Coffee Culture Kingdom

Denominational Renewal

nobody@vox.com(Phil) — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:51:04 -0700

Reading here about a conversation that's started up about renewing denominations, I'm struck with my initial sense of apathy: is there any hope for real denominational life?

We're taught by professional theologians that denominations are a "must" in a fallen world. Best as I can figure, this is basically like international boundaries or fences between neighbors.

(Ever wonder what the wildlife on the border between Mexico and the US think about the border fence? I can see it now: the endangered Sonoran desert Jaguar is stopped at the border and asked for his identification papers as he migrates north to find a mate. "Shoot!" the Jaguar says, "...woah, buddy. I didn't mean that literally. But darn-it, I left 'em on the kitchen counter!)

Anyway, denominations. My sense is that our structures constrain us, and when we toss them, newly unconstrained, we create another whole set of problems.

So denominations are intended to keep us connected. But, I've heard about connectional churches that are practically independent. So independent churches are supposed to keep us from becoming wrongly ruled by someone else. But I've heard of independent churches that are, for all intents and purposes, connected to other churches.

Whatever the answer, it seems like a good reason to pray. Pray that the Church would as St. Paul urged her to do, "walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which she has been called."

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A Walkscore Urbanity

nobody@vox.com(Phil) — Mon, 12 May 2008 22:17:56 -0700

Where I live, city officials and developers are pursuing something like a humane redevelopment of a rebirthed urban core. As a way to this goal, reviving a noble pedestrian existence has made the top of many lists. Such an existence is one in which walking to and from work, home, and play is not just a figment of the past, but a present reality.

In a recent issue of the New York Times magazine, a fascinating web 2.0 Internet application was featured that attempts to quantify just this kind of walkable urbanity with a number. That site is called Walkscore (www.walkscore.com). Type in your address and you can find out how easy it would be to live in a place without a car, or, put differently, to live in a place where you could walk to most of the things you needed.

Here's how it works. The more things you can walk to in your neighborhood means that you're going to be more healthy, you're likely to have more transportation options, getting places will be better for the environment, and you'll see an increase in social capital--an elusive measure of how livable a place is.

A score above seventy is deemed to be an indicator that it is pretty walk-friendly. A score below twenty-five means you're likely driving everywhere. Plugging in my address registered a barely double digit number. (Better keep the gas tank filled!) On the other hand, plugging in my city's downtown registered a whopping 92.

While this is great for folks who live THERE, suburbanites like myself are not without options. I've started riding my bike here and there and taking the bus to work. I even rode my bike to the Chinese restaurant nearby the house with my daughter to pick up our carryout order the other day. What fun!

So, wherever you live, your "walkscore" can be the start of something good for you and for your city. Check it out and see what your score is. Then, let me know what ideas you come up with!

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Defense of Suburbia

nobody@vox.com(Phil) — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:53:03 -0700

Amid all the hoopla extolling our new urbanism, one down-to-earth mom defends suburbia here.

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Morning is Wiser

nobody@vox.com(Phil) — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:36:12 -0700

the frog princess

I love folklore. Lewis's conversion is spurred, I'm told, by a conversation with Tolkien in which the old mythmaker challenged Lewis's atheism/agnosticism with this idea: "Christianity is the One True Myth."

This proverb makes all other myths borrowers from the Real Story. So, I read folklore like a gold miner.

I read a Russian folk tale recently that I had heard before, but never read in this form, called the Frog Princess. You can read it here. I loved this line: "Morning is wiser than evening." I find that to be true as well, though as a recovering night-owl, my findings are coming at a great personal cost.

Getting up early (and the corresponding commitment to get to bed before too late) has seemed to open up options. And yes, morning seems to give wisdom that the evening doesn't give. But, is morning wiser than evening as a rule? I must admit that even as I write this, I am still convinced that night counsels deep wisdom that the morning never knows. David knew this, and writes in his famous 119th Psalm, "At midnight, I rise and give you thanks."

Aaahh...vindication!

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Swan's Bones

nobody@vox.com(Phil) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:23:13 -0700

a trumpeter swan

Speaking of death, I read a poem today by a friend, Mary Setliff, recently recognized by a local poetry festival, in which she potently describes cancer taking a friend. Her poem is called "The Bones of a Swan (for Will)."

