Tuesday, April 25, 2006

How to be a Happy Ape (or Ape Heal Thyself)














The 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with her hair fashionably coifed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready. As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window. "I love it," she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy. "Mrs.. Jones, you haven't seen the room ... just wait." "That doesn't have anything to do with it," she replied. "Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged... it's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it" It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do? Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away... just for this time in my life. Old age is like a bank account: you withdraw from what you've put in? So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories. Thank to everyone who is helping to fill up my Memory bank with happy thoughts and experiences.

Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

If only this ape could live out these simple rules. I think I've got 3 and 5 down pat and I've made good progress on 1 (although I do have an ongoing struggle with self-hatred) and 4 (I hope to do better), so the happy part must come with the inclusion of suggestion #2 and perfecting #1 by disliking myself less.

Wish me luck, and those inclined to pray, please send'em on up.
I can use all the help I can get.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

It Works

My hit count has jumped by 20 today.

Thank you all you first time visitors.


And a special thanks to you repeat viewers, whomever you are.


Here is your reward

Carnac
Answer:Shoo-be-doo-be-doo.
Question: What do you look for when you're tracking a shoo-be-doo-be?

Brittany Speers, Christine Agulera, Mariah Carey, Tom Cruise, Desparate Housewives, Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Vana White, Anna Nicole-Smith


Excuse me while I try out an experiment.

I was told that the way to get hits on a web or a blog was to name names so I am giving it a try.

Perhaps to make this more worthwhile I'll try to come up with a Carnac the Magnificent joke. Remember how Johnny Carson used to wear that crazy turban and put sealed envelops up to his forehead and come up with some seemingly unrelated names or things. Ed MacMahon would repeat the answer, then Carnac would open the envelop blow into it to separate the contents from the inside and would proceed to read the question that tied all this together.

Does any one have a good question or comment to tie the names in the heading to this post together? If you do, let me know.

I'll be back later to give you mine (if I come up with a good one).

meanwhile enjoy these blasts from the 'ghost of comedy past'.
http://www.johnnycarson.com/carson/pop/video/carnac_2nuts.jsp
Johnny Carson as "Carnac" One Liners

http://www.johnnycarson.com/carson/carnac_main.jsp#
"

Thursday, April 13, 2006

............A Strange Thing Mystifying..........


Has there ever been a story more mystifying than that of Jesus Christ? The Dying God. The ressurecting man. The boldest statement of Love and Hope ever made, is this 'Strange Thing Mystifying'.















Jesus ChristJesus ChristWho are you? What have you sacrificed?Jesus ChristJesus ChristWho are you? What have you sacrificed?Jesus ChristSuperstarDo you think you're what they say you are?Jesus ChristSuperstarDo you think you're what they say you are?

How do you answer Judas' questions?

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

The Legacy of Azusa Street

Has the global Pentecostal movement done enough to share Azusa's racial, ethnic, and gender diversity with the world?
By Harvey Cox
Was the Pentecostal-Charismatic wave that is now sweeping the globe "born" at the Azusa Street revival of 1906, when the Spirit of God is said to have descended on a group of worshippers, ushering in a "second Pentecost?" Historians of American religion have disputed this question for years, and will probably do so for years to come. My own view is that indeed it was born in that swept-out former stable, especially when one recognizes that a birth is not an ex nihlio event, but the culmination of a complex series of processes—genes, chromosomes, and a nurturing environment that come together to produce a throbbing new entity.

Of course it is true that nearly all the qualities that now characterize Pentecostalism had appeared before in Christian history. Healings, tongue-speaking, ecstatic praise, visions, the expectation of an imminent return of Christ, and an intense personal encounter with the Spirit had all appeared periodically over the past 2000 years. But what happened at Azusa Street, under the gentle but inspired guidance of William J. Seymour, was that all these theological and worship streams rushed together into a kind of spiritual whirlpool, then flowed out to reach every corner of the world, and half a billion people, within the short span of a century.

There was, however, one distinct element at Azusa Street, one which Seymour himself eventually came to believe was the most important sign that a new Pentecost was occurring: black, white, and brown people were praising God together at the absolute nadir of the Jim Crow era. Indeed, in 1906, that simple frame building on Azusa Street may have been the most racially integrated address in America. For Seymour and many of his associates, this gathering was not just a project in inter-racial cooperation. It was a sign from God that the curse of Babel and the sinful division of the church were both being healed. Like at the Pentecost described in Acts 2, Seymour believed the Lord was cleansing the bride for the coming of the divine groom at Azusa Street.

