Transmission

a twentysomething’s love/hate relationship with the bible April 16, 2008

In 1818, an 18-year-old named Mary Shelley wrote a novel called Frankenstein. I have never read it, but have picked up the basic plot from movies and such. A brilliant doctor decides that he will create the perfect man, using pieces of dead people. The man he creates will be of surpassing good-looks, and the doctor will teach him kindness, compassion, love – all that’s best in humanity will be embodied in this perfect person. But once the creature is brought to life, the doctor becomes frightened and runs away. His creation follows him across Europe, demanding “you created me to be the best that humanity has to offer. You built me from scraps of the past, and promised to fill me with compassion and love, to bring about a better future. You have not kept your promise.” We’re all familiar with the story – the creature keeps following him, and hurting the people he loves. The creature that was meant to be beautiful, wise, caring, intelligent…is feared and dreaded, chased away, and becomes a murderer. A monster.

This novel was probably written to caution people entering the industrial age – be careful what you design to aid in human life, there will be consequences. But when I think of this story, I see another parallel, that I do not believe the author intended. Some of us may be aware of a book…called The Bible. Written over the course of more than a thousand years, assembled in its final form some seventeen hundred years ago. Built from scraps of the past, to represent all that’s best about humanity. Designed to bring a message of hope and compassion for the future. And it keeps on asking us, “when are you going to fulfill the promises made on these pages?” And in fear and dread we run from it. And it follows us. And sometimes it hurts us, and the ones we love.

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RICH AND POOR: Two Worlds or One Family? by J.Snodgrass April 7, 2008

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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BRING PEACE TO A WARRING WORLD, Skit by j.Snodgrass March 20, 2008

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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New York Faith and Justice this Weekend February 21, 2008

One of the things we discussed on our retreat is the fact that Transmission doesn’t have strong justice and advocacy activities. We’ve got community and worship in the bag, but we’re still working on mission! Well, there’s a very, very cool group in NYC called New York Faith and Justice with whom we should consider forming a relationship. They’re having an event on Saturday - anyone want to go with me?

Come to The Bridge! Experience God through monthly worship gatherings that touch the soul and offer practical ways to do justice in our city. This month’s talk is on Shalom and the Fall by executive director Lisa Sharon Harper.

How has our world come so far from God’s original intent? How were the relationships God established at creation corrupted and the Fall? And what is God’s plan for restoring and redeeming His world? Come consider these questions and more throughout the Spring as NY Faith & Justice launches The Shalom Series

12-2pm, Third Christian Church, 46 Hamilton Place, Manhattan

JESUS and the SATAN (skit by j. Snodgrass) February 9, 2008

JESUS and the SATAN

-or-

Meeting the Devil’s Advocate in the Desert

By j. Snodgrass

Presented 3 February, 2008

READERS :

Narrator (Bible Student)

“Luke” (Author of the Gospel According to Luke)

Jesus (Live Free or Die)

Devil (Advocate of Alternate Strategies)

Moses (Supposed Giver-of-the-Law in Deuteronomy)

NARRATOR : Today, in honor of the Lenten Lectionary, we’re going to take a look at my all-time favorite Biblical passage – The temptation of Jesus in the desert, in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter four, verses one to thirteen. As a matter of fact, I love this passage so much, we’re going to hear it twice!

“LUKE” : Jesus…was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him,

DEVIL : “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

JESUS : “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’”

“LUKE” : The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.

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Jesus: The Lost Years (or How I Learned to Hang with the Dregs of Society) January 29, 2008

by j. Snodgrass

Given 26 January, 2008

When I finished college at 21, the first piece of advice I got was this : Kiss your twenties good-bye – nobody gets anywhere in their twenties anymore. I resisted, I denied, and then I worked some jobs, ate some pizza, lived in some apartments, smoked some cigarettes, and here I am, just around the corner from thirty. Wow. And then I found out that this is some kind of cultural phenomena – the vanishing twenties, the disappearing decade, the lost years.

How did this happen? When did it begin? Well, I decided to start my search way back, in the opening book of the Bible, see if it might shed some light. And I found the results pretty comforting. Take Abraham, for example, when the Lord told him about fatherhood.

Genesis 17:17 – “Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” (NIV)

Abraham’s wife Sarah had a similar reaction to motherhood.

Genesis 18:12 – “Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, ‘After I am worn out and my [husband] is old, will I now have this pleasure?’”

And then of course there’s old Noah, who built the ark. But when I say ‘old’ I really mean, as we read in Genesis 7:6, “Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters [swelled] the earth.” (NIV)

Noah, what happened? “Well, I worked some jobs, ate some matzo, lived in some huts, smoked my pipe and here I am, just around the corner from six hundred.”

And then I started wondering…where was Jesus in his twenties? The gospel of Luke has him at age twelve, making mischief in the Temple and then…he’s thirty years old, being baptized for repentance…

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5-Min Skit on Prophets, Politics & Upcoming Elections January 14, 2008

BIBLICAL PRESENTATION – GOD AND POLITICS (for Marble Collegiate Church)
By j. Snodgrass

NARRATOR : So there’s an election coming up, and all the candidates are falling over themselves to let us know what they believe, what’s their favorite hymn…WWJVF? Who would Jesus vote for?

So I thought we could ask some of the Hebrew Prophets, see what they had to say about political issues of their day…which, believe it or not, are pretty much exactly the same as now. Should we stand by while the rich get richer and the poor get poorer? Should we go to war? Does God want us to have a king at all?

Naturally, all of the prophets are different, and yet just about all of them had some things in common. It was the prophet’s job to stand against the king, and probably die for it. What do you call a prophet who agrees with the king, who is liked by everyone, who says things are fine? A false prophet. What does king Ahab call the prophet Elijah? Troubler of Israel (1 Kings 18:17). Oh my enemy (1 Kings 21:20). And three times in one day, Ahab sent fifty soldiers to kill him (2 Kings 1). That might be why in so many cases, when the Lord calls to say “You shall be my prophet,” the reply is, almost invariably…

PROPHETS : Oh no, I’m not the one you’re looking for.

NARRATOR : In the tenth century before the common era, what’s now known as Israel was a group of tribes doing the best they could to raise crops and animals. But sea-pirates called the Philestines showed up on the west coast and started working their way inward, sacking villages, setting up cities, and ruling over the populations. So, the Israelites decided what they needed was a military chieftain to raise up an army and fight. The prophet Samuel warned the Israelites that a king might not be in their best interests…

SAMUEL : “This is what the king…will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands…and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards…and give them to his attendants….He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you.” (1 Samuel 8:10-18, NIV)

NARRATOR : …Sound familiar? This is pretty much the standard contract between population and ruler, to this day. Saul, the first chieftain, was cool – he beat the Philestines, but didn’t interfere much with the populace. David was famously David, but Solomon made all of Samuel’s predictions come true and more – taxation, forced labor, the draft, and a brand of inequality the Israelites hadn’t known since Egypt.

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