Monthly Archive for March, 2008

paying attention to the Rising

Published
by
Joshua
on March 28, 2008
in Community, Dialogue and Peace
. 0 Comments

We’re post resurrection, and I am already easily distracted from living in the Rising. I can get so busy that I can even miss the rising of apparently dead or dying things.

There are these trees on Frankford Ave, one pretty close to the front door of my office. On Sunday, my friend from out of town asked a local friend to take a picture of the blossoming branches-I don’t know what kind of tree they are but they are reminiscent of the cherry blossom. Three days later, after walking by the trees without yet noticing the blooming, I saw my friend about to take a photo and he pointed out the new life to me.

This morning, however, sitting in my backyard with my mug and my book, I was overwhelmed by the harmonies of the chorus of dozens of birds singing. There was no not-noticing here. I was actually paying attention, looking for signs of the Spring, affects of Resurrection in Kensington.

May you not be too busy to notice as I was, yet I hope we can be open to others pointing it out. May we all sit in the glowing newness even in the face of the dirt and grime and know that Christ is indeed Risen.

I sit in a swirl
Of the whole of creation
Singing out to You.

Finding Peace in the Dentist Chair

Published
by
Kathy White
on March 24, 2008
in Community, Dialogue and Peace
. 3 Comments

Recently I found myself in a terrifying spot—the dentist’s chair about to have wisdom teeth pulled. I started my visit with my heart beat increasing and tears welling in my eyes all before the dentist walked in.

When he finally did walk in and confirmed that he would not be putting me “under” but simply inserting needles (GIANT needles to me) full of local anesthesia into the roof and base of my mouth, the tears that had been welling up started to pour out and I had to tell the dentist that I was terrified of the pain and of hearing him pulling out my teeth. Someone in my cell had actually warned me the night before about the ‘CRACK’ that I would surely hear while in the dentist’s chair.

The dentist was not pleased with my fear and was frankly pretty upset. He told me directly that I would simply need to calm down or leave. He said that all my “freaking out” would accomplish is that the teeth would probably be harder to pull out and that the local anesthesia would wear off faster, thus I would cause myself more pain unless I calmed down.

He left the room to let me try and pull myself together. I slipped on my cheap headphones purchased for $5 on a recent flight. One of the earphones didn’t work so I knew that I would still be able to hear the CRACK, if there was one. I knew that I had to pull myself together, but I wasn’t sure how.

Then I remembered that people in my cell were most likely praying for me right at that moment and that enabled me to pray for strength and for peace right in that moment. But how the heck was I supposed to do that with tears running down my face and my heart still racing?? Then I remembered a simple breathing technique that we’ve done at Circle many times. Breathe In—JESUS, Breathe Out—SAVES. I then changed it to Breathe In—JESUS, Breathe Out—PROTECTS ME.

After saying that little mantra over and over and over, I finally felt my heart slow down and the tears drying on my cheeks. I was ready for the dentist.

Thinking about it now, no wonder the dentist was upset, I was basically saying with my tears and racing heart that I didn’t trust him. I am certain that I do this with God all the time. Trusting that He is taking care of me and not being afraid of putting myself out there to be vulnerable is so hard to do. I guess in the end, I end up causing myself more pain by trying to handle fears by myself then trusting in God to carry me through it.

I’ve been with Circle Venture as the treasurer since May, but I still find it terrifying in many ways. Hopefully the experience on the dentist chair will remind me to trust in God and remember that simple breathing exercises are a big way to connect to God.

Trusting in God for strength may be working. Four months ago when I was asked to blog I conveniently had some excuse, but now I felt like I should just do it. Trusting in God—one step at a time. Breathe In—JESUS, Breathe Out—PROTECTS ME.

Rest and Be Aware

Published
by
Bobby Kuehl
on March 20, 2008
in Community, Dialogue and Uncategorized
. 2 Comments

I work as a project manager for a CD/DVD manufacturing company. Last week I had 116 clients with open orders. That sounds like a lot and it is. These clients keep me very busy answering the phone, replying to email, communicating with other departments and it requires a lot multi-tasking. My mind is racing all day going from one thing to the next trying to stay on top of the work. I realized after a cell meeting a couple of weeks ago that my mind never stops racing. I leave work, but never allow my brain to slow down and think about things that are happening now. I’m constantly thinking about what’s next. What’s for dinner? What am I doing tonight? Should I watch a movie or read or clean the apartment or play video games? What am I doing tomorrow? This weekend? I’ve trained myself to make quick decisions and move on to the next thing as efficiently as possible.

