Oakland is Being Transformed by the

Bobos, Creative Class, Rejuveniles & SF Housing Refugees

The proof is in the Pinot, not the Pudding

The cover of today's Tribune sports a great article on the changing nature of Oakland. Oakland's Wine Scene is Ripening. The article points to what many of us are expereincing directly or through heresay. At a recent gathering someone asked me if I thought that the Dimond District was gentrifying, and then wondered what was being done to ensure that all of the Dimond residents were still made welcome in their neighborhood.

The article talks about the changes of and in Oakland through the example of several newly opened wine bars. The first paragraph says it all, "IF SPROUTING condominium complexes and the construction of upscale supermarkets haven't convinced you of the revival under way in neighborhoods around Oakland's Lake Merritt, consider the handful of trendy wine bars coming to the area. "

I guess I'm one of the transplants, happy with Oakland and also happy with the new Farmer Joe's, La Farine, Peet's, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Bakesale Betty and Cesar. But the changes aren't just about shopping, eating, and wine-drinking. It's also a lot about culture. How is the new emerging, or post-modern, or bobo-ish culture effecting the larger multiculturality of Oakland? In my own community I see some of the tensions eeking out. I never would have thought 6 years ago (when I came to Oakland) that there would be a Yoga Studio, Candle Shop and Designer Women's Clothing Store on the same block that the church I serve as pastor is located, along with about 2 corner liquor stores. Are we really responding to the transformations happening all around us on so many levels, or are we merely reacting to them? Does a renaissance in what has often been called gritty urban Oakland, the working-class Dimond/Laurel neighborhoods, or even Fruitvale Presbyterian Church have to come at the expense or loss of those that have long been here? Or is there a win-win way forward?

When it comes to the Christian Church today, (I seem to bring everything back to this) I think the reason we're shrinking in numbers is that as a community we're not able to manage this major change of worldview, nor to integrate this transformation of communication and relationships, nor to articulate what it means to follow Jesus in the language that our world and culture speaks. It's not just a matter of "repackaging" things to jazz them up. It's not a question of method over message. It's about understanding and claiming what is essential to and for us as followers of Jesus and then articulating that in a coherent and connectional way to a culture more interested in experience, participation and community than in a 3 point sermon, a easy to memorize tract, or an easy-to-sing hymn.

In talking with a wise friend today about this article we asked each other if we see the tension of the emerging Oakland vs. the existing Oakland and our city-wide transformation in and throughout Oakland. I do and I don't. How about you? Do you see it? If so, where?

Can Parents & Teens be

BFFs in a Tech-Friendly World?

I heard a funny ad on the radio this morning with a 90+ year old woman talking to her grown daughter in texting language. It made me remember youth group at our church last night during which I talked with some late-teen/early-20s folks from our church about facebook and myspace. In the middle of that conversation an 11 year old asked me if I'd seen his myspace page yet. (Of course he's too young to have one, but that's besides the point - isn't it). I also remember a recent meeting during which someone asked "What's a BFF?" Coming home to down my second cup of coffee I began reading today's Tribune & ran across the great front-page article "Tech creates parent-teen disconnect" in which it's suggested to parents to "bridge the gap by getting up to speed on the techonology teens use."

Makes me wonder about my own kids, who haven't yet started texting, and then about the changing nature of communication. We seem to have more and more to say in more and more formats (phones, email, cell phones, blackberries, texting, blogs....) and yet there seems in general to be more and more confusion in terms of interpersonal communication and relationships & community buidling. I don't think it's just a young in body vs. young at heart contrast. It has to be bigger. I think it has to do with worldview more than age, with the larger transformation of our society, culture, and world economy. We can wish to go back to yesteryear when everything was so rosy, safer and easy. But those rose-colored glasses don't yet have the power to teleport us backwards in time. Makes me wonder a lot of things about relationships, community organizing, education - and church communities. I wonder if we're even aware of what's already changed and happening around us today? Seems like we're not, after this tribune article.

If you need a texting tutorial, or initiation, here's a helpful site (Lingo2Word) HERE.

