intersections

God's Counterterrorism in a '24' World

God's Counterterrorism in a '24' World from Ryan Bell on Vimeo.

Presented at University Worship at La Sierra University - January 28, 2010

Reading Mark

We're in the midst of Epiphany - a season which focuses the church's attention on the revelation of Jesus. The readings for Epiphany are about the emergence of Jesus on the public scene. Here is the gospel reading for this past Sabbath.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him (Mark 1:14-20).

As I wrestled with how we can read this text with fresh eyes, and have our own epiphany, of sorts, I tried my best to re-enter the narrative in it's original context and ask what Mark wants to say to us. In order to create a different imagination about a text we have all read many times I wrote a creative retelling of the story. I got some good feedback about it on Sabbath so I decided to work on it a bit more and post it here, after the jump. I'd be curious to see what you think, gentle reader.

More from Moscow and St. Petersburg

Just outside Church of the Savior on the Spilled blood in front of one of St. Petersburg's many beautiful canals.

See more pictures of our trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg here.

It's Friday night here in Moscow and we have one more full day to go. Tomorrow I preach in the Moscow Central Church, which is just about to celebrate it's 100 year anniversary (CORRECTION: this church is already 103 years old). Imagine the history this congregation has seen in the past 100 years: the last years of the Czars, two world wars, the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin, Stalin, Communism and the proscription of religion, Gorbachev, glasnost, perestroika and the eventual dismantling of the Soviet Union.

For the past couple of days we've had time to tour around. On Wednesday night, after my teaching assignment was finished, we took a train overnight to St. Petersburg. Upon arriving on Thursday morning we immediately visited several important places. First, we went to the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood (which is not only one of those fantastical Russian cathedrals but has the most amazing mosaic covering the entire inside the church) and the Hermitage Museum (one of the greatest museums in the world where we saw some amazing Picasso and Matisse of the best Rembrandts, including my all-time favorite, The Return of the Prodigal. (My attempt at a photo of this painting at the right - and proof I really saw it. Click the link to see a much better picture). It drizzled all day long so we got pretty wet and tired, but it was so completely worth it.

Today, back in Moscow again, we visited the The Armory inside the Kremlin, which is a museum dedicated to the treasures of Russian History. The collection includes the carriages of Elizabeth and Catherine, two Empresses of Russia, crowns and thrones, and priceless gifts given by other countries to Russia throughout it's long history.

We also we to the State Tretyakov Museum where, among other amazing pieces of art, I got to see the original icon of Andrei Rublev, The Trinity (1410). Many of you know I have a print of this icon hanging in my office. To see this first hand was a very moving experience for me.

It's been a remarkable experience. To see more of our pictures, please click here for our Flickr site. We'll be back in Los Angeles on Sunday night.

See all our pictures here!

Rev. Jeremiah Wright on Bill Moyers Journal

Did any of you catch the interview that Bill Moyers had with Rev. Jeremiah Wright on Friday? I didn't see it when it aired, but I saw it online and it was very, very good. For an hour, without commercial interruption, Rev. Wright shared very personally and directly about his life, ministry, Trinity Church and his comments that have become so controversial lately. Bill Moyer probably spoke for about 5 cumulatively on the broadcast.

I have not waded into this controversy on this blog, but I have shared others places. But today I am here to say that if you have been effected by this controversy or have taken a stand on it, you really must watch this interview. He is intelligent and articulate. He is definitely not the whacko that some in the media have tried to make him out to be. I am convinced that this is a man of God!

Watch the interview here (in two parts)

The importance of small stories

Thanks to Gary Burns, who recorded this on his digital camera, and Alexander Carpenter, who somehow got it loaded into blip.tv, here is the last half of my sermon at SONscreen. It's also been posted on the Spectrum blog here.

SONscreen fun

Click picture to enlarge

Well, SONscreen Film Festival turned out to be a great time. I got to meet people I've never met, reconnect with friends from around the country, and basically be inspired by an emerging crowd of young, talented filmmakers. We saw some really inspiring stuff along the way.

