council Meeting. Here's a link to help you know how to contact the official(s) that represent you.

Peet's in the Dimond

Opening this Sunday

July 1, 2007

Just learned this news thanks to Timothy Chapman
You can see more about the store on the Peet's Website

The new store address is
Peet's Dimond District
3401 Fruitvale Ave
Oakland, CA 94602

Go for a Latte on Sunday...then stop by Farmer Joe's to stock up on fantastically fresh fruits...and stick it to the union smear campaign while you stay healthy!

Nonviolence Is Organized Love:
One Hour for Peace

In Oakland's

Dimond District

July 1, 2007 @ 7:00pm

Spend an hour with your neighbors. We will light candles and hold signs that express our hopes for peace in Oakland and the world. Bring a sign if you like, but you don’t need to because we have extras. Just bring yourself.



When: Sun. July 1, 2007 at 7 PM


(the 1st of EVERY month)



Where: Oakland , Corner of MacArthur & Lincoln


(" Peace Park "--a small park across from 7-11)
This is something we’ve been doing the first of the month every month since January 1, 2005 . We always have fun and it’s great to make new friends in the community. For more information, call Ruth/Diane at 510-530-3099 or 510-504-2003 (cell).

SHOP FARMER JOE'S

Yesterday on the news and this morning in the Tribune there are reports about the most recent brouhaha around Farmer Joe's in the Dimond.

People are saying that the food is spoiled and well past the sell-date on the shelves of this local store in East Oakland. The article and some others point to a connection between these complaints and some Union related folks who have been pressuring employees of Farmer Joe's to do a card-check election in terms of unionizing the staff at this family-owned store.

1. I'm not an expert, or necessarily objective, so read my words with my disclaimer in your mind. I'll never be in a union - because there's no money to be made either in working as a pastor or in trying to unionize the pastor workforce! I find it suspect that this is coming up now when I have the impression that the Union forces are losing face in our neighborhood.

2. Famer Joe's is just the kind of business, along with others such as Paws & Claws, that will not only transform our Oakland neighborhoods but then also sustain the dynamic they help create.

3. I've shopped at Safeway - a union store - and noticed the difference. I'd disagree with the quotes in the article. Based on experience in the Dimond, the non-union store is definitely the way to go. Unless you like shopping for items and not finding them on emtpy shelves.

4. The Tams (owners of Farmer Joe's) work their butts off. Their staff is always courteous, helpful and kind. If they're being persecuted by the store owners it must be in some bizarre, Brave-New-World under-the-counter electric shock thing going on that zapps disgruntled employees without anyone - and I mean me - having ever noticed in my 80 or so trips to the store.

5. If you can't tell if a product is past its shelf-life, put on your glasses, learn to read, use your seeing-eye dog, or as a last resort actually ask the staff in the store - there to help you - for help in reading the very complicated labeling that our goverment ensures is used on food products for sale.

6. If you buy something that's rotten, take it back. Duh! That's what receipts are for. Don't call KTVU or KRON. Simply go to customer service. If it's not ripe....wait...nature works that way.

7. Fight the power. Shop Farmer Joe's. Let the union build their own grocery store!

8. If you don't believe me. Believe others. Check out their yelp review of Farmer Joe's.

9. This is a smear campaign, meant to bring down a quality business that is strengthening our (re)emerging neighborhood.

Blogging Towards Sunday

July 1, 2007

"Get over yourself already!

And follow me."

-Jesus of Nazareth, Luke 9:62

(monteskewed translation)

I'm relfecting on the Lectionary List Scriptures that we're using as our foundational word and invitation to relfection on the meaning of life, and our lives this coming Sunday, July 1st at Fruitvale Church in Oakland. We're lifting up the following 2 scriptures because of their commonalities. Psalm 77,:1-2, 11-20 & Luke 9:51-62. Jesus is talking about discipleship...what it costs to follow him, and what it looks like. I quickly thought of German Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his classic (and probably way-too-often quoted) comparison of cheap vs. costly grace (even if it is fantastically radical in terms of meaning-making in our 21st century lives and livelihoods).