At the end of that cell meeting we were praying together and saying out loud a word or phrase as a request for ourselves or others. Someone said the word “rest” and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Rod described a similar experience he had in his cell during one of the recent Public Meetings. Rest. I imagined myself alone in a room. No computer, no TV, no work or any distractions. Just me and my thoughts. Resting in the moment. The idea of dwelling in my thoughts and recognizing the moment makes so much sense, why don’t I do that? It’s really unfair to those around me. A lot times people are talking or sharing things with me and instead of listening to what they’re saying I’m preparing my next statement or thinking about the other things I have to do that day. This false sense of urgency causes me to miss things that I might normally take in if I could just slow down. Not only does that make me unaware of what the people around me are going through, but it makes me unaware of myself and of God and of where I am with God. This seems like really basic stuff and the fact that I’m just now getting it frustrates me and makes me want to master it. Quickly. Right now! Then I have to remember to slow down again.

During that same PM Rod mentioned the importance of being aware of who God is in our lives. It’s so easy to overlook this! I’ve been doing it for a long time and have never really figured out how to make that a constant awareness. Combining rest and awareness has finally made this a little clearer for me. I’ve been keeping 2 Corinthians 10:5 in mind. “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” I learned this verse in high school for an apologetics class, but I don’t think it only applies to defending the faith. I like the idea of taking a short break after every thought and considering where it came from and how I should react to it before actually doing so. That’s a discipline I want to have. So, far I’ve found that this practice grants me patience, which is of great benefit both at work and at home. I’m really looking forward to the other things I’ll learn about myself and others and how God relates to all of us through more of this rest and awareness.

Jesus for President?

Published
by
Adam Fussaro
on March 18, 2008
in Action, Community and Dialogue
. 1 Comment

A major strength of our community is the ability to engage the social ills of humanity in a competent, compassionate manner. This resonates with me because it is synonymous with my social work training to be a practitioner who uses sound strategies on numerous levels of change. For change to occur, there needs to be effective implementation directly to the people and social stakeholders, conducted by organizing, and systemic direction conducted by manipulating power. None of these can take place unless the others exist and one is not more important than another. My social work training has taught me these levels of change are not independent forces, but more of a fluid transaction in which change agents participate at many levels.

One of those levels of change is in the political process. I have had several conversations with people in our community who have made a decision to not participate in the political process. Reasons include but are not limited to: a mistrust of the process, the executive has too much power, and the power of political leaders does not have legitimacy for Christians, because our allegiance belongs to Jesus. As a result people have gravitated to participating in social movements, loving the community, and creating a lifestyle void of “the system” involvement. Most of those reasons listed above have validity and most responses to those reasons are necessary for change, but we will never escape the system. Participation is not giving allegiance and until Jesus comes back to end this thing, he won’t be on the ballot, but there are differences and it does matter. The decisions leaders make actually effect us, especially people in poverty. We are a part of this social system, we benefit from it, we get run over by it, and have the opportunity to be significant to make an impact.

It is my contention that change happens by walking a thoughtful path of objecting to the system in order to give it a shock of dissent, while being in a position to work with the system to create the change we desire. Martin Luther King Jr. is a great example. He objected to the racist policies of Jim Crow and worked with president Johnson to get the voting rights act passed. We are a spiritual community committed to caring about the oppressed who are held back by an unjust system. Engaging that system in this dichotomous approach is the best means to manipulate the systemic power and political participation as an available voice for change. I hope that my thoughts will create some dialogue about what it means to be a Christian in this historical time period, when our country, this city, and our community face a lot of significant challenges.

Looking toward Good Friday

Published
by
Rod White
on March 11, 2008
in Community and Dialogue
. 1 Comment

The Cell Leaders got into some important theology a couple of weeks ago at their monthly meeting. I thought you all might like to hear some bits that would help you participate in the ongoing dialogue.

During Lent, we focus on the death and resurrection of Jesus, on the central days in history that change everything and change us. But sometimes our understanding of what Jesus is doing on the cross is a bit hazy. Our lack of clarity isn’t that surprising, since there are a lot of ways to look at what He’s doing, and God’s ways are a bit beyond explaining succinctly. It takes prayer, study and dialogue to see by faith. At our meeting we helped various explanations of the crucifixion “make friends.” They don’t really need to compete. I suggested that the following approach might provide a “tent” in which al the major explanations based on the revelation in the Bible might live in harmony. See what you think.

