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May 30, 2007
Become aware and take action!
Here is a video advert I saw online this morning. Quite touching if you really think about it. Quite horrible if you think about it longer. Quite maddening. Quite wrong. Quite evil.
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 12:01 PM | Comments (1)
May 29, 2007
An important movie and clip
This is a clip i had forgotten about. But it is certainly one of the best, most philosophic clips of all times. It just simply combines so much! Watch it. Listen. And think.
be who you are meant to be....
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 09:47 PM | Comments (0)
Tuesday is for Thomas
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! THIS IS A PRETTY SERIOUS EVALUATION OF AMERICA WRITTEN IN 1967. FRIGHTENINGLY, IT COULD HAVE BEEN WRITTEN TODAY ABOUT AMERICA AND SEVERAL OTHER COUNTRIES!
Merton writes:
Yesterday I dipped into the manuscript that Julia Miller at Harcourt, Brace & World wanted me to comment on- nuns used as whores by Viet Cong etc...What revolted me was not so much the sex as the attitude- the mixture of superficial objectivity and Time-Life self-righteousness- and the subrub sophistication. America as she sees herself. The kind of America that makes Norman Mailer vomit- and me too.
It always gets back to the same thing. I have dutifully done my bit. I have been "open to the world." That is to say, I have undergone my dose of exposure to Amreican society in the 60s- particularly in these last weeks. I love people I run into, but I pity them for having to live as they do, and I think the world of USA in 1967 is a world of crass, blind, overstimulated, phony, lying stupidity. The war in Asia slowly gets worse- and almost more inane. The temper of the country is one of blindness, fat, selfsatisfied, ruthless, mindless corruption. A lot of people are uneasy about it but helpless to do anything against it. The rest are perfectly content with the rat race as it is, and with its competitive, acquisitive, hurtling, souped-up drive into nowhere. A massively aimless, baseless, shrewd cockiness that simply exalts itself without purpose. The mindless orgasm in which there is no satisfaction, only spasm.
Ouch....what a critique of culture, the world, and the shallowness of so many pursuits!
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 08:54 AM | Comments (0)
May 28, 2007
Time with family
As i mentioned a few posts back, I've spent some time with my dad and step mom the last couple of weeks as they have been visiting. Among other things, it has been good to get out and have an excuse to take photos..lots of photos.
Here are a few from Lauterbrunnen and Lucern in Switzerland and Rome in...
They are uncut, and put to video, but i hope you enjoy them. They are a variety!
peace...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 06:43 PM | Comments (0)
Good 'action' video
I found this video put out by Avaaz entitled 'Stop the Clash of Civilizations'. I have blogged about Avaaz before here concerning their March on Washington. This is really good stuff.
Enjoy and take action!
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 02:24 PM | Comments (0)
May 27, 2007
A quick bike trip around lake Geneva
Over the course of the last few days, the team at Interyouth, put on a Bike ride around lake Geneva. Lammert was with us as one of the key bikers as was Sebastien and Aaron from Shema. It was good fun.
Over the course of the two days, four teams competed in a Road Rules type event which also enabled them to raise money for a good cause.
There was a blind-folded Kayak race, a giant slip-in' slide, riding in the rain, and a great bbq at the end before more rain set in. Watch this video for some fun photos that sum up the experience pretty well; well, apart from the rain, the broken down support vehicle, and the sunset on lake Geneva. It was a good time and many lessons were learned!
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 11:24 PM | Comments (1)
May 26, 2007
Seriously good conversations...
Here are a few SGCs to think on. Not as many, but definately plenty to think about!
Allelon's 'Missional Life Emerges in the Local Church'
Nicholas Fiedler's 'Brian McLaren, Worship, Industry'
John Smulo's 'Looking Into the Closet'
Last and certainly not the least: Paul Mayer's 'Towards an emerged church: thoughts on how deep church can help sustain us'
agree...disagree....engage....enjoy....
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 06:27 AM | Comments (2)
May 25, 2007
Shema Community's EngaGE
Lammert has put together a great teaser video on the Shema engaGE week. Similar to a Serve the City project, engaGE will provide people from all over, and of all types, to plug into the city of Geneva through practical service.
