Apomo

I’ve been slowly going through Newbigin’s “Foolishness to the Greeks”. It’s a good book, no surprise there. His intellect is on a different level than what I’m accustomed to, which N warned of rightly.

But, one thing I’ve learned thus far is that in Modernism, due to the preiminence of science, there has become a gulf between personal life and public life which is a gap the emerging church must close. What he means is, as I understand it, that because of the removal of purpose from the existence of nature (including humans), according to science, what is determined as ‘real’ and ‘factual’ is put into one cosmic pile and what is personal (including faith, spirituality, God) is put into another cosmic pile and narry the twain shall meet in the mind of an orthodox modernist. He says the church has accepted this marginalization and has, generally speaking, removed itself from the arena of intellect, science, politics, art, etc… and instead created it’s own subculture. Perhaps I’m reading into it, but that’s what I’ve gotten out of it so far.

I see the distinction he’s making, and I recognize it. I think that what the leading emergent thinkers are saying is that the emerging church should try to bridge this gap and bring the public life and the personal/spiritual life back together again. I’m not advocating some sort of church run state or anything, that’s not been a good thing historically. But, I am saying that the emerging church/pomo christians need to figure out ways to bring the two cosmic piles together. As holistic christians I think it’s part of mission to try to affect the world holistically, not just single dimensionally, i.e. spiritually.

Obvious ways of doing this are becoming more active ecologically, politically on moral issues (not just political ones), in social injustice issues, community building, local charitys, ecumenical cooperation. Less “church” stuff and more things “out there”. It seems we need to spend less time in our culture and try to blend the cultures together in a way that glorifies Christ. Eliminate the “them” from the “us vs. them” equation. Easier said than done I’m sure.

Today as I was standing line at the bank I noticed Bono on one of the talking head shows giving an interview about the G8 stuff going on this week and the need for more worldwide giving to address the African crisis. As I listened to him it occured to me that he is speaking prophetically to the world. Of course, that’s not news to us. But in light of what I’ve been reading it seemed to me that Bono is a probably a good example of someone who is blending christian principles with pomo culture.

At first I got a little pissy about it because I thought “Man, it should a be preacher or Christian representative that’s up there saying all that.” Why is a rock star leading the charge to help the poor and oppressed in the world? But I was a little offended that it was a rock star, not the church that was the catalyst for this effort, which seems to be making headway and not just headlines.

But, then it occured to me that preachers and the organized church, in too many ways, have been marginalized in the minds of the populace, and certainly the cultured elite. Modernism has built the two cosmic piles and in issues of the world, the public, in their minds we’re over there and they’re over here. So when our people say something, it’s too many times interpreted as irrelevant to their world. It takes one of their own to speak prophetically to spur them to action, to personal life change.

Is Bono a post-modern prophet? Is he an example of pomo, emerging church mission in action? Maybe. Whatever he is, he’s doing a good job.

]]>

A couple of things have happened in the last couple of days that are interesting.

1) I’ve been looking/praying/thinking about a way I can connect with my oldest son on a spiritual level and somehow instill in the important stuff of Christianity, i.e. love God, love your neighbor. I think these are best taught when it’s somewhat spontaneous, especially if the student is the one asking and desiring to learn rather than the teacher forcing the knowledge on the student in a contrived way. So, I probe and stuff and he doesn’t respond that often. He’s eight, so he’s into eight year old stuff. Bikes, worms, computer games, etc…

So, anyway, he and my wife and son were driving down the road a couple of days ago when my son found a sermon tape of mine that I’d preached about three years ago. He popped it into the tape player and started listening to it. The topic? It was the second of a two part series I’d done on loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself. He listened to the whole thing and then rewound it and started listening to it again. Now, whenever he gets in the car he wants to listen to it and he’s been asking me questions. Isn’t that way cool how God worked that out?

BTW: I listened to the sermon last night as we were going to Chipotle for dinner. I gotta admit, it was pretty dern good stuff. I can say that because I got most of the stuff off the internet. haha.

2) I went in this morning to get more blood work for my heart thing. The blood sucker was a gal that goes to the church where I preached the above mentioned sermon. As soon as I sat down she says “Bro. Brian? Why do people struggle?” I was a little non-plussed and I…uh…struggled to come w/a cogent answer. I think I said something about sin, the human struggle, life, and how Jesus said that being a Christian isn’t always easy. At that point she was prepping my arm to stick the needle in it when she started crying. I wouldn’t have minded that so much except she was trying to stick me with a needle with tears running down her face and her hands were shaking. Don’t know about you, but I don’t wanna be stuck w/a needle by somebody who is having an emotional moment. Know what I mean? I put my hands over her hands and listened intently as she told me about some problems with her husband. In my opinion, she’s being too judgemental and hard on her husband who isn’t as conservative a Christian as she is. Of course I didn’t tell her that in those words, I just talked a little about how we’re all at different points of the journey and we can’t allow ourselves to get impatient when someone else is not at the same place in the journey as we are and how we have to look into their lives and try to sense what God is doing in their lives and try to celebrate that and work with instead of having our own agenda. She calmed down and I let her hands free so she could proceed to stick a piece of metal into my flesh with a steady hand. It only stung a little.

BTW: I got my package of The ONE wristbands yesterday. You know, the white ones. If anybody wants one just let me know. I’ll gladly mail on to you. First come, first serve, while supplies last, yada, yada.