GL txtN

New Mural @ Sequoia School

Plants and Hopes Growing High

Art is Education

I went today to the Harvest Festival and dedication of the new mural at Sequoia Elementary School designed and painted by Sequoia's Artist-n-Resdidence Debbie Koppman. (photo).

The mural is based on collage drawings made by Sequoia student in grades 1 - 5. The mural's theme of plants growing high makes a visual connection between their art, garden, and arts integration programs, while working to improve the aesthetics of the school. As an Arts Anchor Schoo, they want their ongoing efforts to increase their students' access to the visual arts to also be embodied in the building itself. Dedicated Saturday, October 27th from 11am-12pm. [text retaken from the flyer made by Debbie Koppman with permission]. Here's some photos in a slideshow of both the Mural and the Harvest Festival.

I talked with Debbie for a few moments and learned that she is helping facilitate the creation of another mural (in the very near future) at Bret Harte in the blacktop area with the theme of "IMAGINE." I'm looking forward to more great public art that supports our schools and community as well as integrating art as education in our curriculum. Thanks Debbie and others - including Sequoia principal Kyla Trammal - for your imaginitive and integrative work!

Bret Harte Middle School is have an information night for prospective parents November 15th, 6-8pm. More info is online on their website HERE.

Read more online about the Arts Program at Sequoia on East Bay Express HERE.

More Upcoming "Art IS Education" programs and events HERE.

Blogging Towards Sunday
October 28, 2007
The Un-named Woman, The Hokey Pokey,

Peter Parker & Following Jesus

Mark 5:21-34

Luke 17:20
20[Jesus] said to them, ‘…Truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed,

you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there”,

and it will move;

and nothing will be impossible for you.’

1 Corinthians 6:19
19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?

1 Corinthians 12:27
27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

This passage from Mark is the scripture of the first sermon I ever preached, nearly a dozen years ago at the ERF Church in Vallon Pont-d'Arc. At the time a friend told me that it was a horror that I - and/or any man - should preach on this text.

The story is about an unnamed woman who is suffering from constant menstruation that has lasted for over 12 years and cost her all that she once owned in medical costs and fees. She comes to Jesus in the midst of a massive and faceless crowd for her final chance, hope and dream of healing. She pushes through the bodies and reaches out her hand, touching the fringe or fray of Jesus' garments and is instantly healed. She then tries to sneak away without being noticed. Yet Jesus won't let her go so easily. He calls out, asking who has been healed by the anonymous touch. Is he going to punish her? Scream at her? Embarrass her? Why would he do such a thing?

According to established Jewish Law her condition makes her unclean - both ceremonially, ritually, spiritually and physically. She cannot enter a synagogue to seek healing. She cannot enter her home. She cannot go to the market, or visit her friends. She must live outside of the camp, or town, in isolation [the title of the first painting in the slideshow] until she is healed and whole so that she won't contaminate the community she once belonged to with her unclean-ness.

Jesus calls out to her to recognize her, to name her "daughter", to restore her as a vital part of this community. It's more than just a story about healing. It's a story of healing, which lifts up that our faith, our bodies and our relationships/community are interconnected and interdependent. We so often seem to forget or deny that. We so often dissociated faith or spirituality from our bodies and what is physical. We regulate faith to one realm and the rest of life to another. Some would say that it's a problem of separating church and state, I'd say it's much bigger than that.

I led some signing at our daughter's preschool the other day with my guitar. The closing song was the "hokey pokey." What fun to see toddles so at ease with their bodies: jumping, falling, laughing and tumbling, touching each other and letting others touch them as they danced around. What happens to us to make us so ashamed of our bodies, so jealous of other bodies, so prudish about the forms in which we were created?

Sunday is Reformation Sunday, the Sunday each year during which we're invited to celebrate the reformation - and what it means for us to be reformed followers of Jesus today. An essential part of this reformed perspective of Christian faith is recognized that faith is embodied..that the Word of God became flesh, human flesh; that we are created in God's image in bodies; that we are called to live out and into our faith in a community - what the Apostle Paul calls "the body of Christ."

