Resurrection City

Resurrection City: A Theology of Improvisation on Amazon by Peter Goodwin Heltzel

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free through The Speakeasy and I was not required to write a positive review; the opinions in this review are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR Part 255.

"Resurrection City offers a Christian prophetic vision for justice... in "the style of improvisation players of jazz offer." After all, "...traditional theology has most often been written in the style of Western classical music." ...the style of Western classical music? Despite the Christian scriptures not originating in the contemporary western world, until recently, most theologians have originated in the contemporary western hemisphere, so how else are they going to express themselves? Yet still I appreciate "classical music" in the sentence, since jazz also is a musical genre, and in this case, comparisons can be valid.

Resurrection City moves along at the approximate pace of the biblical book of Acts, and like Acts, brings us stories of discipleship, exploitation, inclusion, injustice, healing, conflict, resolution, and resurrection from death. Like Acts, Resurrection City tells us of the eschatological reign of the Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. According to the author, Resurrection City has [at least] a double meaning: new life for the poor, heaven in the biblical book of Revelation, "an ethical goal and future destination for world Christianity." Although the book title refers to many locations and ways of being, most specifically Resurrection City is the Beloved Community that gathered and grew in Washington, D.C., beginning in spring 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Out of a thoroughly orthodox Theological (Christological, Pneumatological) perspective, author Peter Goodwin Heltzel chronicles triumphs that have occurred because of faith-filled prayer, discernment, direct, and less-than-direct action. Heltzel outlines possibilities for a more inclusive, more justice-oriented future for the entire planet. You could describe much of Resurrection City as scripturally-based instructions and encouragements of ways to "practice resurrection" until the real, enduring experience of God doing a New Thing happens in the power of the Holy Spirit. The blues are a state of mind, blues often signal it's time to start reaching for change, sometimes a case of the blues is a place to rest and reflect for a while. In Peter Heltzel's Resurrection City, blues and jazz are all of the above. Very very highly recommend!

my amazon review: improvisation into resurrection

Friday the 13th 5

Karla hosts Friday 5, right on time for Friday the 13^th

SO, let’s get right on it―

1. Are you superstitious about anything?

I'm always reluctant to mention new possibilities to anyone until the deal is very close to being signed, sealed, and delivered. Some kind of anxiety that it might not happen if I speak too soon, so that sounds like a type of minor superstition.

2. Karla tells us "I’m going on vacation on Tuesday," and asks, "What are you looking forward to?"

I'll refer and defer to my answer to (1) for this one. Yes, there's almost definitely something new and exciting in my future... leavin' it hangin' at that.

3. There is a lot going on in sports right now–World Cup, Basketball finals, and much more. If your life were a sport, what would it be, and why?

I'm not a big sports fan, though I've been known to get very excited by the NBA finals, and (of course), World Series when Red Sox are playing. One of my bosses told me I loved "the thrill of the chase," and that I do, so despite my almost never acting remotely like a drama queen, I'll describe my life as a baseball game, with indeterminate length of innings and entire games, some small, subtle dramatic moments you'd need to be looking for and almost expecting even to notice, some others so large, public and spectacular you couldn't miss them. We're also talkin' totally unpredictable number of innings, too. I think the longest game I experienced live in the ballpark was 17 innings, a close parallel to the recent Times and Innings of my Own Life.

4. Hey! Remember orange push-up ice cream treats? What happened to them? What is one of your favorite summer treats? Ice cream sandwich, popsicles, frozen grapes, fruit pizza, DQ Dilly Bar, etc.?

I esp loved the orange covered vanilla ice cream on a stick—I think they called it dreamsicle where I lived; also fudgesicle, chocolate covered, and at one point and place the ice cream sandwiches were awesome because the chocolate cookie part was soft and a little chewy, like a brownie.

5. So there is this thing called “Listserve” that picks one random person per day to write an email to like a million people world-wide. It’s pretty cool. Some people make music suggestions, offer sage advice, or plug their latest interest/project. If you could write a note to a million people around the world, what would you say?