Pslam 77 is the prayer-cry of someone facing deep fear, radical doubt, and extreme isolation. She cries out so that God will hear her. It's interesting that the prayer poem starts with verses focused on "I did this.." "I said this..." and then moves onto talking about God saying "you are.." "you will..." it then continues with comments in the 3rd person about how the universe responds "the clouds..." before conluding with an affirmation of faith about how God led the people through the sea, delivering them, guiding them to free, liberated life under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. The psalm-poem challenges the isolation felt by the depressed poet, inviting her to open her mind and world-view to recognize that she is part of something bigger, that her life is part of a chain, interdependent and connected to those that have lived before her (and who'll undoubtedly come after her). It's a freeing movement from the depravity of isolation to the meaning-making of community, from an experience of drifting chaos to one of centered rootedness, from me-centered to other-centered life.

In Luke 9:51-62 Jesus is confronted with different responses to who he is as a Jewish man, as well as by diverse reactions and interpretations of his call to discipleship. When the Samaritans, who were the racially excluded and oppressed victims of Jewish culture at that time (because they were viewed as hybrids - not in a good Prius-sort-of-way, but in an impure, traitorous, heretic way), reject Jesus, the latter's disciples want to reign down fire on them. They want to avenge this rejection through violence, subconsciously or maybe overtly wanting to perpetuate the genocidal/racist/elitists division and self-righteousness that they've grown up with through more violence in the hope of wiping the bad guys out. Jesus rebukes them (How? Interesting that the text doesn't say in v. 55). As they continue to journey along the road a fellow disciple/traveller announces proudly, "where you go Jesus I'll go too!" Jesus then sets about with some seemingly depressing and discouraging proclamations. Is Jesus trying to discourage his followers? Is he trying to weed out the losers? Is he anti-family in saying that you have to "let the dead bury the dead", not worrying about dying (or most likely alread long dead) family members, but rather follow him? What is he some sort of radical extremist karesh-styled cult-leader? I think that Jesus is actually unmasking the powers and excuses through a radicalized invitation. You can't have 2 masters. You can't have it both ways. You can't have it your way. You either follow or you don't. His response seems to be "Get over yourself and follow me!"

At first reading I'm a bit scandalized. I mean I want to be open, not tolerant for tolerance's sake, not open to keep all my options open, but open in the sense that I have to believe that just because I say it's true doesn't mean it's the Truth. I want to, and have committed to, follow Jesus with all of my life; yet I don't want that to imply a self-aggrandizing or self-righteous judgement of everyone else as lost, loser, or destined to burn in hell for all eternity. OK - so you say the scriptures might say that....but I'm not sure that they really do. Maybe I'm a product of my generation and culture....maybe I'm just a Bobo

Instead of community arising as a byproduct of rigid belief, people will return
to religious belief beacause of their desire for community. In other
words, people will return to religious tradition not necessarily because
they accept the truth of revelation, but precisely because the absence of
community and the transience of social ties in the secular world makes them
hungry for ritual and cultural tradition. They will help the poor or their
neighbors not because doctrine tells them they must, but rather because they
want to serve their community and find that faith-based organizations are
the most effective ways of doing so. They will repeat ancient prayers and
reenact age-old rituals not because they believe they were handed down by
God, but rather because they want their children to have proper values, and
because they want to enjoy the comfort of ritual and the sense of sahred
experience it brings. In a sense they will not be taking religion seriously
on its own terms. Religion becomes a source of ritual in a society that has
been stripped bare of ceremony, and thus a reasonable extension of the
natrual desire for social relatedness with which all human beings are born.
(pp. 242-243)

Checkout the book (Bobos in Paradise) at amazon.com or read author David Brook's Blog

I want to believe that we have choice, and yet no choice, that we have freedom and yet we have a deep need for ritual and rootedness in the past. Just because it's old it doesn't mean it's not good. Just because I want the freedom to choose doesn't mean that I think it's all about me - or that it every should be. It's a dialetic - both free to choose and not free not too choose. Reminds me of a quote from the Jewish Writings of the Fathers - the Pirke Avot 2:21,

"You are not obliged to complete the task,

Neither are you free to refrain from it."

