Funny Christian Talk

Anonymous quotes, all from yesterday.

"Who is Missy O'Day?"
(Question interjected when I was talking about missio dei, the "mission of God")

"I mean, I had read the Bible before, but it was kind of like Elf [the movie].  I just saw a few scenes at a time."

"You can't just preach the 'Slaughter of the Innocents' your first time at a church.  You are trying to make friends.  Better go with the 'Gifts of the Magi.'"

Politics and Christmas (satire)

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Advent Reading: Gospel of Luke

Next up, I was excited to read through Luke.  Confession: it took me longer than one week.  BUT there were added layers to reading through this gospel, as I was simultaneously beginning a more in-depth study of Acts with a friend.  As a result, some of the things that stood out to me had parallels in Acts (the second volume that offers follow-up to Luke).

In relation to Acts:
     I was intrigued that casting lots (like throwing dice) comes up 3 times in the two books: 1) Zechariah is in the temple (where the angel appears and tells him he'll have a baby) because priestly duties were assigned by lot.  Jesus' clothing was distributed by lot.  3)  In the book of Acts, the disciples cast lots to replace dead traitor Judas with Matthias.  I like the pattern of holy distribution (determined by none other than God) at key moments-- announcing the birth of John the Baptist, crucifying the Messiah, and anticipating the spread of the gospel through the apostles' witness.
     It also struck me that the description of "awe in the neighborhood" with the prophecy about John in Luke 1:65 foreshadows the "awe" about the community of believers in Acts 2:43.

Amazement at John's calling:
The extent of the prophecy about John is expansive, more than I had remembered:
"He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.  He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.  And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

New insight into Mary and Elizabeth:
I used to be pretty hard on Mary.  As a snotty adolescent Protestant, I read the Magnificat and thought, "good grief, she thinks she's hot stuff."  Come on, all generations will call you blessed?  Who talks like that???  But God invited me deeper into the interrelated stories of the cousins Elizabeth and Mary.  I had never before grasped  the deep shame that would probably follow Mary for the rest of her life as a result of this "blessing" from God.  I had not seen the layers of mercy that God extends to his servant Mary.  God offers her a companion (and refuge) in visiting Elizabeth, perhaps the one person in the world who would rejoice with Mary.  Mary also gets to share in the joy of Elizabeth, who has long waited for a child.  There is incredible grace woven through this-- that the old woman, righteous and long-suffering, is joined by a young woman confused, unassuming, yet blessed by God's favor.  There is no formula to God's promises-- here they fulfill what had been waited for AND what had hardly been imagined.

I really did read the rest of Luke... but the most applicable parts for the season were definitely these opening chapters dealing with waiting and expectation for the Messiah.

Lord, we read the promises about Jesus and John the Baptist and long for those very things.  We yearn for hearts turned and people prepared, and we wonder why it's not all squared away.  Would you show us your mercy, lift up the humble, and fill the hungry.  Give us mercy for your people and your world and enable us, too, to sing out how our souls magnify the LORD.

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Tue 27°F | 16°F Wed 32°F | 29°F Thu 44°F | 29°F Fri 37°F | 20°F             Thanks, Tennessee.  You know how I like it cold!        On my way/ hasta manana!

Advent Reading: Gospel of Mark

For those of you speculating... yes, when I decided to give this read-a-book-of-the-Bible-in-a-week thing a try, I figured that starting with the shortest gospel was the best way to ensure early success.

Three things I noticed while reading straight through Mark:
- In the first three chapters, it seems chock full of Jesus doing stuff on the Sabbath: teaching, healing, casting out demons, eating grain in the fields, etc.  It made me reconsider my own (sort of) strict ideas about Sabbath rest for myself that I've been trying to implement these past 6 months.  I'm not saying it's not important to rest, but I am taking seriously that Jesus' ministry is emphatically inserted into that day as Mark relates the good news.  It reminded me of a quote from a sermon (sorry!  don't know whose...): "Setting people free is precisely what the Sabbath is about."

-Then, it seems the focus shifts to EATING-- food is everywhere!  Sounds like Christmas to me... But seriously, again Mark writes of an involved and tangible Jesus who deals in tangibles, platters and place-settings.

-The healing of the deaf and mute man in chapter 7 stood out to me (v. 31-35).  I wondered why there was particular attention paid to the effort, physicality, and emotion that Jesus put into this healing.  The crowd just asked Jesus to "place his hand on the man."  Yet, Jesus takes the man aside by himself and he does the bizarre healing action of sticking his fingers into the man's ears, spitting, and touching the man's tongue.  Jesus sighs deeply, it says.  All of this immediately after the troublesome account of Jesus' brusque treatment of the Syrophoenician woman with a demon-possessed daughter.

