Blogging Towards Sunday December 14, 2008 

The Third Sunday of Advent: JOY 

Isaiah  61:1-11

Psalm 126 

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

John 1:6-8, 19-28

This third week of Advent [resources] is traditionally known as the "JOY" Sunday, switching from the purple of Advent to pink for  one week. [pink is created when mixing the purple of Advent and the white of Christmas].

The passages this week are about the joy of the coming of the Promised One to Ancient Israel captive in long-ago Babylon [Isaiah].  It's this promised one that will bring and be good news, healing the broken, freeing the captive, liberating the prisoner, these redeemed broken folks will be transformed into agents of God's power in creating a new heaven and new earth.  Joy in the Psalm has to do with the living out of faith in community, similar to the community that the preacher in Thessalonians invites those that follow Jesus to live into and to act out of.  John the Baptizer preaches to the diverse masses that go out to him inviting them, challenging to turn around 180 degrees in the way that they live, treat each other and act.  He declares that the One to come is already present, standing among his audience and yet un-recognized.  Both literal and metaphorical, it's a call to recognize that we are invited to a new way of being together and being towards each other in a radically inclusive and transformatively just community made possible by the Promised One of God  and possible in him.

So the question that haunts me this week is joy.  The scriptures point to the joy, the call to rejoice that God is doing a new thing, already present among us, even if we don't recognize the divine presence. Yet today joy seems the farthest thing from us.  Where is the joy in urban life?  Where is it for friends who had to have the police take their son into custody because he continues to steal and beat other kids up?  Where is the joy for the teacher beat up by the parent of an expelled student?  Where is the joy in the driver who flipped me off then blocked me driving down the road for no apparent reason today?  Joy seems distant from daily moments or urban frustration, injustice and efforts to survive.  

The opposite of joy seems to me to be despair, unescapable darkness that nothing can or will change, depression that we are forgotten, overlooked, duped.  Yet the scriptures this week point to the fact that hope remains, that we often project our fears and doubts onto a faithful God, suspecting God of doing what we would do.  Isn't that a joy, that God isn't what we expect?  That God isn't like us?  That God superceedes our fears, doubts and despair?  Some might say that's merely wishful thinking on behalf of a manipulated proletariat, or that it's not scientifically provable.  Yet a purely materialistic and/or scientific worldview merely points to the meaningless of human existence.  I think that we make meaning of life through our choices: our actions, our relationships, the communities we commit to, the praxis of those communities living out the Truth that unites and defines them.  Isn't that maybe the joy that we're invited to plant as the foundation of the way that we live, move and have our being in the 21st century world?

Eating in the Dimond

I finally ate at Shaan the new Indian restaurant in the Dimond on Fruitvale next to the Dimond Cafe last week. It was fantastic [here's a picture worth 999 more descriptive words]. My wife and friend and I ate for $50 (including drinks, appetizers and tip.) The staff was great, kind and helpful. The bathrooms are gorgeous (not common in the Dimond) and the wall mural is a nice touch. Plus they have chai tea for $1! They do need a larger waiting space though. Of course that's an emerging need in our transforming Dimond eating scene. I'm also including an upload of the menu below as images [click on the image to make it bigger]




Nama Sushi is now doing happy hour! 4-6pm Monday thru Thursday. $2.50 for draft beer - all in a setting in which the windows are not blacked out! Such a happy hour environment is exactly what many people have long dreamed of and longer for in our Dimond community. I'm looking forward to going soon. Maybe I can start scheduling my church meetings there?

Bumpersticker of the Week

Dimond Winter Festival 2008

Here's some of my snapshots in a slideshow and some youtubed videos from today's 4th Annual Dimond Winter Festival that took place at Fruitvale Presbyterian Church. Thanks to Ruth Villsenor and Carolyn Vallerga who worked with me in a productive trio that helped to make all the fun from the pancakes with Francis and Frank, to the local music, from the crafts to the local vendors all possible!

The proceeds of today's events went to the COPE program of Fruitvale Presbyterian Church, which seeks to feed and offer concrete solidarity to those in need here in our context. Thanks to you we raised over $600 to fund our efforts to fight hunger!