Spider Man is one of the movies in my world these past years, because I like it, and also because some friends say I look & act like Peter Parker. What strikes me about that whole comic myth is the theme that Peter is the everyday man, in fact more like the everyday nerd - skinny, scrawny, overlooked yet smart. When he becomes powerful his uncle whispers his last breath to him saying, "with great power comes great responsibility." I think that's what the scripture of Mark 5 is about. It's a bit corny but Peter through his trials, heartbreaks and tribulations learns to live into his faith: that he has a purpose.

Jesus knows his great power - he knows what great responsibility is. It's about building community, expanding the body, not excluding those who don't fit in, or look a certain way. It's about living by faith, acting from faith (like the un-named bleeding woman), and into faith like Peter Parker. That's what faith really is: following Jesus. It's not having all the answers. It's not being on the "inside" of the righteous club. It's not about knowledge, but about experience; not about isolation but about community; not about being a know-it-all but about participation. More and more I think we're called more to follow Jesus (doing what he taught, living as he lived) than to just believe in him. Maybe that's what he meant when he said that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed (that's really small- for us urbanites) we can move mountains.

2 Trader Joe's in Oakland

I couldn't resist cruising to the new Trader Joe's Store that opened on Lakeshore yesterday. It was beautiful. The parking lot was crazy, although I scored a front row spot without any effort. Doubt that will happen again.

The store was packed and beautiful. The line was about 25 people long, seemingly endless but efficiently processed with great speed. Here's some photos of the long lines that took less than 5 minutes to work our way through to check out and score some free popcorn.

Here's an article that ran in Friday's Oakland Tribune too (HERE).

After going to TJ's I took my daughters for gelato at the new Whole Food near downtown (our new favorite ice cream spot). It's great to see so many Oaktowners shopping in Oakland, keeping our money, time and relational connections in our city as opposed to just across the city limit lines in Alameda and Emeryville (no offense to them!).

Sequoia Elementary's

Prospective Parent Night

Sequoia ElementarySchool is having a Prospective Parent Information Night on Tuesday, November 13th at 7 pm in the school library.

SequoiaElementary, is an Oakland K-5 elementary school, and represents the very best of urban public education. They are a small and caring multicultural environment where children flourish academically and socially, with the support of our dedicated teachers, parents, and volunteers. Come learn more about this wonderful school community, meet their dynamic principal, and talk to current parents.

Sequoia is located at 3730 Lincoln Avenue.

Oakland, CA 94602

Phone: 879-1510.

You may also view additional information about Sequoia Elementary School at http://www.sequoiaschool.net/

Amy Blackshaw amybshaw at gmail.com

Cheers to Kelly for the info!

She also shared that a second info night is scheduled for January 15th.

Here's a link to the Prospective Parents' page on their website (HERE)

Here's a review of the School on Great Schools (HERE)

Dimond Howl-o-ween Pet Parade

and Costume Party

Here's a great Dimond/Laurel family fun event for families with members with both 2 and 4 legs! We went last year and loved it!

Dogs, kids, and adults are invited to the 4th Annual Dimond Howl-o-ween Pet Parade and Costume Party. Meet in front of Paws & Claws at 6 pm and parade through the Dimond District collecting treats. Then return to Paws & Claws for an outdoor party behind the store with a campfire and spooky games for kids. Dress warmly!

Donations will be accepted for the Oakland Animal Shelter

Where: Paws & Claws, 2023 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland

When: Oct. 27, 2007, 6 pm -9 pm

More infor online @

www.pawsnclawsoakland.com

Here's a link to the blog article I wrote reflecting on last year's parade and party (HERE)

Trader Joe's Grand Opening

Friday, October 26th

@ 8:15am

I wrote recently about the 2 TJ's opening soon in Oakland (this coming weekend). I heard some more specifics this weekend. The Lakeshore Store will open this Friday @ 8:15am with lei cutting and other festivities. The store will be open 7/7, 9am-9pm.

Cheers to Tim Chapman for the info.

Montana Slim Halloween Bash Oct 27th

The members of Montana Slim (the bluegrass band who played at our recent church fundraiser)are fired up for their Halloween bash at the Connecticut Yankee on Saturday night (Oct 27th). This night happens to coincide with World Series Game 3. For everyone that is not aware, The Connecticut Yankee is a HUGE Boston sports pub. The owner is from New Hampshire, and MS says that there is not a better place to watch New England sports than at the Yankee.