I want to find community and both live in it and from it. For me community comes from faith, an invitation to move from me to we, from self-centered to other-focused, from radical consumer-oriented individualism to meaning-making and world-changing community. David Brooks' reflection is thought-provoking, yet I haven't choosen to participate in a faith community only in a search for community. For me Jesus said the same thing, but without the baggage that we've maybe collecteed by living in a time/culture/space stripped of ritual, meaning-making belief, and faith-based community."

Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him
because of the crowd. And [Jesus] was told, ‘Your mother and your
brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.’ But [Jesus] said to
them, ‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do
it.’

Luke 8:19-21

A friend turned me on to this funny mechurch video below. It gives a funny glimpse of the me-focused extremes I'm talking about and the pseudo/psychotic faith that Jesus is trying to unmask in Luke 9 and inviting followers to get over through his challenging words.

I don't think Jesus is a radical extremist all-for-me-or-nothing cultish leader, rather I think he's a prophet of justice and righteousness calling us - still today - on our self-importance, self-absorption and belief that we can satisfy oursevles through our own independent actions, thoughts, and words.

I'm turned on to Brandi Carlile these days, in one song "The Story" she sings the following words that resonate deeply with the scriptures for Sunday -

You see these lines upon my face,

they tell you the story of who I am,

So many stories of where I've been

and how I got to where I am

But theses stories don't mean anything,

If you don't have anyone to tell them to,

You. I was made for you.

If life is a story...which in a sense is what we believe if Jesus is understood as the WORD of God spoken to the universe, to us,...then we are invited to listen to the story, to tell ours...to enter a dialogue focused not upon ourselves, but outside of ourselves...not because it's good for us...but because being in the dialogue is what makes sense of life, making meaning of our actions, words, relationships, work and rest.

montana slim

live video bit

sf 062607

montana slim my favorite blue-grass band in nor cal played their first ever presbytery gig today at a church gathering i attended. here's a minute long clip of their jamming on the song "telluride"



i loved seeing various friends, acquaintances and colleagues sitting, eating dim sum and talking together while the men of montana slim did their blue grass thing in the summer fog of the city. where else but in san francisco? you can learn more about them and discover their future concert gig schedule in and around san francisco on their myspace page here.

OAKLAND

in the news

& other tidbits

If you're a resident and/or fan of Oakland, in particular the neighborhoods of East Oakland here are 3 intersting tidbits/news links I learned of this week through my online reading and networking.

1. City Share in the Dimond
2. Oakland named #1 city in terms of renewable energy
3. Oakland in the NY Times
4. Laurel Music Festival - Fete de la Musique

1. City CarShare Could Come to the Dimond:
Does your teen or college student disappear with your car? Are you a senior or avid bicyclist who only needs a car occasionally? Want to cuts costs and get rid of a second car used only a few times a month? My office and the Dimond Improvement Association have been discussing with City CarShare the possibility of expanding into the Dimond commercial district. City CarShare is a non-profit organization that provides members with around-the-clock access to a fleet of cars throughout the Bay Area, primarily for short trips, featuring a choice of compacts, pickup trucks, hybrids and Minis. Members sign up for a fee (now waived under a special trial period) and get an electronic key in the mail. Reservations are made on line. Driving rates are $4/hour and 44 cents per mile. City CarShare is looking for 200 probable users in the Dimond area. If you are interested in being one of the 200, email Richard Cowan in our office or contact the Dimond Improvement Association. City CarShare will also be at the next Dimond Improvement Association meeting at the Dimond Library, Thursday, July 5 at 7:30 pm.

