I have been thinking a lot about open worship these days. Many of the larger evangelical Friends churches no longer practice open worship in their big venues for many reasons. I guess I am searching for a contemporary definition of open worship and ideas for how other large congregations incorporate their concept of open worship into their weekly big event(s).
What canst thou saith?

Here are my initial thoughts and response that I posted there but thought I’d also put here because I deeply believe that the Quaker way of worship could be beneficial for those of you in other church traditions as well (I’ll be particularly interesting in your thoughts on this subject).

I am sure there are different ways of thinking about Open Worship, but for me as a Quaker preacher I treasure it as a “time of worship that creates a space for us as a community to practice listening and responding to God.” I think that’s the most simple way I could explain it. To go into it a bit more I’d say that there are at least five characteristics of open worship that are helpful:

1) It creates a space where God can have a chance. In programmed churches it is really easy for one person to take up all the space in a room, and let’s be honest, often this is the preacher. Open worship embraces the rich insight of early Quakerism that human nature tries to dominate and control space, thus crowding God out. This is, in my reading, much of the problem of church history: people going at it alone, without God. So open worship gives time and energy into listening and practicing, allowing space for God to “have a chance.”

2) Along with this, it can be seen as a discipline for the (Quaker) preacher to embrace. We typically do open worship after my sermon. I end with queries instead of applications (I am more interested in how we are implicated in the story than how we sum it up in a couple bullet points). ((cf. Doug Pagitt’s, Preaching Reimagined)) The queries then offer a guidepost into open worship (but are surely not necessary). The disciple of making sure that we do indeed have open worship (we try for 15 min) is one that I am trying to take very seriously. It helps me keep a cap on how long I allow myself to preach because it reminds me that I do not have the final say in our community and cannot take up all the space in the room. It also reminds me of the value of learning from those in our meeting. When we do open worship before the sermon I try to blend in people’s contributions into my sermon and am usually awed by the amazing insights people have that never crossed my mind.

3) Open worship Invites participation. I see Quakerism as the most inherently participative of the Christian traditions. All its practices from the bottom on up are meant to create space for people to participate with God and with others together as a learning community. I see unprogrammed worship, when it is at its best, as a fully participative space. Now, over time, this space has been often co-opted and controlled by what is and is not allowed to be said or done – this is true both in the unprogrammed and programmed meetings. This space has in many of our meetings become more oppressive rather than participative. So if participation (the movement of listening and response) is really the heart that is to be captured here, then open worship is to be radically “open.” Not only can anyone share if they feel led, but we also allow for other ways to participate. Sometimes we invite people to make art, we light candles, use prayer stations, write out paraphrases/remixes of passages we’ve just discussed in our own words, share poetry, sometimes we do body prayers, lectio divina, and other forms of liturgy (liturgy can be highly participative), we’ve played with compost, went on walks around our meetinghouse, and lots of other things that encourage an active participation. To me open worship is a (decentralized) space to allow for God to move, how that look is, well, open to interpretation. Though, I must stress that actual silence (and then responding if led) is itself very important and Quaker formative practice (for everything else we do, including our business practices) that we do this just as much (or more) than we do these other things.

4) It Invites a learning-while-doing mentality. In my research around “convergent” Quaker worship one thing I have noticed is that what is important is that people learn while they practice or do something. Often in Quaker worship there is such high expectations for what can be said, how it gets said, when, etc. that people are less and less willing to actually stand up and offer ministry. Instead, open worship, embraces apprenticeship within the faith community. Here we are “practicing the practice,” so to speak. I am convinced we learn by doing. One way I like to think about it is learning by reading and learning by writing. Often, those of us in the church are good readers, we’ve read the Bible through and through, we can quote verses, we know all the “right” answers to hard questions, but we haven’t internalized it. In other words, we still need to learn how to write, reflect, put it in our own language, with our own experiences and “remix” it. Or to put it in the words of Quaker theologian T. Vail Palmer Jr., we need to learn how to, as the early Friends did, empathize with the Scriptures.

