Transmission

A friend sent me a link to this. A bunch of USCD hospital workers are struggling and demonstrating for fair compensation, and a bunch of church folk (including the Interfaith Council for Worker Justice) got together to wash their feet. Awesome.

So here’s a video chronicling the event. Observant folks will notice that the music is the track Lamentation, from my first album! It’s pretty nifty when you chance across cool people who are using your music, and this is exactly the kind of prophetic work I would want to be associated with.

Posted by: Isaac | Tags: justice, links, tunes | No Comments »

Bowie and I spent a lovely three days in West Cornwall Connecticut last week, hanging out with a bunch of other young church leaders as part of a consultation sponsored by Trinity Wall Street.  There were a lot of really exciting conversations taking place and I found it incredibly invigorating to be surrounded by intelligent, passionate kindred spirits.  Kudos to Trinity for being so forward looking.

On one of the nights, Bowie and I led the group through the Eucharist which we led at Easter at Avalon last year, a communion by numbers based on a ritual developed by the Grace Community.  A lot of people asked us for the text, so I’m including it here below the break.

It also led to some very interesting conversations regarding Eucharistic theology, Episcopal ecclesiology, priesthood of all believers, and the emerging church.  It occurred to me that Transmission has largely dodged these questions by not incorporating communion into our practice, but this isn’t a decision that we ever discussed.  Eucharist is one of the few practices shared by virtually every Christian tradition (except the Quakers), and yet very few traditions agree on exactly what communion is and exactly why we do it.

Would there be interest in doing a 3-4 week series on Eucharistic theology on the non-Transmission Wednesdays?  It would help many us develop our understanding of communion as individuals and it might lead to us forming a policy on communion as a group.  We might decide that having communion is an important symbol of our connection to the larger Christian community or we might decide that we shouldn’t do it for theological reaons, but either way we would have reached an informed consensus as a group.

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Transmission is a sponsor for this conference and Bowie is one of the speakers in the Emergent Round Table Discussion at this conference in June. You can register now for $49! Or contact us if would like to volunteer for some or all of the days.

See the Future, Live it NOW

A National Conference

at Princeton University.

June 8-10, 2008

One Thousand People.
Forty-five Leading Scholars, Activists, Artists and Pastors.

Twenty Learning Tracks.
Women and Men, Young and Old.
Black, White, Asian, Latino, and Native American.

A broad array of theological perspectives, all focused on one thing:

Christian Engagement in the public square.

Featured Speakers include
Ray Aldred, Vincent Bacote, Jay Bakker, Randall Balmer, Melinda Berry, Bart Campolo, Rich Cizik, Shane Claiborne, Jeremy Del Rio, Lisa Sharon Harper, Obery Hendricks, Al Hsu, Daisy Machado, Brian McLaren, Brenda Salter McNeil, John Perkins, Sammy Rodriguez, Ron Sider, Andrea Smith, Richard Twiss, Miroslav Volf, Jim Wallis, Kay Warren, Randy Woodley and many, many more!

Don’t miss
this historic event.

Click here to register today or go to www.ev08.org.

Don’t miss the $49 early registration discount.

Please help us spread the word by forwarding this email to your friends and networks. Thank you.

Posted by: Bowie | | 1 Comment »

RICH AND POOR: TWO WORLDS OR ONE FAMILY

Presentation given by J.Snodgrass for the Marble Collegiate Church Young Adults 20s/30s

Every year, the gap between rich and poor gets wider. The title I was given for this presentation - “Rich and poor, two worlds…” reminded me that in economic terms we actually have three worlds on this Earth – the first world, capitalism, the second world, communism, and the third world, “other,” which has become synonymous with whole nations of people living in abject poverty. The recent disaster in New Orleans was yet another reminder that, although America is a first-world country, there’s a third world in here, too, a small nation’s worth of people that our own government left behind and forgot once the first-class citizens had been rescued.

Every year the chasm gets wider, and every year I’m reminded of a story Jesus told in the Gospel according to Luke chapter sixteen, about an un-breach-able chasm.

Luke 16:19-26

“There was a rich man…dressed in purple and fine linen who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.

In Hell, where he was being tormented, [the rich man] looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’

But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus [got nothing]; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’

So here we’ve got this rich man, dead, suffering, and what does he say to Abraham? ‘Send that boy down here, that poor boy that used to lie outside my gates, tell him to fetch me some water.’ Even dead, burning in Hell, this rich man has not learned his lesson. But the chasm cannot be traveled, even if Lazarus had wanted to. This rich man could have spared himself all that suffering, if he had bridged the chasm in life, but never had he reached out to invite this poor man to his table. The story continues…

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Posted by: j. Snodgrass | Tags: bible study, Jesus, musings, poverty | 3 Comments »

Our dear friend Mel Ahlborn made this super cool and a little trippy flash video of last year’s Easter at Avalon. It takes a minute to load, but then get ready for a smooth ride…

Happy Easter! Christ is Risen! Alleluia.