Make sure to check out this website to register in the next few days (or early next week). If you would like to bring a group, or just come to Geneva to engaGE as an individual please email me here.
We look forward to engaging with you!
Watch this video...
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 11:15 PM
May 24, 2007
Brian McLaren on Worship
Thanks so much to Nicholas for this! I've been traveling the last couple of days, without internet, and it was great to come back to Geneva and see this! Thanks Nicholas!
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 11:07 PM
May 21, 2007
U2 Rocks Cannes Film Festival
U2 played a quick conert in Cannes this afternoon for the release of thier '3D' video. Supposedly, its amazing. But hey, when you've seen them live and close...there is not much better!
Read more here.
enjoy....jc
Posted by joshuacase at 12:28 AM
May 20, 2007
Shema tonight...
Tonight at shema was special. We've really been exploring a lot with story lately and the way that story can form community! Tonight we retold the story of Esther in the spirit of Purim as part of our engaGE series.
As part of the evening, with 'hilighting' being the theme, we joined with lots of other people to highlight the issue of slavery that still exits today. As Mike Morrel puts it, we sought to join with other abolitionist communities to stand against today's slave trade. Morrel has highlighted the book 'Not for Sale' as a rallying point.
Also during the evening we watched this video...it was our call to community...our call to worship...our music for the evening...
stay tuned on the shema page for more!
peace...jc
Posted by joshuacase at 11:06 PM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2007
Seriously good conversations...
Here are this week's conversations. There is a bit of a variety here, but i am increasingly amazed at the way we can discover threads all across the web that form and give real shape to practice locally. Good stuff here this week. Some hard stuff. But some really really good stuff here!
Gregory Boyd on 'Is the Kingdom Invisible?'
Prodigal Kiwi's 'Spiritual Direction, Being Church, Being Mission-Shaped'
Armand Frasco's at moleskinerie on the 'Anatomy of a System for Getting Things Done'
Nicholas Fiedler's Good new/Gospel/or Links that give Hope
Mike Clawson's 'American Exceptionalism or Imperialism?'
Posted by joshuacase at 10:00 AM
May 17, 2007
Literary Meme- Just for fun
Thanks Mike. Now I've done it, and well, maybe this will teach us: a quote about a quote!
Here's how it works:
1. Grab the nearest book
2. Open it to page 161
3. Find the fifth full sentence
4. Post the text along with these instructions
"We weren't used to people checking our quotes, we were use to them making them up."
Sitting in my little black chair, with U2 by U2 on the shelf behind me. I'm telling you, U2 just follows me;)
Enjoy the mindless experience...could be enlightening!?
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 05:43 PM
May 15, 2007
Tuesday is for Thomas
Merton on 'Perplexities and New Births'- May 15 1949
The sun is rising. All the green trees are full of birds, and their song comes up out of the wet bowers of the orchard. Crows swear pleasantly in the distance, and in the depths of my soul sits God, and between Him, in the depths and the thoughts on the surface of mind, is the veil of an unresolved problem.
What shall i say this problem is? It is not a conflict of ideas. It is not a dilemma. I do not believe it is a question of choice. Is it a psychological fact? Any interior problem is a psychological fact. Is it a question that I can resolve? No.
This problem is my own personality, in which I do not intend at any time to take an unhealthy interest. But this problem is my own personality or, if you like, the development of my interior life. I am not perplexed by either what i am or what i am not, but by the mode in which i am tending to become what i really will be.
God makes us ask ourselves questions most often when God intends to resolve them. He gives us needs that He alone can satisfy and awakens capacities that He means to fulfill. Any perplexity is liable to be a spiritual gestation, leading to a new birth and a mystical regeneration.
Posted by joshuacase at 07:11 AM | Comments (13)
May 14, 2007
Drew Barrymore, documentaries, and the World Food Programme
I have to admit it, my wife knows it, and I'm happy to talk about it: I've always liked Drew Barrymore. Maybe this isn't going to win me any cool points, but i thought she was the best of the Charlies Angels, I thought she was a star in ET, and well, Riding in Cars with Boys made me cry. Yep, I like her.
And now... i have a reason to talk about it because Drew is teaming up with the World Food Programme. As the offical 'Ambassador Against Hunger', Drew says she has finally found something to be passionate about and she is making every effort to raise awareness and make change happen.