5) Finally, open worship trusts the spirituality of people. When we talk about open worship, a lot of people instantly think about the one “crazy” person who will say “scary” stuff. Even as rare as this occurs (I haven’t experienced this yet in the 8 months I’ve been pastoring at our current church) we need to make ourselves vulnerable to this because all people have a spirituality to be shared. This is an embracing of the priesthood of the believers in a way that recognizes the risks involved, and yet believes in it enough to open one’s self up. I like the example one of my teacher’s uses on this issue. Think about websites that do reviews, like Amazon for instance. There are tons of people who share their thoughts on a given topics, commodity, what-have-you. And there are some crazy posts that will ensue, but for the most part the community recognizes the out-of-place comment, the remark that seemed off base, or the person who does not yet have a reputation in the community. We can trust the spirituality of people, and by opening ourselves up to that, I think we will see wonderful movements of God and spiritual growth not possible any other way.

I’ve been meaning to reflect on this in writing for sometime so this is just my first attempt to get it out. I am open for additions, corrections, and discussion around this but it is how I’ve been thinking about it.

[Image from Simon T., a gentleman in our meeting]

Today we are three weeks into the advent season preparing for Christ’s coming. Christmas, for Christians, is not simply a remembrance and celebration of history (though it is certainly that), it is more importantly a proclamation of reality. The father of Quakerism, George Fox, wrote in his journal of his present and personal experience of Christ when he said: “Jesus has come to teach the people himself,” meaning that for Christians there is no waiting for the return of Christ is some distance future, Christ is here with us and among us now. When we talk about the Light of Christ, who is the Inward Light, this is what we mean. Therefore, if Christ came two thousand and nine (or so) years ago, then Christ is also born every year at Christmas and he is born in us every time we make the space in our wombs for the divine gestation to take place.

[I used a wrapped Gift Box to illustrate] One way to picture this might be with this: What is it? What can you tell about it just by looking at it? Any guesses as to what is in it? [What are you asking for this Christmas? ] What about knowing, or not knowing who it is from, how does that change things? How do expectations shape our reception of the gift? What are the feelings you have when it is what you expected? What about when it isn’t what you expected? (What if it was something you like even more?) [It was empty]

For now, there is nothing in that space, like an empty womb waiting for something to be formed within it, to go through the process of gestation. Whatever this gift is to become, and we can’t know ahead of time, it will first require that we stop and allow time for it to be formed. In other words, there is preparation that must take place: both for the formation of the gift, like a baby in a womb, and for the reception of that gift. And this is an analogy for us today. Like Mary, whose womb is blessed because of the fruits growing inside her, we too have wombs of the divine, Christ is growing, or wants to grow in us. The question is can we stop long enough and prepare ourselves for the process to happen and to be ready to truly receive whatever (and whoever) it is that is born.

So this morning I want to invite all of us to consider what it means to prepare a space for what will be born on Christmas morning.

Blessed is the Fruit of Your Womb

The Christmas story is about the gift of God arriving here ON EARTH (as the Disciple’s prayer mentions), but the gift of God comes in a way that truly baffles and dumbfounds. For instance, Jesus was born in tiny, vulnerable village called Bethlehem, which had been exploited by “many army foray” (WB). The point of the biblical narrative is to say, of all the places you might expect the messiah to arrive, Bethlehem is probably not on your list. Surprise! And the Jewish people hoped and longed for a Messiah who would be the heir to David’s throne, who would ride into Jerusalem and return to his rightful power once again [Tolkein anyone?]. In other words, the Jewish Messiah was a long awaited political, religious leader who would lead Judaism back into a right relationship with God and set things right in their country, lead them into battle, and push out infidels (currently Romans) out of their country. But Instead they got Jesus a very different kind of political and religious leader.

Because of all this there really is “something about Mary,” as they say. How was it that she was prepared to receive a gift that was so unexpected and radically different from what common wisdom at that time thought the Messiah would be like. How did she accept this? How are we to accept this?

Listen to what Elizabeth says about Mary:

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” (Luke 1:41-45 NRSV)

Blessed is the fruit of your womb, she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.

How does Mary respond to all this? What I like about Mary is that, in a sense, she really does nothing. In our story so far, she really is a (before all this stuff about a virgin birth) a nobody, she was the kind of person who people didn’t know about, you couldn’t search her name on google, if she had a facebook page she probably didn’t have many friends (obviously, I’m editorializing here, but the point is that God chooses a nobody, a young virgin teenager to carry out his plan), and when the angel comes to her and tells her what is about to go down, she doesn’t really DO anything but have the faith to believe. She simply offers her body as a space for God’s seed to grow, she says yes! And yes, of course, she believed that God was capable of anything, even the impossible and yes, Mary knew deeply the love of God and trusted that even in the midst of what must have seemed like complete chaos, but there is a sense in which she does noting, and was simply present to that moment when God called upon her.

