Advent Meditation Pieces
December 4, 2006
1)
The wind has changed
I can smell you again
In the soft open air
Beneath the mountains of the moon
In the stillness of the night
I sense your sweet scent
2)
we speak of matters of the soul
when we’re alone in this world.
men and women trying to figure
it out and our insides to know.
we work to know ourselves, and
thereby accept the other folks, we.
work together in the struggle for
liberation and peace in our land.
3)
some goals for the new liturgical year…
be honest about your life.
cherish your inheritances and pass on to other people.
come to know yourself by taking time to think and worship god.
be creative. move ideas around. be curious.
struggle for justice.
be flexible. breathe.
be kind to living things and appreciate nature.
share. believe.
love.
what else? please comment with additional goals.
Fifth Wednesday
November 25, 2006
So this coming Wednesday is the fifth Wednesday of the month, which means that there’s no Transmission. It also means, however, that we’ll have three whole weeks between one Transmission and the next, and I’m not crazy about that. How about we do something low-key, like have a movie night or something? Fifth Wednesdays do happen with some frequency, so it’d be neat to start a tradition regarding what we do with them.
I’m in Seattle right now and I’m playing for Church of the Apostles tonight with Lacey Brown. It’s a little bit like playing with a second me (electronic backing tracks mixed with live instruments, combining ancient texts and melodies with modern grooves, etc) except that, unlike me, Lacey can sing. It’s pretty cool - I wish you guys could hear it!
Church of the Apostles is pretty cool - they’ve taken an abandoned church and converted it into an Abbey for themselves. They take the whole “radical hospitality” thing pretty seriously. I was met at the airport, driven into down, and given a room all to myself. It would be a lot more expensive to get a building in NYC (I don’t there are any abandoned buildings, anyway), but I would really, really love to see Transmission blossom into a living community…
Video Games for Jesus. Whoa.
November 20, 2006
I don’t know how many of you follow gaming news (ok, I’m a geek), but this month saw the release of a real-time strategy game based on the Left Behind novels. Wired magazine has a really interesting review of it. Supposedly, the gameplay is surprisingly adequate, although I’m more than a little disgusted by, “You can sway enemies to your side by unleashing your Christian-rock singers, whose joyful noises raise the spirit of anyone near them. (You can even convert evil forces if you’re persuasive enough. Of course, the Antichrist has his own evil heavy-metal musicians who work precisely the opposite effect.)”
Why does a Christian video game have to be about warfare and converting people? Could we make a game about feeding the poor, welcoming the stranger, and striving for social justice? Why doesn’t the Christian gaming community look more like Games for Change?
Earlier this week, “Left Behind” found me on MySpace and sent me an invitation to be their friend. I denied them and felt pretty good about it. These unreadable sludgepiles advocate some truly destructive theology, and the entire Left Behind industry takes advantage of hysterical people who want to spiritualize their hysteria. These books embarrass me.
U2charist on TV tonight
November 10, 2006
Nightline is doing a segment tonight on a U2charist put on by a church in Westchester. I happened to be there, so TiVo it if you want to have some stock footage of me praying…
I think it’s interesting that they’ve gotten so much press for this because, frankly, the service wasn’t all that cool. I applaud what they’re doing, but there are a lot of small things they could have done to make it much more effective. If anyone’s interested, I wrote an entire critique of the ritual from an “emerging” perspective…
TjS: Shrine to the Lizard King
November 3, 2006
Jim Morrison’s grave, originally uploaded by Shontellymc.
In honor of the day of the dead, I decided to build a shrine to my childhood hero, Jim Morrison. Of course I didn’t know him personally, but his dark visions haunted me when I was young, and continue to bring out very deep, visceral reactions today, when I’m beginning the procreative cycle at the same age at which he died. There were times in my childhood when I wondered if I’d ever outgrow him, but I know now that this tired warrior will never see farther than his boyhood prophet.
Listening to a Doors bootleg right now, I’m reminded again of the primeval power of this man, this dark priest on whom my image of Jesus is largely based (who REALLY believes Jesus wore one of those ridiculous papal hats?). I hear Jim Morrison in the works of Omar Khayyam, the Biblical prophets, modern prophets like Raine Maida, in the continual lurching of the soft parade, and look forward to hearing his ageless voice in the cries of my child to be born. Yes, I intend to frighten my kids with Morrison’s howls, and as they get older, to teach them to dance around bonfires to the Doors’ pagan rhythms, and in this way begin their teachings about humanity, where we’ve been, where we’re going. Corny as it sounds, I sat down a few minutes ago to write, of all things, a poem for my childhood hero. Off the top of my head, here’s the best I can do - a tribute to a man who has always inspired me.
