Friday, January 28, 2011

fave verses friday 5

Today on Rev Gal Blog Pals Songbird hosts a fave verses friday 5; here's my play. What, only 5? Only in the interests of time, I'll limit myself to 5 only.

Beginning with one that's on my blog sidebar—this walk alongside the God of the Covenants is no ascetic path but one that fully savors the fruits and passions of creation, yet daily answers the call to love, justice and righteousness:

Jeremiah 22:15-16

"...Did not your father eat and drink
And do justice and righteousness?
Then it was well with him.
He pled the cause of the afflicted and needy;
Then it was well
Is not that what it means to know Me?"
Declares the LORD.

Colossians 1:17—I love the Cosmic Christ!

Colossians 1:17

2 Corinthians 5:18

2 Corinthians 5:18

1 Timothy 4:10

1 Timothy 4:10

Isaiah 28:17

I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2011

I don't have enough energy on any level to blog today for MLK Day, so here are my blogs from 5 years ago:

MLK Day 2006

and from 6 years back:

MLK Day 2005

Monday, January 10, 2011

Christmas Vigil / Baptism of Jesus

Hoc est corpus meum!

Maybe you know the story about Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli debating eucharistic realities at Marburg? It's documented lots of places, but essentially upon the Swiss Reformer's insisting Jesus' presence in Holy Communion was spiritual rather than physical (after all, Jesus is at the right hand of the Father and therefore cannot also be in Zürich, New Zealand, London and/or Baltimore at the same time)—if I remember correctly, Zwingli's point was twofold but right now cannot recall the other part of it but I do know Luther wrote Hoc est corpus meum, "this is my body" on a table because Jesus said the taken, blessed, broken and given bread was his body. evergreen 9 nativity 2010Yesterday we celebrated the Baptism of Jesus, the feast that concludes the Christmas season, so it's high time I finished writing and published this Nativity blog.

I found this on Tuesday, 18 January: here's a short explanation of Zwingli's "point" I blogged long ago.

Early Christmas Eve I attended Christmas Vigil Liturgy at Holy Family Church in Linda Vista, super-grateful that Arlain posted an invitation on her Facebook wall. I've attended several Holy Family School events (Arlain's and Mike's three kids go to HFS) and Mike is famous locally as musician Michael David Lewis.

I obsess about, constantly long for and expectantly hope for homecoming, and on Christmas eve for a few minutes I was home at Holy Family, with Arlain and with Mike. When I got there the church was crowded, so I walked to an open space in the second row and realized Mike was right in front of me—Mike and Arlain were in separate places for pageant picture-taking. I often consider how God's eucharistic hospitality forms the model of what ours needs to be, and for sure I'd love and would thrive in a dynamic, multicultural setting like Holy Family's that's a mix of several varieties of Asian, of Hispanic, Caucasian and African-American. Holy Family represents every chronological age, people who are very able in most ways, some with hidden dis-abilities and a few who aren't very mobile at all. life stuff buttonA national officer of one of the mainline protestant church bodies commented on a Roman Catholic parish very close to the denom's national ("national church" always sounds ominous to me, but you get what I've saying) office. Like Holy Family, that congregation represented immense variety, a true microcosm of the Kingdom of God, the Reign of Heaven on earth. But as the church officer observed, we're not officially welcome at *their* table and our pastors can't preside—officially or not. I've also obsessed a lot about my current lack of shared history, of "remembering whens" of experiences with friends, events each of us would remember in a mosaic of slightly different ways. Yet I realize I now share a decade's worth of history with Mike and Arlain! The first few years I was back in this city, many Sundays they sat behind me in the PCUSA I started attending almost as soon as I returned to this geographical area. As I've blogged maybe too many times, church, liturgy and sacraments fully represent a reality shared with the people of God in every time and every place, yet of course I need something not only more local but truly more individually mine. Gathered, blessed, broken and given..."This is my Body": hoc est corpus meum!

"Night of Silence," written by Daniel Kantor in 1981 was one of the hymns on Christmas Eve:
"Cold are the people, winter of life,
We tremble in shadows this cold endless night,
Frozen in the snow lie roses sleeping,
Flowers that will echo the sunrise.
Fire of hope is our only warmth.
Weary, its flame will be dying soon.

"Voice in the distance, call in the night,
On wind you enfold us, you speak of the light.
Gentle on the ear you whisper softly,
Rumors of a dawn so embracing,
Breathless love awaits darkened souls,
Soon will we know of the morning.

"Spirit among us, shine like the star,
Your light that guides shepherds and kings from afar.
Shimmer in the sky so empty, lonely,
Rising in the warmth of your Son's love,
Star unknowing of night and day,
Spirit we wait for your loving Son."
Returning to multicultural Linda Vista and HFC, for what it's worth, in high contrast to my emerging realization that my life truly has unraveled and disintegrated in some ways (yet I've achieved far more than I'd ever imagined I would, so it's not about if only, what would have, could have or might have been but about what now is, yet still is not), people in that type of setting usually get who I am quite easily, usually like who I am and usually want me to participate as one of them. Yet the huge irony is that on Christmas Eve they didn't know I wasn't really one of them, and despite their knowing and liking who I am, if they found out, as a non-Roman Catholic Christian they couldn't commune me any more. More irony is in the fact that almost every one of them would agree with me: I am baptized and therefore we belong together. About the taken, blessed, broken and given bread, Jesus told us, "This is my body!" I look around the church and around the world, at the broken people and try to feel my own brokenness that must be ready for giving yet wonder when God will use me in the world. "This is [doubly] my body?
making machaca burritos
Yesterday the church concluded Christmas with the Baptism of Our Lord and Holy Family School had a Machaco Burrito benefit, so I attended 10:30 liturgy and picked up my burrito on the way back home. One more version of my almost daily burrito, taken, blessed, broken and enjoyed...

this is my body—Amen!!!

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

RIP Gerry Rafferty

Tuesday, 04 January 2011

City to City CD

from City to City (1978), "The Ark"

See, the dark night has come down on us,
The world is living in its dream,
But now we know that we can wake up from this sleep,
And set out on the journey...
We'll take the road that leads down to the waterside
And set out on the journey
Find a ship to take us on the way...
We'll meet out on the water,
Where all strangers are known
The truth is there to set you free...



the doubly famous "Baker Street"

Winding your way down on Baker Street...
This city desert makes you feel so cold
It's got so many people but it's got no soul
And it's taken you so long to find out you were wrong
When you thought it held everything.

You used to think that it was so easy...
Just one more year and then you'd be happy
But you're cryin', you're cryin' now.

And when you wake up it's a new morning
The sun is shining, it's a new morning
But you're going, you're going home.

from "City to City"

Goodnight train is gonna carry you home.
And the train keeps on rollin', and it just rocks you to sleep.
So goodnight, yeah goodnight
Goodnight train is gonna carry you home.
And you'll be home in an hour...
Good Night, Gerry Rafferty—thanks for some unforgettable music, the friends and fun that went along with it.