]]>

I went to get my prescription refilled for my asthma. I have Kaiser and saw a new doctor. She was going over my records from last January when I was told I had allergy related asthma and noticed my chest x-ray. “So, what did they do about your enlarged heart?” she asked? “Enlarged what?” I replied. “Your heart, it’s slightly enlarged.” “Really, this is the first I’ve heard about it. Is that bad?” She looked at me like I was insane. “You mean to tell me that nobody consulted with you about this?” “Nope.” She got a panicked look on her face and then sent me off to get an EKG, a rythm test, another chest xray, blood tests, and a pee test. After looking all that over she says I have a slightly enlarged heart and some sort of congenital heart condition with a really long name and it could possibly kill me. Jeez, how’s that for a kick in the pants? Evidently my heart rate is double what it used to be and it’s caused by the a delay in the electrical signal from the upper heart chambers to the lower heart chambers. Because the heart is enlarged it takes a little longer for the electrical signals (P waves?) to get the message across to the lower heart and it’s causing palpitations. She says I’ve probably always had this but it never showed up until now. I’m supposed to go back in for an ultra-sound of my heart and then see a cardiologist. I’m too damn young for this shit.

]]>

on the Ebay auction I’ve been bidding on for a ‘74 Jag XJ6. I had a snipe bid set up but I was watching it and there were a ton of people looking at it in the last hour, so rather than get into a bidding war I just pulled the trigger and did Buy It Now. My high bid was only $700 away from the BIN price so I figured I was probably only risking a couple hundred bucks by going for the BIN and I didn’t have to run the possibility of getting into a bidding war and paying more or getting outbid in the end. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, no matter what my E-Snipe professional wife says! haha.

So, I’m the proud(?) new owner of a ‘74 Jag. I hope it’s as nice as the pictures seem to indicate. Check it out Pimp My Ride .

]]>

Here’s a letter I wrote to the editor of our local paper. It’ll be interesting to see if they respond. I wrote a letter to the religious section awhile back but got no response at all.

“As a subscriber and regular reader of the paper, I would like to see more coverage of the genocide that’s currently happening in the Darfur region of Sudan. As I understand it, nearly 400,000 people have been murdered, and 2 million people displaced in the last two years, but I have to go to the internet to read about it. Why is that?

Both of these are huge events with significant moral issues involved and I think they deserve to be covered by your paper.”

]]>

I got my package of ten green “Save Darfur” wristbands today. Anybody want one? I’ll send it to you. Let me know. First come, first serve. While supplies last. If I’m out when you speak up, too bad so sad.

]]>

Does this sound like the church Jesus talked about; the kingdom of God?

A place where all are welcomed and strangers are treated with the respect and honor of members; where members give freely to one another with no requirement of payment or re-payment, they just give freely according to need, there is an emphasis on decommidification and consumerism and a strong emphasis on using what you need and recycling and resistance against materialism; an emphasis on inner development and inner spiritual self discovery, an environment where each person can express themselves according to their unique gifts and this expression is a gift to the community and all enjoy and benefit from the gifts of others, there is great effort put into the idea of community, cooperation and communal relationships as opposed to individualism, isolation, and cliques; there is an emphasis on civic repsonsibility, obeying the law, contributing to the local community and interacting with them in a giving, positive way; there is an emphasis on being ecologically friendly, preserving God’s creation, leaving no trace and hopefully making the physical world better than how we found it; there is a high degree of participation encouraged for those involved where all contribute, all participate, all work, all play because it’s understood that personal transformation only comes through this participatory interaction; and finally, there is a sense of immediacy that we need to be proactive, to immediately break down barriers seperating people and make all these things happen, not waiting for some distant future but realizing that the time for action is now.

Is this alot like the church, the kingdom of God that Jesus preached? I think so, especially in terms of practice. I think I can proof text like crazy on each of these points from the teachings and praxis of Christ and much of the references would be in context of the kingdom of God. I could do the same with Pauline writings as well.

Ok, if you agree, then go check this out . Go read the mission statement and the 10 principles. I saw this on Free Speech TV. Once I got past the outward stuff and listened to what they were talking about and how they worked it out, I was intrigued and impressed. One guy they interviewed was an evangelical pastor from a church in Cincinnati and he brought a truckload of free water along with five of his friends.

]]>

Well, we had the first block party today and it was a success. Out of thirteen houses on our street, all but two showed up. The others were out of town or had to work. Everybody had a great time. Food was good. It was cool to hear people swapping recipes, phone numbers, email addresses and just sharing their stories with each other. That’s what it’s all about. Lots of people said how nice it was and how much they enjoyed it.

Our neighborhood park is under construction just down the street; so when it’s done I think I’ll try another one at the end of the summer and invite a couple of other streets too.

You can see pictures of the party on the Flickr.com thingie on the sidebar. Click on the slideshow option and it’ll run through all the photos. Hope you enjoy them. I took the photos before alot of people showed up so the crowd looks a little sparse. I was too busy chasing the little one and talking to people to take many photos later. We had about 30-40 people that came and went.

The little, curly haired blonde kid is my youngest, the one with the Pamela Anderson boobs is my oldest, I’m the one in the red shorts w/his back to you at the grill and my wife said that if I included any pictures of her she’d never talk to me again. I thought that was a good bargain until I remembered that today is our 17th wedding anniversaray and it’d probably not be a good thing to piss her off.

Special thanks to my friend Rustin who put together two CD’s music that we played on the portable sound system from the church. It was a real eclectic blend of music and several people commented about some of the older songs and complimented me on my appreciation for such a wide range of music. I graciously accepted the compliment and did my best to act demure. haha.

]]>

Next Page »

Design Downloaded from WPThemes.Info Packaged by Edublogs - education blogs.