The best I can do is to counsel everyone they need to find a viable, (reasonably healthy) supportive, church or other community that will love, challenge, encourage, and hold them accountable, because without that, mere individual efforts to keep on keepin' on will not succeed. I needed to end today's play on a serious note of advice to myself.

Theology from Exile: Luke

Legal note - "Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this product for free from The Speakeasy in hope that I would mention it on my blog, with no requirement to write a positive review. I am disclosing this in accordance with Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR. Part 255: 'Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.'"

Theology from Exile: Commentary on the Revised Common Lectionary for an Emerging Christianity on Amazon

Gaia Rising, Sea Raven's blog

Many of my remarks about Sea Raven's commentary for RCL Year A, Matthew, also apply to this book about Luke's gospel.

About Exile in the book title:

Who are the exiles from the Church of Jesus Christ today? Those who have left the interventionist God of childhood far behind, who have set down roots in a latter-day Babylon, where new understandings about who Jesus was and what Jesus said reconstruct and transform the faith. These exiles ... find salvation in the awesome nature of the cosmos, and divinity revealed in all acts of compassionate justice.... [pp. 12-13 in the digital pdf edition]

On page 19: "Postmodern, post-enlightenment people cannot reconcile a changing, developing, evolving postmodern, post-enlightenment cosmology with traditional religious belief." Oh. I didn't realize that. I'm totally cool with a 3-layered universe (but what's a firmament?). Reminding myself and my readers that the Way of Jesus is comprehensive: political; economic; social; spiritual―and translatable, transferrable to any culture, because as did everything about all lives everywhere, it began incarnate in a particular culture. As SR observes [page 46], "The organizers of Christian tradition were masters of the appropriation of local cultural myth and metaphor."

Sea Raven frames her thoughts on the RCL texts by presenting the God of the bible as nonviolent, inclusive, oriented to distributive (rather than retributive) justice, and to deliverance. Sometimes I love the author's energetic explanations because so many of hers agree with mine, but then she apparently needs to let us know she is right because her theology is on the left, and her more "fundamentalist" siblings in Christ have it mostly wrong. Not left. This is the year 2014, and I'm definitely post-enlightenment and post-modern, but I also do mystery, paradox, ambiguity, and all those less than-logical, not-intellectual, non-physical dimensions of life and divinity and humanity quite well. But then again, at one point in the text, she acknowledges the ability to live with ambiguity and irresolution is a mark of spiritual and human maturity. But in her Trinity Sunday chapter, on page 117] she has it so correct that in this postmodern world, "Somehow the concept of 'grace' (charis – 'free gift') has become anything but 'free.'"

Luke is far and away my favorite of the four canonical gospels, so I approached this book with a more open heart and mind than I did the parallel Matthew volume. Of course Sea Raven "cherry-picks" her interpretations the same way the Revised Common Lectionary "elves" (name taken from Tolkien) choose their texts. And it's important to remember this series does not pretend or aspire to be of the same scope as (for example) Anchor or Interpreter's Bibles. Although I've participated in churches of differing traditions, all have been (progressive, liberal, etc.) relatively activist types who regularly reach out to their neighbors nearby and beyond, so I don't know for sure if Sea Raven's suggestions about more fundamental / conservative / evangelical scriptural interpretation are exaggerated, facetious, or not. Or what. Unlike in her Matthew, Raven includes propers for Reformation Day / Sunday in the main body of the book; she writes about Monday through Saturday of Holy Week in Appendix Two. In both Sea Raven's Matthew and Luke, I truly appreciated being able to read through and consider micro-commentaries on the entire church year by turning a couple hundred pages. I love that she included at least three passages describing the Eucharist from creationist Matthew Fox. She includes nice baptismal and eucharistic liturgies, as well; you easily could use them as-is, though In my own tradition I'd want to expand those somewhat. The conclusion to my review of SR's Matthew also applies to her Luke: "...Theology from Exile still is a useful, insight-filled resource; it's a keeper for my library!"

my amazon review: Sea Raven on Luke

Theology from Exile: Matthew

Legal note - "Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this product for free from The Speakeasy in hope that I would mention it on my blog, with no requirement to write a positive review. I am disclosing this in accordance with Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR. Part 255: 'Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.'"