So Jesus, help us to know you as a REAL person.  A person who sets free and eats well, who argues and sighs, who rests and prays and walks many roads.  Help us encounter you as the promised one this Advent.   Help our faith to overcome fear.  Help our unbelief.

Sluggish Start for a Speedy Advent

I used to feel that Advent crept into my life each December.  It seemed like midwinter's darkness would never lift, finals couldn't be over soon enough, and the story of Jesus' birth poked its way into each Sunday one flickering candle at a time.  Now, I can't believe we'll soon be halfway through Advent.

My great ambition starting out this season was to take on a gospel each week-- reading one gospel per week, that is.  Luke, John, Mark, Matthew, and Isaiah to round it out.  I just wanted to read the books straight through, re-immerse myself in the stories of Jesus, notice what stood out, and reflect on a few of those things each week.

So now, I'll try to catch up!  First up: Gospel of Mark!

The Ant and the Worm at City College

I went down to City College today for the weekly prayer meeting with the InterVarsity chapter there.  The semester I've spent getting to know just a tiny bit about 'City' has been full of encounters.  Not long and not necessarily deep, but often these are the kinds of encounters and passers-by that leave a strong impression.  Today was no different.  I spoke briefly with a woman getting people to sign a petition about the San Diego school board.  She did not come across as a particularly strong advocate, chirping softly at those of us who walked by: "Are you a registered San Diego voter?"  Peppered with occasional comments like, "Voting is an American freedom."  One man responded gruffly, "I'm a convict.  Can't vote." 

Later, a student I've interacted with before hopped over a wall and exclaimed, "Habits sure are hard to kick." 
[me]: Um, yeah, they can be.
Student: Chew.
...?...
-I should stop chewing and spitting.
-Oh.  Yeah.  Gross.  (I see the wad in his lower lip now.)  You know how terrible that is, right?
-Yeah, I'm going to stop.  My girlfriend - soon-to-be-girlfriend - is sick right now.
-Sorry to hear that--
-She has a UTI.  So when she's better...
-(In my head: I don't want to know!!!)  Well are your classes going okay?
-Except math, yes. I think I'll stay pre-med, but I'll just have to see if that's how God wants to use me...  Well, I'll see you later!  Hug!  Bye!

There was the usual mix of activity on the quad: Spanish-speaking soccer players, cell phone conversations, shouted interactions from sidewalk to sidewalk, people enjoying the sunshine, students rushing to class.  Surrounded by all this, we laid out our blankets and started prayer time with a little scripture study.  The student leader I've been supporting through the semester led a time of reading and reflecting on the passage where Jesus prays for his disciples, and she reminded the 6 of us gathered about Jesus' prayer that extends to US ("all those who will believe because of [the disciples'] message").  We took time to pray together for friends and classmates, people around us for whom God cares.

While we prayed, I kept my eyes open.  You know, on the lookout for leaping students, errant soccer balls, and latecomers to our open-air prayer meeting.  You just never know.  In addition to all of the above coming our way, what really caught my attention today, though, was a small encounter.  There in the grass by my foot was an ant struggling mightily, flopping back and forth.  I tried not to be too obviously distracted as I leaned in to look more closely.  This ant was trying to PULL a small caterpillar/ grub/ worm-thing-- to drag him somewhere.  What is he, crazy? I thought.  Why, and how, and why not get help?  Lots of other ants scurried around, but none of the others seemed to think that lending 6 legs to the worm-transport effort was a good idea.  In the meantime, I prayed and listened as others prayed.  At one point I looked back to the ant-worm fiasco to find that the ant had left, given up.  Strangely, I felt sad.  After some 15 minutes of tugging and re-positioning, the ant had moved on. 

Wanting to be attentive, but not over-sensitive, I wondered why it was sad for a ridiculously small insect to abandon a gargantuan and questionable task.  I wondered if God was saying anything.  I wondered if I've (metaphorically) been an ant or a worm or a distracted onlooker.  I wondered what gives an ant the imagination to think, sure, I'll give this a try.  And what does the floppy grub-worm think about it all? 

At City College, the encounters are often a little weird.  And ministry can seem a bit improbable.  My prayer, however, is that Jesus and his fumbling fisher-folk disciples would remind and instruct us to give it a try.  Whether we are tugged or tugging, let us take heart at the good news and the Lord's favor.

