Summer & August 2022

• June 2022 Happenings

• July 2022 Highlights

• Urban Wilderness Lectionary Project for August

My header collage illustrates a couple of stellar fun events this month:

• Tuesday 02 August National Night Out, "A national community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnership" on the first Tuesday in August every year.

• Friday 12 August Girls Time out – lunch with Shadi and Osa at Chio's Peruvian Grill (an again for Shadi and me) and then an excursion to the Burbank Tar-Jay.

Five Minute Friday :: Show

• Five Minute Friday :: Show Linkup

Intro

During the daily blog challenge in October 2017 I wrote about the North End of Boston. My series title was 31 Days of Celebrating Place—I'm linking to it today because the pictures are so good! I still want to create an eBook; right now (still) about a third are ready to go; another third need very minor editing; a third need more details. Having said that, here's my actual intro:

Technically? A show is something you can see. You can put on a show; you can show up for events, for people, for yourself. Shows and showing aren't invisible. Because of my rooftop memories, in my Boston blog I mentioned Carole King and Gerry Goffin's "Up On the Roof" that many famous artists have covered. Do you happen to know if it's a karaoke favorite? Since I first saw and heard him sing it on Sesame Street, James Taylor's version has been my favorite.

I'll climb way up to the top of the stairs
and all my cares just drift right into space.
On the roof, it's peaceful as can be
and there the world below don't bother me.
And at night the stars, they put on a show for free.
You got the stars above and the city lights below…

Shows

We can see a show because it shows or reveals itself to us. If music is the main feature, we usually call it a concert. But any TV show is more than visual; every TV show includes some kind of sound, whether talk or music. Besides, whether a psychedelic era tribute band or a symphony orchestra, the musicians' appearance or show is an important part of the overall effect.

My header pic shows a hibiscus as an icon of the glorious shows God's creation gives us. A calm shoreside ocean or the sea in turmoil (sound up!). A field of flowers. Herds of horses, northern lights. A sprout showing green as it pops through an urban sidewalk. Starkly beautiful frozen prairie. The night stars above that put on a show for free from Up On the Roof the song! A list is next to useless because all of them are wonderful; each is essential.

To a limited extent, all of creation's shows are free of cost to us because they don't charge admission, yet we need to restore what's declined or in danger of extinction and lovingly care for everything that's thriving.

Which of creation's shows do you think just might be your faves? Or is the question impossible to answer?

# # #

Five Minute Friday :: View

• Five Minute Friday :: View Linkup

The View from the River

What does the view from the river that named this city show me?

As with anyone's limited visual perspective, what I can see on any day I glance upstream and downstream or stroll the riverbank almost obscures the cosmic reality that's innumerable vessels that have carried the gospel around the globe, millennia of baptismal waters.

Cities long have been built alongside flowing waterways that long have carried ideas, people, languages, and commodities from one part of the planet to another. The Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers empty into the Pacific Ocean, where twin seaports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have given this region (and country) cultural combinations and culinary contributions. The moment now-residents of this most diverse ever human settlement first set foot on American turf as they disembarked or deplaned along the riverside, what did they view? What aspects of that vision especially inspired them? What gifts did they resolve to bring to their new place and new people?

I chose this header photo I captured close to the Frog Spot because it gloriously reveals (everyone can view!) a waterway that has returned to health from near devastation, a place where visitors can view greenery, flowers, wildlife, and sea creatures, where they can view people wearing apparel from geographically distant places—and hear some of the fusion music these waters have brought.

By the river we can view water is life in action. Amen? Amen!

# # #

Revised Bibliography

Here are a few additions to my bibliography for [original working title], Justice, Freedom and Redemption: Divine Image and Creation's Glory, first blogged eighteen years ago in July 2004. More to follow!


New! • Bauckham, Richard, The Bible and Ecology: Rediscovering the Community of Creation. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2010.

New! • Dahill, Lisa E.; Jim B. Martin-Schramm, Jim B.; McKibben, Bill., Eco-Reformation: Grace and Hope for a Planet in Peril. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2016.

New! • Dickinson, T. Wilson, The Green Good News: Christ's Path to Sustainable and Joyful Life. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2019.

New! • Fox, Matthew, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991.

New! • Hiebert, Theodore, The Yahwist's Landscape: Nature and Religion in Early Israel. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008.

New! • Lathrop, Gordon, Holy Ground: A Liturgical Cosmology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009.

New! • Tull, Patricia K. Inhabiting Eden: Christians, the Bible, and the Ecological Crisis. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2013.