Theology from Exile on amazon.

on good reads

Gaia Rising, Sea Raven's blog

I'll begin by stating a few years ago I'd sometimes make a theological observation and then add, "the Jesus seminar notwithstanding." Author Sea Raven has Jesus Seminar connections, but I'll leave it at that because I found so very much to like about this book, and I'll use it as a reference whenever Lectionary Year A, aka "Matthew's Year," rolls around.

Her constantly referring to the 1992 lectionary compilers as the Elves (she told us where she found that idea), and her endless comments about their "Cherry Picking" texts and portions of texts began annoying me by the 101^th or so instance. With a quick search I couldn't find a synonym for cherry picking, and though I'd heard the term, I still needed a definition:

Wikipedia: "...suppressing evidence, or the fallacy of incomplete evidence is the act of pointing to individual cases or data that seem to confirm a particular position, while ignoring a significant portion of related cases or data that may contradict that position."

Merriam-Webster: "to decide to accept (someone or something) from a group of possibilities."

Like Sea Raven, I've been distressed when the RCL's gathering of texts seem to imply or at least point toward supersessionism. I've been at least annoyed when they've broken up a key text between a couple of Sundays. It irritates me almost no end when they've grouped texts together in a way that implicitly support our more theologically conservative brethren and sistern in Christ.

Sea Raven frames her thoughts on the RCL texts by presenting the God of the bible as nonviolent, inclusive, oriented to distributive (rather than retributive) justice, and to deliverance. But she seems to insist on only a single style of scriptural interpretation that apparently excludes mystery and paradox! Jesus' way is comprehensive, and though my theology tends toward the confessional traditions of the Reformation, I have almost no disagreement with the content of Theology from Exile, only long for at least some acknowledgment of the mysterious, paradoxical, humanly unexplainable ways in which God frequently self-reveals and acts in the world.

The omission of texts for Holy Week seemed like the big thing it really was, but the Speakeasy sent me a copy of Sea Raven's parallel Theology from Exile volume on the gospel of Luke that does include Holy Week; I plan to blog and review that book, too.

The mostly 3 or 4 pages long, relatively lightweight commentaries on each Sunday's RCL readings all incline to highlight ways that particular Sunday's texts come together―or sometimes don't cohere. Although like probably many of Sea Raven's readers, I attended a mainline (liberal, progressive... what terminology does one use these days?) seminary, and received instruction in twentieth century theological trends, that doesn't mean my entire theological perspective remains thus. Or ever was entirely grounded in what some folks have referred to as fundamentalism of the left―the type of apologetics that suddenly discovers or discerns the way scripture recorded an event is possible after all, because (after all) modern science has deemed it possible. But Theology from Exile still is a useful, insight-filled resource; it's a keeper for my library!

my amazon review: Theology from Exile: Matthew

trash treasure tea 5

trash treasure tea 5, hosted by Deb. Today we get to be excited about one of my all-time fave activities, experiences, and places—thrift stores, charity shops, [usually church] rummage sales, yard and garage sales, etc. I adore our local freecycle group, and have freecyced at least a coupled hundred items. In addition I'll explain that most of my stuff had been in storage for a few months, so in anticipation of one or two short-term local moves and eventually relocating north of here, prior to then I unloaded a lot, and can't legitimately answer 2 or 4 and also can't provide pics at this time.

1. TREASURE: What is the best thing you’ve ever found at a rummage sale? Was it a bargain or just something you’ve longed for but couldn’t afford?

Because I've found so many treasures, this is Impossible to answer, but for now I'll go with the two white Heller plates designed eons ago by iconic designer of almost everything, Massimo Vignelli. If I remember correctly, thy were about $2 each, and currently would be in the $20 – $40 range on eBay.

2. TRASH: What is an item you couldn’t WAIT to donate to a sale like this, and then were surprised that someone not only bought it, they were so excited to have?