Thanks to many of the local stores and merchants who donated items to help make the day so meaningful, including: Las Comales, Farmer Joe's, La Farine, The Food Mill, Full Moon Seafood, Mary and Me, Paws & Claws & Peet's Coffee.

See you next year on the first Saturday of December!!!

Solidarity in the Dimond
Two-Star Market's Thanksgiving Dinner 2008

Abdo down at Two Star Market hosted a Thanksgiving Day Dinner for the Community and those on the street. Cooked and served in his parking lot on MacArthur Blvd., I've heard that he (fellow collaborating merchants and his volunteer crew) served a hot meal to between 350-400 people. Kudos to him and to the spirit of solidarity in the Dimond!

Here's some online pictures of the event:
Two Star Market's New Blog and [expanded photo link]

Photos of last year's event [tim chapman's blog]

Prop 8 - The Musical

This video from funny or die is making the rounds (very rapidly) around the internet today.  Take a look.  What do you think?  Is it sacrilegious? Heretical?  Anti-Christian? Pro-Jesus?  What do you think?

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Blogging Towards Sunday 

December 7th 

The Second Sunday of Advent FAITH

Isaiah 40:1-11

Mark 1:1-8

What is faith? Is it good news? Or does hearing good news lead to it? This week's passages talk of hope, pointing towards the future, proclaiming that something is coming: something definitive, transformative and personal; dynamic, destructive and life-sustaining. In several encounters this week I've been struck by diverse and seemingly divergent, yet actually concurrent visions of faith: an atheist who likes going to church because of the feel, an evangelical saying that don't want to be called "Christian" because of modern-day political baggage, a scientist who says that the truth witnessed to in the Bible narratives is True not in a scientific but an existential/experiential way, my daughter who gives thanks for God who teaches us to love each other.  The Book of Hebrews chapter 11 says that "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." I like that yet it seems so certain.  Maybe faith, having faith, being faithful isn't so much about unwavering certainty as it is about steadfast stick-with-it-ness, the tenacity to keep fighting, keeping participating in community, keep believing in the midst of confusion and chaos.

Here's a song I'm in love with these days playing to a Second Week of Advent Wreath Image. The song is called "Toi et Moi" by the group TRYO. [wiki] I'm also including a LINK to the official clip. Yes it is in French. Lyrics in French [LINK]. Lyrics in English (far from perfect, but good enough to get the idea) [LINK] I like the song because it gives a quick experiential sound to the realities of urban globalized life today. Fear. Uncertainty. Masses of people. Unknown futures surrounded by threats, deaths and doubts. Yet in all of it the poet sings that you and I are together. We love each other. So it will be ok. I'm not a pessimist, but I'm not sure that it's enough. I'm down with love, yet is it self-serving love that ends up being a vampiristic sort of narcissism or is it a love that opens up towards others, embracing the world, making meaning of all of it?  Maybe that's what faith is, faith in something bigger than ourselves, our own love, and the power of our own breath.

Bumper Sticker of the Week

This is my all time favorite sticker.  It's probably actually more like the bumper sticker of the year.  It says it all - why I so freakishly always have my eyes open for new stickers.  Thanks to Uncle Tio for spotting and capturing it!

8th Annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner
Highlights

The church I serve as pastor celebrated it's 8th Annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner yesterday afternoon. The church hall eerily seemed a bit too empty 45 minutes before the beginning of the meal, and was quickly filled to more than capacity with a diverse crowd of participants hungry for a hot meal, for the opportunity to celebrate with others, and the chance to meet neighbors. Kids running from the pie area to the crafts table, flutes melodiously playing underneath the brouhaha of discussion, snaking lines for food, quick moving hands dancing above the serving tables, Bertha surrounded by all those pies, Di-Di washing all those dishes and the different conversations I entered into: all those snapshots compose the mosaic of my memories from yesterday's event. Thanks to all who helped, from the meal coordinators, to the turkey cookers, from the flutists to the water servers, from the decorators to the cleaner-uppers!

