Friday, September 29, 2006
Wisdom from Jay Z
I've been going back to my early teenage years and listening to hip hop lately...perhaps it's my quarter life crisis...as I was working on my computer at Progressive Grounds and pondering the Sermon on the Mount I heard Jay Z say through my headphones "If you shoot my dog I'm gonna kill yo' cat"...hmmmm
Barrio Libre
A little birdie just told me about the Barrio Libre website...
If anyone wants to help pay for supplies (printing costs for posters/flyers, paint, etc.) I know where to send you...
If anyone wants to help pay for supplies (printing costs for posters/flyers, paint, etc.) I know where to send you...
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Barrio Libre - how we are fleshing out Service in the Jesus Dojo
PROJECT BARRIO LIBRE! —NEIGHBORHOOD FREEDOM!
WHY? To apply the vow of service and advocacy to current issues in our city.
This summer marked a dramatic return of violence to the Mission District and Portrero Hill with night time gunfire, thefts & assaults and weekly homicides. In the Mission District violence and hopelessness have become ways of life. People are shot and killed in broad daylight, and nothing is done about it. We will be advocates for this neighborhood. We will educate citizens. We will challenge the status quo. We work for a Barrio Libre (Neighborhood Freedom).
Our young people are dying, but we can stand up and work together to end the violence. Small acts matter. Clean the streets. Call when you see suspicious activity. Your involvement can save lives. Have courage. Take the freedom to walk the streets without trash, without fear, without violence. Together we can make our neighborhood safe, a place of faith, hope and love.
WHERE? Mission to Bryant and Cesar Chavez to 21st Street
PROJECT TEAMS:
Research & networking
Finding all murder sites
Statistics on violence
Best practices we can promote – phone numbers, etc.
Propaganda crew
Public service announcements (flyers, posters, etc.)
Web site
Art team
Mural project/Graffiti project
Day of the Dead
WEEKLY TUESDAY EVENING PRACTICES:
Neighborhood Beautification Project with Area Team
1. Pick up trash, clean, etc.
2. Patrol and advocacy
3. Meet neighbors and store workers/owners whenever possible
4. Paint over graffiti or contact city officials to paint
WEEKLY READINGS & REFLECTIONS
Each participant will read a selected Scripture passage and complete a half page reflection to be turned in at the Dojo Meeting and discussed.
WHY? To apply the vow of service and advocacy to current issues in our city.
This summer marked a dramatic return of violence to the Mission District and Portrero Hill with night time gunfire, thefts & assaults and weekly homicides. In the Mission District violence and hopelessness have become ways of life. People are shot and killed in broad daylight, and nothing is done about it. We will be advocates for this neighborhood. We will educate citizens. We will challenge the status quo. We work for a Barrio Libre (Neighborhood Freedom).
Our young people are dying, but we can stand up and work together to end the violence. Small acts matter. Clean the streets. Call when you see suspicious activity. Your involvement can save lives. Have courage. Take the freedom to walk the streets without trash, without fear, without violence. Together we can make our neighborhood safe, a place of faith, hope and love.
WHERE? Mission to Bryant and Cesar Chavez to 21st Street
PROJECT TEAMS:
Research & networking
Finding all murder sites
Statistics on violence
Best practices we can promote – phone numbers, etc.
Propaganda crew
Public service announcements (flyers, posters, etc.)
Web site
Art team
Mural project/Graffiti project
Day of the Dead
WEEKLY TUESDAY EVENING PRACTICES:
Neighborhood Beautification Project with Area Team
1. Pick up trash, clean, etc.
2. Patrol and advocacy
3. Meet neighbors and store workers/owners whenever possible
4. Paint over graffiti or contact city officials to paint
WEEKLY READINGS & REFLECTIONS
Each participant will read a selected Scripture passage and complete a half page reflection to be turned in at the Dojo Meeting and discussed.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Of Sheep and Goats and the Drunk Man on the Corner
My attitudes and ideas about poverty and homelessness seem to be continually evolving, from a naive and overly simple outlook to a more educated and experienced perspective, but the wrestling and conflicting ideas inside my head just seem to get louder and louder.