Come in your costume to grove, cheer and get down at the Halloween Bash with Montana Slim
The Connecticut Yankee
100 Connecticut St. (at 17th St.)
San Francisco, CA
www.theyankee.com

I can't make it but hope that you can.
Learn more about Montana Slim online at www.myspace.com/montanaslimmusic

More Playground Pictures

I spent a lot of yesterday checking out pictures from last week's build, chatting with folks and reliving moments - as well as blisters, neck pains, and trying to remove the last of those nasty woodchip/tracks non-organic trans-fat-filled slightly toxic-wastey boogers.

Cheers to Sharyl Marshall @ the Presbyterian Church of Deep Run for the fun photos that I've stolen. (glad that they weren't copyrighted!)

Building The Playground
Community, God-Moments & Snail Eggs

Day 7 of the build
We did it!

We finished the build in time for the 5pm dedication blessing, paper-chain cutting and play-time on the new playground. I was present in so many good conversations, bouts of laughter and shared memories and common hopes that I don't know how to share them (of course I'll try in the coming days to do so on the blog). Also had some very cool conversations about art with the creator of the Mosaic Wall (Leslie Scott), and realized how much unexpected connections, whether we call them serendepity or God-Moments/God-things, made all of this possible. So here's some pictures - a slideshow of the build and some videos of the opening. Also great photos on the Westminster Woods Site HERE.

My best-of photos of Sunday.

Progression of the final stages of the build.

Dedication Blessing offered by Rev. Sharyl Marshall




Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
and rush of the kids to play!

It's a miracle that only one person went to the emergency room this past week - with all of the power saws, table saws, and potential death, or at least finger-removing tools all around. And the visit to the emergency room wasn't build-related (at least not directly) It was our 3 year old daughter who stuck a small ball, or "snail egg", so far up her nose that we couldn't get it out!

Building The Playground

Community, Leathers & Meaning Making

Day 6 of the build

1 more to go!

I was too busy and too tired to get online for the remainder of the build, so I'm posting after the event.

Saturday the rain ended. Our daughter was sleeping in, after staying up all night, and so I did some reading and reflecting while everyone else starting working on the playground at 8am.

I was thinking about community. The playground is being built by a gathered community of folks who are committed to and passionate about the ministry, purpose and place of Westminster Woods. It's through the great organization called Leathers & Associates: a family owned company that designs unique and personalized playgrounds, based upon the visions and dreams of those for whom it's built. They construct playgrounds with the goal of "shoulder-to-shoulder" play possibilties for children of all ages and abilities. And the whole thing is always built by volunteers. An amazing group that transforms community gathering together to be together or because of a shared value or memory, into a gathered community making permanent and public meaning through their collaboration, solidarity and diverse skill - and un-skill -levels.

People today aren't looking for a professional cleric, or religious professional, to teach them about faith or to talk about what it might mean for life, community and making meaning in our 21st century world. They're looking to experience faith for themselves, to participate in communal meaning-making efforts, and to both feel and be connected to something bigger, whether that be a community with shared values and hopes or a universal life-force, what I'd call God. Isn't this what our faith communities should be more like as opposed to bastions of tradition-maintaining committees?

Here's some of the pictures I took on Saturday - while trying to look like I was working - all my reflection on the theme of "community." Also I'm including below the slideshow 2 quotes (from music and a book) that inspired my reflections on community, meaning-making and the vocation of the church in particular in our emerging post-modern culture today.

"We're all searching / Time is unfolding /

Trying to fill / our lives with meaning."

"Stop Running Away,", Angel Milk, Telepopmusik

"Community is everything.

Relationship to God and to each other is life itself."

Breathing Space, Heidi B. Neumark

Building The Playground

Community, Following Jesus & Experiencing Faith

Day 5 of the build

2 to go!

The rain has been pouring down throughout the day, yet progress has been made on the playground that my family and I have come and joined with about 50 other people to help build at Westminster Woods Camp. I'm including some of my pictures in a slideshow below. You can also see more photos of today's work and witness the emergence of the playground on the Woods website HERE.