What a statement of what community is and can be. What a proclamation of the power that Oakland needs to move forward harnassing and empowering the long-present desires for continued emerging organizing, school improvement, civic involvement, and local sense of community.

Here's some of my shapshots

Here's a video snapshot of some of the music. This piece performed by the Candelight Quartet.


If you're still looking for a way to volunteer this Thanksgiving Season here in Oakland, look for connections in my blog article from last week"Volunteering to make a difference"

Shaan Opens in the Dimond Tomorrow
Friday, November 21st

I heard today that new South Indian Restaurant SHAAN is opening tomorrow (Friday, November 21st) in the Dimond District. It's located on Fruitvale Ave. near MacArthur next to the Dimond Cafe, and roughly across the street from La Farine.

Owner Parmgite Sing, is offering a free buffet for the community from 5:00-8:30. I'm busy, but would love to stop by. You can go, taste and try it out and welcome this new restaurant to the neighborhood!

A photo of the interior was posted tonight on the Farmer Joe's & Friends Blog.

If you go, leave a message with your thoughts!

Urban Chicken Farming

In the past year we've taken in 5 chickens (the girls as well call them) that supply us with more than a dozen eggs a week, loads of nutrient rich manure for organic composting in our yard, and lot's of laughs. They're actually quite easy to take care of. Of course, we're still working out once happens when they're too old to continue producing eggs. Once we got chickens we started discovering chickens all over the place here in Oakland, from nearby neighbors to friends.

A great article appeared in Newsweek this week "The Craze for Urban Chicken Farming"

Some great online sites about chicken farming (at least among my favorites) include:

mypetchicken.com
barnyardchickens.com
urbanchickens (blog)

Volunteering to Make a Difference at Thanksgiving

There are many Thanksgiving Community Meal events happening in the next week up until Thanksgiving Day itself. They all need your help. Here's a list of ways to get involved here in Oakland to make a difference (organized by date of event)

Fruitvale Presbyterian Church 8th Annual Community Dinner
Sunday, November 23rd @ 1:00pm
2735 MacArthur Blvd [www.fvpc.org]
Help needed serving, with food donations [yams, green bean casseroles, jello salads & pumpkin pies] & clean-up.
Come and join the community meal to serve others and also to share a meal with a neighbor in view of building community in district 4 of Oakland. 530-0915 or fruitvalepresbyterianchurch@gmail.com


City of Oakland 17th Annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner at the Oakland Marriott Hotel
Tuesday, November 25th
11:00am -3:00pm
Food and jackets available
To volunteer contact Gesunda Royal-Shipp at 238-2077
[press release]

City Team Ministries
Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 27th
& Pre-Meal set-up on the 26th
[link for volunteering]

Two-Star Market Thanksgiving Feast
Thursday, November 27th, 1:00-4:00pm
2020 MacArthur Blvd.
Help prepare, set-up, serve & clean-up at this amazing meal that Abdo hosts & puts on every year. More info at 531-3576 or 2starmarket@gmail.com
[Online articles about Abdo's past Thanksgiving Feasts]

List of community meals published by the city

Oakland Unified School District
Kindergarten Options Enrollment

One of the most stressful times for me in the past years (actually in my existence as a parent) was registering our eldest for Kindergarten in Oakland Unified School District. I swung (daily...sometime several times during the day!) from elation to depression, anxiety, existential dread, middle-class guilt, all the way to a sense of powerlessness as one of the emerging urban power-poor.

That season is starting again in Oakland. December 10 - January 15 is the options window for the 2009-2010 school year.

One of the best things I did was attend the Options Fair for elementary schools will be held on December 4 from 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM at the Oakland Marriott (1001 Broadway Oakland, CA 94607). In addition to the fair, schools at the elementary, middle and high school levels will be conducting site tours and hosting open houses for the community. More details will be available soon.

Look for additional detail on the Parents' portal of the OUSD website http://webportal. ousd.k12. ca.us

We got into a great OUSD School (with much fighting, crying and praying) and are more than content.

Bumper Sticker of the Week

I wonder if this is a new water conservation strategy 

that EBMUD is promoting?