I read the story Jesus told about sheep and goats and try to see Jesus in the eyes of every person I see. I read the story of the Good Samaritan that Jesus told in response to a question about "who is my neighbor?" The neighbor is the one who helps...the neighbor should and could be everyone.
So I yearn for love and compassion to ooze out of my eyes and vocal cords and body language and wallet...but what is love for each person?
I walk with the homeless man who tells me of his daily panhandling at Safeway to buy more beer. He walks with me to a community center where he would be cared for, but he falls asleep on the couch in a stupor. When he awakens he immediately heads out to get more change and more beer.
I give food to a homeless Latin man on the sidewalk and hear his story. He claims the divorce was all his wife's fault. He left his little girls with no father, but it was all his wife's fault. After all, she knew he was an alcoholic when she married him...it's her fault. It's her fault.
I talk with another homeless man and realize my gift of lunch enabled him to spend his money on marijuana instead of lunch.
We run into our transgender friend from the community center in the Tenderloin, dealing drugs. Why? It's George Bush's fault. He wants the black man to be enslaved by drugs. But aren't you a black person selling drugs to black people? Please help me understand...really, I want to better understand.
The couple in the park want me to get a thousand dollars from my church to give to them so that they can put a down payment on an apartment. But the apartment is over priced. The woman sends her man to the corner to get money to buy more cigarettes. Their insistence on keeping the dog cuts down on housing possibilities. But they demand help from the church to get into the place to live. What is love? Is love to give money? My mind tells me they need to stop spending so much money on cigarettes and get rid of the dog and let me lay out a budget for them. If they both start work in a few days, I know an apartment is entirely possible on their own. But they don't want my advice...don't want to be told how to live. They want my money.
Is it love to approach the young men from the projects, the ones who almost hit my wife and daughter with a large rock? Is it love to go and talk to them, after hearing rumors of young men who flash their guns to those who confront them? Is it love to call the police and let them handle it?
Somehow compassion and love must often take the form of difficult words and conversations that people do not want to hear. Love must take the form of guidance, of holding a mirror up to help someone see themselves and what they are saying. But we must have love behind all of our actions. I just pray that as boldness and clarity develop begin to flow from my mouth that the love and compassion would only grow with the boldness...
May His Kingdom come, and may I remind myself to care for Jesus in every person on every corner...thanks blogger for letting my ramble out my thoughts
I read the story Jesus told about sheep and goats and try to see Jesus in the eyes of every person I see. I read the story of the Good Samaritan that Jesus told in response to a question about "who is my neighbor?" The neighbor is the one who helps...the neighbor should and could be everyone.
So I yearn for love and compassion to ooze out of my eyes and vocal cords and body language and wallet...but what is love for each person?
I walk with the homeless man who tells me of his daily panhandling at Safeway to buy more beer. He walks with me to a community center where he would be cared for, but he falls asleep on the couch in a stupor. When he awakens he immediately heads out to get more change and more beer.
I give food to a homeless Latin man on the sidewalk and hear his story. He claims the divorce was all his wife's fault. He left his little girls with no father, but it was all his wife's fault. After all, she knew he was an alcoholic when she married him...it's her fault. It's her fault.
I talk with another homeless man and realize my gift of lunch enabled him to spend his money on marijuana instead of lunch.
We run into our transgender friend from the community center in the Tenderloin, dealing drugs. Why? It's George Bush's fault. He wants the black man to be enslaved by drugs. But aren't you a black person selling drugs to black people? Please help me understand...really, I want to better understand.
