Tall Monastic Guy

restoring hospitality...

...the ancient practice of hospitality has always been about welcoming the other, the stranger. It has always been about stopping in the road to tend to the suffering and broken, rather than hurrying past to be on time to bless those at a religious meeting. As to who those strangers might be today, she identifies them as ‘those who are disconnected from basic relationships that give persons a secure place in the world’, and continues, ‘the most vulnerable strangers are detached from family, community, church, work and polity’. 

From Kester Brewin's, Other: Loving Self, God, and Neighbor in a World of Fractures, (here he's drawing from Making Room by Christine Pohl) Above pic is Joannie who was happy to help me with my photo project as she was walking to the unemployment office

 

will work for...

This morning at the corner of 14th and Franklin was Dave... A unique image of God who like so many in Denver often remain overlooked, nameless, and in need of some dignity. 

This is the beginning of a photo and writing project that I hope will be more than just a photo/writing project. 

urban garden

After a week of eating killer salsa that Angie and I made from the stuff of our garden I felt compelled to share a post on how the backyard experiment has gone so far this summer. Here's just a few observations...

Centering

Throughout the summer I’ve kept a busy schedule but nearly every day around dawn and/or dusk I've either been watering, harvesting, or sometimes just looking at the progress of the plants. (I did get busted talking to my plants a few times this summer.)

Interesting the level peace and what feels like sacred distraction from the static of life that the garden has offered.  Gardening has been a quiet classroom of learning the BIG rhythms of planting, watering, growing, pruning, and harvesting. While it’s required a bit of investement on my part so much of the outcome has been out of my control. We had unusual dumpings of rain earlier this summer, which had me scooping water out of the box.

Another expression of church...

Last Sunday I shared a word with my good friends at St. James Urban...
Half the congregation have been there for over 25 years and they share deep and meaningful friendship with one another. The other half of the congregation stumble in from off the streets after sleeping on pavement a few of them nursing hangovers or coming down off of their highs.

If you were a single person you wouldn’t be a part of this community if your motivation is to hook up with your future spouse. Young families with children would struggle with this community because it’s not all that conducive for kids.

You can’t find them on the internet. There’s no website. No online giving options. They are not easily accessible in that sort of way.

But I’ve never experienced a church environment where posturing and pretense were out of the equation quite like this. A place where wise souls and the least, last, and lost gather regularly to sing, have communion and pray. It's just a beautiful and simple expression of the church.

I'm not saying they are better than... but I do believe there is MUCH to learn from a place like this that's been at it in the heart of the city for the last 33 years. 

evolving from the Good Samaritan...

"We are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside... but one day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that a system that produces beggars needs to be repaved. We are called to be the Good Samaritan, but after you lift so many people out of the ditch you start to ask, maybe the whole road to Jericho needs to be repaved." 

~ Martin Luther King Jr., from "A Time to Break the Silence" (sermon, Riverside Church, New York, April 4, 1967)

Seeing as God Sees (a sermon)

 

This is a sermon I did with my good friends over at Denver Community Church on 7/24. DCC is partnering with Access to shake up our current culture of spiritual formation to a place where loving the “Other” in Denver is central to everyday living. 

DCC like most urban churches defers to a distinctly homogeneous community in which the overwhelming majority of folks fall within a very similar age, income, ethnic, and lifestyle bracket. It takes radical and risky shifts to move toward anything different but this is a church, led by lead pastor, Michael Hidalgo, that is willing to take the necessary steps. 

July 24th - Luke 15, Part 4 1

“It is easy to love what is lovely, but we are called to love what is other. It is easy to love what is familiar, but we are called to love what is strange. It is easy to love what is comforting, but we are called to love what is disturbing.” ~ Kester Brewin, Other: Loving Self, God, and Neighbor in a World of Fractures