(I lifted this from Councilwoman Jean Quan's Website & Weekly Web News)


2. Oakland rated #1 for Cities in terms of renewable energy use.
This comes from Jean Quan's weekly webupdate too. Here's a link to read the article online.

3. Oakland makes news in the NY Times.
Unfortunately it's again about the spiraling out of control murder rate. Here's the link to the article.

4. Laurel Music Festival - Fete de la Musique
Today's the day for a great event - the 2nd annual Laurel Music Festival - from 1-7pm. Great Fun! We went last year and enjoyed the music, great food, community tables & connections and the excellent kids' area. My daughters couldn't get enough of the fishing hole and the pony rides! Here's the link to learn more.
It's the Laurel version of Fete de la Musique, a great nation-wide celebration in France every summer solstice (June 21st) - a great way to start off the summer (Here's the official French Homepage)....I'm glad that our neighbors in the Laurel have such vision and desire for community fun!

Responsibility

in a Flattening Urban World

I was at a dinner gathering/discussion last night talking about hope, peace and sharing what the gathered folks experience as good news in their lives. It was exciting, encouraging and envigorating...sharing ideas, feeling a connectedness that breathes and nurtures community. I found myself relfecting on some words we meditated upon together last night, and some others that I have written on the first page of my journal.

"For our sake he made him to be sin
who knew no sin, so that in him
we might become the righteousness of God."
- 2 Corinthians 2:21

"You are not obliged to complete the task,
niether are you free to refrain from it."
-Prike Avot 2:21

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
-Albert Einstein

"Love is just like breathing when it's true."
-The Indigo Girls

This morning as I try to center for the day, reading the paper, with coffee and some reflection... I'm struck by the ideas of these quotes...responsibility, inter-dependence, creativity, a new way of being with oneself and with each other. What does it mean that we aren't obliged to do anything...and yet neither are we free to do nothing. I think I get it...but do I really? What does Paul mean when we says that "we might become the righteousness of God?" What does that mean in terms of responsibility, obligation, freedom, and the way we live, breathe, and move in the world?

In the papers and my internet reading I'm struck by stories of interdependence, how we're Bound Together and making connections in our globalized and ever-flattening world. I'm saddened by the tragic news of a Maxwell Park neighbor shot last night by another too impatient driver because the former took to long to parallel park, the story of the Morrissey family murder/suicide/familicide, and the reality that Baghdad is as unstable as ever, and the tragic death of Michael James Keenan who died from burn suffered in a act of selfless good-samaritan-ism.

In our urban, ever-flattening world we can't live in isolation, withdrawing from the pain, horrors, tragedies, and blight around us....yet on a certain level that's what we long for. How do you respond when your neighbor is robbed by older children looking for a Play Station, or another is shot for driving too slow, or another dies trying to save your dog? How do we understand the concept of neibhorliness in a globalized world...where we might have more in common with folks in Shanghai, Jakarta, Lima, Bangalore, or Frankfurt than with those living next doors to us?

Everywhere I went yesterday I saw the tired face of Bruce Willis staring out at me from the back of AC Transit buses declaring the movie title and motto "Live Free or Die Hard" Catchy title...but what does it mean for those of us seeking to live, not just survive, in freedom - fully human lives in the midst of the oftentimes chaotic cacophony of urban life? If Paul is correct in saying that in and through Christ we are becoming the righteousness of God...what does that say about us - our responsibilities, relationships, and actions? What does it say about God's nature, purpose and passion?

Blogging Towards Sunday, June 24th
Freedom from Fear

The Biblical Texts suggested by the Lectionary List of Scriptures for this coming Sunday include:

1 Kings 19:1-15
Psalm 42
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39

I'm focusing on 1 Kings, Psalm 42 and Luke 8 because as I study and meditate on them I hear the common themes of hunger, thirst, fear, terror, despair, memory, hope, transformation, wholeness, humanness and freedom.

