Found this today in the paper. I love it. I feel like I know so many people who live out of this reality, including myself. It’s a good parody and a good reminder as well.

From Get Fuzzy.

Since high school I have been drawn to ministry among the poor. Part of it was because we grew up poor (at least compared to those around us, we weren’t on the street or anything). And part of it was because I felt like I could identify with people who were on the margins. Then when I was in youth group I had an opportunity to work at a food pantry my uncle ran, as well as do some inner-city “mission” trips working in the poor parts of our city. Each of these instances allowed me to learn the stories and gain some perspectives of those living in poverty in my own neighborhood. At both Malone and Fuller I took urban ministry courses, which all had components requiring us to do work or spend time in places like LA’s Skid Row.

Fast forward to the present and for the first 4 or 5 months of being here I was caught in the in and outs of just learning how to do basic pastorly things. Then one chilly fall afternoon we had our first unexpected visitor come to the meetinghouse. Her visit has represented a kind of “conversion” in our communal story at the church, it has set us on a path of exploring what it means for us to help the least among us. One of the things that happened since this first woman came was that a task force was formed made up of people in churches from our community. We’ve been researching, visiting shelters, meeting with town leaders and gathering our resources to see what we can do. All with the underlying assumption that caring for the poor is not someone else’s responsibility, it is a responsibility Jesus gave his disciples (and that would be us!). » Read the rest of this entry «

Just as I was heading to bed last night I learned that Howard Zinn, history professor and author at Boston University, had passed away yesterday from a heart attack. When I think about the conversions that have taken place throughout my life Zinn is someone who plays a role. I grew up catholic, started identifying myself as a Christian in high school and became a Quaker in college (and now tend to use that label for myself more than other labels), and have since remained in the Quaker camp but have continued to change and grow in understanding of faith, culture, the world and politics. » Read the rest of this entry «

I am preparing my discussion for our Sunday morning meeting for worship and am thinking a lot about what Kester Brewin calls “wombs of the divine,” and creating the necessary space for something new to be born over time (See his book Signs of Emergence) It’s kind of a preference for evolution rather than revolution, or rather it sees evolution as the slow revolutionary process of change. Then I came across this quote (which mirrors Mark 2:27): “Our structures must serve us, not us serve them.”

This is an appropriate quote for all of us in the church, but especially, I think, for Quakers to observe. With so much discussion recently on whether or not some of our more longstanding institutions, meetings, and publishing outlets up for grabs these days because of smaller numbers, smaller budgets, and less interest or energy. With so many looking at the bottom line, I can’t help but think that we need to step back, stop, and contemplate the point above. What does this really mean for us?

Brewin writes:

“Only if I am still. Only if I have stopped what I was doing to listen and hold my breath and enter some spiritual apnea and wait. The perception of the new step will come only to those brave enough to stop dancing the old. The realization that we must descend this low peak will come only to those prepared to stop and take stock of their position. We fear that if we stopped for a week, a month, a service, a moment, we might be forgotten, or lose our momentum, weaken our profile, appear ill-thought-out and failing. So we feed the ecclesiastic furnaces our burned-out wrecks: tired leaders, disillusioned ministers, fatigued congregations – marshaling them to dance longer, march faster, pray harder, cry loud in earnest for God to come, come, COME and batter our hearts into change.”

What Brewin is essentially calling for is that we return to our own practicing of silent waiting, but with a fresh perspective as to why we are doing it, what we are waiting and hoping for. Or conversely, maybe our stopping and waiting is the opposite of silent waiting, maybe we need to stop with the quiet and really say what is on our hearts and minds. In either case, something needs to give. Who has the courage to stop dancing the old?

Here’s a list of my favorite, or at least most listened to, albums from this past year.

Elvis Perkins In Dearland

Elvis Perkins in Dearland’s self-titled, second album arrived this year and it has been in constant rotation on the record player since it’s arrived. It is seriously one of our daughter’s favorite albums, she loves all the upbeat songs especially. I loved the first album, Ash Wednesday, and listened to it none stop while I was in England for three months. Whenever I listen to that album now I can’t help but remember that time in our lives, Emily was pregnant with our first daughter, and I was studying away at Woodbrooke making great life-long friends. Their sophomore effort is even better than the first, the songs are very diverse, deeply emotional, spiritual and psychological. Do yourself a favor and listen to them. Here’s how:

If you follow this link, you can preview a number of songs on google’s search page.

Here’s a full concert on NPR.

And here are two videos from the new album that are marvelous.

» Read the rest of this entry «

I came across this today while I was doing some back reading from this weekend’s newspaper. It struck me as really insightful:

After the baseball steroid scandal and the disappointing news that Tiger’s a cheetah, as the New York Post headline put it, it’s time to accept that athletes are not role models. They’re just models — for everything from sports drinks to running shoes to razor blades to credit cards to peanut butter to Buicks to Wheaties.

via Op-Ed Columnist – The Lady and the Tiger – NYTimes.com.