On the cross God is doing battle to defeat sin, death, hell and the devil (the “powers”). God is rescuing us. Jesus Christ entered into human misery and wickedness to liberate us from them. That’s good news. The work of Jesus on the cross is not so much the application of a rational or systematic theory as it is the source of good news. When we share the communion meal and remember the Lord’s death, we connect with a story about God’s victory over the powers and humanity’s liberation from bondage. We are part of an ongoing story of showing up the powers for who they are through acts of forgiveness and selfless love.

Some key scripture about this includes:

Colossians 2:13-15 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

2 Corinthians 5:4-5 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

When Jesus dies, evil does all it can and God does all God can. God takes all the evil from political, social, cultural, personal, moral, religious and spiritual angles all rolled into one, rides it into destruction and despair, exhausts its power and rises from the victory to let loose new creation, new covenant, freedom, forgiveness, and hope. This is the story written in the gospels, not the theory written in the gospels.

God’s plan to rescue the world from evil was not a secret from people with eyes to see. In Isaiah’s prophecy the wisdom flowered into a very graphic description of the Suffering Servant who was to come. Jesus is that Servant, who was destined to bear evil, sin, and sickness. He was wounded by it; he absorbed it. As Paul says: in Jesus, death is swallowed up in victory; through our relationship with Jesus, our mortality is swallowed up by life.

At the last Supper Jesus tells his disciples how the messianic battle is going to be won – by losing it. On the cross, God turns the other cheek and loves His enemies. On the cross, God brings in the kingdom; the future enters the present. Through the work of Jesus we learn that the ultimate enemy is not Rome or some other earthly power, but the evil behind the human arrogance and violence. On the cross God rescues His people from evil itself and from the oppression and collusion that enslaves them. Like the Jewish Temple tried to be, Jesus actually is the place where heaven and earth meet; He is the place where God’s future and the present meet; He is the place where God celebrates the kingdom’s triumph over the kingdoms of this world by refusing to join in their spiral of self-absorption and violence.

Through the work of Jesus, the Creator takes responsibility for what has happened in creation. Jesus bears the weight on his shoulders and forgives it. When we pray “deliver us from evil,” a central means to that end is forgiveness. When we forgive, we release others from the burden of our anger and its consequences. When we forgive, we also release ourselves from the burden of what they did to us and the bitterness that will cripple us and poison the relationship. What exhausts and defeats evil is God’s implacable forgiveness. Desmond Tutu wrote a book called “No Future without Forgiveness” – this is true for Philadelphia, true for us, and true for God. As He is dying, God forgives his killers; He releases the world from guilt and He releases himself from the burden of wrath toward a world gone wrong. It isn’t that evil is over, but the future has entered the present, so creation can go forward as redeemed humans (always the God-ordained stewards of the planet) can reflect His image, heal, restore and put the world right under God’s rule.

As we go through Holy Week next week, there will be ample opportunity to enter the story – the fulcral story of Jesus and our own story of relating to Him and entering our own suffering servanthood. God bless us with the presence of the future and a deep realization of our freedom and forgiveness.

Urban Farm Team Update

Published
by
Matt McFarland
on March 6, 2008
in Action, Circle Venture, Community, Dialogue and Planning
. 0 Comments

However inappropriate it may seem right now, Spring has been on our minds. The Urban Farm team has put in our seed order, is setting up the florescent lights in the basement Grow-Lab and is trying to get our plan in place for the upcoming season. Our friend, Dan, has been working over the winter adding more plating space, paths and a whole new design to the south side of the garden, we can’t wait to see how it turns out. For the past few years, we’ve been working on adding a little bit of color to Frankford Avenue by working on our large garden, growing a variety of flowers, vegetables, and fruit trees. It’s a place where we can be reminded that there’s more out there just than concrete and brick, experience a change of season, and maybe get a fresh bite to eat. There’s always people around, and we’ve made so many friends from people just stopping by and wanting to do some work outside. We’ve always relied on the help from all of you: the weeding, new construction and clean up of the relentless tide of trash the blows in - and this year is no exception. Please, drop in to help out, or just drop in to walk around or hang out. If you’re interested in joining the team and being a part of the next stage where we start a small scale urban vegetable farm, drop us a line.

Another way to help out this year is by participating in our nursery sale fundraiser. As we’re starting seeds to plant in the garden, we’re also starting some to sell to help us cover the costs of operations. This spring, we’ll be selling:

  • Market Pack Veggies (6 pack): 2 Tomatoes (slicing & cherry), 2 Bell Pepper (Orange & Red) and 2 Eggplant.
  • Market Pack Herbs (6 pack): Classic herb mix of Italian basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano & other culinary herbs.
  • Also, individual seedlings of Cucumber, Zucchini, Rainbow Chard, herbs, tomatoes, peppers and Eggplants.