I was talking with someone about the playground, what it represents for the camp and in a way what it means for the larger community of faith. Things are getting rough from the church. It's not just the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence that are finding it to be an unwelcoming place. Many people don't even consider the Church community as an option, or a desireable place because it seems either a) so out of touch, b) irrelevant, c) a tradtional throwback to the 1950s, or d) an unwelcoming exclusive place, or e) all of the above. While I can understand, and myself have felt this at times, I have to admit that being actively involved as a participant in the life of the church as my community of faith is not only formative but foundational for me in my life. As our churches either close, or struggle to attract anyone who is "post-modern", "po-mo", or "emergent", I don't believe that such doom and gloom has to come to pass.



We have to change. We have to be transformed from the builder-generation, corporate-cultured way of doing and being church that has come to dominate our country's experience and spiritual sphere in the past 60 years. No one wants to come and listen to some sort of quasi-corporate expert talk to us about faith with some flow-chart or boring 3 point sermon. People want to experience it for themselves. We want to participate in a community of faith, feeling connected to others who are on the same path, seeking the same spiritual journey, desiring to practice spirituality in their daily life - not just with an ordained "expert" one hour a week on Sunday. This playground thing is all about it. It's an event, a worship gathering - in which we are experiencing what faith means as a community gathered to accomplish something bigger than us. It's a community that's come together in faith because of a vision that was born by a cosmic power about 2 years ago in the hearts of a few key people - I have to call that the living Spirit of God moving in our midst. This is faith. This is the real stuff of practicing our spirituality. It's not just talking about what faith looks like. It's not hearing about what faith can do for you and to you. It's experiencing faith in 12 inch deep mud, around a table sharing dinner with soaked-through people filled with joy, sharing drinks with friends at night reflecting on the meaning of the day and the way in which our shared faith has made so much meaning in our life. Faith isn't a spectator sport, I often say. It's dangerous. It's challening. It's makes you change, be open to transformation. It's oftentimes quite muddy. But it's real. It makes meaning of and in our lives. It invites us to make meaning together as a community confessing a shared hope that their is more than what we just see, or can buy in a store, or experience through our tivos.

Maybe that's why church is struggling - Presbyterian, or other. For the past 60+ years we've been so busy talking about faith, that we've forgotten how to practice it?

We still need help up here at the Woods - Saturday and Sunday! Come work on this amazing project. Come experience what faith is all about, what Jesus really meant when he said, "Come and follow me!" Info is on the Camp Website.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

SF Values &

The Meaning Made in & by Communion

Yesterday's SF Chronicle was plastered with a large picture of Archbishop George Niederauer who has come under attack for knowingly (or un-knowingly) served communion to two members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a drag-queen dressing justice-seeking group in San Francisco. The furor erupted when folks started asking if the Archbishop knowingly, or even possibly subversively, served the elements of communion to cross-dressing persons in a mass taking place in the middle of the Castro Street Faire. The archbishop has spun things a bit offering an oligatory (my words) apology for his actions. The SS troops of Fox News stormed into the affair, again lambasting the "SF Values" that characterize not just the city across the Bay Bridge, but most of the Bay Area Community. The whole affair really set me off - and got me writing (even if I'm supposed to be offline for vacation). Here's why.

1. Communion is more than a ritual, it's a sacrament (a visible expression of an invisible grace). So whether it's given to Sister Delta Goodhand, a homeless man who got dealt a bad hand, or to Bill O'Reilly, we believe and the ecumenical church community affirms, that communion is about both receiving the Love of God in Jesus the Christ and participating in it. So it's totally appropriate to share it.

2. Many complained that communion had been cheapened by serving it to the Sisters. Interesting. Are those that complained Catholic, Christians or followers of Jesus? Is Bill O'Reilly Catholic or Christian? If not what does he care? We believe - at least in my reformed family of followers of Jesus - that the simple bread and wine/juice become something mysteriously and powerfully real not by our efforts but by God's presence in our worshipping and seeking gathered community of faith. So how can we cheapen what only God's Spirit can make worthy or full of meaning both experiential and spiritual?

