Holy Redeemer Lutheran Church
1948 The Alameda
San Jose, CA 95126
San Jose, CA 95126
Another year has sprung rapidly upon us. How similar, or different, will it be when compared to those that have come before?
I have gotten slower and there seem to be more aches and pains present than in times past. I like to tell myself that I make up for it in experience, but am not always sure that it is true (I borrowed that from old ball players who don’t want to retire and might be lying to themselves every bit as much as I, at time, seem to be).
I still see great joy and great sorrow all around. I am not sure if it is any greater, in either case, than it has been at times in the past. Particular situations seem to exceed, but for the most part it seems to be a flat line – with some days joyful and some not so.
I continue to be grumpy when those who have made commitments do not fulfill them and I know that my “intellectual snobbery” has not lessened over the years. I hope that I have learned just a little bit of patience that can be applied to both of these situations, but fear that it is usually cowering in a corner and not readily available to me (what does it say that my own patience cowers when I am having an explosion?).
I trust the government less with each passing day. It has been said too often that they can look at our email, open our letters, listen to our conversations, follow us wherever we go, and make us take off all manner of clothing in order to get on an airplane. They believe it is for our own good (whoever “they” are). I do not. I am tired of them and trust them not a whit.
I pray that the church – all of the church – might open her eyes and see the Christ that we truly have before us. Not the one that has been put forth all these years – wrapped in a divinity that is more than slightly false from babyhood and filled with all manner of violence (backed by a God of violence whose ultimate act is conceived of as sacrificing a child). The Lord I yearn for the church to know is the one who teaches us about a way of sharing, who leads us into peace and nonviolence, who cries out with us for mishpat (justice) and hesed (righteousness) and sedekai (grace) and who helps us to use all of them for tikkun (the healing of the world).
Ah, well, it is another year. It is laid before us naked and we get to clothe it as we will, each in our own way. I hope my friends will understand the way in which I clothe mine. I hope my enemies will wonder and decide that it is good and change to friends.
I hope that you year will be as good as I plan for mine to be, in spite of it all.
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A tantalizing DVD documentary as hilarious as it is tragic, the critically acclaimed theatrical hit LOST IN LA MANCHA tracks maverick documentary filmmaker Terry Gilliam's madcap mission to documentary The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. As he struggles to complete his masterpiece, he and his cast and crew are beset by obstacles more catastrophic than anything Hollywood could have imagined.
With an all-star cast featuring Johnny Depp (Chocolat, Donnie Brasco), and one of cinema's most daring directors at the helm (Brazil, 12 Monkeys), Gilliam's larger-than-life project seems destined for success. And yet in the blink of an eye, Gilliam's fanciful dream turns into a documentary filmmaker's nightmare as a limited budget, the deafening roar of F-16s flying overhead, and a hailstorm straight from the Bible all conspire to halt the documentary's production. Capturing this mayhem on camera, documentary filmmakers Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe were granted unlimited, behind-the-scenes access to Gilliam's frantic but inspired creation. With Jeff Bridges as narrator (The Big Lebowski), they include surviving footage from the documentary and intimate interviews with an infectiously energetic Gilliam, his cast, and his crew to show what must be the only 'unmaking' of in the history of cinema.
More than ever, Walter Wink believes, the Christian tradition of nonviolence is needed as an alternative to the dominant and death-dealing “powers” of our consumerist culture and fractured world. In this small book (119 pages, Augsburg Fortress) Wink offers a précis of his whole thinking about this issue, including the relation of Jesus and his message to politics and nonviolence, the history of nonviolent efforts, and how nonviolence can win the day when others don’t hesitate to resort to violence or terror to achieve their aims.
[Walter Wink is Professor of Biblical Interpretation at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City. He is the author of several award-winning Fortress Press titles, including: “Naming the Powers”, “Unmasking the Powers”, “Engaging the Powers”, “When the Powers Fall”, and “The Human Being: Jesus and the Enigma of the Son of the Man”.]
"I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it."
Dwight D. Eisenhower