CHAT - What It's All About

I spoke about my job with CHAT (Church Hill Activities and Tutoring) in Richmond, VA during my Maundy Thursday homily. This news story just ran recently there. Percy was my mentor during that summer and largely responsible for the interpretation I shared from the John passage...

Green Day

Sharing is caring, or so they say. Community bikes are nothing new. Many large cities in Europe and Asia have had them for years. It's a relatively new concept in the States and DC's program is really catching on. With over 1,000 bikes currently and expected to expand to 1,300 soon, this program is working out for a lot of commuters who are eco and health-conscious. The following video is on Capital Bike Share's main website...

The Lost Cause

Last night was Maundy Thursday. Our scripture was John 13:1-20. This is the homily I preached... (You may be able to hear it here)

The Lost Cause

The Gospel of Luke has been called the Gospel of the Lost. It contains parables about lost sheep, lost coins and lost people. In Luke, Jesus says his mission is to seek and save the lost. However, I think it could just as easily be said that the Gospel of John… is the Gospel of the Lost Cause.

The Bible is full of tales of bad men and women, evil deeds and awful circumstances. Cruelty and betrayal are common themes. Perhaps one of the greatest examples is Judas. At this time of the year, we are pretty tough on Judas. We’re pretty tough on Peter too. And yet we find when we read the Easter story… Jesus… is not. Judas betrays Jesus. Peter denies Jesus. Jesus knows they are both going to let him down tremendously. In Chapter 13, we learn Jesus knows Judas will betray him. He knows Peter will deny him. He knows they will all abandon him.

And yet, does Jesus spend his last night lecturing his disciples, his merry band of screw ups and cowards? Does he spend it begging them not abandon and betray him? No. As the writer of John tells us, he loves them till the end. Jesus spends this time sharing a meal and washing their feet. Jesus spends this time serving them. He spends this time loving them.

After leaving seminary, I worked as a summer school teacher for an inner city ministry in Richmond, teaching Math and English. This neighborhood, Church Hill is one of the ten most dangerous neighborhoods in America, having improved in recent years from number four to number eight on that list. The ministry with which I worked had two main goals: to educate and encourage the kids and families in Church Hill, helping in any way possible… and to work toward racial reconciliation. The kids in the school and tutoring programs and camp are kids who would otherwise fall through the cracks, most of whom would never complete high school, let alone attend college, and many of whom would fall victim to drug and gang violence. There was a murder every day for our first two weeks in the neighborhood that summer.

With so much need and so few resources in time, money and manpower, it was tempting to feel overwhelmed. It was tempting to affect a sort of emotional triage. It was tempting to do what so many before us had done, to focus on the kids with the best chance or even those with the worst chance and devote our time and energy to those few. It was tempting to identify the Lost Cause and to steel ourselves for the inevitable failure, the countless let downs, the ongoing disappointment.

That was the temptation. The reality, most days, was that the people in this ministry knew we’d never make any progress, if we succumbed to that mindset. Our example is Jesus, and triage was a foreign concept to him. He loved them to the end. Jesus didn’t suspect that Peter would deny him. He knew it. Jesus didn’t suspect that Judas was a Lost Cause. He knew he was. And yet… Jesus washed each disciples’ feet… even… Peter… and Judas.

In that ministry in the heart of Church Hill, they knew that example didn’t let them off the hook. The example Christ gave us in knowing what he knew and loving them till the very end is our example in every moment of our lives. Because the real hook is this… Jesus knew who was a Lost Cause… and he served them just the same. No more, no less, with no exasperation, with no defeat or surrender. And brothers and sisters, as wise as we may believe ourselves to be, we do not know who the Lost Causes are. And we cannot. And Jesus shows us that even if we did, we are to serve them… to love them… in spite of this.

My mother, a lifelong school teacher, has always told me that, “you cannot reach someone you don’t love.” And it’s far too difficult to love someone you believe is a Lost Cause. And yet, this is precisely what Jesus does. Our Lord, our teacher and our example doesn’t abandon or vilify those who will betray him. We completely vilify Judas. And if we didn’t read all the way to the end of our Gospel, we’d string Peter right up alongside Judas. How dare he?! But Peter, Lost Cause number two… he becomes the rock upon whom Jesus builds his church.