3. The article goes on to say that the Archbishop was simply following the "general sacramental principal" that you don't deny the sacrement to someone who request it. Interesting, for I myself a Anglo-American 30-something heterosexual male have been refused communion in mass at least half a dozen times in my life, not becuase of my sexual acitivty or preference, my clothing, or my politics, but because I follow Jesus in a protestant, or non-Catholic, way. So I'm not sure what the general sacramental principal is, because I've not experienced that. It seems to be more about church laws and church dogmatics than about inclusivity. Besides the Catholic church, under the leadership of the current Pope, affirmed and re-affirmed that the Catholic Church alone is the true church of Christ on Earth in a document entitled Dominus Iesus.

4. I was struck in the article - you have to read to the end of it - to read the included note from Sister Deltagoodhand, one of the two who received communion, who wrote to the church the following words: "Just a quick note to recognize the wonderful mass yesterday at your Church. Your entire congregation was so welcoming and it was great to be able to participate. You are a wonderfully inclusive Church." From my read of those words, they didn't come it to destroy or subvert things, nor did they seek to do so through the media (of course I admit I'm naive). They entered a worship gathering, were invited to be both present and participants, and left feeling like the Church, that church in particular, could not only have a place for them, but be the place for them. Isn't that what we're supposed to be about? Isn't that what Jesus taught: "Love your neighbor as God has loved you."?

You can read the article online HERE.
You can also read a great "Two Cents" photo-montage piece with diverse responses to the article and event HERE.

I find this whole event and media re-presentation challenging because of the question it asks underneath it all. SF Gate isn't really interested in declining church attendance, or imploding church systems, or even inclusivity and what it means in a Christ-centered and faith community-forming way. Why is it that we seem to always want to define who we are but who we aren't or who we won't let in? I think it's a theological or philisophical issue. In the end the whole hoopla is about who is and isn't part of the church, who is and isn't welcome, and who should be and shouldn't be welcomed. What a tragedy if we let Bill O'Reilly or our political parties shape and form our faith communities! I think our issues, and our struggles with how we form, articulate and define our "identity" as both individuals and communities reflects our brokeness - that "sin" that is so deeply embedded in who we are as human beings. Jesus himself challenged this, inviting all of us to find our definition of who we are in our relationship with God. We not Jew or Gentile, Free or Slave, Male or Female (as Paul writes in 1 Cornithians)....we're not gay or straight, righteous or of the devil...in God we are God's children. In Christ we're invited to claim that promise through the powerful mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ. By God's Spirit we're empowered to live lives with a new sense of identity, the one we're meant to live from and into....that we are the beloved children of God.

That's what following Jesus is all about. It's what the meaning of communion is and the meaning that it makes - a true sacramental marker of community - that in Christ the walls are broken down...walls that divide us from each other, from God, and from who we are created to really be. It's the power of the mysterious sign and symbol of communion - as we share the cup and bread we experience solidarity, we participate in saving community and we are connected through the only force in the Universe that can connect us together: the Living God.

Any thoughts?

Build It & I'll Come
New Playground @
Westminster Woods

I'm off for Occidental, CA to help build a new playground at Westminster Woods Camp & Conference. The Woods is a summer camp owned and facilitated by the Presbyterian Church. I went there as a kid. It's one of the main pilgrimage (still today) places in my life of faith. It's also the place where my wife and I met back when I was 17 and just out of high school. We still take our children - both genetic and church born - each summer for amazing times of spiritual discovery, personal growth and fun - fun - fun! Can you tell that I'm a fan?

Anyway they're building a new playground: a community effort. The Woods Community raised the necessary money. This non-profit designs the playground based on ideas solicited from kids at camp last summer (including the kids from Fruitvale Church)...and then it's a whole community build thing. Kind-a-like Field of Dreams but not in Iowa but Sonoma County, not in a cornfield but in a redwood forest, not in the sun but in the rain-rain-rain! Can't Wait!!!!! Plus it all ends Sunday with a dedication worship gathering time and then a free-for-all for all the kids to go and play on the p-ground!