[How would you have responded? Some of us might have said we a better house, a better job, done with school, God can’t grow up in this neighborhood, in this country, etc.]

Loretta Ross writes:

“To know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge may mean not knowing much of anything else [was this Mary?]. With the peace and quiet of recollection may come the stark edge of fear that this doing nothing, this being, this offering oneself for God to be the actor, cannot possibly be enough. It all seems so passive. Do something, produce, perform, earn your keep. Don’t just sit there. It may be good and well for Mary to offer space in herself for God to dwell and be born into the world, but few of us posses the radical belief such [doing nothing] requires” (Watch for the Light, 96-97).

And so Mary prepared her womb for the divine, by allowing it to be used for whatever God had in mind. She didn’t hold onto her rights, career, status, etc. She let go of whatever expectations she had, and let that seed form. And because of this, Elizabeth says, blessed is the fruit of your womb. Both Mary and Elizabeth knew that a womb of the divine is one that is truly prepared, open, fully hospitable for whatever and whoever comes.

We too as the church have wombs, all of us. You are wombs of the divine.

Ross continues:

“Jesus observed, ‘Without me you can do nothing’ (John 15:5). Yet, we act, for the most part, as though without us God can do nothing. We think we have to make Christmas come, which is to say we think we have to bring about the redemption of the universe on our own. When all God needs is a willing womb, a place of safety, nourishment, and love. ‘Oh, but nothing will get done,’ you say. ‘If I don’t do it, Christmas won’t happen.’ And we crowd out Christ with our fretful fears” (98-99).

What God needs is a willing womb. This is what Mary understood. Who among you are living as willing wombs? I think Quakers understood this need to offer willing wombs of the divine so that God does not get crowded out better than many Christians throughout Church history. We have an entire structure created around the fact that human nature tries to crowd God out. From our open worship, to our business meetings, to our views on (pastoral) ministry, Quakers have a structure that is formed with the conviction that we do not want one person to take up too much space in our meetings. Even with all the inefficiencies that our process can sometimes lead us down, even with the chaos that can ensue, we believe deeply that God needs the willing wombs to remain open, for that space to be truly available, if God is going to come and be born among us. The other day a friend said, “People take up so much space that God barely even has a chance.”

And so the question is, do you have a willing womb for the divine? Are you creating that space for the process of conception, gestation, and birth to occur? Christ is coming to be born in you.

[Trans] What are the ways we prepare to God to come and be born in us?

Preparation.

There is no right answer to this, what it looks like for you to create space for God has to be genuine to you and your life. That you become a willing womb of the divine is what matters, how is less important. But whatever it is it will involve doing serious personal work. Think about John the Baptist, his call for the people of Israel to be prepared. He challenged them to hard work as well, “every tree that doesn’t bear fruit will be cut down, if you have two cloaks give one away, don’t take more money than you need, and stop using your position of power to steal,” were some of his suggestions. Then people were baptized in water, also a sign of preparation for new life.

[Get M] Now personally, Emily and I, and L too, have been preparing the last nine months for M. When we found out that Emily was pregnant with M we knew that there was the period of gestation that we had to go through. There was no way to rush it (nor would you want to). There is the long slow road Emily had to go through to allow for M to be formed in her womb. Preparation cannot be rushed. Even though it took its toll and was very trying on her physically she could not short circuit the process.

We also, in preparation, educated ourselves. We learned about what kinds of schools of thought there are birthing procedures, would we do Bradley Method, Lamaze, would the birth be all natural as was our first, or will medication be involved? We even discussed the small details of diapering, would it be cloth or a something more like a compostable diaper (who knew there were so many options). Then of course, the perennial questions around parenting and nurturing styles, what is attachment parenting all about and what are other theories? What will be our blend?

Then comes the more relational things we thought about. We announced to all our family, friends and community the arrival of our new child, we invited all those close in our lives to join us in this birth. Other questions abounded: What will we call her? How will she and L get along? What kind of space can we create in our family, in our home, and in our day-to-day lives for this coming child? Who will she be? What are the hopes she brings?