I’ve really not followed the news/gossip about Tiger Woods because honestly I don’t really care. Not that I don’t care about the negative impact this kind of this has on his family and those connected to the scandal, I do, but another celebrity’s shocking fall from stardom is just not that shocking or interesting. I guess I am more bothered by the fact that so much of our news is based on stuff like this.

Yet, when I came across Maureen Dowd’s op-ed article in the Times this evening I was interested in what she had to say. Here she completely strips away the faux moralism we have placed on capitalism. Often “role models” in our culture are simply celebrities, people who live a glamorized life mostly hidden from the public or fabricated in a way to sell a certain kind of lifestyle and look. The only reason we know about most of these people is because they are advertising billboards for this or that brand. If bad news begins to surround them, or they become washed up, they drop completely off the radar. (I recall something like this happening to one of my favorite football players Barry Sanders.) Anyways, the discussion around role models being just models is a good one to have. Even within the church there are some many “celebrities” selling this or that brand, this or that mega-church, this or that latest and greatest book.

Hardly Normal wrote on his twitter the other day:

“unsubscribed to nearly all Christian blogs/news I used to follow bc 1) try to sell me something 2) talk about Sunday or a building more than people.” [i expanded some of his abbreviated text]

This is a sad but very true statement. Will we do anything about it? Do we even care? So I am asking, are we looking up to these consumer (role) models? Are we (The church) producing these kinds of models, or people who value the glitz and glamour and orient themselves around a moral capitalism rather than an actual morality rooted in something beyond themselves and their own brands? If our faith cannot call all of this into question, then we have a good idea what the pecking order really is. Here I am contending that the Christian narrative is powerful enough to undercut all of this, and shed light on what is true (I think Dowd has helped us here), but the Gospel has to be read a part from this kind of faux moral capitalism that we are seeped in. How we do that is certainly up for debate, but that we work together to do it should be an important part of our task.

Came across this today while reading Jarrod McKenna’s post on climate change over at the sojo blog. The poem is really intense and has that prophetic edge we aren’t real comfortable with but I think it’s worth watching and considering. His message also resonates wtih Rev. Billy’s “The Church of Life After Shopping” and so naturally it caught my eye.

YouTube – ‘Dont Buy It’ – Slam Poetry from the Climate Camp for OneClimate.net.

This past Friday I gave a bit of a cry-for-help and have been feeling under a lot of pressure lately given my schooling, job, and the recent (beautiful) events in our lives.  So what better time to take a retreat and do nothing?! This past weekend our church has scheduled a retreat at the Oregon coast where the Northwest Yearly Meeting Quakers own a lovely piece of property next to the beach. While December isn’t necessarily the first month that would jump in my mind as the time to visit the beach, it was lovely nonetheless. I waffled on going but I had a few motivating factors, first, it would be a great time to get to know people in our church, second, the weekend was really meant to be a retreat no over-planning and scheduling, and third, I was going to take L with me so it would be our first weekend adventure together. I decided the space away from school might be good for my head and help me get some perspective on the whole thing, so I promised myself to think little about it, and do no coursework while away.

I’m really glad I got to take a break and get away with L and friends from the Church. It was really lovely. We had a great group show up, lots of kids, some new faces, and plenty of people in our church I’ve been wanting to get to know more and just haven’t had the chance. Plus the weather was amazing! L and I had a great time hanging out, playing and sharing a big room all to ourselves. She even slept in a “big girl bed” all by herself!

So, tomorrow I will start back at my final paper for this quarter and hope that the distance helped to clear some things up, I feel I have less panic than I did a few days ago and I trust it will all come together and that God is with me in this much more than I felt on Friday.

The worship we did was really fun as well. On Saturday morning we read and discussed together some writings/a poem/ and queries I pulled together for the weekend (If you’re interested in downloading the packet go to the church’s website here). And Sunday we sand Christmas carols, prayed for one another, read the Scripture texts for the second week of advent and had open worship. It was all very nice. And I look forward to it again next December!

With the new baby having arrived, working on a final paper for my methods course this quarter, having been sick for a week, signing for the title of our new house, plus all the regular things we do this past couple weeks have been, to say the least, chaotic.

While working on my paper this afternoon I came across this quote in Kester Brewin’s book “Signs of Emergence” (an enjoyable book to read but not on target enough for my current project). It is something Meister Eckhart wrote:

Spirituality is not to be learned in flight from the world, by feeling from things to a place of solitude; rather we must learn to maintain an inner solitude regardless of where we are or who we are with. We must learn to penetrate things, and find God there.

I’m looking for God in my schooling right now, because frankly it’d much rather give up. Not only do I have little energy or time for it, but I feel like I’m at a dead end and headed nowhere. This week my prayer is to penetrate and find where God is, among other things, even in my coursework!