You were twenty-seven and I was twelve
You cried to Heaven for how I felt
You broke through to me
Who needed you to be –
How did you know, how could you tell?
Now you’re twenty-seven and so am I
But I’m still eleven when I hear you cry
Your message straight and true
Time and again you cry on through
You’re still by my side as years go by
When you’re twenty-seven and I’m fifty-six
Will you still have wisdom yet to give?
Will you still howl on my behalf?
Or fade down some forgotten path?
I know at twenty-seven you’ll still alive
God is There
October 28, 2006
Commemoration Ceremony of the Destruction of the Bamyan Buddhas, originally uploaded by Chris Kuhn.
a photo I found on flickr looking for pics tagged: friends god alone
—————————————
by Bowie Snodgrass
a poem I wrote wednesday night:
I want
A church
that’s part
of my private life
the life I live alone
in my head and heart
so many public personas,
media mentalities/realities
we yearn for integration
to become whole again
be part of something
bigger than just me
when two or three
gather together
God is
There
The Relationship between God and People
October 22, 2006
Thought this was cute commentary from another online community:
Q:”What is it like to have God as a friend? Do you go
ice skating together and stuff?”
A:No way man, God prefers 10-pin bowling then,a drink in 12-Bar then to
wonkies for Chinese!
————————————
I think this illustrates the differences between Catholic/Anglican/Episcopalian traditions verses the Non-Denominational traditions… The vision of how we see God… Is God “buddy jesus”? Or like Eddie Izzard, “Look, I went down there and told them to be groovy and then they split into different groups…!”, or as others have said of Jesus, as a “free love hippie” before his time?
We are all different and need to find our own personal vision of who God is. Isn’t it interesting to see how different we can be from each other? Yet, through that how deep God truly is to be able to create and socialize with us each.
What do you think?
What Would the World Be Like Without Music?
October 18, 2006
Originally uploaded by JwS. © Jim Scolman Copyright 2006
Tonight I remembered the words to my favorite song from elementary school choir. I’ve had the first couple of lines stuck in my head for a few days now, and finally sat down to see how many I could write out. By golly, I remembered them all (I think). Well, you can’t hear the catchy tune that does along, but hope you enjoy these lyrics –
What would the world be like without music?
Beautiful music! Just think of what it means
To you and me! What would the world be like
Without Mu-u-sic? Try to imagine how empty
Our lives would be. There’d be no melodies to
Whistle while you work. There’d be no songs to
Sing – like nanny-nanny-poo-poo. There’d be
No melodies to help you find the way you feel
You’d have to find another way-ay-ay-ay.
What would the world be like without mu-u-sic?
Try to imagine how empty our lives would be.
Share a favorite song of yours from childhood! Please :-)
Psalms 39:1-13 - Meditation
October 18, 2006
A fellow Christian from my old church in California forwarded me this write up about meditation. Being one who tends to think way too much in that my brain rarely shuts off, I have been contemplating learning to meditate. The only concern is that half of the time I end up falling asleep rather than focusing on our Creator! So I thought I would forward this in case anyone else is desiring to learn about it.
The Invitation Dilemma
October 15, 2006
As a professional musician, I run into a problem when I invite my friends to gigs. If they can’t make it, there’s no problem, but things get significantly more complicated if they could make it but don’t really want to. There’s the glancing away, the shuffling of feet, the hastily thrown together excuses- it’s pretty awkward and it makes me hesitant to invite people to come at all because I don’t want them to feel pressured into coming.
As I help start this church, I’m running into exactly the same thing, so I’m hoping I can get some advice from the new Transmissioners as well as my fellow church planters who read this blog.
On one hand, I don’t want anyone to feel pressured into coming (especially friends), and I want people to be able to say no without feeling awkward. I want someone to be able to come once, not come for several months, and then come again one time without feeling guilty. I want people to know that they can come or not come and it’s all OK.
On the other hand, I don’t want people to think that their presence isn’t valued. I want to communicate the fact that I’m thrilled when people participate in my community. Inviting people to Transmission isn’t a casual thing for me, either, so I want people to appreciate the invitation even if they say no.
Hm - does anyone have any wisdom about this?