For me, as a father, I had other preparations to go through. Sure my body was going through changes…I’m working off my third trimester as well, but I was really preoccupied with a new job, school, learning about a new city, buying a home, etc. Then early in November Emily woke me up and told me she thought she might be in labor! I thought, oh no, please, not yet. I’m not ready! (How ridiculous right?!). But this was the first time it really hit me, at a deep level.

“I am not prepared.” I don’t have any space for this child yet.

And on Monday night, the week that M was born. I got sick. I had a fever and cold sweats. I couldn’t sleep and I my stomach was upset. I realized that buried beneath the physical sickness, I was also struggling with deep anxiety about M’s arrival. I still wasn’t ready, and I knew she was coming soon (I did after all predict she would be born on the 27th months before!). I didn’t have space for her yet, because I hadn’t allowed for that space to be created. I literally wrestled with this before God. Why am I anxious. What causes anxiety in me? I’m not the one giving birth here, yet you’d think I was. I realized for me I was worried about all the things that could go wrong, I was worried about how I would perform on that day. Would I be able to be present for Emily, really ready for this baby? And that night, while I was praying, I had to do some deeply internal, emotional and spiritual work. It was hard, but through the process I handed it over to God [palms down, palms up]. I was comforted by the fact that it was out of my control; whatever happened, it wasn’t up to me. What I had to do was nothing but simply be there, as fully present as I could be. That night for the first time all year, I felt prepared, ready for the gift of this life.

So whatever preparation is for you, I think it will include this kind of work. Will you take this on this week? We need to step back, stop, and contemplate how we will be wombs of the divine, how we are creating space for God.

Kester Brewin writes:

“Only if I am still. Only if I have stopped what I was doing to listen and hold my breath and enter some spiritual apnea and wait. The perception of the new step will come only to those brave enough to stop dancing the old. The realization that we must descend this low peak will come only to those prepared to stop and take stock of their position. We fear that if we stopped for a week, a month, a service, a moment, we might be forgotten, or lose our momentum, weaken our profile, appear ill-thought-out and failing” (46)…“So the truly free, the brave who truly seek God, will always have periods, commas, full stops, punctuation marks, pregnant pauses, breves and semi-breves of silence where those around them are given the freedom to walk; given space to deconstruct structures, to reimagine and rethink. Blue-sky thinking cannot happen while we rush around under thunderclouds of busyness” (Signs of Emergence, 47).

I think this is the line that Mary takes. Mary was truly free. Whatever happened, it isn’t up to me. Whatever the impossibility, God is a God of the impossible. This kind of preparation, this openness to whatever God was about to do, the space Mary created, allowed her to be open to whatever radical shift the story was about to take. She was ready for the change because she was prepared for the formation of the gift, the baby in the womb, and the reception of baby Jesus, God’s gift to humanity.

And this is what Christmas is, it is the full-stop, the pregnant pause, the holding of breathe, waiting for the gift of something new, the gift of light to be born into the darkness, the empty box to be filled with our wildest kingdom imaginations, our willing wombs to be filled with the divine.

So the question this morning for you is quite simple: how are you preparing to receive this gift? And will we let there be enough space for God to come and be born among us?

This is an appropriate quote for all of us in the church, but especially, I think, for Quakers to observe. With so much discussion recently on whether or not some of our more longstanding institutions, meetings, and publishing outlets up for grabs these days because of smaller numbers, smaller budgets, and less interest or energy. With so many looking at the bottom line, I can’t help but think that we need to step back, stop, and contemplate the point above. What does this really mean for us?

Brewin writes:

“Only if I am still. Only if I have stopped what I was doing to listen and hold my breath and enter some spiritual apnea and wait. The perception of the new step will come only to those brave enough to stop dancing the old. The realization that we must descend this low peak will come only to those prepared to stop and take stock of their position. We fear that if we stopped for a week, a month, a service, a moment, we might be forgotten, or lose our momentum, weaken our profile, appear ill-thought-out and failing. So we feed the ecclesiastic furnaces our burned-out wrecks: tired leaders, disillusioned ministers, fatigued congregations – marshaling them to dance longer, march faster, pray harder, cry loud in earnest for God to come, come, COME and batter our hearts into change.”