In one of the saddest chapters of early Pentecostal history, this racially inclusive fellowship did not last very long. The original sin of America, racism, soon intruded into the growing movement. A fissure appeared between whites and blacks that is only now beginning to be healed in Pentecostal communities. However, Pentecostal congregations remain some of the most integrated in America.

Meanwhile, Pentecostalism is now spreading to places few thought it would ever reach. With no hierarchy, it is an inherently exfoliating movement, scattering its spores in all directions. But instead of undermining its growth, division, like the mitosis of a cell, spreads Pentecostalism further. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of small Christian groups like the "Jesus Family" are now appearing throughout mainland China. There is an Arab Pentecostal congregation in Casablanca, Morocco. The largest single Christian congregation in the world is the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, Korea. Today, Pentecostals praise and testify in Minsk, Bombay, and Caracas.

But has this spectacular explosion had any real impact on the rest of the Christian world? It has, and that impact will continue. Martin Marty recently commented that the future of Christianity belongs not to the fundamentalists but to the Pentecostals. One reason he is right is that what might be called "Pentecostalism-lite" has erupted within several other denominations. The Catholic "charismatic" movement is well known, and has replaced "base communities" as the heartbeat of Latin American Catholicism. There is already an organization of "Full Gospel Black Baptist" churches. Lutherans, Methodists, and Congregationalists now often pray in Pentecostal style, with their hands raised to heaven, and few mainline churches are without healing prayers and services, something left to Lourdes pilgrims and Christian Scientists (and of course, Pentecostals) until a couple of decades ago.

Another of the biggest Pentecostal influences may be in church music. Pentecostals were not the first, but probably have been the most successful in introducing the popular music of the people into their worship. Further, the music they brought into the sanctuary was drawn from the particular styles of each church's region: salsa, bossa nova, Filipino flutes, cabaret tunes, and rock. Now other Christian churches have picked up on this move, and guitars, electronic keyboards, and trap drums often cluster in front of Methodist or Catholic altars and pulpits.

Mainly, Pentecostals were farthest ahead of the curve in recognizing that people today are seeking a direct experience of God, the holy, or the transcendent mystery. An old Pentecostal saying sums it up: "When a man with an experience argues with a man who has an argument, the man with the experience wins." There is widespread tendency throughout our society and many others to distrust institutions and hierarchies. Even the Roman Catholic Church, the most hierarchical of all, is now faced with widespread rebellion on the part of the laity, demanding more say in the way their church is run. The "Voice of the Faithful" movement in Boston is only one example of this groundswell.

Their lack of hierarchy and their tendency to divide and subdivide is, however, both the strength and weakness of Pentecostalism. With little trans-local organization, no bishops, no presbyteries, and certainly no Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, some of the newer Pentecostal offshoots can begin to exhibit questionable, sometimes even bizarre, qualities.

One exception to Pentecostalism's lack of hierarchy is The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, which originated in Brazil but now has congregations in over one hundred countries. It specializes in mass exorcisms, and its pattern is more like a client-customer relationship than a congregational one. It has a kind of pay-for-services structure, but it may be the fastest growing expression of Pentecostalism. The church, which claims 6 million members, owns the second-largest TV network in Brazil, and its temples in some cities are the largest ones, sometimes seating 8,000 people or more. The temple they have recently built in Salvador, Bahia, in Brazil—which I visited last summer—dominates the skyline. But many leaders of the most "classical" Pentecostal groups like Assemblies of God shake their heads and throw up their hands in despair at this development. They call the church pseudo-Pentecostal, but concede that it is bringing in people in larger numbers than they are.

Another problem is the so called "health and wealth" or "name it and claim it" theology that is springing up in many Pentecostal churches both here and abroad. Its thesis is that God wants us not only to be happy, but also to be rich and successful, and if you ask for anything, you will get it. If you do not achieve wealth or health, it is your fault—your lack of faith—and not a deficiency in God's grace. I wonder what William J. Seymour, and his co-workers at Azusa Street, would think of testimonies I have heard from worshippers who claim that God had bestowed on them a large-screen color TV, or the latest model in dishwashers. Again, however, Pentecostals of a more traditional bent, though they can argue against this blatant distortion of the message of Jesus, can do nothing to stop it.

Perhaps the saddest part of the Pentecostal story is how little, after a century, they have done to bring their message of racial, ethnic, and gender diversity to the larger society. In part this is because so many Pentecostal churches themselves remain monochrome. So many congregations are all white, or all black, or all Asian, or all Latino. Some of this—but not all of it—is attributable to language barriers. And it must be said that Pentecostals are painfully aware of this shortcoming, and have been trying various ways to restore some of the joyous inter-ethnic unity that convinced their earliest forebears in the faith that a second Pentecost was indeed happening in their midst.

