Five Minute Friday :: Vibe

• Five Minute Friday Vibe :: Linkup

As someone who's never watched a soccer match – or an American football game – I still had to experience the vibe I could hear from outside, so a few minutes ago I came back from a stroll to observe and to feel some other Los Angeles denizens alive with the vibe of South Korea vs Mexico in World Cup 2026.

In my current "between lives" circumstances, I live and work in the Koreatown community of LA. Many of my neighbors citywide (and this city rocks a very wide swath) are Mexican immigrants or otherwise ethnic Mexican, to such an extent most signage everywhere is bilingual.

A few years back as I reminisced with a now former friend I'd met when we both lived in the same Koreatown hostel, she observed, "Koreatown has a nice vibe." Although maybe the part of Koreatown on the other side of Wilshire where we first met does, I'm not sure about this south of Wilshire section. But today's World Cup vibe isn't "nice" or tame—it's competitive yet neighborly yet still wanting my side to win.


But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, Jesus Christ.
Philippians 3:20

There is no longer Jew or Greek;
there is no longer slave or free;
there is no longer male and female,
for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28

And yes, Thomas Friedman! Because the world keeps getting flatter every day, why would we want to emphasize our own tribe, our own ethnicity, culture, or brand? Maybe because it has so much to offer the world, just as your tribe, your perspective, your ways of being could enhance my world and broaden my vision. And let's all celebrate and live into the reality that the ground is level at the foot of the cross.

As I'm finishing this FMF, I can feel the roaring crowd that's gone way beyond a chill vibe. Mexico won! Enjoy the moment!

What's your vibe today?

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Five Minute Friday :: Affection

• Five Minute Friday :: Affection Linkup

Only this evening I told someone else I'm everyone's Best Friend Forever, exactly like my late uncle. Is it genetic? Probably not, because quite a few people have that characteristic, but I like to identify with him.

What is affection? We think of it as emotional longing, a desire to be present with and for them, a trait that doesn't depend upon their good behavior but happens just because they are. We want to stay connected and we feel affection for them even when we're far away from them. That yearning tends to draw us back to them, so we find ways to be close to them again.

Like my uncle, I'm always for the underdog and undercat. I have so much affection for those who haven't won a chance for the spotlight that when a baseball team I don't follow and that's overall not doing well this season wins a game against one of my teams, I'm happy and excited. (My main teams are the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox with a frequent side of San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays.)

As recorded in John's gospel 15:15 Jesus says we're no longer his servants but now we're his friends. Is that good news? I hope it is! Because we know Jesus as the ultimate BFF. As we read all the gospel accounts, we observe Jesus and his companions demonstrating immense affection for one another.

Following Jesus, Paul of Tarsus had deep concern, gratitude, joy, and affection for the churches he planted and served. The church at Philippi that I've written a fair amount about seems to have captured Paul to an extreme extent, although he prayed constantly for all of them. Like Paul, most pastors feel both affection and frustration for their congregations. Like Paul, most pastors pray a whole lot for the churches they serve.

In Hebrew biology and therefore in scripture we know the heart is mostly the seat of will and intention, yet it encompasses the tenderness and affection we post-enlightenment westerners identify with our hearts. Jesus and Paul showed us all of that to perfection!

How about you? What are some objects of your affection? Notice the peaches picture? Food gets a lot of my affection.

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Five Minute Friday:: Anticipate

• Five Minute Friday :: Anticipate Linkup

If FMF wrote to an image prompt and not to a word, Kate's picture of boots ready to start an adventure would be perfect. How fun to write about and anticipate the always unknown we walk into.

Lately I've been reminding myself a lot that the best way to predict the future is to create it. And I wonder what on earth happened when so little I anticipated came to be. I haven't said much about that recently, but my "life stuff" tag leads to some I dared make public.

With yet another devastating war filled with unimaginable violence and horror, what can we anticipate? More of the same or similar? This week for my scripture blog on Philippians 4:1-9, I'm writing on God's presence. I'll link to it here when it's live.

• Pentecost 20A on Urban Wilderness/City Paradise

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and petitions with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will protect your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:4-7

Carly Simon's "Anticipation" opens with "We can never know about the days to come, but we think about them anyway (autocorrect just now changed my error to antiwar. Wow!) Anticipation the song ends with "These are the good old days" and I know I'm engaging in irresponsible eisegesis to align those lyrics with today anticipating a better unknown future, but you know about poetic license.