Read more about the playground build on the Woods website HERE. It contains plans for the playground, color schemes and plans for the Creation Themed Mosaic Wall, and a way to donate (they sill need to raise about $5,000). Or you can sign up to come and volunteer from now through Sunday!

Watch the live-movie cam that's documenting the emergence of the new playground HERE.

Loka Yoga

in the Dimond & Laurel

Opens Sunday, October 21st

I'm excited about the Yoga studio opening next to the church I serve as pastor in the Dimond/Laurel Districts of Oakland. Alice is the owner and yoga master. She's great. The past few days I've seen her husband, her neighbors and herself doing the last minute finishing touches on the studio. BEAUTIFUL! And what a difference on that corner. Plus you should see the light installations that they put in. Very cool.

The first class is scheduled for this coming Sunday, October 21st @ 11am.

She's also having a grand opening party this coming Saturday, October 20th @ 4:30pm.

I'm out of town but both sound fun. Alice also has a blog going for Loka Yoga you can read it HERE. (It has more info about class schedules, cost and info about the tea ceremony opening party on Saturday).

Welcome to Loka Yoga to our block! I'm eager to see how the neighborhood continues to emerge and transform thanks to Alice's presence and work.

Trader Joe's

Coming to Oakland

October 27th

Twice Over

I was down by the old Albertson's and the future - imminently close - Trader Joe's and Walgreens down by Lake Merrit this morning. Still the same old parking challenge....but things are getting close. Here's a picture I took. Also had a chance to go by the former Albertsons, future Trader Joe's in Rockridge near Zachary's....they have the floor in and are working on the wall containers. Both stores are scheduled to open Saturday, October 27th...at least that's what I've heard.

Has anyone heard anything different? Looking forward to spending our Trader Joe's dollars in Oakland instead of Castro Valley, Alameda and Emeryville.

Blogging Backwards
To Sunday
October 14, 2007
"A Chip Off the Ol' Block"

Porta-Potties, Firenze, Forgiveness and Authentic Humaness

Yesterday we continued our series in our Sunday Gatherings at Fruitvale Pres. Church on Heroes and Heroines for God. King David, a man whose heart was after the heart of God was our hero for the day selected by one of our community members.

The passages we reflected upon and built our gathering around were 1 Samuel 24:1-22 & Matthew 6:7-15. The reason that Nancy had picked out this story in particular about David was the theme of "forgiveness" and the radical example of trust, risk, solidarity with God's purposes and compassion that David exemplifies in the story of him hiding in the port-a-pottie-replacing cave.

King Saul is pursuing the un-coronated David to kill him. God has said that Saul will be dethroned for his self-centered evilness and David will replace him as the King of Israel. He badmouths him. He slanders him publicly. Then he decides to take him out. But Saul is so pissed off and irate that he doesn't just hire a bounty hunter to go all bobba fet and track down David, he sets out after his protege - with part of his army - to wipe him out. Ends up Saul uses a cave to go to the bathroom during the long journey. David is in the cave. Saul is distracted. David could kill his ennemy and make his life a lot easier. And David chooses to show mercy, to not kill, but to embrace non-violent trust that God will bring justice and balance.

What would you do if that happened I asked? What if Osama bin Laden came into the cave where you were? What if ________ (you fill in the blank with the name of the person you think of....co-workers, family, someone who has wronged you that you struggle to forgive)? I asked what would you do if someone who had opened fire with a gun in your child's school (thinking of last week's tragedies in Cleveland) came into the cave? On one hand it's easy to answer...take'em down. If I'm honest, I'd struggle to show compassion to an ennemy. And yet what would it change to strike them down? Doesn't that just purvey the endlessly downward spiral of vengeance, violence and victory-at-any-cost? Isn't that the very thing that I believe Jesus' death on the cross overturns, undermines and reverses? Tough. It's ugly to face the stuff inside us - or at least inside me.

