intersections

Memorial Day peace service

On Memorial Day (May 26th) I'll be participating on the chancel in a prayer service at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, convened by the Abrahamic Faiths Peacemaking Initiative. If you're in the LA area I hope you can join us. All the details are in the press release below...

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Franci Levine-Grater, Coordinator
Abrahamic Faiths Peacemaking Initiative
francilg@myway.com
(626) 683-9400

Abrahamic Faiths Peacemaking Initiative To Convene Memorial Day Interfaith Prayer Service
To Be Filmed and Broadcast Throughout the Middle East

Los Angeles, CA – April 29, 2008 – The Abrahamic Faiths Peacemaking Initiative (AFPI) will convene an interfaith prayer service on Monday, May 26, 2008 at 11:00 a.m., Memorial Day, at All Saints Church located at 132 Euclid Avenue in Pasadena, California.  The prayer service, which will be filmed and repeatedly broadcast via satellite throughout the Middle East thanks to the generous donation of a supporter, is intended to illustrate to the people of the Middle East that Christian, Jewish and Muslim Americans are working for peace and understanding between nations and faiths.  The event also provides an opportunity for people from throughout Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley to join together with like-minded worshippers in the pursuit of peace on a day that commemorates the tragic losses of war.

“Not all Americans support the current war in Iraq; not all Americans support war in general.  We want the people living in the Middle East to be exposed to an alternate point of view – Christian, Jewish and Muslim-Americans of faith are working hard for peace.  Many of us believe that our faith demands we seek peace and justice for one another, and we are striving, together, to make our voices heard and to assert that peacemaking – as a concept and an action – is absolutely central to Islam, Judaism and Christianity,” says Rev. Dr. George Regas, long-time peace activist and co-founder of AFPI, Rector Emeritus of All Saints Church and Executive Director of the Regas Institute.

"You are my God..." - affirmations of faith

Yesterday I went on a day-long personal retreat. It was really great - renewing, refreshing! Exactly what I needed. I recently became aware of a retreat center that is literally walking distance from my apartment. It's run by the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It's a sprawling mansion on the top of a hill adjacent to the intersection of Los Feliz and Griffith Park Blvds.

The basic outline of my day, which I did partly with my friend, JR Woodward, was this:
10:30 am - 12:30 pm - prayer in solitude and silence
12:30 pm - 2:00 pm - lunch with JR - sharing from our morning experience
2:00 - 3:00 pm - focus on ordering my life (my roles and priorities)

I wanted to quickly share a discovery I made while praying in the morning. I was using my usual prayer book called Rhythms of Life: Celtic Daily Prayer, by David Adam.

I was spending time in Psalm 86:1-7 - praying it over and over again. Crying out to God in the words of this ancient poetry. (This is not something I make time to do very often and so it took a lot of repetition to break through). One thing I often do to deepen my experience of scripture is transcribe it by hand. Something about putting the words down, slowly, one by one, helps deepen the impression on me.

Anyway, after about an hour of looking at this text I realized that a chiastic structure was emerging. I know, I know...only a geeky pastor with too much seminary training could possibly see a chiastic structure in a middle of an intense time of prayer, but I did - and the impact on me was powerful.

So, if you want, check it out...Psalm 86. See if you can find it. I'll give you a clue, after the jump...

Sabbath Grace

Here's a quote from Joan Chittister to start your Sabbath:

Why do people think the spiritual life demands withdrawal from the ordinary? Because they've been taught, at least by implication, that the physical is a block to the spiritual. When we assume that the spiritual, unlike the physical, is impervious to corrosion, then we assume that all things material are not to be honored. But the fact of the matter is, the material is the vehicle of the spiritual.
(Courtesy of Sojourners, Verse and Voice, May 25, 2007)

What about you? Where do you see the grace of God in the ordinary, material, and even mundane things of your life? Or are we still waiting for some disembodied transcendence to overtake us?

Witnessing for Peace in Iraq

Growing up in the church I did something we all called "witnessing." It was usually something done on Sabbath afternoons and involved going door to do with invitations to a religious presentation at the church or invitations to enroll in Bible Studies. On occasions it even meant standing in a busy part of town and talking to strangers about Jesus and handing them a book or pamphlet. This past weekend our church did some "witnessing" of a different kind -  a kind I had never done before.

When I first learned about the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq I immediately knew I needed to participate in some way. It was a bit too complicated to fly to Washington, D.C., though not impossible. I finally decided that a more significant impact could be made closer to home by putting on our own "Peace Witness." This is exactly what we did.

With a modified version of the liturgy that was used at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. we began the service in prayer and meditation. Later in the service we heard from our interfaith friend, Cantor Steven Puzarne, as he shared about how his Jewish faith informs his peace activism and the specific work he is doing in "waging peace" in Israel and Palestine. Perhaps I'll share more about his work in a future post. One of the real treats of the evening was Steven sharing a Jewish peace song.

Following our time of prayer, reflection and conversation, we put on our Adventist Peace Fellowship shirts, gathering our candles and Adventist Women for Peace signs (gracious provided by, well...Adventist Women for Peace, based at La Sierra University). You can see more pictures of the march and the worship service by clicking here.

This weekend marks 4 years since the US-led invasion of Iraq. It's hard to imagine it's been that long. In that amount of time we have lost over 3,200 American (military) lives. The official death toll of Iraqi's including civilians is over 60,000 and some say as hight as 500,000. This was har cost the US taxpayers nearly $410 billion.