In this century, relationships between and among the different religious traditions of the world will become more and more important as we strive to promote a "dialogue" of cultures instead of a "conflict of civilizations." How Pentecostals will fit into this picture is still a mystery. Will their zeal for proselytism make it more difficult to find elements of mutuality with their neighbors of other faiths, especially in Africa and Asia? Or will they begin to recognize, as some already are (including the prolific young Pentecostal theologian Amos Yong) that "the Spirit bloweth where it listeth," and that the same Spirit that touches their hearts and enlivens their tongues may also be speaking to those who do not share their theological beliefs?

In any case, Martin Marty may well have been right when he wrote that the future of Christianity—in say 50 years—may look more Pentecostal than anything else.

Harvey Cox is the Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard University, and the author of 'Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Transformation of Religion in the 21st Century' (Addison-Wesley, 1995).

Monday, April 10, 2006

Because I want you to live!





posted on L'Arche International's site 12/09/2005

Jean was born in Canada in 1928; his father was the Governor General of Canada. He was brought up in both Canada and England, and spent many years in the British Royal Navy and then the Canadian Royal Navy. In 1950, he resigned from the Navy and passed a doctorate in philosophy at the “Institut Catholique” in Paris. In 1963, he discovered people with learning disabilities when he visited his friend, Père Thomas Philippe, chaplain at the Val Fleuri, a home for thirty or so men with learning disabilities in the village of Trosly Breuil in the Oise region of France. Challenged by the simplicity, the sense of welcome, and the urgent call to relationship expressed by these men, Jean decided, in 1964, to welcome Philippe Seux and Raphaël Simi into a home he called L’Arche, in the village of Trosly Breuil. Jean was well aware of the fact that his action was irreversible, however he did not imagine how big L’Arche would become: in 2005 there are 126 communities in 31 countries throughout the world. In 1971, Jean founded Faith and Light with Marie Hélène Matthieu. This movement brings together people with learning disabilities, their parents and friends for a time of sharing, of celebration and of prayer. These communities meet once or twice a month, and there are currently more than a thousand communities worldwide. Jean was community leader for L’Arche Trosly-Breuil until the year 1981; he still lives in this community. He visits communities throughout the world, and gives talks and retreats.

JEAN’S TESTIMONY WITH REGARD TO HIS CALL“I discovered people with learning disabilities in 1963 when I visited Père Thomas Philippe, who was chaplain at the Val Fleuri, a home for thirty or so men with learning disabilities, in the village of Trosly Breuil in the Oise region of France. I was challenged by their simplicity, their sense of welcome, their urgent call to relationship.This experience moved me and I decided to visit homes for the mentally handicapped, homes for the elderly and psychiatric hospitals. What I saw came as a terrible shock to me. I discovered an atmosphere of violence, of cries and yet, at the same time, I felt that God was deeply present. It was a mixture of peace and chaos.I gradually became aware of how deeply wounded people with learning disabilities are. Even if they are well cared for, they do not understand why they have been excluded, why they are not living in the same way as their brothers and sisters. They are also sometimes oppressed: throughout the world I have seen children chained up; I have seen 200 men and women piled into a room and living in filth… My experience has shown me that their violence, their strange behaviour, their depression are pleas for true relationship: Am I worth taking care of? The only response to this question is another heart saying “Yes, you’re worth it. I am willing to commit myself to a relationship with you, because I want you to live”.So it was that, with Père Thomas help and confirmation, I felt called to welcome Raphaël and Philippe, two men with learning disabilities. We started to live together in a small house in Trosly Breuil. We worked, prayed, travelled, and shared our lives together. Little by little we learned how to get on with one another: L’Arche had begun”.


The impossibleape's editorial comment follows:
Don't you think that every church that claims to be pro-life could learn from the example of this man?

If we insist on trying to make mothers bear their children to full term (under penalty of law) can we continue to ignore and put aside 'the little lame ones' that are already born?

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Red Letter Christians

There is a movement within evangelical Christianity that is very encouraging to me. It harkens back to the good old days of the Wesleyan Revivals when evangelical were in the forefront of addressing social and economic wrongs. I think that if we are ever to see a resurgence of real righteousness in our society (and by that I do not mean asking people to stop being human) the churches are going to have to repent of making mole hills out of mountains and mountains out of mole hills.

"I wonder what they meant
When they said
Repent, Repent, Repent,
I wonder what they meant."

Leonard Cohen. The Future

Until the church knows of what it must repent, it has no justification or power to tell anyone else to do so.



Here is a link to a great post on another blog that helps define what Red Letter Christianity is about.

Read it and tell us if 'yer fer us er agin us'.


rereason: Why I'm a Red Letter Christian