What Brewin is essentially calling for is that we return to our own practicing of silent waiting, but with a fresh perspective as to why we are doing it, what we are waiting and hoping for. Or conversely, maybe our stopping and waiting is the opposite of silent waiting, maybe we need to stop with the quiet and really say what is on our hearts and minds. In either case, something needs to give. Who has the courage to stop dancing the old?

Elvis Perkins In Dearland

Elvis Perkins in Dearland’s self-titled, second album arrived this year and it has been in constant rotation on the record player since it’s arrived. It is seriously one of our daughter’s favorite albums, she loves all the upbeat songs especially. I loved the first album, Ash Wednesday, and listened to it none stop while I was in England for three months. Whenever I listen to that album now I can’t help but remember that time in our lives, Emily was pregnant with our first daughter, and I was studying away at Woodbrooke making great life-long friends. Their sophomore effort is even better than the first, the songs are very diverse, deeply emotional, spiritual and psychological. Do yourself a favor and listen to them. Here’s how:

If you follow this link, you can preview a number of songs on google’s search page.

Here’s a full concert on NPR.

And here are two videos from the new album that are marvelous.

David Bazan – Curse Your Branches

I’ve been a long-time David Bazan fan, and Pedro The Lion, if you haven’t taken a listen, then you really should. I have no doubt David Bazan has been called many things, but as far as I am concerned he really is one of the most authentic singer-song writers in our generation. He writes about the stark reality of life, faith and doubt, brokenheartedness, greed, infidelity, and well, you name it he’s singing about it. It’s no easy listening, but it is the poetic enveloped in the beautiful simple sounds Bazan has become well-known for. His music will shock you, and maybe it will wake you up or maybe it will turn you off.  But either way, there will be a response to his music. His most recent album, Curse Your Branches, is about his losing faith and struggling to make sense of life after a conservative faith that is only comfortable with answers and not questions. It’s difficult stuff, but it’s real and that’s why I love it.

Here’s how you can find him:

His blog has some great information on where he’s playing (he’s from Seattle) and links to articles and interviews, etc. He pretty regularly updates his twitter which is cool. And you can stream some of his music on myspace.

M.Ward – Hold Time

When M.Ward’s warm, cozy album Hold Time came out I didn’t think twice about ordering it in vinyl. Ward’s fuzzy tones, sleepy style, and upbeat lyrics captivate me. This album is no exception. I simply love it. And Epistemology is hands down one of my favorite songs of the year:

I learned how to keep my head from something Paul said
About keeping the fruit in the spirit from the chorus down to the hook
And sometimes I wonder what in God’s name did I do to deserve you
Oh, to deserve you

The whole album is rich with lyrical content, and even some probing spiritual themes though Ward claims no part in having a faith that I know of.

M.Ward’s Website

Here’s two songs from the album:

Monsters of Folk- Self-Titled

Let’s face it super groups are 9 out of 10 times pretty terrible, I think the Traveling Wilbury’s are the only exception I can think of, that is until Monsters of Folk. Now, they’re not exactly a super-group in the same way that the Wilbury’s, I only knew of two of the four members before hearing about this band, but nonetheless the group is made up of four outstanding musicians: Conor Oberest, M.Ward, Yim Yames, and Mike Mogis. This is a really fun album with many great singles on it, two of my favorites are Temazcal and Man Named Truth.

You can hear more on their myspace and here are two videos:

Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeroes

I heard about this group from LA just about a month ago on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series and as far as I was concerned their music was infectious. Since I got the album, our daughter L and I have been listening to their single Home and 40 Day Dream pretty much non-stop, she even knows the words to both songs and sings along (and tries to whistle – it’s really cute). Home is by far my favorite song of the year, it’s really simple but I love it anyways or because of that. Anyways, I really like a handful of songs on the album though the album itself has some dead spots in it (IMO) I still think it should be in my listen because of how often we listen to it.

Do yourself a favor and watch the tiny desk concert.

Here’s Home on MTV:

Laura Gibson – Beasts of Seasons

Her album “Beasts of Seasons” is really in my top five, it’s a great album and it’s got some longevity to it. It’s also perfect for the rainy NW. Here are two videos of her playing, a review from pitchfork and some photos.