How different is Peter from the convict who sits on death row or the college dropout heavy into drugs or the unwed pregnant teen or any one of us in our darkest hours? He isn’t. The Peter of our Gospel accounts between this night, Maundy Thursday, and Sunday morning is a story whose ending has not been written, whose hope is not in this day, but in the Jesus who comes looking for him, the Jesus who comes to seek and save the lost. What are we, each of us, if not lost? Who are you? Who am I, if not a Lost Cause who Jesus has refused to give up on, no matter the outcome? And who are we, if not a people called to go and do the same?

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Benediction:
As you go forth in silence tonight from the Chapel, go forth in the knowledge that no one you meet is a Lost Cause, not one. God has only granted one person the knowledge of who is a Lost Cause, and his example to you is that this knowledge is irrelevant. Go forth loving and serving, knowing that no one’s story is finished yet.

Green Day (Special Edition)

I'm aware it's 4/20. So if you're gonna grow something in a pot and go green this April 20th, try a Solar Plant. The Solar Plant is a little electrical potted plant that looks little and cute in your window sill and can charge your portable electronic devices. The eco-friendly energy produced by the Solar plant can be used to charge your gadgets whenever and wherever you want. Just don't water it.

Green Day

On Palm Sunday this year, Wellshire will dedicate its new Solar Panels. We're very excited about this. These panels will reduce our dependence on the grid, though not fully power all of Wellshire's energy needs. It is one of many steps Wellshire is taking toward better stewardship of our earth and the resources of God's world.

In honor of this, for the next several weeks, we will take a look at the latest inventions that are helping to move us away from such extravagant energy consumption and toward better stewardship. This week... the amazing new nearly-waterless washing machine!

Researchers at Leeds University have designed and tested a washing machine that uses only one cup of water for a load of laundry. That's 90% less water than a typical washing machine. How is this possible? A technology by Xeros uses nylon polymer beads to attract dirt and lock it up, reducing the need for water. If that's not exciting for you, think about reducing your water bill by 90% every time you do a load of laundry. For now, this in production for commercial use, but with the hope of following it with domestic shortly. Stay tuned.

A video of the latest prototype could not be embeded, but a link can be added. Go see the prototype here.

Quality of Life

A friend and colleague of mine from seminary is an assistant professor of medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine at VCU Medical Center and neuro surgeon who specializes in those with various forms of dimentia. He has also worked on a Sunday school for curriculum that teaches young children about how to interact with grandparents with dimentia.

He recently wrote a piece for the Richmond Times Dispatch in VA and I'm providing the link here for those of you who would like to read it. It outlines some of the natural prejudice we all have about quality of life and who should determine it.

Absolutely Tragic

Amidst all the recent tragedy and suffering, I didn't think the news could get any worse. But I have to say this latest story moved me to absolute nausea. As we approach the anniversary of the Columbine shooting 12 years ago, which is still keenly felt here in Colorado and the Denver area, this story hits home especially hard.

A new video game is being released. It's title... School Shooter: North American Tour 2012. That's right. As the name implies, it is a violent first-person shooter game that allows you to roam school buildings and murder your classmates. It promises to be "the best school shooter" ever, as if this is a real and normal video game genre.

Creator Jaime Lombe had even more disturbing things to say about his game. "Nobody has ever tried create a proper game about a school shooting," he told reporters. Then he told them that he was not particularly moved by the tragedy at Columbine. "The way the news victimized the victims and overplayed the evil of the shooters disgusted me more than the actual shootings themselves."

The only thing as tragic as this school shooting is glorifying the actions that took place here out of depression and anger and frustration. And even more unbelievable is that no one person can program, advertise and release a video game. It takes teams of people. And apparently none of them have the sense or compassion to say no to this ghastly idea. It's not a new idea to capitalize on tragedy.

There are hundreds of games about WWI, WWII, Vietnam and so on. What seems unique is how recent, how raw, and how evil the intent and motivation is behind this game, as well as what sort of message it sends. These days, the measure of resolve about any issue seems to be how many and how big is the Facebook group for/against something. I was unable to find any such group when I searched. There's a page with 0 likes. Is it not well known or have we become that complacent?

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes."

Luke 19:40-42

Green Day

A promising new way to use salt water as fuel has been discovered by accident. A man studying ways to cure cancer serendipitously discovered a means to pull apart the hydrogen and oxygen in salt water and ignite them. The news story...