The couple in the park want me to get a thousand dollars from my church to give to them so that they can put a down payment on an apartment. But the apartment is over priced. The woman sends her man to the corner to get money to buy more cigarettes. Their insistence on keeping the dog cuts down on housing possibilities. But they demand help from the church to get into the place to live. What is love? Is love to give money? My mind tells me they need to stop spending so much money on cigarettes and get rid of the dog and let me lay out a budget for them. If they both start work in a few days, I know an apartment is entirely possible on their own. But they don't want my advice...don't want to be told how to live. They want my money.
Is it love to approach the young men from the projects, the ones who almost hit my wife and daughter with a large rock? Is it love to go and talk to them, after hearing rumors of young men who flash their guns to those who confront them? Is it love to call the police and let them handle it?
Somehow compassion and love must often take the form of difficult words and conversations that people do not want to hear. Love must take the form of guidance, of holding a mirror up to help someone see themselves and what they are saying. But we must have love behind all of our actions. I just pray that as boldness and clarity develop begin to flow from my mouth that the love and compassion would only grow with the boldness...
May His Kingdom come, and may I remind myself to care for Jesus in every person on every corner...thanks blogger for letting my ramble out my thoughts
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
SERVICE & ADVOCACY
I've been a blogging slacker...there's plenty happening and plenty I've meant to blog about, so I'll start laying it out there piece by piece...here is an introduction to the idea of Service & Advocacy we are going through in our current season of the Jesus Dojo...more to follow
THE VOW OF SERVICE
As apprentices of Jesus, we are given the privilege and responsibility of becoming agents of healing. We work for the restoration of Creation on in cooperation with the agenda of the Creator. We give our bodies and minds, our whole selves, to a life of service.
We are told that Jesus emptied himself. He humbled himself. He gave himself away in order to serve. Beyond teaching this way, He modeled it. His patterns of living,
and eventually the cross, remind us of the sacrifice of a servant, one who gave up his life for the benefit of others. Jesus is the ultimate picture of unselfishness. He is the Suffering Servant, the Great Advocate for all mankind. We seek to pattern our lives after His by serving in the ways that make sense in our times and places.
With healing hands, Jesus embraced people rejected or forgotten by society. As a sign of the kingdom of love Jesus touched those shunned because of infectious diseases. He put his hands on the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf to heal them. He welcomed and held little children in his arms, even while his disciples looked on disapprovingly. He also made himself vulnerable to people in the streets, allowing them to touch him-- like one woman who had been bleeding for many years who reached for his clothes and was cured, or another woman who worked as a prostitute who, weeping, touched his feet, washing them with her tears. He invited the poor and oppressed into a community of hope.
We love God by loving the people around us. We enter into the struggle of those who are hungry, thirsty, lonely, naked or in prison. Through these acts we serve Jesus himself. Day by day, minute by minute, we make the decision to welcome Jesus instead of turning him away.
While we will enter into specific projects or acts of service, we remind ourselves that our whole lives are to be full of love that fills the holes of despair around us. We seek to first be healers within our families and our communities. We begin the struggle first as sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, friends, neighbors and co-workers, and we continue this work to the ends of the earth.
THE PRACTICE OF ADVOCACY
Jesus modeled the ancient command and practice of advocacy: “Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. (Isaiah 1:17) He recognized that human suffering is related to systems of power and inequity and thus advocated on behalf of the weak. He confronted the dominance of civil and religious authorities and their oppressive control over the poor and simple. And he taught his followers to live subversively under foreign occupation—paying taxes and carrying the packs of Roman soldiers, but honoring another kingdom and king. And Jesus warned adults that they would be held responsible if their choices lead children into sin. The struggle for justice ultimately led to his persecution and death. Through his example Jesus invites us to be healers through the practice of advocacy.
Immigrants and poor people struggle to make ends meet and often don’t have the language, skills or confidence to advocate for themselves. The wealthy and educated advocate freely on their own behalf, even hiring lawyers and politicians to preserve their status and safety. For instance, the affluent neighborhoods in San Francisco have disproportionately more services and police presence that the poorest neighborhoods with greater needs. Our neighbors need us to speak for them so their voice can be heard.