1 Kings 19 continues the telling of the story of the life, ministry and example of the prophet Elijah in ancient Israel. Alone in his faithfulness to the God of Israel, he faces a multitude of competing and false prophets sent by the twisted King Ahab and deceiving Queen Jezebel. In chapter 18 Elijah takes on 450 prophets of Baal in a contest of God's power, a bit like a religious reality show "hour of power" in which the God of Israel is victorious. Elijah commands the people to kill the 450 false prophets as a spiritual cleansing of his nation which has turned to worship other gods such as Baal, through ways such as child sacrifice, as opposed to worshipping the God of Israel by caring for the orphan, widow and foreigner. Elijah's victory leads to an increase in persecution, for the sore loser Jezebel puts a price on his head, sentencing him to sure death. It's then that he is overcome by despair, fear of the future, terror of what will happen to him as he is all alone. (Edvard Munch's famous painting "The Scream" captures this moment well.) Discouraged by the limitations of his resources, he longs for death, beseeching God to put him out of his misery. God doesn't grant his prayer, but instead sends an angel to feed and nourish him. God doesn't wipe away his terror, despair, and doubt. Rather God quenches his thirst and hunger, giving strength through power food and then noursishes Elijah's faith and hope by passing before him. One of the most famous selections of scripture that presents a theophany or revelation of who God is...it still speaks novels to me today...

God said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord isabout to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting
mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in
the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the
earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire;
and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped
his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then
there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ (11-13)

God speaks in an unexpected way, in a power manifest not in violence but in gentleness, not in a scream but in whisper. But God doesn't speak to Elijah in a pacifiying or reductionist way. God reminds Elijah of who he is, of who God is and the ministry to which Elijah is called...re-energizing Elijah to be faithful to Yahweh by continuing to raise him up to lead the people of God in a time of peril.

Psalm 42 could very well be the prayer that Elijah is uttering through sobs and tears as he is on the Mountain of Horeb, fleeing from Jezebel, hungry for death. The poetry reminds us that human life depends on God; we need God. Even when we can't do anything we are invited to "remember" - remember the past, remember God's faithfulness. Remember not in a past-oriented way, but in a way in which we remember in order to live now and lean into the future. In a place in which it's easy to think - or even where we're taught - that it's all up to us, the psalm poetry affirms that human life derives from or depends upon God, a God that is not forgetful, not unjust, and not passive. One of my study books refered to the opening paragraph of St. Augustine's Confessions in which he write "the thought of God stirs the [human being] so deeply that he cannot be content unless he praise God, because God made us for Godself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in him."

Luke 8 tells the miracle encounter story of an exorcism by Jesus not of Linda Blair, but of a lone man living in the area of the Gerasenes (the pagan, or non-Jewish lands to the East of the Lake of Gennesaret). The town has sentenced this one lone man to live outside the town as the scape-goat for all the evil and ills of the town and its people. Jesus exorcises him, freeing him not only from the demon possession by Legion but also from his dehumanizing rejection, isolation, and banishment to live among the tombs and loneliness of the graveyard. Jesus' power transforms his terror to wholeness, re-humanizing him, inviting him not only to life, but new life as discipleship. Perhaps the village folks are more scared of this man being not only freed and tolerated but also included and listened to than just him being healed and made whole. One writer (Francois Bovon) commented that Jesus wants people around him that are fully human: the definition of salvation. But this salvation doesn't reduce itself to Jesus wanting us to simply be normal, like everyone else.

So what is this freedom that the 3 texts talk of? Freedom to hear God's voice. Freedom to remember in order to lean into the future. Freedom to be fully human, fully present, fully involved, and fully part of God's plan made known in Jesus of Nazareth.

Problems/Questions I have with the texts include the following:

1. What's up with Elijah? Maybe he made the whole thing up. It'd be a convenient explanation-story for why he couldn't take his own life. Yet if so why make God's presence and voice so weird - so gentle - so unexpected?

