intersections

Ash Wednesday 2010

This is a video my friend, Leslie Foster, made of our evening Ash Wednesday service. It captures so well the mood of the evening: somber but lively.

Ash Wednesday at the Purple Church from Leslie Foster on Vimeo.

A meditative view of the evening Ash Wednesday service at the Hollywood Adventist Church. Testing out the latitude of Traveling Muse's new Canon.

It's Really All About God

My dear friend, Samir Selmanovic, has just published his first book entitled, It's Really All About God (buy on Amazon) and what a way to start. This is not a review...that will be coming soon. But I will tell you that this is a radical, peaceful vision of the force for good that religion can and should be in the world, told through the intimate, personal lenses of someone who hase expereinced so much of the good and bad of religion.

There is a review at the Spectrum website by my friend, Brenton Reading. You can read that here.

The blurb I wrote for inside the front cover says this:

“Samir has written a book that reads like an extended poem; an ode to life. Where others see only the darkness and destructiveness of religion, Samir sees beauty and hope. Where others see only competition and violence, Samir sees synergy and life. And his vision is no simple syncretism; a blending of all religions into one inoffensive ‘smoothie’ of goodness and light. This book is a celebration of postmodern ‘otherness’ of the first order. It will inspire you, frustrate you, maybe even anger you. Samir will not answer all your questions or tell you exactly what to do next. But if you’ve ever felt that nagging deep in your soul that God is lurking just beneath the surface in places you have least expected, you need to read this book!”

I will write a review here after I get a chance to read it again.

Please go buy this book and read it. In the meantime, check out this short video of Samir talking about his book.

Video: Prayer Rally for Healthcare Reform

This is a video of our health care rally, held on Tuesday, August 11, in Hollywood. Congresswoman Diane Watson and Congressman Xavier Becerra were in attendance and spoke eloquently and powerfully of their support for comprehensive reform that would put health care within reach for our families.

This rally was led by LA Voice clergy, Father Mike Mandala, Father Jaime Edwards-Acton, Rev. Liz Munoz, Rabbi Sharon Brous, Rev. Byron Smith, Sr. and myself.

Prayer Rally for Health Care Reform tomorrow!

Tomorrow I have the privilege to speak at a prayer rally in Hollywood in support of health care reform. This event is being put on by LA Voice and our 25 member congregations. I and a few other clergy will pray and speak to the issue from a moral/faith perspective.

Members of our congregations will tell their personal health care stories and then two of our elected officials will speak: Congressman Xavier Becerra and Congresswoman Diane Watson. Ms. Watson represents the area when I live and where the Hollywood Adventist Church is located.

If you live in the area and are available at 10:00 am, please come to:

Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church
6657 Sunset Boulevard
Hollywood, CA 90028

If you want to learn more about PICO's work on behalf of health care reform visit: www.coverallfamilies.org

Also check out this short piece at NPR's news blog.

A Felicitous Journey

Part two of our 6-part blog series over at the re-church blog has been up for a couple of days and the conversation has begun. This week's essay is written by Samir Selmanovic, founder of Faith House Manhattan and the author of the forthcoming Jossey-Bass book, It's Really All About God.

I'd love to have you head over there and check it out. Especially those of you who have been reading along with us and know the subject of the chapter, your comments are especially helpful. I think Samir has posed some vitally important questions for us to consider, especially as pastors and Christian leaders in our world today. Here is an excerpt to whet your appetite.

I ask myself, why would I then take up this journey of deconstruction? Why not turn the tools of deconstruction against itself (deconstruct the deconstruction) and settle for something of substance? Life is short. I want to die in one piece, constructed and whole, with my family and friends around me, also constructed and whole. And my hope within me, also constructed and whole.

Think of it. He describes people on this journey as “people who crash-landed,” “frightened by the mysterious” and always partially “lost.” We are supposed to live under “hauntological principle?” We are invited to embrace “contingency” on a journey that has “teeth” and “bite,” a path seeded with “interrupted passages and missteps,” maps with “multiple tracks” and “counterpaths” on every turn. And to live in the world where other people are “shores we will never reach!” He calls this place, our very own lives (yes Christian lives too) “very spooky.” He brings ghost back into the Holy Ghost. He summarizes the situation we find ourselves in as the “postmodern condition.” It does not sound like a journey or a path to me. It sounds like a chronic disease.

Read the whole thing here.