1. Beker, Johan Christiaan, Paul's Apocalyptic Gospel: The Coming triumph of God. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982.

2. Brueggemann, Walter, The Land: Place As Gift, Promise, and Challenge in Biblical Faith. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1977.

3. Brueggemann, Walter, The Land: Place As Gift, Promise, and Challenge in Biblical Faith. Second Edition, Minneapolis: AugsburgFortress, 2002.

4. De Waal, Esther, The Celtic Vision: Prayers, Blessings, Songs & Invocations from the Gaelic Traditions. Barnhart, Missouri: Liguori Publications, 2001.

5. Fox, Matthew, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality. New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc., 1983.

6. Fox, Matthew, Wrestling with the Prophets: Essays on Creation Spirituality and Everyday Life. New York: Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 1995.

7. Moltmann, Jürgen, The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992.

8. O'Donohue, John, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.

9. O'Donohue, John, Eternal Echoes: Celtic Reflections on our Yearning to Belong. New York: HarperCollins, 1999.

10. Santmire, H. Paul, How does the liturgy relate to the cosmos and care for the earth? In What are the ethical implications of worship? Minneapolis: AugsburgFortress, 1996.

11. Santmire, H. Paul, Nature Reborn: The Ecological and Cosmic Promise of Christian Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000.

12. Santmire, H. Paul, The Travail of Nature: The Ambiguous Ecological Promise of Christian Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991.

13. Stendahl, Krister, Paul among Jews and Gentiles and Other Essays. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1983.

Five Minute Friday :: Forget

Isaiah 43:18-19
Remember not the former things
nor consider the things of old.
behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?

• Five Minute Friday :: Forget linkup

• Remember the way the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness…Therefore keep the commandments of the Lord your God. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey.

Deuteronomy 8:2, 6-8

• Remember not the former things
nor consider the things of old.
behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?

Isaiah 43:18-19

Don't remember? But that means to forget! And why? Because I am doing a new thing; I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19

"Remember" is God's covenantal word. Next door neighbor Sara in Previous City (we've both moved house a few times since then) said the gospel in one word is remember. "Re-member" is the sacramental word. In the same way Israel reveled in the agricultural gifts of the promised land and offered thanks to the Giver, we assemble together, gather in creation's bounty, give thanks…

In these crazy times – as always – God remembers how quickly we forget.

Overcome by disappointment, broken dreams, COVID fallout, I keep trying to remember.

I keep trying to forget. Because the memories hurt too much.

But God's "remember not" (because at this particular time you need to forget) via Isaiah is something else altogether! We study scripture, and by the time we've made a few trips around the sun we've actually learned something about human propensities and about God's everlasting faithfulness along with the wisdom of recalling both of those on a regular basis. You remember how human forgetfulness tends to lead us into despair, makes us forget to hope?

How ironic is it that when we *think* we know death is not God's final answer, resurrection to new life out of the impossible always surprises us?

# # #

Five Minute Friday :: Together

• Five Minute Friday :: Together Linkup

A few autumns ago just before Thanksgiving Day USA, the soundtrack to a too short Walmart TV commercial sang the Youngbloods:

Love is but a song we sing
Fear's the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry

Come on, people now!
Smile on each other
Everybody get together
try to love one another right now.

Via Luke 12:32, the lectionary gospel for this coming Sunday assures us, "Do not fear, little flock (flock of birds? flock of sheep?), it is the Father's pleasure to give you the kingdom." By the end of the scripture selection at verse 40, we've met a householder so generous he doesn't invite everyone (y'all y'all come) to the extravagant party, he takes the party to them and serves everyone himself. "Truly I tell you, the master will fasten up his belt and have the slaves recline to eat, and he will come and serve them." Luke 12:7

What a picture of the God who gifts us with the reign of life: food, drink, togetherness. I love connecting this narrative with the T-Day commercial, especially with so many immigrants in this area as well as across the country. But now in 2022 we're talking newcomers from other countries and other areas of this country, and a whole lot of people who've been here a very long time that Covid has displaced.

How about us? Of course, a lot of this relates to how much space we have in our homes and in our churches, yet how can we follow the example of the Divine Universe Owner and serve our neighbors? Maybe just as much, let's not neglect our own—in-house family and church communities?!

Come on, people now
Smile on each other
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now
Right now
Right now


Chester Powers "Get Together" lyrics © Ivan Mogull Music Corp., Irving Music Inc.

"Kids Together" header is my editing of public domain clipart.

# # #