Two other honorable mentions:

Elizabeth Mitchell – You’re My Little Bird – It didn’t come out this year, but Emily and L both love this album and have been listening to it a lot.
Andrew Bird – Noble Beast – It’s not bad, but just didn’t have the stickiness of some albums for me.

I recommend the NPR All Song’s Considered listing from this year if you’re interested in finding out about more new music.

How about you? What have you been listening to and loving this year?

One thing I find rather tragic is just how many people Christian bloggers are in bed with Amazon. It’s really surprising that even some of the most alternative thinking folks I know become very mainstream when it comes to getting the cheapest possible books (or other products) they can find, or making money on every book link they have in a post (most often with no disclaimers anywhere).

But I should be up front, I really don’t like any big box stores: Wal-Mart, Target, Whole Foods, you name it (though you will spot me at some of these from time to time, I honestly try and avoid them as much as possible).  And I am already boycotting Amazon, so I’m  not generally tempted to shop there; I guess this makes my challenge more of an open invitation than a personal one. I started turning against these, what we might call, homogeneous consumption troughs back when I was in high-school back in Alliance Ohio. We watched Wal-Mart move in, and destroy tons of the local businesses in our small town and in my estimation Alliance has never fully recovered (here’s an interesting profile of a woman who worked at that particular store). That one experience left me a little bitter and started me on another path: I start looking for different ways (and places) to spend my money to support businesses I believed in.

Let’s face it Amazon.com is the Wal-Mart of the Web. They are taking over, cutting costs, and helping to finish off whatever is left of small town America. In the film “What Would Jesus Buy?” Rev. Billy has a funeral for small town America next to the Wal-Mart headquarters; I’d be interested in having an online (blog) funeral for the same thing Amazon is doing to local bookstores, music stores, and everybody else they’ve set their sights on (I highly recommend the film).

Of course, one response to my Amazon-free Christmas twitter remark was fair enough: “The people who supply to or work for Amazon don’t need the money?” He’s right, yes, they most certainly do, or at least some of them do. But why not go directly to the company, or person selling the good and cutting the middle person out? Further, do you really need that thing you’re buying from Amazon in the first place? Surely you’re not purchasing most items to benefit the other person, so one of our first questions should always be: do I need to buy this thing in order to have what possessing it promises? I’ve found that so many of the things I really need, I can find used on craigslist, at a garage sale, or from a friend who is no longer using it (church email groups are great for this kind of thing!). And of course there’s the whole “You don’t need to buy a gift to give a gift,” line that Rev. Billy preaches that is about as Gospel as they come. Making gifts are really one of the best ways to go. Why spend a lot of money (or any!) on Christmas, is that what it’s all about?

But then I ran across this post on the lives of Amazon.com workers and things start to look even less favorable for the corporation ironically named after the very thing it is helping to decimate (paper anyone?). Here are some of the conditions reported from warehouses in the UK that the post highlights:

- Warned that the company refuses to allow sick leave, even if the worker has a legitimate doctor’s note. Taking a day off sick, even with a note, results in a penalty point. A worker with six points faces dismissal.

- Made to work a compulsory 10-hour overnight shift at the end of a five-day week. The overnight shift, which runs from Saturday evening to 5am on Sunday, means they have to work every day of the week.

- Set quotas for the number of items to be picked or packed in an hour that even a manager described as ‘ridiculous’. Those packing heavy Xbox games consoles had to pack 140 an hour to reach their target.

- Set against each other with a bonus scheme that penalises staff if any other member of their group fails to hit the quota.

- Made to walk up to 14 miles a shift to collect items for packing.

- Given only one break of 15 minutes and another of 20 minutes per eight-hour shift and told they had to notify staff when going to the toilet. Amazon said workers wanted the shorter breaks in exchange for shorter shifts.

Inside The Lives Of Amazon.com Warehouse Employees

Now certainly this is just one report and doesn’t cover every warehouse they have (though the are lawsuits in the US for some of the same issues), but let’s not lose the point: these are not statistics that should be popping up in the warehouses of such rich corporations like Amazon (the way they do with Wal-Mart, etc).  I want to raise a basic question about shopping online: with an even greater amount of anonymity that the Web provides businesses, in what ways are you being careful about the impact of shopping for really cheap things from some other states and countries and how it impacts your local communities (and Does it matter to you?) But also, what about that company’s business practices and how it treats its employees, will you support (i.e. give your money to) a company that treats its employees poorly, runs them into the ground and takes advantage of them? At least with Wal-Mart you can walk in and take a look at how people are being treated, and you can ask the employees how things are going for them. Of course, if we know the answer will we respond? This is generally not the case for our online shopping and Amazon is starting to get in trouble for some of its poor working conditions. Let’s respond this year.