2. What's up with the psalmist? Is she simply choosing to see life through "rose colored glasses" instead of recognizing what everyone around her is asking - "Where is your God?" Is this simply a poem inviting us to the pie-in-the-sky belief that Marx and the materialists described as the opiate of the masses and that Nietzsche affirms as the reasons that Christianity is for the weak?

3. What's up with Jesus? If he's all about freedom, inclusion, and the human community why does he stick it to the owner of the herd of pigs while he saves this one lone man? Isn't he simply transfering the suffering of one person to another? Plus does this passage lift up a belief that human beings are more important than animals? And why doesn't Jesus let the man come with him? Why sentence this newly-freed town reject/scape-goat to remain and live with those that treated him so badly, oppressing and dehumanizing him for so long?

What strikes me underneath and throughout the 3 passages is the theme of hunger, thirst, and freedom. These scriptures don't describe what the materialists and modern atheists depict as the god delusion and the opiate of the masses. It's not about faith that invites the poor and dispossessed to simly accept their fate. Rather it paints the picture of a God that nourishes us, seeking a relationship with us and for us to be in relationship with one another in new ways. The God made known in Jesus the Christ doesn't simply want us to be normal but to be whole, not simply to be healed but to be saved.

Makes me think of the prayer of thanksgiving spoken over the waters before baptism (from the Book of Common Worship)

Pour out your Spirit upon us
and upon this water,
that this font may be your womb of new birth.
May all who now pass through these waters
be delivered from death to life,
from bondage to freedom,
from sin to righteousness.
Bind them to the household of faith,
guard them from all evil.
Strenthen them to serve you with joy
until the day you make all things new.
To you be all praise, honor, and glory;
through Jesus Christ our Savior,
who, with you and the Holy Spirit,
lives and reigns forever.
Amen.

COMING SOON

Peet's Coffee in the Dimond

Meet New Store Manager

Scott Soo-Hoo

I met today with the manager of the new Peet's Coffee store scheduled to open on Fruitvale Ave. across from Farmer Joe's in the Dimond District in July. If you've been by the store lately you'll notice that it looks ready to go. And it nearly is!

Scott Soo-Hoo is the manager of the new store. I met him through a friend that often hung out at the store Scott previously managed in the East Bay. So I decided to seek him out to learn a bit more about developments in the new store. Scott is a native of Oakland, having lived all across the city for over 40 years, and also owned his own small business for about 7 years on Grand Ave. He's now been working in coffee for 12 years. For Peet's, Scott has had a wide variety of professional responsabilities including: store management, training employees and management, opening new stores, and written training manuals. He's excited about working at the new Dimond store because it's in the Dimond district, a smaller, more communal area with a neighborhood feel, in the throngs of revitalization, and also because he lives nearby.

When asked about the recent crime in the Dimond, Scott shared that the Peet's has done research, and been informed by both our Dimond beat officer and public crime statistics. They've noted that most crimes occur after 9pm. so the store will be open daily (Mon-Sun) from 5:30am to 8:00pm (every day except Christmas). The store will have security cameras installed in both the front and the back in order to both reduce crime by being visual and also to prevent internal theft. Scott has also already had some contact and communication with the Dimond Merchant's Association, specifically with Ruth Villasenor co-owner of Paws-&-Claws, and co-chair of the Dimond Business & Professional Association.

The store will have about 25 chairs. There will be 3 large tables with benches and chairs, as well as a handicap accessible table and a taller counter-table alongside the window facing Fruitvale Ave. They won't have Wi-Fi access, but Scott mentioned that he's heard it's possible to pick it up free on the block. As of this moment they don't plan on outside seating.

The store will open in July, even if you see people beginning to work in the space in the next weeks. They've had had to push back the initial open date of June 25th because of construction complications regarding their power, which are taking longer than expected. Once they get things up and running, Scott looks forward to participating in the larger Dimond community both through the DMA and other avenues. He's willing to listen to what's happening (give him some time to settle in) and to help out in the community.