All you need is a sunny spot in your backyard, on your roof or balcony or even your front stoop and a container, and you can just transplant these packs and enjoy fresh veggies all summer while you also help keep the garden running for another year. Free compost is available from the Garden Center on Frankford Ave, and any bucket, enamel-ware pot from Circle Thrift or simple raised bed structure (with good drainage!) should be enough for any of these plants. We’re also going to be selling a pot-culture dwarf pea, called Tom Thumb, that can be grown inside on your window-sill. We’ll have complete care guides to go with any plants you take.

The sale will be in mid to late May, just as these plants are getting hardy enough to be put outside. We haven’t come up with the price for these yet, but the market packs should be under $10, and the individual pots will be just a couple bucks. We’ll post info on the dialogue as we get closer. These plants would make great gifts for your neighbors or family, and please spread the word!

To help us start the right number of seeds, it would be really helpful if you could let us know what you’d be interested in getting this Spring. Email us at urbanfarmteam@gmail.com with the quantity you might want, we won’t hold you to it, but it’ll help prevent us from having too few or too many seedlings come May. So enjoy your last few weeks of Winter and we’ll see you in the Spring.

Liturgy and Lent

Published
by
Julie Hoke
on March 3, 2008
in Community, Dialogue and Interact
. 1 Comment

After weeks of using the Book of Common Prayer to shape our Lenten worship, I experienced the public meeting at Broad and Washington differently this week. I am not sure why this week was different. Perhaps I needed the repetition of the previous weeks for things to finally sink in. In the course of the evening, I finally settled in to the rhythm that comes from liturgical practice. The cycle of corporate prayer, confession, absolution, passing the peace, celebration, thanksgiving, and communion is a full circle experience. I don’t always incorporate or recognize all those aspects in the private practice of worship much less in the regular public meeting. It is a structure of worship that walks me through key elements of my relationship with God and the world.

With the discipline of liturgical worship, I spoke things that I had been too busy and distracted to speak earlier this week. I prayed with my community about this city and the world. I was gently reminded to come before the Lord with all my heart and my mind. I voiced out loud my confessions. I received the truth of God’s mercy and forgiveness through the Lord Jesus Christ. Through touching and seeing and speaking with the people around me, I shared and received the peace of the Lord. I proclaimed the mystery of my faith. I physically and spiritually took part in the remembrance of Christ’s death.

I did all this with a community of believers in corporate worship. As I listened to the voices around me, as I moved through the crowded room trying to get to the communion table, as I felt the energy of thanksgiving as we praised together, I was filled with gratitude. I am blessed to worship with people who will try, week after week, to know God more fully through the liturgy and prayer and song and art, through Scripture and teaching and theology and communion. I love that this season of the year, this time of quietness and waiting, is marked with liturgy. Somehow, by the grace of God, the repetition each week draws us deeper into patience and unity, constancy and peace.

Identity: Who Are You?

Published
by
Joshua
on March 1, 2008
in Community, Creative Arts, Dialogue and Family
. 1 Comment

My cell took a field trip this week, and it got me thinking about identity. Vicki is a 5th grade teacher at Grover Cleveland Elementary School at 19th & Erie Ave, and she helped organize a celebration of Black History Month called “Identity: Who Are You?”.

It was pretty amazing, full of great moments in kids performing songs, dances, readings, and skits. There were lots of meaningful readings mixed in, even a singing of Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing (not quite as good as this Kim Weston version)-which was quite moving for me to hear children singing out “We have come over a way that with tears have been watered/We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered”…man. It gives me goosebumps thinking about it. We have a long way to go, but we sure have been on the journey a while.

The question was repeated several times in different contexts- “who are you?” I’m grateful for the students and teachers of Cleveland Elementary to be so boldly asking and the students for offering such brilliant responses.

Who are you? Who do you identify with? What do you identify as? Is it your occupation? Your role in your family? Your relationship status? Your ethnic group? The brand of clothes you wear? The sports that you’re good at? In some comparison to others?

I don’t always know how to answer that question well. Even as I’m sorting through who I am, I find peace Jesus’ words in John 15. I want to find who I am not just living in Christ, but Christ living in me. I want to find who I am through us living in Christ, and Christ living in us.

Through lifting our hearts,
Through lifting our songs we learn
A new way to hear