Posted by: Bowie | Tags: easter | No Comments »

VI: detail, originally uploaded by bowiesnodgrass.

Transmission collaborated with Sanctuary to create installations of the fourteen traditional Stations of the Cross. Isaac, Katherine, Aaron, Bowie, and Sarah made stations. Sarah, technically, was a stations, falling and rising and falling again to represent “Jesus falls a second time.”

You can listen to the soundtrack of the evening by scrolling back to Isaac’s post from Good Friday last year.

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PRESENTATION – BRING PEACE TO A WARRING WORLD
By j. Snodgrass

Sadly, war in the East is nothing new – some of us may remember Operation Desert-Storm. Some of the older ones among us may remember…the Crusades… There might even be a person or two in the room who remember the Hebrews invading Israel some thirty-three hundred years ago, and how they were in turn attacked by the Philestines, the Persians, the Babylonians and the Romans… And those who remember all that – what are you still doing in the 20’s/30’s group? You know who you are…

With all this history of conflict, the question is…How do we bring peace to a warring world? And to answer the question, I’ve opened the lines for some Biblical figures to give us their unput. Hello?

GOLIATH : Urrrrrr…

NARRATOR : Ur to you too. Who may I ask is calling?

GOLIATH : I am Goliath.

NARRATOR : And where are you calling from?

GOLIATH : Gath.

NARRATOR : And how is Gath this time of year?

GOLIATH : Urrrrrr…

NARRATOR : Same here in New York, I hear ya. So we’re wondering. How would you bring peace to a warring world?

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Posted by: j. Snodgrass | Tags: Jesus, politics, skit | No Comments »

PRESENTATION – BRING PEACE TO A WARRING WORLD, PART II
By j. Snodgrass

James 1:19-27

You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into…the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act– they will be blessed in their doing. If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God…is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Unstained, undefiled by the world. It reminds me of a sleep-away-camp skit I saw once saw. A little girl held a clean, white sheet of paper. And someone stomped onto the stage, grabbed her piece of paper away and crumpled it. She picked it up and held it. Someone else walked across, took the sheet of paper, threw it to the ground and stomped on it. She smoothed it out and held it again, but it looked so different from what we’d seen at first. Finally, a third person stomped across the stage, grabbed the paper and ripped it, throwing both pieces to the ground. This time the girl did not pick it up. She just looked at us. A fourth person walked on, picked up the two pieces, smoothed them out, held the pieces together and handed it back to the girl.

Anybody ever wake up with a sheet of paper like that? Anybody ever look in the mirror and say ‘Jesus called me the light of the world, and today I’m gonna let it shine’? Anybody ever bring a sheet of paper like that onto the subway at rush-hour? When I was growing up, we moved around a lot. And I remember the first day of school in New Jersey, first day of school in Ohio, first day of school in Western New York…me and my clean sheet of paper. And then a few days later in the principal’s office, waiting for my parents to show up, because I’d been fighting again. But look what they did, I always tried to say. Look what they did to my clean sheet of paper.

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Posted by: j. Snodgrass | Tags: bible study, musings | No Comments »

Bible-Crash-Course, originally uploaded by bowiesnodgrass.

Email magyardomo@gmail.com for more info!

Posted by: Bowie | | 1 Comment »

FACING OUR FEARS (Or… Naked, But Not Afraid)
By j. Snodgrass

Proverbs 3:5-24 (Wildly Abbreviated)

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. … 13 Happy are those who find wisdom… 15 She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. … 21 My child, do not let these escape from your sight: keep sound wisdom and prudence, … 23 Then you will walk on your way securely and your foot will not stumble. 24 If you sit down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

Proverbs 1:7 tells us that “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” Ironically, as we find in Genesis 3:10, knowledge was the beginning of fear. Once Adam and Eve have eaten of the tree of knowledge, their first act is to hide from God. Because for the first time they are aware that they are naked.

Fascinating to find that fear of the Lord did not prevent them from breaking the one rule in the Garden…not to eat of the tree of knowledge, not to break the first covenant with God – that the Lord would take provide for them. Their fear begins as they come to realize that they have insulted the Lord by seeking the knowledge to provide for themselves.

Adam and Eve, expelled from the Garden, made clothing for themselves, but they were still naked. They learned to provide food for themselves through toil and hardship, but they were still afraid.

Thousands of years later, we work to buy clothing and food for ourselves, but we are still naked and afraid. Henry David Thoreau described modern life with the expression “quiet desperation.” No matter how well we provide for ourselves, one wrong step on the high-wire and we lose everything, with no Garden of Eden to go back to.

From Genesis three onward, fear is a constant theme in Biblical texts. The words “Be not Afraid” appear eighty-five times in the Bible, twelve times on the lips of Jesus. Maybe because he knew that Adam and Eve ran naked from the Lord, and we’ve been running naked ever since, frightened that God and Man alike will see how exposed we really are.

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Posted by: j. Snodgrass | Tags: bible study, musings | No Comments »