It's time to end this unjust and immoral war. Please visit www.adventistpeace.org and other Christian peace websites and get involved. It is especially important for those of us who are Adventists to reclaim our heritage as a peace church and stand with those who suffer daily under the violence dished out by those in power.

Icons at the Getty

This past Sabbath afternoon a few people from our church took a trip to the Getty Center to see the new exhibition of Orthodox icons from St. Catherine's monastery at Mt. Sinai in Egypt. It was the first time some of these pieces have ever left the monastery and the first time they have ever traveled together like this to a museum.

Lying in the shadow of Mount Sinai in Egypt, the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine is the world's oldest continuously operating Christian monastery. Since the third century, monks have resided here, at the foot of the mountain where Moses is said to have encountered God. The present church and monastery walls were commissioned by the Byzantine emperor Justinian, who ruled over most of the Mediterranean region, including the Sinai peninsula, between 527 and 565.

Icons are about prayer. The one pictured above is called the Virgin Hodegetria, after an original icon believed to have been painted by St. Luke from the Hodegon monastery in Constantinople. In it, Mary is gestures to her son and son gestures back to Mary. These icons are more than merely art. They are born in prayer and they are used in prayer to mediate an encounter with the holy.

For we in the modern West, this type of spirituality and spiritual practice is foreign. I found myself in deep appreciation of the beauty and spiritual depth of the artwork itself, but struggling to relate to a world that seems so far from my own. Modernity is so clinical and mechanical. I struggle, like most moderns, to pray at all - to relate to how prayer works. (How something works, of course, is important to a modern, mechanistic world). Also in my mind are all the evangelical and sentimental notions of "pouring my heart out to a friend." These icons are light years from that world. They speak of a world in which God is profoundly present and at work. The liturgy of the church, of which the icons play a major role, is about human being entering that divine world and being caught up in God's life. This is the kind of spiritual life that has been nurtured at the base of Mt. Sinai since the 3rd century.

For more about this amazing exhibition, click here. If you're in Southern California or playing to be here before March 4, you owe it to yourself to see these priceless artistic devotionals.

An Advent Peacemaking Opportunity

In this Advent season the hearts of those who follow in the way of Jesus can't but feel ambivalence as we celebrate the coming of the world's lord and saviour to bring "peace on earth" and "goodwill to all humanity" and then must acknowledge our shortcomings in not doing all we can to make this dream of God, which God has entrusted to us, a reality. Kid Cultivators' Love Your Neighbor Advent Campaign is just one small way we might make God's missional hopes come true. Two summers ago my friend, Melvin Bray, director of Kid Cultivators, met a young man, Elias D'eis, at a Peace Workshop. Elias is a 20-something-year-old Palestinian from a town you might recognize, Bethlehem (of Judea). He is working to bring about peace in his homeland through his social service work with children and entrepreneurial work with young adults. 

Shock and Awe

As I came into my office this morning and gathered my mail I could not believe what I was seeing - a postcard from the North American Division Prayer Ministries advertising a Prayer Conference, headlined by none other than the fundamentalist Christian John Ashcroft, former US Attorney General in the George W. Bush adminstration. Are you kidding me? The question came faster than I could process them.

Why headline an Adventist event with this guy who is the champion of the religious right? Only one reason comes to mind - because the target audience of this Prayer Conference are Adventists who think John Ashcroft is good for Christianity (and presumably, good for America). I also remember the public outcry a few months ago when the cover of the Pacific Union Recorder featured a picture of Hillary Clinton. She was speaking for a Religious Liberty event (just as she has in the past). I wonder if people will be equally upset about this? I'm guessing not.

Then, as if that were not enough, in the same batch of mail I received a large envelope from The Campaign for Children and Families. You can read their description of themselves here. Anyway, this mailing was to encourage me, a pastor, to vote Yes on Prop 90 and to encourage my church to do the same. If you don't live in California, this might be meaningless to you, but Prop. 90 would severely limit future development efforts. Even the conservative Los Angeles Daily News opposes Prop 90.

Anyway, this mailing from this right-wing "family values" group encouraging a Yes vote on Prop. 90 listed "Pastors for Prop. 90." At the top of the list is the well-known Jack Hayford, formerly of Church on the Way in Van Nuys. Second on the list...Doug Batchelor. A truly amazing fact!

O Lord, graciously hear us.

Christ, heralded by the angels,
open our eyes to your presence.
O Lord, hear us. Graciously hear us.

Christ, born of the blessed Virgin,
teach us obedience to your word.
O Lord, hear us. Graciously hear us.

Christ, born in a stable,
give hope to the homeless.
O Lord, hear us. Graciously hear us.

Christ, visited by the shepherds,
strengthen all who work on the land.
O Lord, hear us. Graciously hear us.

Christ, adored by the wise men,
guide all rulers and governments.
O Lord, hear us. Graciously hear us.

Christ, exiled in Egypt,
give comfort to all refugees.
O Lord, hear us. Graciously hear us.

Prayers for the Journey

From time to time I will include here a prayer that I use in my personal and family worship. For some of you this may helpful in your personal spiritual journey.

Almighty God, give us wisdom to perceive you,
intelligence to understand you,
diligence to seek you,
patience to wait for you,
vision to behold you,
a heart to meditate upon you,
a life to proclaim you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God now and forever. Amen.

~St. Benedict