Advent rather than future

As I'm reading back through Lesslie Newbigin's classic, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, I am a struck by how my own ideas have been shaped by Newbigin to such a degree that I forget where I originally learned these things. For this reason (and many others) I highly recommend reading again the most important books in your life. Here's a sample for today:

Hopeful action means having something to which one can confidently look forward. It means having a horizon. As I said earlier, apart from what has been done in the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we are shut up to only two possibilities. One possible horizon for our action is a vision for the future of the human race, a future in which we shall have no part. The other possible horizon is a personal future for me beyond death. From that future the world in which I now seek to serve God is absent. Its future is not part of my future. The one possibility gives meaning to my participation in the public life of neighborhood, nation, and world at the cost of marginalizing the human person. The other provides meaning for the individual human person at the cost of marginalizing our shared public life. What is made possible through the gospel is a life looking toward a horizon which is different from either of these. That horizon is defined in the words "He shall come again." For a Christian the horizon for all action is this. It is advent rather than future. He is coming to meet us, and whatever we do -- whether it is our most private prayers or our most public political action -- is simply offered to him for whatever place it may have in his blessed kingdom. Here is the clue to meaningful action in a meaningful history: it is the translation into action of the prayer: "Your kingdom come, your will be done, as in heaven so on earth" (101-102, emphasis mine).

Can We Handle the Truth?

A few weeks ago I announced a Summer Reading Group though the re-church network, a collective of emerging, missional Adventist leaders that I co-founded back in 2000. The book I chose is What Would Jesus Deconstruct? The Good News of Postmodernism for the Church, by John D. Caputo. Caputo is Thomas J. Watson Professor of Humanities at Syracuse University and is known for his work on Derrida and deconstruction (a quick look at his faculty page at the Syracuse website makes we want to drop everything and enroll to study with him).

What Would Jesus Deconstruct? is the winner of the ForeWord Magazine Best Philosophy Book of 2007 award.

The book discussion is taking place at the re-church blog and starts today with a post by me on the first chapter.

Here is an excerpt from the first post which went up today.

rest

I have an article in the current issue of Vibrant Life magazine (which, by the way, has been completely redesigned under the leadership of my friend, and Seminary classmate, Heather Quintana. If you think you know about Vibrant Life magazine, you should check it out again).

My article is about the Sabbath. The tagline they gave it perfect: "We live in an overworked, hyperconnected world. So how can we recover our humanity? Sabbath rest is a good start."

You can subscribe, or request a free issue, here.

A Guide to the Health Care Reform Debate

Below is the context of an email that went out to over 1,200 clergy today, from the PICO National Network, signed by me and my friend, Rev. Rayfield Burns. I encourage you to download both the clergy guide and the congregational handout.

With Congress moving full speed ahead on one of the most crucial civil rights and social justice issues of our time - making health care affordable and accessible - it is important that people of faith take the time to understand how health reform will impact the quality, stability, and affordability of health care for all Americans.
PICO and Sojourners have teamed up to produce "A Guide to the Health Care Reform Debate," an 8-page booklet aimed at helping clergy and lay leaders participate in the health care debate in a constructive way, based on their values.  View the guide here.
We've also produced a 2-page congregational handout that can be shared with members of your faith community. Click here to view the 2-page handout.
Please note that these guides have been produced for Christian faith communities.  To find additional resources for other faith traditions, visit www.coverallfamilies.org
 Both pieces begin by examining the biblical basis for the need for quality health care.  They then look at the current health care reality for many of our nation's families, as well as the different proposals being considered in D.C.  Finally, they lay out some principles for a values-based, commonsense approach to reform, as well as ideas for how people of faith can influence the debate.
Many pastors and faith leaders have endorsed the guide.  Rev. Adam Hamilton, senior pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, KS, calls the guides "a helpful starting point in coming to understand the issues in the current debate."
Dr. Joel Hunter, senior pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed in Orlando, FL, says, "I found this guide to the health-care discussion very helpful. It not only reminded me of our biblical mandate to be involved, but it informed me of some of the important points and principles to keep in mind as I communicate with my congregation."
View the 8-page guide for clergy, or the 2-page congregational handout.
Together, people of faith can have a tremendous impact on the decisions of our elected leaders in D.C. and be a decisive factor in moving our country towards ensuring quality, stable, affordable health care for all Americans.

Sincerely,
Rev. Rayfield Burns
Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church
Kansas City, MO

Rev. Ryan J. Bell
Hollywood Adventist Church
Hollywood, CA

Fear, Freedom and the Problem with Certainty

Cross-posted at the Spectrum Blog.

I am increasingly aware that behind so many of the debates that happen on this blog (and most others) and behind most of the theological and administrative hand-wringing that is, I guess, an irreducible part of Adventist life, is fear. Fear of the other, fear of a loss of identity, fear of a loss of “ground” that has been gained over many years through difficult debates. This fear is not the exclusive provenance of the conservative part of the church, though, by definition, conservatives are “conserving” the past and by their own admission are fearful or anxious that the traditional ways are being lost. Believe it or not, I am sympathetic with their concern. Liberals or progressives or [insert favorite euphemism here] are also fearful; fearful of a new inquisition or retrenching, or being excluded or whatever. Suffice it to say, there is enough fear to go around.