Living in a time of increasing mobility and international trade, the call to justice is both local and global. A friend who works with Latin gang members in our neighborhood discovered that the young men dealing heroin on our street corners are from a city in Honduras where a U.S. company opened a factory that tainted their water supply and destroyed the local economy. What appeared to be a neighborhood problem was related to corporate power and greed. Our friend works to help these young men discover a better way of life, but also meets with government officials to address corporate responsibility.
THE VOW OF SERVICE
As apprentices of Jesus, we are given the privilege and responsibility of becoming agents of healing. We work for the restoration of Creation on in cooperation with the agenda of the Creator. We give our bodies and minds, our whole selves, to a life of service.
We are told that Jesus emptied himself. He humbled himself. He gave himself away in order to serve. Beyond teaching this way, He modeled it. His patterns of living,
and eventually the cross, remind us of the sacrifice of a servant, one who gave up his life for the benefit of others. Jesus is the ultimate picture of unselfishness. He is the Suffering Servant, the Great Advocate for all mankind. We seek to pattern our lives after His by serving in the ways that make sense in our times and places.
With healing hands, Jesus embraced people rejected or forgotten by society. As a sign of the kingdom of love Jesus touched those shunned because of infectious diseases. He put his hands on the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf to heal them. He welcomed and held little children in his arms, even while his disciples looked on disapprovingly. He also made himself vulnerable to people in the streets, allowing them to touch him-- like one woman who had been bleeding for many years who reached for his clothes and was cured, or another woman who worked as a prostitute who, weeping, touched his feet, washing them with her tears. He invited the poor and oppressed into a community of hope.
We love God by loving the people around us. We enter into the struggle of those who are hungry, thirsty, lonely, naked or in prison. Through these acts we serve Jesus himself. Day by day, minute by minute, we make the decision to welcome Jesus instead of turning him away.
While we will enter into specific projects or acts of service, we remind ourselves that our whole lives are to be full of love that fills the holes of despair around us. We seek to first be healers within our families and our communities. We begin the struggle first as sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, friends, neighbors and co-workers, and we continue this work to the ends of the earth.
THE PRACTICE OF ADVOCACY
Jesus modeled the ancient command and practice of advocacy: “Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. (Isaiah 1:17) He recognized that human suffering is related to systems of power and inequity and thus advocated on behalf of the weak. He confronted the dominance of civil and religious authorities and their oppressive control over the poor and simple. And he taught his followers to live subversively under foreign occupation—paying taxes and carrying the packs of Roman soldiers, but honoring another kingdom and king. And Jesus warned adults that they would be held responsible if their choices lead children into sin. The struggle for justice ultimately led to his persecution and death. Through his example Jesus invites us to be healers through the practice of advocacy.
Immigrants and poor people struggle to make ends meet and often don’t have the language, skills or confidence to advocate for themselves. The wealthy and educated advocate freely on their own behalf, even hiring lawyers and politicians to preserve their status and safety. For instance, the affluent neighborhoods in San Francisco have disproportionately more services and police presence that the poorest neighborhoods with greater needs. Our neighbors need us to speak for them so their voice can be heard.
Living in a time of increasing mobility and international trade, the call to justice is both local and global. A friend who works with Latin gang members in our neighborhood discovered that the young men dealing heroin on our street corners are from a city in Honduras where a U.S. company opened a factory that tainted their water supply and destroyed the local economy. What appeared to be a neighborhood problem was related to corporate power and greed. Our friend works to help these young men discover a better way of life, but also meets with government officials to address corporate responsibility.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Covenant Eyes
An old friend of mine, Eric Carpenter (who got me to move to the Bay Area several years ago) is hooking up with Covenant Eyes to do something to help men who are caught up in internet pornography. As I hear story after story of wonderful guys who have their lives derailed by this issue, it seems the importance of doing something can't be overstated. Covenant Eyes offers software so that friends get an email with questionable sites you have visited recently, and it has some functions that make it more helpful than other similar software. Check it out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