The Angelical Kitteh Tree my kittehs had played on and loved very very well that got lots of hits when I offered it on freecycle; it had been a wonderful, fairly expensive piece and even included a pawprint appliqué, but had turned into an eyesore even the kittehs ignored. I got at least 5 or 6 hits from people wanting it, and I'd posted a bunch of pics from every angle, so the condition was clear! On the other hand, I was very surprised that only one person wanted a semi-upholstered green chair that once had been a nice piece, was unraveling some, never had been my taste. I knew lots of folks would want to revitalize / re-upholster it, and I was so mistaken.

3. BUDGET: How disciplined are you at these kinds of events? Can you stick to a budget, or do you empty your wallet?

Most things aren't all that expensive, so in general I'll pay for and carry home whatever I think I might want, which means I'll probably find myself with a few things to re-donate very soon into the future.

4. TAKE IT AWAY: What’s something you’d gladly donate right this minute if I would just come pick it up?

Per my intro to this post, since I knew I'd be temporarily moving to another place or two within the same city, I'd pretty much donated most of the stuff I wanted to unload.

5. TEA: Do you have a favorite tea? Or a special teapot? Tell us more!

I'm far from a connoisseur of tea, so no faves here, but in general I prefer black teas to herbal. Unsweetened tea literally makes me nauseous, so it needs to have a fair amount of sweetener and preferably some milk. However, I love the various fruit- and berry-flavored ice teas that have become popular in recent decades. I realize there's a distinction amongst what people typically refer to as "tea" drinks, but I couldn't find it with a quick search, so I hope you know what I mean.

FOW Opening Prayer

Opening Prayer for today's meeting of the Faith, Order & Witness committee.

God of Creation, Lord of the Church, your Holy Spirit calls us together here to unity, to conversation, to agreement, to disagreement. As individuals and in our diverse theological graduations, we differ on interpretation of scripture, yet agree Jesus Christ is the ultimate interpreter, the Living Word of God.

How timely that the lectionary has been bringing us the gospel of John with Jesus' command to obedience and his pleas that the church might be one. As we soon celebrate and rejoice in the festival of the Spirit of Unity on the Day of Pentecost, may be one in your Spirit of Unity. We thank you for the healing in N's life, and ask your healing presence with all those who cannot be with us today.

We pray in Jesus' name―Amen!

Picture of the parking lot; you can see the building where we meet on the third floor reflected on the glass in the middle of the background building.

wednesday of easter 4

14 May

Beginning on Ash Wednesday, for the first time in five or six years I've tried to publicize more of my own individual story, but despite tweeting each post several times, not a single one has registered higher than 20 hits, so I quit. For now. In any case, for this particular narrative in-person probably is best, but I still want the world out there to know more.

Short version: shortly after going on staff of Sizable Suburban Church I flew down a flight of stairs and sustained what an astonishing number of years later I finally realized was a Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI). The event caused a couple years of seizures, and then a mistaken diagnosis of a major psychotic illness. That dx surprised me immensely, but (apparently I presented with and) I complained about negative symptoms of flat affect, impoverished speech... me?! Emotionally flat, not wanting to talk endlessly and gravitate toward every person within a country mile? You can't live without defenses, and at first I assumed some of my experiences weren't worth an emotional reaction of any magnitude; although historically I've felt passionately about people and events, we sure ain't never been talkin' about Latin Temperament here! I also had a substantial family history of major depression, bipolar I, agoraphobia, suicide, etc., and my own struggles with claustrophobia, OCD, panic disorder. Although those are disorders of mood and not disorders of thought, no one is immune to an episode of psychosis. I still agonize over, wonder about how to move beyond the devastating cost of losing my friends and career I assumed easily would reweave.

Most likely I'll label some future posts with tellingthestory as I try to continue conveying some of it locally. Where I am. Where people live.

better late than never 5

Again it's Karla's turn to host—better late than never 5.