I asked a bit about the staff currently being trained. Scott said that 3/4 of them come from our community and that 85% are also customers of Peet's. In general he says that the new hires were those that interviewed well, were passionate about Peet's products and also passionate about the neighborhood.

Since it is all about coffee - I asked Scott what he drinks. He's a fan of all teas, currently excited about Organic Jade Mist, a certified organic green tea that Peet's carries. It has a green tea flavor and doesn't turn bitter if seeped too long. He's also a fan of Black Kenyan Coffee because of its subtleties and nuances.

Look for Scott when the stores opens for business next month!

How do we know that what we call the truth

is true?

Postmodern Musings

“Postmodernism

is incredulity towards metanarratives.”

- Jean-François Lyotard

The past weeks at our church I've been teaching and talking about reading the Bible. Is is still worth it? How do we read it? How do we understand what the message or messages is/are that it declares? Is it true? Can we claim that it is?

This past Sunday I talked about truth....using the above quote from Jean-François Lyotard who many might consider to be the father-figure of the notion of 'postmodernism' since he was one of the first to have the courage to attempt a definition of it. For him, postmodernism is the suspicion of and disbelief in “big stories” (metanarratives). The central tension for him is between science and narratives. The question of the relation between modernity and postmodernity revolves around the issue of LEGITIMATION. Modernity, then, appeals to science to legitimate its claim – and by “science” we simply mean the notion of a universal, autonomous reason. Science, then, is opposed to narrative, which attempts not to prove its claims but rather to proclaim them within a story. Narrative knowledge is grounded in the custom of a culture and, as such, does not require legitimation. Lyotard says that scientific knowledge, which considered itself to be a triumph over narrative knowledge, covertly grounds itself in a narrative (or orginary myth). Science says its legitimate because of REASON – a supposedly universal criterion. The appeal to reason as the criterion for what constitutes knowledge is but one more language game among many, shaped by founding beliefs or commitments that determine what constitutes knowledge within the game; reason is grounded in myth. What characterizes the postmodern condition, then, is not a rejection of grand stories in terms of scope or in the sense of epic claims, but rather an unveiling of the fact that all knowledge is rooted in some narrative or myth.

In other words there can be no such thing as objective knowledge.

What then are the implications for faith

- in particular the Christian faith I (and maybe you too) subscribe to?

What’s at stake is the relationship between faith and reason.
Faith is shared by faithful storytelling. It cannot be proved or demonstrated with reason.
Crucial for our discipleship and formation is being able to write ourselves into the story of God’s redeeming action in the world – being able to find our role in the play, our character in the story. To do that, we need to know the story, and that story should be communicated when we gather as the people of God, that is, in worship. This is why the most postmodern faith communities, and Christian congregations will be those that lean to be ancient, reenacting the biblical narrative.

Because the church values narrative, it values story and the way in which stories are told through signs and symbols (such as water, bread, wine, oil, sand, fire, wind, and the cross). The arts will need to be more valued as an incarnational medium that embodies the story of God’s faithfulness. The church need to be characterized by hospitality, inviting the world to hear the story as we live the story for the world.

As I think about this here are some

questions to ponder, reflect upon & discuss (online if you like!)

→We have to ask ourselves what is the metanarrative that we as people of faith, or as church communities, lift up as our identity, purpose, and unity?

→Does our story living support our story telling?

→How does it change our understanding of the Jesus as the truth, the way, and the life (John 14:6) if we also subscribe to the implications of Lyotard's (and others') opinion that no truth, or explanation of origin, is objectively true, or demonstratable in an undeniably proof-able way?

→Does the implications of this thought mean that people of faith are simply more ignorant than others?; or that faith is as equally as valid as a meta-narrative to base one's life upon as the theory of evolution, atheism, or maybe the idea that the world of Harry Potter is the true universe we're supposed to live in?

A lot of the synthesis of my thoughts are results of my reading of a great little book called Who's Afraid of Postmodernism? by James K. A. Smith