Generosity Generates

"Generous people generate things. And, consequently, their worlds are more varied, surprising, colorful, fruitful. They're richer. More abounds with them, and yet they have greater thirst and deeper capacity to take it all in. The world delights the generous but seldom overwhelms them." — Mark Buchanan

(borrowed from Jon's post nearby)

The Difference a Table Makes

Common knowledge tells us that food is central to hospitality and community.  What I hadn't given much thought to before now was the importance of how and where we eat together. 

Our house has been without a table for about 4 months.  Even before that, our former table (and its chairs) became uncomfortable after not very long.  (Which is why it was banished, in spite of lacking a replacement.)  Eating largely took place on couches and counters, sitting in chairs and balancing plates on knees.  Taking a meal out to the patio was about the best we could offer our guests.  Hospitality waned.  We didn't invite people as much.  When we did, it felt makeshift and apologetic.

I also have a theory that even individuals eat differently at a table.  There is something reassuring and stable about not having to hold onto your plate of spaghetti or bowl of cereal.  Sure, it's fine for a camping trip or a meal on the go, but every meal, every day?  Not great.

Last weekend, I gave in.  Throwing my reticence about buying and owning stuff that won't fit in a Corolla to the wind, I plopped down $40 for a well-worn table at a junk shop.  Wood, with an insertable, folding leaf. We got it to seat 10, so far. 

As we washed dishes later that night, my roommate and I observed how different that gathering was from any other we'd had.  At one table, we could have one conversation for the entire group.  Discussion could ebb and flow and fracture and come together again.  There was no awkward switch to the living room afterward, so eating was leisurely and long.  It allowed for courses and seconds and a changeover for late-arriving guests as they joined.

It reminded me of Jesus' fondness for banquets and admonition about how to do hospitality in Luke 14.  Now that there's a table, there are lots of people to invite! 
"But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

How to start a morning at a California traffic school: Siempre dando gracias.  (Always giving thanks--- at least that's what the banner says in the front of the room.)  These are the places of incredible short story potential: waiting rooms, doughnut shops, and a room of chairs filled with law-breakers.

It's a Friends Church, - Quakers - "whatever that means," shrugs our instructor.  For us, it means that smokers must cross the street and keep their cigarettes off church property.  And we can't use the nice cushioned chairs in the room.

We're becoming friends, in a way.  By telling the stories of our tickets and bemoaning the state budget crisis, a camaraderie builds.  Certain people become types and characters.  Angry immigrant woman drives something like a van, big, oh what color is it... whatever, it is definitely not able to go that fast at the stop light.  She has tried.  She has children; of course she wouldn't speed past the school.  Young rebel man insists that he can drive while high.  It's never bothered him.  The police just asked him to extinguish the joint.  Military man heading to Singapore ships out Monday, won't be able to go to traffic court.  He drives a fast motorcycle fast.  All around me are college students, teachers, mothers, managers, criminals and head cases.  We gossip about conspiracies (how the state is out to get our money) and corruption, court trials (how to keep our money) and tragedies.

What may be most striking, though, is how docile the room full of us can become.  By some strange agreement, we allow this instructor to rant on her pet issues, separate antsy young-folk from their phones, and make jokes at our expense for 8 long hours.  We pay our $35 and make the most of it.  We don't make much.  The man beside me scored the tests of his 1st grade class.  I finished 2 Ken-Ken puzzles and wrote this reflection.  We were the only ones with pens in hand.

A Good Day

Drizzly early morning.  Delicious green tea. Dry autumn afternoon.  Dear, precious friends. 

Yet, what makes me pronounce the day a 'good one' is balance and scale, a sense of completeness and permission for unanswered questions.  In work and in leisure, this day let me flex and stretch and enjoy.

I woke up early to work on translation of a small portion of a report on violations of indigenous people's rights in Peru.  I don't claim significance or even particular skill in doing it-- just a few pages of English translation to help a friend.

Running late, I hurried across the dripping drying streets of City Heights to join a friend for some Bible study.  We asked questions and enjoyed insights from Acts 1-- final words on Judas, casting lots, and filling the apostolic leader board.  We let God do new things, show us fresh flicks and twirls of the Holy Spirit through the ages, and furrow our brows on things we thought we knew.  We prayed together.

I came back home for a ripe mango with lunch.  I dialed in for an Urban Mosaic conference call.  We updated one another, asked questions, and prayed for work and life.

I dealt with a few dozen emails.  I added things to my to-do list without crossing anything off.  I biked over to some friends' apartment, visited, hurried home before the early dusk.  I made dinner with a former roommate on the phone; I washed the dishes while catching up with a dear former co-worker. 

