“Trading faith in God for an assessment of evidence is a definite change of world view. My faith is evidence of things unseen. Jesus is revelation, not another fact among many with me at the center living a life of endless sorting.”

-Rod White, from this post About Losing My Religion.

I had a great conversation yesterday at Kristen & Edward’s wedding with a Rocket Scientist (literally) about “heretical” scientists he referred to as St. Copernicus and St. Galileo.

Those guys refuted the long-held theory that the earth was the center of the universe.  That was a problem.

I think it’s still a problem for us today to get into a Godview that is not “us-centric”, even in our faith.  If Jesus is the center of the universe, faith is a way we get in touch with reality-not one of many ways to escape it.

Thanks, College Humor.

If you haven’t checked out Jon O’s documentary The Scrapper, there is an upcoming screening (City Paper writeup to boot).

It’s really great, Jon gives the viewer a chance to hang out with Joe-pushing his shopping cart on roller blades around Kensington.  The film gets you inside-not only close to Joe’s story, but his humanity.

That Jon O is mad talented.  Below is from an email form him.

It will happen @ 941 Theater
941 N. Front St.
Philadelphia PA 19123
(on Front just as you hit the cobblestone)

SCHEDULE / PRICES
Sun May 17
6pm – 20th Century Boy – $6
7:30pm – The Scrapper – $3
8pm – The Mind – $6
All day pass – $10

20th Century Boy is a romantic comedy of sorts about a guy who thinks he was in World War 1
http://www.myspace.com/20thcenturyboyfilm

The Mind is a wild horror movie…
www.myspace.com/themindmovie

There will be free beer!

Get advance tickets here:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producer/7724

It should be a good time…Joe will be there….

Sorry about the Sunday evening thing, but maybe you could come after the 5?

I think a bunch of you are already planning on going to the Shalom House Festival tonight at 2007 Frankford Ave (6:30-8:30, btw-that’s before Lost starts).

Besides dinner and learning more about who Shalom House is (and what they do), there will be time to share experiences about violence.  I hope that you might feel okay sharing your story-whether it turned out well yet or not.   Here’s one of my Philadelphia violence experiences.

The first time I was around 4th & Jefferson (in 1999 for psalters practice), Joey Getz and I went to the corner store for a Sunny D break.  While waiting in line, a man bum rused the cashier, hitting him in the face with the flat end of a pistol.  Everybody (6 or so of us) hit the floor immediately.

My first thought was “I hope he doesn’t rob me, too”-which is kind of embarrassing.  Then I hoped that he didn’t shoot anyone, especially Joey.

The robber left, and as soon as he was gone-so was everyone else in the store-with their items that they no longer were going to purchase.  Without really knowing why, I put back my Sunny D and asked the cashier if he was okay.  He had a trickle of blood coming down from his temple.  He was dialing 911 and said he was fine, and that we didn’t need to wait around as witnesses or anything.

I’m not sure it worked out good, yet.  A few months later several of us began a semi-intentional household at 5th & Girard, including a psalters practice room.  Now I have 10 friends living  less than a full block from the store.

I’m not sure what would be a good end to this story.  I did see Jesus move in towards the hurt and the danger, I saw the casting out of fear as I literally moved closer to where such an event happened.  Sometimes I wonder if I know the guy who did it or have seen him and don’t even know it.

(If that was you, thanks for not shooting anyone that day.  I hope you are in a better place now.  I’d love to meet up sometime and talk if you’re up for it.)

Here is a message that I sent to the Circle of Hope cell leaders this morning.  I hope you might be encouraged, too.

—————-

Let’s begin this week praying for the peacemakers.

Jesus, during the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5) “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

Like the others on the list, being a peacemaker is not easy.  Even as a church heeding the call to make peace, we have called out a group to energize us to lead the way and connect us to the world wide peace movement-Shalom House.

My thoughts wandered as I contemplated peacemaking this morning, and of course the melody and words to “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace” came to mind.  I got caught on the line “it is in pardoning that we are pardoned” because Martha & I wanted Schindler’s List last week.  Amon Göth (director of the concentration camp) in the film flirted with Shindler’s concept of real power-the power to pardon.  It was quite unnatural for him to say “I pardon you”, so much that he needed to practice in the mirror.

When we pray for peacemakers, we are praying that we might participate in God’s forgiveness-both receiving and giving.  See if you can pardon something this morning-and let God’s pardon fill that space that you make.

Let’s pray.

Prince of Peace,

May we be emptied of all which would block us from receiving your healing grace and forgiveness in us.

Empower your children, the peacemakers, to remove obstacles in the world to your peace:

Be they inner walls, painful wounds, systems of injustice, or minsunderstandings.

Make us one with You in love,

And draw us into your generative and reproducing cycle of forgiveness.

Amen.

Great day with the family, working in the yard and the house.   I am constantly surprised by how wonderful it is to increase the definition of different areas.  When my yard bleeds into one blob, it feels chaotic to be out there.

I get something inside when there are boundaries in the garden.  Different areas for different things.  Places where you don’t walk.  Weeds pulled up and other junk that collects between plants.  It feels so tranquil.

This is not my first post about such things.  But it is the first post about yard work when I thought of a song-not a ton of connection beyond me stealing the title.  This is a great video, too.

Cop:  [To Hi-Tek] “are you deaf?”

Tek:  “nah, he’s Def.”

Mos Def:  “he’s Hi-Tek.”

Drinking drop by drop

Future beds take a big gulp…

Seattle, PA.

Lily is sick on the hula hoop. Here’s a little video that she and I whipped up on my macbook.

She and Helena have done a few household performances as The Happy Hoopers. What a name!  I feel like I’m on the Cosby Show!

While watching Big Fish (Encore on Demand) the other night I got a lot of Vince Offer.  Best infomercialist in 10yrs.

Sham Wow!

“It’s like a towel or a sponge.”  “…the Germans always make good stuff.”

Slap Chop

“Guys, we’re gonna make America skinny again, one slap at a time.”  “Tacos, fettucini, linguini, martini, bikini.”

Vince revives my boyhood dream of being “an inventor.”  I think if he would sell my inventions, I would be rich.  They don’t even need to be that good.

My inventions (still in the idea phase, mostly):

Ultrafork: The serrated fork: It’s like a fork, only the bottom prong has a serrated edge to cut.  “No more knives, no more knives.”  Also comes in left-handed model.

Toi-top: the toilet table for your laptop. It’s like a TV dinner table, only for other stuff.

Neck Mirror: It’s the mirror that shows you the back of your neck. Ever try to cut your own hair?  Can’t see the back of your head, can you?  With Neck Mirror, the mirror mounts on the patented dual-swivel harness so you can see.

The Exer-Vision!!: Watch Lost, lose weight. It’s a treadmill that you can run on (or hookup your bike to) so that the powerstrip for your TV/DVD, etc is powered by exercise only.

Lots of things coming to a good end lately:

The 2007 Frankford renovation.

The college semester (one more assignment and final).

Lots of good things beginning:

Wed night baseball

Shalom House Festival (May 13, 6:30pm at 2007 Frankford)

The Discerning Team has met twice about the next church plant.

Composting in the backyard, getting ready for our little garden (Japanese cukes, cilantro, some flowers already going)

I also managed to sprain my ankle during the first inning of the first game of the year.  I go to a specialist tomorrow to see how bad the damage is.  Today was the first day that the swelling went down, that’s encouraging.