1. I cannot imagine any one bird being my fave, but since I had a convenient version of one of my drawings of seagulls from this year's Draw A Bird Day, I'll claim gulls in general for now. I love watching and listening to them along the shore; the California Gull is the state bird of Utah, and they even have their own formal monument in Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City! Other contenders include Cardinal, Eastern Bluejay, Western Bluejay...and I have a serious case of ornithophobia.

2. Typically I'm most forgetful about almost nothing, but for some reason I'm still spacing answering the email from the Justice Overcoming Boundaries organizer I met at a meeting during the season of Epiphany. Yes, I truly do want to meet her for lunch or a snack. Really I do.

3. I love both, but prefer the psychological, spiritual, and physical experience of sunrises, though sunsets tend to be prettier, and I also love the sense of the fulness of the day sunsets often convey.

4. What ever happened to Grape Soda? Did the Fanta company bite the dust? I don't know, and didn't google the answer (yet).

5. Using words in a sentence: Needing to make a U-turn sign annoyed me so, especially since I already was late and could have obviated the need to turn back with a quick click of a mouse before leaving home, but by turning abound, at least I got to enjoy watching a bat fly solo over the cerulean blue ocean!

Wednesday of Easter 3

07 May

Since Lent began, I've been blogging more about myself than I have in several years: Tuesdays of Lent 1, Lent 2, Lent 3, Lent 4 and 5... now the world is moving well into the fifty days of Easter.

People know only what they observe (see, hear, touch, taste). Since no one who's in my current life knew me "way back when" everyone knew me as ambitious, accomplished, and a high achiever, going only with evidence, I'd guess most folks perceive me as unambitious and unaccomplished—I don't know how many people have informed me I "don't have any education." On the one hand, "who cares about them," but fact is, we live in society where other's opinions and perceptions strongly influence the social and professional opportunities we get. I fear I'm going to die of grief, loneliness, and social isolation before I even leave for Future City. In some ways there's little point in observing Claire and Sarah at the UC rowhouse helped make it close to ideal transitional housing because that's over... but I also recognize I've spent so much time affirming what has gone right and well, that I've been in denial about the many disappointments.

When I obsess so about my own situation I actually feel guilty (correct word), but as I've mentioned, this is not a hunter-gatherer society and even minimally one can expect their gifts, education, and (yes) hard work to pay off some―if not in dollars and cents (hey, the economy!), at least in opportunities for participation. But at least once I've quoted Walter Brueggemann's telling us "bright, gifted, accomplished people are valued and sought after" and also his mentioning people feeling "nullified." It happens. Maybe especially to "bright, gifted, accomplished" people. Again a couple weeks ago someone started informing me what my interests and values were, telling me I didn't care about... but I do care about nice clothes, lovely houses, high-end cars! I'd fully expected to subscribe to and enjoy another symphony series—back in City of History we typically did a 6-concert series, which was fine. I do care whether or not people perceive me as accomplished and gifted and educated. I care very much and it has become devastating when people say "someone like you" – "anyone like you" – "disabled... " I'm way far beyond not letting people wag me, not letting anyone rent space in my head, because we need to live in society, and I so desire to be part of mainstream society again. And you know I know everyone has insecurities, doubts, secrets, and devastations.

People are correct that meaning and purpose keep you sane! I feel like a stored value gift card or debit card that's been totally depleted to the extent of carrying a negative balance, and still fear I may die of grief, loneliness, lack of community, and lack of basic social supports before I even leave here to move there. But friend who pastors Church On The Hill assures me "grief, loneliness, and social isolation are dreadful but, for good or for ill, they don't kill you," ... and I even have a positive balance, which to me sounds a lot like more of my own denial, rationalizations, and lies about the clearly unambiguous. I need some kind of encouragement and formal counsel. "Meaning and purpose?" I fully appreciate the almost entirely online design opps I've been getting, and love recognizing how I've come full circle as a designer (pre-kindergarten that's what I determined to do!), yet as I observed in one of my #tellingthestory posts, real life is local.

More later; may shalom-full peace and infinite hope be yours?!