As I prayerfully and fearfully (fear in the sense of anxiety, not in the holy awe meaning of Martin's Luther's explanation to each commandment in his Small Catechism, "We should fear and love God above all things") anticipate the future of planet earth, particularly my current small slice of creation, more of Carly's music and lyrics encourage and remind us into God's future.

Let the river run. Let all the dreamers wake the nation. Come, the new Jerusalem.

We're coming to the edge // Running on the water
Coming through the fog // Your sons and daughters

We the great and small // Stand on a star
And blaze a trail of desire // Through the darkening dawn

God's sons and God's daughters! Let's trust God's presence and anticipate the unknown in our sturdy boots. Let's blaze a trail of desire. Let's predict the future and participate with God in the adventure of creating that future we anticipate. Amen? Amen!

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Five Minute Friday :: Heal

• Five Minute Friday :: Heal Linkup

But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings, and ye shall go forth and skip about like colts frisky and frolicking. And you'll trample the wicked … on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts. Malachi 4:2-3

Healing into health. Who and what needs it? How can we ourselves heal, how can others become healthy?

On top of the Russian Federation's – no, President Putin's – illegal, infrastructure-leveling, humanity-destroying war in the sovereign state of Ukraine, the USA recently has experienced too many especially devastating incidents of human violence using guns: Uvalde. Laguna Woods. Buffalo. And in addition, those of us who attend to church-related news haven't been as surprised as we'd wish about the Southern Baptist Convention's recent revelations. And now, right now, the National Rifle Association is holding its annual meeting in Houston, not canceling or rescheduling it because, as you know, money talks and there's something incredibly articulate about guns and ammunition.

Magisterial Reformer John Calvin was beyond correct about total depravity—not that depravity is the sole or overwhelming characteristic of people and institutions, but there's something misshapen, awry, sinful, and broken about every individual, every single organization, family, congregation, school, government. Each entity of every type. Something about everyone and everything needs to heal. But how?

In his letter to the Philippian [2:13] church, the apostle Paul reminds us God already is working in us, making it possible for us "to will and to work for God's good pleasure." Scripture and Jesus show us God's passion always is the wellbeing, integrity, and healing of creation. In the end, grace wins. Love triumphs. Amen!

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Five Minute Friday :: Know

• Five Minute Friday :: Know Linkup

Philippians 3:8-12

I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord … not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through the faithfulness of Christ. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and share his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

This week the lovely nature and sky picture our host Kate provided is both my header and my footer; I believe she usually finds photos on unsplash. Connecting the know prompt with this illustration brought me into flowers, plants, earth, and air. How do we engage them so we can know them? Mainly with our five senses. We smell, touch, see. With veggies and fruits and grains, we taste. (You may have seen edible flowers in the market?) Winds that course through your backyard garden or a neighboring farm make distinctive sounds in different crops.

However, in my focus scripture, the apostle Paul is all about life-giving knowledge.

• I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead … because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

For Paul, the gospel is death and resurrection. My sacramental tradition sometimes calls the sacraments visible words. Baptized into Jesus' death and resurrection that becomes our own first death and second birth, we feel and hear and see the water of life. Especially if we're baptized in one of creation's fonts like a river, lake, or ocean, we can smell the water and even may taste it as it splashes around us. A professor from a nearby university suggested if we're baptized in our local river that's probably a conduit of commerce and culture, why not lay a particular claim to that water by stewarding – quarterly cleanup day, anyone? – and celebrating it—how about a picnic beside the bay?

In the gift of Holy Communion, sometimes we catch the scent of bread baking in the church kitchen. Listen closely as the presider breaks open the loaf and, of course, listen and hear the history of God's people (anamnesis) and a plea for the Holy Spirit come to us and stay with us (epiclesis). We taste and we see how good the Lord is. We are what we eat! Jesus has made us his own. And then? We leave the gathered assembly. We become Jesus' presence so the world will know Jesus, too.

Knowing You, Jesus

All I once held dear, built my life upon
All this world reveres, and wars to own
All I once thought gain I have counted loss
Spent and worthless now, compared to this

Knowing you, Jesus
Knowing you, there is no greater thing
You're my all, you're the best
You're my joy, my righteousness
And I love you, Lord

Now my heart's desire is to know you more
To be found in you and known as yours
To possess by faith what I could not earn
All-surpassing gift of righteousness

Graham Kendrick – Copyright 1993 Make Way Music

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World Rivers Day

River Celebrations

The fourth Sunday of every September is World Rivers Day; founder Mark Angelo reminds us, "Rivers are the arteries of our planet; they are lifelines in the truest sense."

In addition, this year the fourth Sunday of September is River Sunday in the liturgical season of creation emphasis. Every year I design a Season of Creation series; here's my River Sunday design for 2017. Will the LA River, currently a.k.a. The World's Largest Storm Drain {flood control channel}, become a "river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing through the middle of the city?"

Sunday School

This double riparian party time excited me because I facilitate the {mostly-Revised Common Lectionary} adult SS at the church I attend; this morning I focused on the Philippians pericope, and began with the serendipitous start of the Philippians church. Acts 16 recounts how Paul and Timothy went to Roman colony Philippi in Macedonia, then to the river on the sabbath to find an ad hoc synagogue {if there was no local synagogue, Jews would gather at the river to form a minyan or at least to pray together}, then finding Purveyor of Purple Cloth Lydia by the riverbank, finally the baptism of Lydia and her entire family.

Acts 16

¹²and from Neapolis to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. ¹³On the sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. ¹⁴A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. ¹⁵When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home." And she prevailed upon us.

Most major cities originated and grew up alongside a river; waterways are strategic nodes of communication, commerce, immigration, and exchange of ideas. The early church always baptized in the flowing water of a river; a river is a dynamic, open system. How about our walk by faith? A participant at our August Green Faith Team meeting suggested being baptized in the Los Angeles (San Diego, Amstel, Cumberland, Chicago) River, identifying with the city beside the river banks, especially seeking the well-being of that river and that place. Decades ago the US Army Corps of Engineers contained the Los Angeles river in concrete, because as a flashy river it flooded easily and overflowed into neighbor communities. But... how will the Los Angeles River become a river of the water of life?

The second appointed reading for today, Pentecost 16, is from the apostle Paul's "epistle of joy" to that church at Philippi where the Roman caesar was the default divinity. In 1:27 he counsels the Christians to live their public, political lives "in a manner worthy of the gospel" as witnesses to Jesus' death and resurrection—not to Rome's death-dealing imperialism.

Philippians 1:21-30

²⁵...I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in faith, ²⁶so that I may share abundantly in your boasting in Christ Jesus when I come to you again. ²⁷Only live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel, ²⁸and are in no way intimidated by your opponents...

On Sunday mornings we've recently come from studying several passages from Paul's letter to the church at Rome; in chapter 8 he reminds us true children of God lovingly steward creation in ways that authentically reflect their divine origins and birthright:

Romans 8

¹⁹For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; ²⁰for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

River Walking

Will the Los Angeles River soon become a bright as crystal source of life-giving water for the city? As part of my quest to learn more about its history, to find out ways I fruitfully can live baptized in the city of this river, late Saturday morning I joined a River Nature Walk that started and ended along the LA Riverside at the Friends of the LA River's Frog Spot outreach center in Elysian Valley. A US Forest Service employee introduced the activity; our guide works for the US National Park Service. When will the Los Angeles River become a bright as crystal river of the water of life? The guide told us most of its water already is tertiary potable!

Paul counseled the Philippian church to live out their baptism as public witnesses to Jesus' death and resurrection. How about us? As we frequently observe during our Sunday morning discussions, even the smallest actions add up to big ones; they're synergistic— more than the sum of their individual parts! The early church always baptized in the lively waters of a river; a river is an open, dynamic system. Maybe I wasn't {definitely I was not} baptized in the LA River, but I live here now. It's my river. I acknowledge my baptism as wide open and God's call for me to care for all creation in the dynamism of the Spirit of Pentecost—especially for the natural world that makes its home alongside "my" Los Angeles River.








Burnaby, BC is World Rivers Day founder Mark Angelo's hometown; I'll conclude with a Burnaby WRD design.


PS city paradise :: urban wilderness is my blog for notes from classes I've participated in and facilitated.

Five Minute Friday: Joy!

Again this week, Kate Motaung hosts a Five Minute Friday free write at her welcome place in cyberspace; today brings us Joy! as an amazingly appropriate seasonal prompt.

Intro:

Two Sundays ago, churches that follow the mostly lectionary-based liturgical calendar began a new year of grace on the first Sunday of Advent. Sunday, December 11^th and its vigil on Saturday, December 10^th will be Advent 3; the liturgical name of this third Sunday of Advent is Gaudete, "Rejoice" after the Latin introit or entrance prayer that comes from Philippians, "Rejoice in the Lord always!" I teach adult Sunday School at my church; most weeks we study and reflect upon one of the appointed Revised Common Lectionary scripture texts for the day. The first reading for all four Sundays of Advent for current "Matthew's lectionary year A" is from the first part of the long Hebrew Bible book of Isaiah—chapters 1 through 39. However, the writing and concepts are not necessarily all of a piece, definitely not all from Isaiah of Jerusalem, but in any case, whenever we teach, preach, read, wonder, we still need to deal with what's in the canon, and deal with where we find it placed. For Advent 3, in Isaiah 35, we have pure poetry about God's redemption of human creatures and the redemption, re-casting, almost a re-creating of the natural creation. And how? With water! Water was the womb of earth's first creation, of our first birth and of our second birth. Water. Is. Life. Life is joy!

FMF: Joy–Water is Joy!

Isaiah 35:1-2

¹The wilderness and the dry land will rejoice! the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus ²it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing.

Desert! We easily forget southern California is a coastal desert because of all the water we import from elsewhere in the state and from outta state, but everyone knows we need to "Save The Drop LA." Desert! The Ancient Near East and Contemporary Near East are desert habitats. Specifically in the history of the people of God, we remember the exodus desert of the Sinai wilderness as The Place of identity formation, the locus and the situation where YHWH led, shaped, fed, created a people after his own heart. The God of the Exodus and the people of the exodus rendezvoused with each other, fell in love and slowly moved toward covenantal trust.

Have you driven through the hot desert during the day? Or maybe at night when the air is cooler? Have you ever visited a desert (Anza-Borrego, for example) in glorious spring bloom? 1^st Isaiah tells us the desert itself will "rejoice with joy and singing." I once had a housemate named Rejoice—being near her was a reminder to enjoy, and then enjoy again and again. Walter Brueggemann tells us of course the seas roar!...no more pollution! Of course the trees clap their hands...no more clear-cutting! Images of the eventual reality of the full redemption of all creation – not solely humanity – reverberate through all three sections of the book of Isaiah and are prominent in the psalter, particular in Nativity psalms 96, 98, and 148; what a fabulous lead-in to our celebration of the great trinitarian feast of creation that's Christ's Mass this poetry picture is for us. The desert rejoices because as you already know—Water. Is. Life. Water is joy! Rejoice!

Thanksgiving, 2005, San Diego, California.

These years have given me bitter deprivation and some sweet recompense...a few years back, as I was preparing to leave Salt Lake City, the participants in the Tuesday morning Bible study I sometimes facilitated gave me a gift from one of the local Christian stores; I keep it on the windowsill in my bedroom so I can regularly remember that group, admire the design and make note of the text! It's a 6" x 5" plaque decorated with flowery flourishes and features a version of Philippians 4:6, with bold text as I've formatted:

Don't worry about anything – instead, pray about everything. Tell God your needs and don't forget to thank Him for His answers.

Philippians' legendary author frequently is called the Theologian of Grace, and I'm recalling the times Paul wrote about again, again and once more again finally getting the "aha" of grace and the obligatory response in thankful living and sacrificial giving. From centuries later, Martin Luther also has been called a Theologian of Grace—no one remotely matches the way Paul and Martin present and juxtapose the infinite demands and the infinite freedom of both law and grace! For this eve of the American Thanksgiving for Harvest Festival, here's Luther, from his 1529 Small Catechism:

Give us today our daily bread.

To be sure, God provides daily bread, even to the wicked, without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that God may make us aware of his gifts and enable us to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.

Luther then asks,

What is meant by daily bread?

Everything required to satisfy our bodily needs, such as food and clothing, house and home, fields and flocks, money and property; a pious spouse and good children, trustworthy servants, godly and faithful rulers, good government; seasonable weather, peace and health, order and honor; true friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.

And another, far more recent explanation of the fourth petition of the Lord's Prayer—from the Study Catechism 1998 of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.):

Question 130. What is meant by the fourth petition, "Give us today our daily bread"?

We ask God to provide for all our needs, for we know that God, who cares for us in every area of our life, has promised us temporal as well as spiritual blessings. God commands us to pray each day for all that we need and no more, so that we will learn to rely completely on God. We pray that we will use what we are given wisely, remembering especially the poor and the needy. Along with every living creature we look to God, the source of all generosity, to bless us and nourish us, according to the divine good pleasure.

Dag Hammarskjöld, from Markings:

For all that has been, thanks. For all that will be, yes.

Amen and Amen!!!