So I reassert my challenge, Let’s have an Amazon.com-free Christmas this year.

[Image from Huffingtonpost.com]

After the baseball steroid scandal and the disappointing news that Tiger’s a cheetah, as the New York Post headline put it, it’s time to accept that athletes are not role models. They’re just models — for everything from sports drinks to running shoes to razor blades to credit cards to peanut butter to Buicks to Wheaties.

via Op-Ed Columnist – The Lady and the Tiger – NYTimes.com.

I’ve really not followed the news/gossip about Tiger Woods because honestly I don’t really care. Not that I don’t care about the negative impact this kind of this has on his family and those connected to the scandal, I do, but another celebrity’s shocking fall from stardom is just not that shocking or interesting. I guess I am more bothered by the fact that so much of our news is based on stuff like this.

Yet, when I came across Maureen Dowd’s op-ed article in the Times this evening I was interested in what she had to say. Here she completely strips away the faux moralism we have placed on capitalism. Often “role models” in our culture are simply celebrities, people who live a glamorized life mostly hidden from the public or fabricated in a way to sell a certain kind of lifestyle and look. The only reason we know about most of these people is because they are advertising billboards for this or that brand. If bad news begins to surround them, or they become washed up, they drop completely off the radar. (I recall something like this happening to one of my favorite football players Barry Sanders.) Anyways, the discussion around role models being just models is a good one to have. Even within the church there are some many “celebrities” selling this or that brand, this or that mega-church, this or that latest and greatest book.

Hardly Normal wrote on his twitter the other day:

“unsubscribed to nearly all Christian blogs/news I used to follow bc 1) try to sell me something 2) talk about Sunday or a building more than people.” [i expanded some of his abbreviated text]

This is a sad but very true statement. Will we do anything about it? Do we even care? So I am asking, are we looking up to these consumer (role) models? Are we (The church) producing these kinds of models, or people who value the glitz and glamour and orient themselves around a moral capitalism rather than an actual morality rooted in something beyond themselves and their own brands? If our faith cannot call all of this into question, then we have a good idea what the pecking order really is. Here I am contending that the Christian narrative is powerful enough to undercut all of this, and shed light on what is true (I think Dowd has helped us here), but the Gospel has to be read a part from this kind of faux moral capitalism that we are seeped in. How we do that is certainly up for debate, but that we work together to do it should be an important part of our task.

YouTube – ‘Dont Buy It’ – Slam Poetry from the Climate Camp for OneClimate.net.

I’m really glad I got to take a break and get away with L and friends from the Church. It was really lovely. We had a great group show up, lots of kids, some new faces, and plenty of people in our church I’ve been wanting to get to know more and just haven’t had the chance. Plus the weather was amazing! L and I had a great time hanging out, playing and sharing a big room all to ourselves. She even slept in a “big girl bed” all by herself!

So, tomorrow I will start back at my final paper for this quarter and hope that the distance helped to clear some things up, I feel I have less panic than I did a few days ago and I trust it will all come together and that God is with me in this much more than I felt on Friday.

The worship we did was really fun as well. On Saturday morning we read and discussed together some writings/a poem/ and queries I pulled together for the weekend (If you’re interested in downloading the packet go to the church’s website here). And Sunday we sand Christmas carols, prayed for one another, read the Scripture texts for the second week of advent and had open worship. It was all very nice. And I look forward to it again next December!

While working on my paper this afternoon I came across this quote in Kester Brewin’s book “Signs of Emergence” (an enjoyable book to read but not on target enough for my current project). It is something Meister Eckhart wrote:

Spirituality is not to be learned in flight from the world, by feeling from things to a place of solitude; rather we must learn to maintain an inner solitude regardless of where we are or who we are with. We must learn to penetrate things, and find God there.

I’m looking for God in my schooling right now, because frankly it’d much rather give up. Not only do I have little energy or time for it, but I feel like I’m at a dead end and headed nowhere. This week my prayer is to penetrate and find where God is, among other things, even in my coursework!