The second passage is Jesus teaching on how to pray. (Today we call it the Lord's Prayer when we communally offer it aloud each Sunday in our Worship Gathering). Jesus says that we should ask God to forgive us as we forgive each other...in fact we ask God to do so aloud and in public each Sunday. Jesus continues after the teaching on prayer emphasizing that as we forgive God will forgive us and that if we don't forgive God won't forgive us. YIKES. It gets even tougher. I'm a classic first-born virgo as friends tell me.....quick to want to perform, to embrace perfection, to be moody, flighty and to hold on to my bitterness. So forgiving, really forgiving, you know those deep down difficult destructive things is hard for me...it's hard to let go. I suspect I'm not alone. So how do I grapple with my desire to be a person of faith, following Jesus of Nazareth, when what I'm asked to do - live from, by and into forgiveness - is so seemingly impossible.

Michelangelo created the amazing statue of David picutred here. I'm told that it's the most perfect re-presentation of the human body. It's in Florence in the Galleria dell'Accademia. It's enoromous, something like 8 feet tall. When I saw it the noisy bustling of the heat-exhausted crowd was hushed rapidly to a whisper when people's eyes fell upon the beauty of the statue. Tradition says that the piece of art had more humble beginnings than we'd expect. Michelangelo found the monolith piece of marble in the Florence dump. It was a chunk of stone considered imperfect, unwanted, left to suffer from the elements. He took it and transformed it by his loving hands, connectional creativity, and passion into something that superceeds our normal notions of beauty.

Maybe that's the answer to recognize that I - that we - rhat even David - are just like that statue. David is an example of godliness and faith-full living, yet he was also self-centered and unfaithful except to his own lusts. Some of his shortcomings in life were killing the husband of his married lover, and choosing favorites among his own children. Yet I think that faith - and the mystery of God's incarnation, embodied in Jesus and also in us today - points to the fact that we are complex creatures filled with both light and darkness. Often feeling like unwanted, overlooked items left in the mess of the town dump that can be transformed into paragons of beauty, invited to participate with authenticity in that ongoing process of transformation - that is being facilitated by the power I call God - of chips off the old block into masterpieces. Maybe what this story and what Jesus is trying to teach is that being able to choose to forgive - either by our own grit or God's grace - is what it means to be authentically human. That choice to reconicile and resurrect relationships is ours alone in the diverse community of creatures with whom we share planet Earth?

PS - a rumor circulated around our church community yesterday that this is actually my portrait. While I wish it was true, I have to be honest that I'm not this pale and my pecs are more oblong. :)

Blessing of the Animals

Yesterday we had a Blessing of the Animals celebration at our church. It was a day to remember.....again true Oakland experience as I heard rapidly spoken Cantonese drifting over the coffee table, while so many other things were happening. I loved the whole experience, not just because I talked about the "circle of life" or the "web of life" of what biblical language calls the "body of Christ in the world" but because we really experienced and participated in that connection, community and creation during the ministry event. My favorite moment (a first for me) was trying to lead singing on the church patio while at least half a dozen AC transit buses drove along the church with the deafening roar....never have played with such percussion as well....neither have I had a choral back-up group coming principally from the canine community!

Here's some pictures from Alan Ball

Austin, YUPers, Spazmatics,

and the Spider House Cafe

Keeping it weird

I spent the week in Austin, staying at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary for a week of study, reflection, rest, renewal, laughter, BBQ, lattes and beer with other Presbyterian Young Urban Pastors. It was a great time of renewal, relaxation, and reflection. Highlights included some great conversations, a fun Yoga Session and multiple visits to the Spider Cafe as well as a chance to experience the Spazmatics (a local Austin 80s band) at Cedar Street Courtyard. I loved Spider House Cafe so much I was almost ready to sign up as an undergrad at UT, except for the homework, dorm life, papers, and return to late teens/early 20s.


I leave the week with many things:



1. Feeling encouraged and confirmed about my vocation and sense of call to serve as a pastor in the urban context.

2. Feeling encouraged about our church community - in the larger sense - and my colleagues I'm blessed to serve with.

3. the discovery that Texas can be quite different than you think....Austin.

4. A Reaffirmation of my passion for 80s music.

5. A Reaffirmation of my commitment to crazy colorful socks to keep things interesting!

Check out the Spazmatics on their website HERE and their myspace page HERE.

Check out Bruce's take on the week on his blog HERE.