Reading it, I was reminded of something that I read recently: swan bones are used in mythology to describe a magical building material out of which anything can be made. Imagine that: enchanted swan bones givng us "make-anything-you-can-dream-of" two-by-fours.

With my swan bones, I would build a city where anything you can dream comes true. And in that city, cancer, and death, wouldn't take anyone, but would transform them.

What a miracle that such a city has already been built, not with swan bones, but with the flesh and blood of a perfect Man, Jesus, whose death and resurrection works the most Perfect Magic of All.

And then, the last enemy, death, shall be defeated.

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Paying Taxes, and Death

nobody@vox.com(Phil) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 21:17:30 -0700

Death and Taxes

I heard a fascinating line of poetry yesterday, quoted by Maya Angelou, who is celebrating her eightieth birthday. The poet she quoted was Edna St. Vincent Millay, who fancied, in this composition, "Conscientious Objector," that though she couldn't avoid death, would only give it only what was due, and not a penny more:

I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death.

The idea that we can have some measure of control over what we give to Death is part of the fabric of the human heart. After all, God has embossed Eternity there, and the soul's vector necessarily launches us into another, invisible world.

But St. Vincent Millay's words are, in the end, no more than wishful bravado. Ancient David has a more certain hope, and one more comforting as we think about the Tax Man's, or Death's, Approach...

I will not die, but live, And tell of the works of the LORD. (Psalm 118:17)

Death, as certain as taxes, takes its mortal toll from every man, woman, and child. But some pay Death more than they must, for they pay the pound of flesh from their own breast. Others find release from such payment in God's own offering of Himself to Death on the cross.

For such ones, death is all that is paid to Death, and not a penny more.

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Unconferences and Theological Debate

nobody@vox.com(Phil) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 09:01:03 -0700

Reading here today about the phenomenon of the "unconference" and how it is the in-person equivalent of Web 2.0, I was struck with the image of what must have been a lively interaction between "speaker" and "audience" at the ancient church councils.

Of course there must have been politics, and certainly there is also a good deal of politics at an unconference as well. "No distinction between speaker and audience" is a tenet of the unconference. My denomination, a modern strand of Presbyterianism, should consider these principles for some of its meetings.

As threatening as this kind of democratization might be to our system of government, it could prove to be quite useful.

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Jesus and the Movies

nobody@vox.com(Phil) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:30:17 -0700

Jason Clark has published last month a review of a book, Did Jesus go to the Theatre? by an author named Nick Page. I love the title, and am interested in the book. Here is a link to a presentation by Page.

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The Little Things

nobody@vox.com(Phil) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:15:18 -0700

Frappuccino

While riding the bus to the airport this morning, I met a kind stranger who, after taking a deep draught of his starbucks iced vanilla frappuccino, said, with something of a breathless passion, "Oh thank you Lord."

I smiled, looked at him, and said, "Amen!"

He replied, "Right on...I really do try to say thank you every day..."

I nodded, thought of how many people go through that daily prayer ritual (either verbally, or simply with unspoken devotions) while dosing with whatever is their favorite caffeine delivery instrument.

I added, with a smile, pointing to his coffee: "Its the little things you have to be thankful for." He nodded, agreed, and returned my grin.

It really is about the little things.

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Arguing with Grandma

nobody@vox.com(Phil) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:06:26 -0700

a clean front door...

It's hard to argue with Grandma.

Of the many "wise sayings," she often told me, one came to mind the other day as I was helping a neighbor clean: "if everyone swept in front of his own front door, the whole world would be clean."

Problem is, though, sometimes others can't sweep in front of their own front door.

So as true as my grandmother's old proverb is, its radical emphasis on the individual ignores the power of, and central significance of, the community.

In the end, neither the individual, nor the community, can exist without the other.

Philosophers have long struggled to answer, or solve, this problem of individual vs community, also known by the technical term, "the problem of the one and the many."

Some theologians have argued that this "problem" can only be solved with the historic orthodox concept of God as "three-and-one."

Sweeping, as it turns out, is a project for the Trinity.

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