The Widow’s mite; the outlaw’s prayer

The Revised Common Lectionary takes the church this week to Mark 12: 38-44, a.k.a. The Widow’s mite.

The story of the Widow’s mite is well translated above by Johnny Paycheck in the Outlaw’s Prayer.

Filed under: Uncategorized , jesus, johnny paycheck, lectionary, Mark, mark 12:34-48, outlaw, outlaw's prayer, Revised Common Lectionary, widow, widow's mite

U2 in Review: Melancholy Thoughts from Soldier Field

Katy and I saw U2 on Saturday night at Chicago’s soldier field.  It was the perfect North American setting for this concert.  Soldier Field is surrounded by Lake Michigan, Chicago’s finest museums and the awesome Chicago skyline.  It is also located only few short miles away from where President Obama lives and launched his community organizing and political careers.   The stadium itself is a futuristic mashup of the old and space-age; a perfect place for U2’s stage/multi-media spaceship w

Bono and friends tried to deliver a transcendent artisitic/political/spiritual experience and the show got some fantastic reviews.  Here is Rolling Stone’s take and the Chicago Tribune blog had some very nice things to say.

Along with a nice mix of old and new songs, we saw images from this summer’s protests in Iran, were encouraged to be in solidarity with Burmeese freedom fighter Aung San Suu Kyi and had a video message from Desmond Tutu.  I normally like this kind of stuff.  Bullet the Blue Sky, Sunday Bloody Sunday, and Pride (In the Name of Love) are my all time favorite songs.  On this night though,  it just felt a bit forced.

From where I was sitting, concert goers were 95% white and old.  It doesn’t look like u2 has much of a following in the under 30 crowd.  There seemed to be more African Americans working at the stadium than attending the concert.  It just gave me a bit of a creepy feeling when a bunch of white folks (myself included) are preaching justice, civil rights, and honoring the anti-apartheid movement when the class and race divisions in the stadium seemed so apparent.

That’s not U2’s fault.  Heck, I wish more musicians, artists, corporations, individuals, took matters into their own hands the way U2 does when it comes to justice and the future of the planet and the human race..

On this beautiful night in Chicago, a day after 9-11, I was just reminded about how far we still have to go.

Filed under: Uncategorized , 2009, activism, Aung San Suu Kyi, Barack Obama, bullet the blue sky, change the world, chicago, chicago tribune, class divisions, concert, concert review, demond tutu, human rights, Obama, pride (in the name of love), race relations, rolling stone, september 12, soldier field, spaceship, sunday bloody sunday, u2

Back from a War, Two vets walk/bike/ and catch rides across the country for love

I met Josh Stieber and Conor Curran (in red) last night.  They stopped by Lockerbie Central Unitted Methodist/Earth House.

They are two Iraq War vets who are on a journey, mostly by foot and bike, across the country.  The two are sharing their experience as Iraq War vets and talking about how love conquers fear and hate.  Even in the Obama era, there message is important and urgent.  They are calling this quest “The Contagious Love Experiment.”

Originally, Josh just felt like walking to Indianapolis’ Fort Benjamin Harrison, home of the army’s acounting headquarters, and dropping off his military paychecks, saying that he didn’t want their blood-stained money.

Josh is from suburban Washington DC and Conor is from Toledo. Their walk got a bit of lift last week when Michael Moore posted this article about them on his facebook page.

Both Josh and Conor joined the military after high school, anxious for action.  Josh said that 9/11 and his church were one of the main reasons he signed up.  He writes:

I had grown up hearing ideas like “love your enemies”, “return evil with good”, and “judge not lest you be judged”. But I treated these sayings that the central figure of my religion taught as if they were just nice sounding lines, but not practical. But slowly, my excuses started to fade away.

I learned that the military trains people to hate and dehumanize entire people groups, not showing sadness for the difficult task of “removing evil”. I learned that the Iraqis weren’t waiting for us with open arms, men, women, and children from the town we were in protested our presence. I learned innocent people die. I learned that it doesn’t matter what uniform you have on, it’s about what’s inside. And sadly, the military tries to rob you of what’s inside and the result is people treating killing like a joke and showing little care for human life.

Josh grew up in a conservative, evangelical megachurch, and doesn’t ever remember the words “love your enemies” and “return evil with good” being preached.  He was told by some church friends after he made it home that the sermon on the mount wasn’t really that important in Jesus’ ministry.

As we head to our seventh year of war in Iraq, lets not forget the stories of Josh and Conor.  And let’s make love contagious.

Filed under: Uncategorized , conor curran, Earth House, Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, Indianapolis, Iraq, iraq war, josh strieber, lockerbie central united methodist, maryland, military, peace, sermon on the mount, social justice, toledo, veterans, washington dc