My day spanned 2 continents.  Touched people in 5 cities.  Bridged macro, micro and meso scales.  It doesn't make me a superstar - it just makes me happy.  It particularly makes me content that this is who I am and what I do.  Today.  (Ha, remind me in a few weeks that I wrote this.  I'll need the refresher.) 

For those of you who believe in me and what God's invited me into, I thought often in the later part of the day that you should know what this is like.  What a privilege and joy, what a beautiful invitation to say, yes, God is doing a new thing.  A new thing in Christ's bride, the Church.  A new thing springing forth from the desert.  A light in the dark.  A brightness for worn city streets.  A day that is varied and smooth and very good.

Marijuana

About two weeks ago, Mexican authorities intercepted a record 134 tons of weed in Tijuana.  They burned it - seen in the photo above.  (You can read more about it here.) 

Tuesday, statewide voting on Proposition 19 in California rejected legalization of marijuana-- but not by a large margin (54% voted against legalizing it).

I have friends who enjoy smoking, who draw inspiration ("thinking outside the box") from smoking, who view marijuana as no more harmful than cigarettes.  It shows up on their camping trips, after parties, in the back yard.

I vividly remember posters on the walls of our elementary school and even a few anti-drug campaign cartoons that offered terrifying depictions of what pot would do to your brain, your life, your relationships, and your perceptions of the world around you.  Horror, dude.  Absolute horror.  In contrast, what I see of marijuana among friends and neighbors isn't so scary.  They smoke, they talk, they have normal-seeming lives.  It is widely claimed that marijuana possession is unevenly prosecuted, with the brunt of arrests falling on young African American men.  (Note: none of my recreational weed-smoking acquaintances who happen to be white have encountered law enforcement around this issue.)  What is truly frightening, however, is the criminal web of money and violence that surround the drug.  No, it's not scary in the way that heroine or cocaine are, but when I think about the industry, about hundreds of lives lost directly or indirectly in its fiery wake... it's sickening.

"Marijuana destroys slowly but thoroughly was the consensus," writes David Foster Wallace from a Narcotics Anonymous group in Infinite Jest. 

I don't tout some kind of naive, drug-free pride (solid D.A.R.E. graduate that I am...), but neither do I want a detached anything goes attitude about something that is, when it comes down to it, destructive.  Aside from medical and legal arguments against marijuana, I've begun to wonder whether people who smoke recreationally have considered the use of marijuana as a justice issue?  It's not so absurd.  People consider purchases based on animal rights (change meat/ dairy/ egg- buying habits) and human rights (watch out for sweatshops and exploited laborers).  The drug trade is killing hundreds and hundreds of people, particularly along the border of the U.S. and Mexico.  Why participate?

These aren't particularly well-formed thoughts here, but I was moved by the drama of that photo and its back story.  I'm filled with sorrow when there's another drug- or gang-related death (and string of deaths) in places like San Diego, Tijuana, Juarez, etc.  I'm tired of it being a low-key, joked-about issue.  As with so many areas relating to Mexico, I'm frustrated by a lack of holistic, critical thinking.  Where are my fellow liberal arts grads with economic and international relations know-how!?  Let's talk about jobs and money and drugs and people and assumptions that cross the border every day, and let's stop pretending we're not all bound up in their causes and effects.

Today's Workload

That's right: the joys of paperwork.  I was trying to get all my lists of people straight and kept uncovering new lists... turns out I have at least 6 (so far!) working spreadsheets.  Oops?

Canoeing Mountains

This was the premise of a training event I just attended here in San Diego.  Solid insights from a pastor and strategic thinker.

Alternative Family

I was reading today: “By relinquishing a most certain way of knowing and loving and creating a family [in marriage], the celibate for the sake of the kingdom proclaims the validity of other ways to knowledge and community.”  I see that so clearly in others’ shock at how shamelessly I’ll draw people together.  I don’t do it out of any profound theological conviction as much as a survival tactic.  I’ll meet and eat and stay with strangers (friends of friends, usually) because that’s what I’ve got as a ‘stranger in a strange land’—whether it’s California or Cambodia.  I believe it’s worth risking and connecting as brethren/ sistren… what other option is there? 

Even though it seems obvious and completely practical, I can also acknowledge that this is not how the world operates.  People live alone and lonely because that's what they're told you do if you're not married.  People stay in hotel rooms, eat by themselves, and watch lots of TV because we do not live as though we have been born into a new and limitless family in the kingdom of God.  Give it a shot.  It's real, true, necessary, and so so good.