Maybe it's a bit like making sure that your tires are properly inflated.

Soon To Open Restaurants in the Dimond

I heard from an on-line little bird last night that Naan: the Indian Restaurant on Fruitvale between WaMu and the Dimond Cafe is set to open next week, either on Monday or Tuesday. They've taken a while longer than they first projected to open. Most likely because of the state of the building. I'm looking forward to checking out their menu.

I noticed walking around today that the Little Ceasar's, going in at 2216 MacArthur between Cafe Dieum and Radio Shack is looking close to completed. Here's a picture I snapped trying to get an even better view of how it's coming along. I'm not that excited about LC's - we have more than enough of such to-go food shops in the Dimond AND I'm glad that a new business is coming in.

Blogging Towards Sunday

November 16th
Jesus for President
Called to be UNchristian
Matthew 7:24-29
Psalm 1

This week's scripture is the final in the Jesus for President, Sermon on the Mount Series that I've been doing on Sundays with the faith community I serve in Oakland. At the end of the sermon, or big teaching, Jesus concludes by saying that hearing and doing are the same thing. Those who have heard and do what he teaches are like those that build a house on rock as opposed to sinking sand. The house metaphor still speaks to us today: building, movement, dynamic, homey, life in general. We have to build on a dependable foundation, one that gives and takes in when the earth shakes, one that stands up to the storms of life, one that is a reliable center and source for life. (similar to the tree metaphor in Psalm 1)

For me that's Jesus of Nazareth. And I've found myself confused, meditative and irritated by the recent (and long-time ongoing) demonization and polarization among "believers" over who is a real Christian and who isn't (or who is a heretic). [Chris is doing some great thinking & ranting about this on his blog] It seems like in our emerging public discourse there really is a tired-but-true evangelical affirmation that what counts in faith is predominantly what you believe about Jesus. That there is a right way and wrong ways to believe in him. On the phone today insinuated to me that I'm on the right side, of those that really know who Jesus is (unfortunately for them I don't think I really am)....which argues the point: is it about what we believe, or if we ascribe to the "correct" doctrine/dogma, or is it about what we do, how we live, how we love? If a Christian is one that ascribes to the right things maybe I'm an UNchrisitian. I'm interested in following and doing what Jesus said, taught and lived. For me TRUTH is found in that relationship. It's not a fact, a doctrine, a dogma, or a proposition; rather it's relational, experiential, dynamic and personal. I'm more interested in doing what Jesus taught and challenged those that follow him to do and be, than worrying about who is or isn't following Jesus. I want to experientially and pre-emptively mediate upon the words he spoke and the vision he gave (and gives today) of what God wants the world and human community to look like - starting with you and me.



I'm struck as I finish this series by the first page in the Jesus for President book, as authors Shane Clairborne and Chris Haw explain why they're writing and what they hope to help change or birth in the name of all those that follow Jesus, both the Christians and the UNchristians. Amen.

Bumper Sticker of the Week

The effects of Proposition 8 on Community
What is sanctity anyway?

In the past week I've been told that I'm a misogynist, a heretic and that it's too bad I'm no longer a Christian. These three affirmations about my personhood were made by people who had directly, or indirectly, encountered my rantings, ravings and sharings about my view of Proposition 8 as a Christian and as a Pastor, and regarding my vehement support of Obama for President with those same viewpoints. What's interesting is that there was no invitation to dialogue in the (re)definitions that were shared with me of who and how I live by faith. Maybe I thought I'd invited folks to discuss and had merely lauched a mono-logal diatribe. Yet my point was always to enter a discussion, to recognize and affirm (even with my dark humor) that we are community, that we are called to live in community, that such life requires and demands mutual-respect, self-respect, a refusal to embrace verbal violence and degradation, and a commitment to relationship.

I've seen and experienced this online, in the communities in which I live, even in my own family. There are consequences for every action that we take. We can say that something isn't personal, or that we weren't meaning for it to be personal in terms of hurting someone else. But everything is personal to someone.