If you don't know about the WFP, here are a few facts:
-they spend on 7% of donations on administration,
-last year, the WFP fed 19.4 million children in 71 countries through school feeding programs,
-the WFP proports that they work with people who 'who don't have any food, (and) boil stones in the hope that their children will fall to sleep while waiting for their "supper" to cook.
But helping the WFP isn't all Drew is doing. She has also does documentary film making. Recently she released a film on voting and will also release one on the worldwide hunger dilemma after her work with the WFP in Kenya.
This will be interesting to watch. After all, to say this, one needs to be in it for the long haul..we can hope at least.
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 04:26 PM | Comments (2)
'Christian' in all sorts, colors, and practices- Part 2
Last week I posted a part one of this and had not intended to do another part. However, as I read through the week, there were quite a few things that interested me about how others in the blogsphere and my community were wresting at the same time with some similar stuff.
Case #1 - Mike Clawson and The O Project. Yeah yeah, I highlighted this under Seriously good conversations, but really. This is good stuff. It highlights the ethical side of life that is centered in a non-religious atmosphere but...committed to doing things that are, I believe centered as well in the things of God. Things that God cares about.
Case #2- Link- the aupair connect. Link is one of the initiatives of the organization I help facilitate in Geneva. Link works with au pairs through the region providing support, care, and the opportunity to explore faith in Jesus in community with others. Each of these happen in their own right. Subject one to another.
An au pair recent let the lead team know that during one of their movie nights, she had an encounter with love and God and decided she wanted to know more about following God in the way they were folling God. Really, they were shocked. She told them several weeks after she had her experience...Anyway, she had been a part of an initiative called Straight Edge. I had not heard of it, but please read about it here. Seems really interesting.
The point of case 2 is this, the pendulum of Straight Edge takes you to the extreme of everything while not proporting (it seems) one religion as key over the others. Like a heavy metal rock culture version of alcoholics anonymous, it seems to help people who need firm boundaries set firm, what I would consider 'extreme' boundaries. Again, while the 'extreme' of things may not be the case, the act of setting boundaries and being formed by a set of principles for living in the world that are healthy for you, and for community is deep. It is rich. Isn't part of what the church is meant to be about in the world? Not legalism, but helping people set healthing habits for living in the world that are more constructive than destructive?
Case #3(s) Nicholas Fiedler's Good News or Gospel. Again, case and point. Good things happening which may or may not be what we have know to typically be 'gospel'. But aren't they 'good news' to celebrate?
I am not sure if this is taking us anywhere, but its worth the wrestle for me. Worth the jeez look at the ways that God is using people and organizations that wouldn't necessarily claim God to bring about the kinds of change in people's lives that is necessary, good, and constructive. Maybe I am just looking for something to celebrate. Or maybe my vision is off?
What thinks ye?
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 07:45 AM | Comments (2)
May 12, 2007
Seriously good conversations...
Mike Clawson on 'The O Project'. This is definitely a serious thread on some of the same things I was thinking about this week in my article entitled, 'Christian' in all sorts, colors and practices. And Life's Short. I was totally gonna blog about this!! Thanks mike!!
Goodmason's the decline of the western church and the call to renew your church's ecclesiology
Nicholas Fiedler's Good News or Gospel
Nothing New Under The Sun's Would Jesus Vote Green Series (VI)
Wes Granberg-Michaelson's Four Lessons on Vietnam
Posted by joshuacase at 08:54 AM | Comments (1)
May 11, 2007
Birthdays and a brush with greatness!
Yesterday i had a very weird experience! I was walking through Geneva with Lammert and couple of friends who are visiting when right in front of me walked Kofi Annan.
At first sight, i paused. Was it really him? No gaurds. Alone? Walking in Geneva on a sunny afternoon? In my hand i had my Nikon D50 with 70/300 lens so, it went through my mind, should i be paparazziand just start clicking photos? Should i say hello? Should i point him out to the others now or wait? I was paralyzed and my heart fluttered. What in the heck was wrong with me? Well, i thought, this is Kofi Annan...