As most of you know by now, thanks (or no thanks) to my facebook and twitter, we’ve had our baby. In keeping with the trend of announcing big life transitions here I wanted to let you all know that my wife Emily gave birth to our daughter this past Friday. Her name is and we will be calling her by her middle name (just ‘M’ here on the web) like her dad. It was an amazingly beautiful and quick birth. We had been sick all the past week. First, L got croup the weekend before Thanksgiving and we ended up taking her to the ER for fear that she was showing signs of having received my asthma genes. Thankfully enough that is most likely not the case, so far as they can tell now. Though she definitely did have that patented croup cough. Well we’re not sure if being at the ER is how Emily and I got sick but either way last week was awash. No turkey for us on Thanksgiving or the day after! Happily a friend from our meeting brought us some turkey soup after the birth.

Anyways, Friday rolls around and Emily said she was having contractions off and on every 15-25 min. in the morning. (I was happy to hear this mainly because three months ago when Emily and I picked days we thought the baby would be born on November 27th was my day!) By 1pm the contractions were steadily 10 min. apart. so I called and canceled our 2:00 appointment we had that day to go and sign for the title of our new house. Then, at 4pm I ran L over to the sitter (her first night away from home without us), went back to pick Emily up and got her to the Southwest Medical Hospital in Vancouver at 4:45pm, when her contractions were just about 7min. apart. Once we got to triage and her vitals were checked, we gave them our birth plan: a quiet, simple, all natural baby birth please. They happily supported our wishes and even went out of their way to provide really good care that was personalized. The midwife, who was still on the clock for a short time, said she was 6 centimeters dilated and progressing perfectly. The nurse started filling the tub in our room for Emily to labor in and we were off.

Laboring in the tub was something Emily was particularly looking forward to, but we didn’t have any idea it would be the scene for all the excitement. After being in the tub for a short while labor really picked up and she said she felt like she needed to push. When I say awhile I am talking, it’s about 6pm at this point. Our main nurse, Coby, came in and said to go ahead and try a “soft push” (whatever that is), she did and he said that Emily was complete. Our doula, Melissa Brewster (who was fantastic btw), noticing labor was progressing fast asked if need be, could Emily in fact give birth in the tub? The answer was an immediate no. But then Melissa asked how would it change things if the water was drained first, the answer was a yes, if necessary they could do it in the tub. So she started draining the water, just in case. By the time the water had drained, the nurse realized Emily was too far along in labor to get her out of the tub and told one of the other nurses, “I know I just told you to get the bed ready, but there’s no time, bring those things here we’re going to have a baby here in the tub!”

Coby was completely ready to deliver the baby, which nice and kind of surprised me given the experience at our first birth. Two years ago, where we were in LA, the nurses wanted nothing to do with catching a baby, let alone in a tub! They told Emily to lay on her side and not push while they called to wake the doctor at 4am (he got there 20 min later).  That was one thing that made our first birth a lot different from this second one. Another interesting feature to last week’s Friday evening was that our mid-wife was off at 6 and the next mid-wife wouldn’t be in until 8. We knew there was no way Emily would last that long and we hadn’t met the OB on call, and at that point I wasn’t even sure there was one available.

They quickly prepped the very tiny bathroom for the birth! I think there were about 5 or 6 of us crammed into that room. At one point there were three of us crouched over the tub helping Emily! Then the baby’s head crowned, the next contraction brought her head half-way out and it paused. Emily made some comment about the “ring of fire” and I started humming the Johnny Cash tune (to myself of course). Right then, out of nowhere the OB swooped into the room, slide past the growing multitude of people crammed together awaiting or assisting in the birth, shook my hand and briefly introduced herself, “Hi I’m dr. so and so, let’s deliver this baby.” She knelt over the tub, Emily had another contraction, and out came M at 6:34pm! She was measured at 6lbs 7oz, and 19 inches long.

It all seemed really effortless on my end, my wife is awesome! I couldn’t believe we were only at the hospital for 1:45 mins. before M was born. I  told Emily she really makes it look easy, maybe I should give it a shot one time around (Sike!).  It was a great birth, we’ve got another healthy, lovely little lady, and we’re all at home settling into to life as a growing family.

There is much to be thankful for this year.

Here are some more pictures if you’re interested: