Wednesday, November 08, 2023
hey beautiful!
Wednesday, May 24, 2023
[we either love and embrace...]
We are either a people who love, embrace, and enter into a caring posture with our family, friends, neighbors, strangers, and even enemies (real or imagined)
or
we will spend our lives mercilessly trying to define who is lovable and who is not, who is worthy and who is not, who deserves my attention and who does not. Inevitably, we will end up loving people who look like us, think like us, and pledge allegiance to the same flag—and we will exclude the rest.
In this truly useless pursuit, we will separate ourselves from God (through tribal worship), from the world’s good (by avoiding healing and restoration), and from our very souls (through self-preoccupation with ego).
Excerpt from Jack Jezreel. Spacing added. https://cac.org/daily-meditations/contemplation-action-week-2-summary-2017-07-08/
Friday, January 06, 2023
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
[every 10th jesus...]
By incorporating this statistic into Bouguereau’s traditional religious portrait, Handel challenges the understanding of Christian views on homosexuality. Bouguereau’s idyllic depiction of the affectionate infants Jesus and John the Baptist in the loving embrace of the Virgin Mary evoke Christ's and Mary's love and compassion for all humanity, including the ten percent who may be gay or lesbian. The peacefulness of the scene emphasizes the stark contrast between the great benevolence and love expressed by Christ in the Bible and the hatred and violence directed towards the LGBT community that some attempt to justify with Christian ideology.
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
[answering messages of hate with love]
Here's an innovative and constructive way to deal with racist graffiti:
Ibo Omari has a plan for when he comes across a swastika painted onto a wall in his hometown of Berlin. He’ll grab a can of spray paint from the graffiti supply shop that he owns, and cover it up. But Omari doesn’t just erase the Nazi trademark—he transforms it.
Since launching Berlin #PaintBack earlier this year, Omari and his fellow organizers have covered up at least 20 swastikas across Berlin, leaving an array of whimsical street art where symbols of hate were once visible.
Read more about how #PaintBack is transforming neo-nazi graffiti into whimsical street art.
https://www.citylab.com/life/2016/08/transforming-neo-nazi-graffiti-into-whimsical-street-art/497867/
Here's a Canadian story where a church in Waterloo did something quite similar.
Friday, May 12, 2017
bread, stones and parents
We give sons & daughters a serpent instead of a fish, a stone instead of bread. They leave-we say it's due to "cultural relativism."— Jonathan Martin (@theboyonthebike) April 20, 2017
Matthew 7:9-11 (NIV)
“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
Luke 11:11 (NIV)
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for[a] a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
Saturday, December 31, 2016
Tuesday, November 01, 2016
Thursday, October 20, 2016
[from john pavlovitz: the church beloved]
In a recent post, John Pavlovitz presents:
The Church Beloved: A Manifesto of LGBTQ-Affirming Christians
Here's an excerpt:
A new Church is coming, or rather with each passing day it is becoming; person by person being renovated.
Heart by heart it is waking up.
For a long time we have been shamed into silence, relegated to the periphery of the faith community, believing in quiet. But these days demand volume and today we raise our voices so that there can be no mistaking our intentions.
We are unrepentantly, unwaveringly LGBTQ-affirming Christians.
We will continue to make the Church and this world a more open, loving, and safe place for the queer community and their families.
Read the rest of the manifesto:
http://johnpavlovitz.com/2016/06/29/the-church-beloved-a-manifesto-of-becoming/
Thursday, October 06, 2016
[an orthodox rabbi walked into a gay african-american bar…]
The tragedy that took place in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando has affected many people. In this article, Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld shares how his Orthodox congregation responded.
I love this true story for a few reasons:
- It shows that differences do not have to be barriers
- It gives an example of how we can cry with those who cry and laugh with those who laugh
- It shows how we can be Christ-incarnate in the midst of others’ lives
- It reveals how, when it comes down to it, we often have far more connections with others than we first expected.
Here's the beginning of the story:
When our synagogue heard about the horrific tragedy that took place at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, it was at the same time that we were celebrating our festival of Shavuot, which celebrates God’s giving of the Torah.
As Orthodox Jews, we don’t travel or use the Internet on the Sabbath or on holidays, such as Shavuot. But on Sunday night, as we heard the news, I announced from the pulpit that as soon as the holiday ended at 9:17 p.m. Monday, we would travel from our synagogue in Northwest Washington to a gay bar as an act of solidarity.
We just wanted to share the message that we were all in tremendous pain and that our lives were not going on as normal. Even though the holiday is a joyous occasion, I felt tears in my eyes as I recited our sacred prayers.
Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld June 15, 2016
Read the entire article here...
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
a joy to hear their voice and be in their presence
After previewing my video on uncertain spaces, a friend wrote this to me:
Hi Rob:
I have so many thoughts upon hearing this that it is hard to respond. My foremost thought (about your video) is that I loved to hear your voice. It is so you. I guess that is what I want to feed-back to you.
If we really love people then all those things about them that might cause us "concern" are not so important. It is just a joy to hear their voice and to be in their presence.
So when can you and I get together to talk? D.
Hear the voice which inspired his comments.
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
[the only place?]
Rachel Held Evans recently said this about the church:
You can get a cup of coffee with your friends anywhere, but church is the only place you can get ashes smudged on your forehead as a reminder of your mortality. You can be dazzled by a light show at a concert on any given weekend, but church is the only place that fills a sanctuary with candlelight and hymns on Christmas Eve. You can snag all sorts of free swag for brand loyalty online, but church is the only place where you are named a beloved child of God with a cold plunge into the water. You can share food with the hungry at any homeless shelter, but only the church teaches that a shared meal brings us into the very presence of God.
And I think, yes! and then, I think, hmmmm, maybe church isn't the only place where these things happen....
You get ashes smudged on your forehead while running to catch the subway ...
We sing 40 in a stadium to the light of phone screens...
Someone calls me beautiful in a chat window...
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Thursday, April 16, 2015
on the 7,665,716,806th day...
Do you think that the last time God looked at what he made and said it was "very good" was the sixth day of creation?
Not a chance. When he created you, he said, "Very good!" "Beautiful!" "Wow, will you look at that!"
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
god has more thoughts about being erased
Check out God's previous response.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
jesus and his "moral circle"
Enlarged spleen, enlarged prostate, enlarged heart...
Of course, Jesus wouldn't see a doctor about his moral circle being enlarged, as he wouldn't see an enlarged moral circle as a problem. In fact, if Jesus even has a "moral circle", it probably looks like this:
Now that's a large "moral circle" -- more commonly referred to as extravagant, limitless self-giving love. What do you expect from a God who so loved the world, and from his Son who embraces everyone...
And we who are followers of Jesus, are called to follow him in loving in extravagant, limitless, self-giving love. Time to work on some circle-enlarging exercises....
Saturday, March 07, 2015
[love has no labels]
Their site includes a great video (below), discussion of bias, a bias quiz, tips on fighting bias and prejudice, and stories giving examples of what bias looks like.
Video link
Love Has No Labels website
Thursday, February 26, 2015
looking for love in all the wrong places
When it is said about someone that they are "looking for love in all the wrong places", the reference is usually to places like bars and clubs, or the arms of other people who are considered unsuitable. And implied by the phrase, is that there are "right places" to look for love. Yet I don't recall ever having heard discussions or presentations about the "right places", except perhaps in an ultra-spiritualized way.
The right places to look for love. Ironically, one both expects - and doesn't expect - a church to be a place to find love. We expect it because we know it should be that way. We don't expect it because we know it often isn't that way.
And so, for Jonesy and others, the church might well be the wrong place to look for love. Pretty sad, I'd say.
Check out an earlier related post.
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
pop psycholojesus
Just some trite sayings from everyone's favourite pop psychologist, western jesus.
On a serious note, I've been thinking about two of these phrases recently: "looking for love in all the wrong places," and "attention-seeking." Here are two examples of how they might be used:
She's looking for love in all the wrong places.I've been wondering whether these phrases actually function as ways of dismissing someone. If someone is looking for love in all the wrong places, well then, poor guy, he just needs to learn to look in the right places. Or the attention-seeking woman needs to stop focusing on herself, and focus on others for a change.
There's that attention-seeking behaviour again!
The phrases seem to ignore the underlying need or reality: the reality that he is looking for love and having difficulty finding it; the reality that for some reason or other, she is drawing attention to herself.
How do we move beyond labeling and instead see the person behind the behaviour?