Of course, the highlight of the weekend for me was watching our worship team lead worship for the gathered group of festival-goers. I really enjoyed the opportunity to speak to the group and I think my message went over pretty well. I hope some of you that heard it might interact with it here. If you weren't at SONscreen, you can download the audio file below. I'd love to hear what you think.

Telling Our Stories (right click to "Save As") | More photos after the jump

See Stephen Eyer's post on Adventist Filmmaker.com

UPDATE: Here's another report by Adrian James from La Sierra University on the Spectrum Collegiate Blog.

My sermon at Crosswalk is now online

The sermon I gave at the Crosswalk Church on February 2 is now online at the Crosswalk Church website. The sermon is entitled, The Corporation, and is essentially a theological response to the corporation and the form of life embodied by free-market capitalism. If you haven't seen the documentary film, The Corporation, I highly recommend it. I'd love to hear what you think of the message after you listen to or watch it.

Preaching at Crosswalk this Sabbath

This Sabbath I'll be preaching at Crosswalk Church in Redlands, California. My sermon will kick off Crosswalk's periodic "Crosswalk Goes to the Movies" series. I'm not sure that's what they call it, but you get the idea.

As you can tell from the image above, the film I'll be speaking about is The Corporation. This is a powerful film that I have seen three times now which talks about the way corporations act as individuals without accountability in our society and destroy not just people, but whole communities and the entire ecosystem. This is a film that has launched a movement.

I'll be using this film to open up a conversation about two things, basically:

1. How Christians must stand against this kind of corporate imperialism and be agents of justice for the poor that get trounced by this kind of "free-market fundamentalism" and
2. At a deeper level, how Christians have been scripted into a capitalist narrative that has become, in Tom Beaudoin's telling expression, a kind of "theocapitalism," and how the gospel is an invitation for all people (including Christians) to re-narrate our lives according to the good news of God's reign.

This is something I've been wanting to work on for a long time, so this has been good research and thinking for me. This is not the kind of preaching I do on a weekly basis, so I'm being stretched. If you're in town, come join us!

The Grace of Preaching the Lectionary

Today is Christ the King Sabbath - the last Sabbath of the Christian Year. Next Sabbath begins the new year with the season of Advent.

For approximately 13 months now I have been preaching from the Revised Common Lectionary. There are some amazing online resources that are incredibly helpful in preaching the lectionary. My favorite is a site called Text Week. In addition I have found the New Proclamation series of lectionary commentaries extremely helpful and insightful. But nothing replaces simply dwelling in the text and allowing the text to read your context and speak into the congregation's life.

I have been leading my congregation in the observance of Advent for the past 7 years and Lent for about the last 5 years, but this is the first year I have preaching an entire cycle through the lectionary.

I highly recommend this discipline. It is a rich gift that has been given to the church through the centuries. For myself and my congregation, we have found that God has met us in the text in surprising ways. Without fail the text for a particular week (and this year I have been strictly holding to the Gospel reading for the week) has been precisely what our community has needed. You would have to be here to fully appreciate the grace we have found in this.

The lectionary takes the the preacher out of the driver's seat and places the text of scripture in the central role. Rather than me trying to figure out "what my congregation needs to hear" we simply approach the text with hopeful expectation. I have preached more "difficult passages" this year than ever before in 13 years of ministry.

I frequently explain to my congregation what I am doing, but I'm not sure it has become part of their consciousness just yet. Others observe a change without directly referencing the lectionary. One member approached me with great surprise one day, saying that she heard some other preacher speak from EXACTLY THE SAME TEXT on Sunday that I spoke from on Sabbath. "Imagine that!" I thought to myself.

Next Sabbath begins my favorite season of the church year - Advent. It is also the richest season for Seventh-day Adventists. I will hopefully write more about Advent during the next four weeks. Hope is an Advent virtue, after all.

Anyone else out there preaching the lectionary?
If so, what have you learned?
Is anyone tired of trying to be clever week after week?

Jesus Was A Homeless Guy

This picture is on the cover of the bulletin for tomorrow's worship service. I really like this. I found it here.

I'll be preaching from the Gospel reading for the 5th Sabbath after Pentecost: Luke 9:51-62.

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

UPDATE: You can hear the podcast of this sermon (from 6/30/2007) here.