Yesterday while the worship gathering was finishing at the church I serve the Mormon Temple of Oakland, which is about 10 blocks away, was being besieged by No On 8 Protestors who had gone to put a face on the consequences of the proposition, to forces those that were at the Temple that day to have to encounter those that are no longer legally married, or can't be married, because of Prop 8, which had been in large part (at least in the beginning stages) funded by the Mormon Community. I'm not against Mormons, or do I hold anything against them. Merely it's a story of my context. Here's a news video of the protest, and here's an online article about it.

I heard someone this week advocate stoning (not with joints, but with rocks) all gays and lesbians. Because that's what the Bible (in some parts) says we should do. This person was invoking the sanctity of marraige, while denying or forgetting about what I'd have to call the sanctity of life. My own nuclear family is torn among gay family members who are legally married and those that voted to overturn their marriage in the name of sanctity. That word has been thrown around so much lately, that I'm not sure what we do, or claim, to hold sacred and saintly? We forget that everything and every-issue has a face, a personal narrative, and consequences. I'm not advocating nihilism. Rather it seems that we in our culture completely disconnect. We place blame when we don't want to be connected. Just look at Governor Palin who today blamed George Bush for McCain's defeat, and Yes on 8 forces that blamed Obama (and his large people-of-color turn-out-the-vote apparatus) for the passage of 8. At the root of it all it seems that we - out of fear or something - don't want to recognize the other as subject, and not just object - in our society, in our communities, even in our families.

I got this sarcastic (and what I consider cleverly funny) Funny-or-Die video from someone today talking about Prop 8 and pushing it to the extreme. It seems over the top. Yet is it really that different than what we tend to do on most issues when we neglect the dominant grey reality of life, place blame elsewhere, or judge others in order to make oursevles feel better. Watch it. Then share a comment if any of this has struck you.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Monte's Skew on Blogging
blogging 101

In the past weeks I've had several questions and conversations about my blog Monteskewed, the purpose, the format and the frankness with which I speak, or write. I thought I'd take a post to talk about what it means for me and my hopes for what it can birth.

The wording alongside my glasses says it all. The photo gives you a snapshot of how I see the Bay Area (my context for life and ministry) through my glasses. It's a great visible metaphor for why I blog. My header disclaimer states "I'm seeking to skew you to my worldview." That's it in a nut shell. Of course my thoughts on being a follower of Jesus who enjoys Oakland and loves to garden, eat, parent, live faith and life in community, to talk about politics, culture, music and books....is not meant so much to tell you how to live, as it is to share some of my thoughts, with an emerging cynicsm and my dark (kept in the closet too often) humor AND to invite you to a dialogue, a give and take, a listen and speak, about different issues, topics and emerging events here in Oakland. I write as a pastor because that's my life. I don't write as a pastor of a given church or the one I work with. I don't speak for or on behalf of that church community of faith on my blog, which is often my role in my daily life. It's a fine line. When you read Monteskewed, remember what the title is, that should help keep things clear.

I try to write quickly, honestly, organically and with humor. I try not to proof-read. Rather I think, letting my thoughts stew in my head...then I whip them out onto the screen via the keyboard. For me it's a fun way to share my thoughts, a sort of spiritual discipline in terms of thinking about faith and theology and how they interact with culture, politics and daily life ethics. It's also a way I seek to expand my work and ministry as pastor, recognizing that technology plays a crucial part in our relationships, communication and experience of faith community.

You can make a comment, and enter into a dialogue - or start one - for every post. Simply scroll down to the word "comments" at the bottom of the post. Click it and you'll be linked to a form through which you can enter and share a comment (or more) in the emerging discussion.

I have a two rules for my blog, that you can't get around.

1. It's about discussion to build community, not to convict or convert anyone to one particular view (except mine!) So you have to identify yourself on the form. You can use a code or nick name. But there are no anonymous postings aloud. Being in a real dialogue necessitates that we know who we're talking with, to and who is talking to us. We're all subjects, not objects.

2. I reserve the right to erase comments that are violently racist, sexist, homophobic or just plain destructive in terms of my goal to build community in person and online.

I hope you'll join the conversation. If you want to learn more about blogging, how it started and what the general consensus about blogging is try this [link].