Friday of Bright Week

Reflecting Chaos

Since Lent began, I've been blogging more about myself than I have in several years: Tuesdays of Lent 1, Lent 2, Lent 3, Lent 4 and 5... it's now Bright Week, the week following Easter Sunday. Does that require different focus? Has anything replaced the chaos and disorder of the desert?

Practicing Resurrection? Maybe!

Have I previously mentioned I'd assumed I'd "always be doing" and continued preparing to do so many things? There's little point in listing them here, but it still could do my heart good, rather than once again affirming and celebrating all the gains I've made. Those achievements include this basically non-reader who started a theology blog a dozen years ago, and became an amazon vine reviewer! True that my reviews are not exclusively books, but I've written some thoughtful, incisive, blogs and book reviews, including a few reviews some people haven't liked (I suspect those folks are biblical literalists, since what's not to like about my insights and observations?) Although I'm still not writing as well as I did back in the day, my theology is better-examined, and reflects my experiences more thoroughly. Of course digging back into the Beethoven Piano Sonata Cycle paid off, along with my decision to freelance as a designer once again.

In Acts 8:9-24 we read about the sin of simony—buying and selling church offices, trying to purchase ministry opps, but I'm not quite convinced that's what I'd be doing: if I could, I'd pay $100,000 or up to $500,000 to attend the ELCA Youth Gathering in Detroit. Detroit is my dream ministry destination ... context, but Detroit may be only a fantasy, since I'm going to be participating in the future I'd been preparing for, that on some level I doubted ever would dawn. Hopefully Future City (soon to be called "Current City") will work in a similar way to what I imagine about Detroit. More on this topic soon; thanks for reading!

Earth Day 2014 #greencities

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life,
flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb,
through the middle of the street of the city.
On either side of the river is the tree of life,
and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
Revelation 22:1-2

Easter 2014

And in this mountain
shall the Lord of hosts
make unto all people
a feast of fat things,
a feast of wines on the lees,
and he will swallow up death forever.
Isaiah 25:6, 8a

telling the story: Holy Saturday

Did I tell you Sunday's coming?

Since Ash Wednesday / and Tuesday of Lent 1 I've been blogging a little about myself: Tuesdays of Lent 1, Lent 2, Lent 3, Lent 4 and 5... every Tuesday. You could say this post was supposed to be "Tuesday of Holy Week," but Tuesday got away from me, and it's now Holy Saturday: the day nothing happens, yet everything happens.

As Walter Brueggemann observes, a lot of life – most of our days, probably – are sabbatarian, literally spent in the interstitial time between Good Friday afternoon and Resurrection Sunday dawn. Like the rest of creation, I'll experience a lot more Saturdays, but about a week ago I found out I'm going to be participating in the future I'd been preparing for, that on some level I doubted ever would dawn.

All along I've had no trouble affirming the skills and knowledge I've gained. I've told people how my total background had wowed Sizable Suburban Church when I interviewed, but that person (me!) could not touch the theological, design, and musical skills I have now. I easily admit how I've been making lemonade of my lemons all along, yet amidst all the loneliness and disappointments, I've had to rehash Tip O'Neill's "all politics is local" into "all [real] life is local," and truly it is.

*They* insist comparisons typically are abhorrent, but that's typically about comparing oneself to others, since I am who and where I am, you are where and who you are., etc. But it's helpful to look at other similar people: in a first- or second-world developed country; reasonably middle-class; reasonably well-educated; somewhat skilled and highly experienced, and to assess the reasonably expected opportunities and outcome in this society, even allowing for an economy that has flattened a lot of careers, and done its best to devastate expectations. Had my life not been so violently interrupted, I well could have expected that 3/2 house, the Audi, another symphony series. Ok, the economy! I still could have anticipated a 2/1.5 house, another Chevy, a few symphony concerts...

Despite this telling the story blog post series, just like one of my blogging friends, there's too much I don't yet dare throw out into cyberspace. Saturday's almost over—Sunday's coming? Yes, it is, and this time Sunday's Easter Day!

Holy Saturday 2014