Who we are, for now and not yet

I received this in a pastor's weekly devotional email this morning:

"In the course of his remarks, Bishop Walker made the point that we should not “judge people on their right now.”  Rather, we should “judge them on their not yet.” 

       I thought this was extremely well put.  Just as we should take a plastic bottle and not see it littering the ocean but rather envision the shopping bag or park bench it can be so we should not condemn anyone for simply having difficulties just now.  We should not judge the awkward, uncertain college student on their right now.  We should look at them and see the confident, mature individual  they will become.  We should not look at the disheveled and angry addict and condemn them to that state of being for the rest of their lives.  We should look at them and see the sober, productive individual they will be after they change.  When we join in our prayer of confession every week we should not resign ourselves to being the fallen, sinful person we know we are.  We should look ahead and celebrate the free, forgiven person God is going to make us.

       Let us thank God that God does not judge us on our right now.  God knows we are fallen and need saving.  God judges us on what we will be: holy children of God sitting around the banquet table in the eternal kingdom.  And then God treats as if our not yet were already right now.

      Thanks be to God we are not condemned to our right now.  And let us help others reach their not yet."

Even as I appreciated their wisdom, I had some reservations about these words.   I often (though not as often as I should...) pray to see people as Jesus sees them.  Jesus sees who we really are-- who we were created to be.  Yet, Jesus sees who we really are right now, too.  It's true that he does not judge that state we're in, but he does not deny it, either.  The reason for my squirming, I suppose, is that I just don't want us to hop out of the mess too quickly.

  

I don't want us to console ourselves only with airbrushed, sanctified versions of the not-yet.  We don't ever need to judge, but we do need to make decisions.  All our decisions have to wade through both the now and the not-yet-- of other people, of our world, and of ourselves.  And so I do not tell myself, "Okay, I would be able to speak more kindly to this guy if he had the means and motivation to wash his hair" -- but I tell myself that Jesus speaks tenderly to those without homes and hygiene. 

We don't celebrate or worship who we (or those around us) are becoming, but we are filled with awe at the One who can make it so -- who can forgive and transform us into the men and women who will bring God honor and praise.  Thank God our identity is not how we present ourselves, but who You say we are.  How You love us.  How you transform us.  Our identity is being your disciples, your little children, your beloved.

"They Mattered Less Than Love"

I do not say that there were no misunderstandings, discontents and hurts.

I would it had been so.

Strange, how the heart sometimes assents

To angers that the will asserts;

But these we learned to live above.

I do not say there were no hurts—

I say they mattered less than love.

-Jane Merchant

What (Whom) Weddings Bring Together

Enjoying a fine Baltimore dining establishment after Angela's wedding... a long way from Park Street in Williamstown! 

"Talking about people who don't have any power"

Taken from Stephen Colbert's longer testimony on Capitol Hill.

Remembering the Vocation

The excerpt below was written the week after I entered my current position in CRM... I was looking through some old newsletters today and I was struck by the clarity I had before I even got here!  Good to remember: 

Why am I doing this?  And what exactly will I be doing, by the way?  =)  These are common questions I face.  Since I graduated from college, God has been pointing my heart toward ministry, listening to and caring for people, with a particular passion and frustration for the work of the Church.  Though I’ve begun to consider ordination in the PC(USA), I don’t feel ready to say that God has called me to the pulpit—or to parish ministry.  Instead, with Urban Mosaic, I want to walk alongside church leaders and pastors who are figuring out how to be missional, how to lead, how to care for their congregation and their community, how to imagine what “God’s kingdom come” might look like for San Diego.  It’s some of what I do with the Global Urban Trek, when I invite university students to take God’s words about justice seriously and prioritize their lives accordingly.  It’s some of what I did in Miami, when I encouraged a small congregation to pursue its dream of opening an immigration clinic.  It’s some of what I do in my home church when I lead and go to Bible studies, retreats, or prayer services—planting seeds and watering ground for my brothers and sisters to grow in God’s good will.  Who can say for sure what God will have for me in San Diego, or for how long?  (This is a job without distinct service “terms.”)  I do hope it will involve lots of cups of tea, conversations, prayers, hard work and full laughter.  I hope I’ll meet many people and draw them together.  I hope I can show God’s heart for the poor to the isolated sorrow of the rich, and I hope for righted relationships to renovate the Church.  Those are not small hopes, but I don’t think we were called to follow Jesus with a couple of achievable goals on a to-do list.  I won’t get everything done, but I’ll do something, and I want to do it as well as I can, with as much love as I have.