As we walked closer the 'what I would say came to me'...but should i say it? Should i say, excuse me secretary general, I just wanted to say thank you for the great job you did in leading the UN..and I can I also say, I am sorry for the way that my home country didn't support you and your initiatives in the ways they could have? You did a great job. And i just wanted to say thanks!Should I say it? Should I let it pass.......
And then, he passed us. Brushed by if you will. On his way. Sure, I pointed him out to the others, but i did not say a thing.
Looking back I am little sad i didn't say anything. But then again, maybe next time. After all, now that he has a place in Geneva and will be spending a little more time here working on his new initiative maybe there will be other chances. Other opportunities to chat. And who knows, maybe by then, I'll be ready...and so will he.
In other news, today is my wife's birthday. Yep, another year has passed and I think, it's been a good for her. At least that what she tells me. So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY WIFE! I LOVE YOU!
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 03:21 PM | Comments (0)
May 08, 2007
Tuesday is for Thomas
Who can comprehend or explain the mystery of what it means to awaken one's own reality as an existential consequence of the fact that we are loved by Reality Itself? To see, in a contact too close for images or for concepts, and to understand in a vision too intimate to reach out to an object beyond itself, that our actuality is a spark in the infinite blaze of Pure Act Who is God....
Adam saw clearly that God was all and that nothing else mattered. All things were beautiful and good, but only when they were seen and loved in Him. All things were Adam's because Adam belonged to God- that is, belonged to Freedom. It was as if Truth, Love, Freedom, Power, Joy, Ecstasy had all been given to man to be his very being, his very nature. The superb transcendant actuality of these great gifts was, of course, all above man's nature. They were given to him to be his super-nature, for man, the child of God, was created to be in the highest sense a superman. He was to live, in fact, as a god.
Thomas Merton, The New Man, 1961
Posted by joshuacase at 10:52 AM
May 07, 2007
'Christian' in all sorts, colors, and practices
I've been thinking lately about what it means to be a christian and maybe even more so what it means to see the world as Christian. And while this blog isn't about to be an exhaustive, i hope it stirs up some conversation about the diversity in what it might look like to be a christian in the world, or maybe even, how we can see people and activity in the world as Christian.
I must admit, I far too often hear people say, 'to be a christian, you need x" and yet, when i look around the sorts and colors and practices of Christ in the world, they seems to be made incarnate in all kinds of people and activities. And isn't it the spirit of God working in and through people for the redemption of all things that defines 'Christian in the world' and/or even the world as Christ's cosmos?
Three (potential) ways of seeing 'Christian' in the world as I've been thinking:
1. Sacremental- Those communities or persons or activities who would say they practice and participate in regular community that is shaped by the distinct practice of ritual and sacrement springing from the tradition of the church throughout history. These kinds of christians or christian activity mayb e 'high' church (catholic, orthodox, anglican, episcopal) or 'low' church (baptist, methodists, vineyard, etc) but the disticntiveness lay in the practice of sacrement at the center of the community.
2. Sociological- These are newer forms and practioners of the church who would by and large say their primary desire is to be christian in the world 'relevantly'. Many of the shapes that these forms of christian in the world might take will be very different. Theologically and philosophically they may be quite varied on the place of sacrements in community or even the place and appearance of worship in community. However, the activites and beliefs of these people and activites still have the proverbial 'christian flag' waving about them. And while they may not say it, these activites still struggle with how God is working to 'redeem all things'? Is it enough to give bread in Christ's name? Or should we not also make sure they get Jesus too? Or is the even a false dichotomy?
3. Ethical- These would be people who for the most part would not want to be affilitated with Christianity, or are not affiliated with it, and yet find themselves living out the Good News of the Kingdom of God in their culture and context. The Spirit of God in the world compels them forward working for issues of justice, goodness, and change. They practice a different-but-similar value set with those things at the heart of christian goodness; however, this message of hope, justice and peace for all mankind is rooted firmly in the heart of their lives.
It was interesting for me to think about this topic and then read one of Ryan Dueck's posts on 'The Ethical Imagination'. Similiar kinds of processing here in some ways; not to mention he was one of my Seriously Good Conversations from two weeks ago.
What do you think? Does this kind of seeing the world as 'Christian' make sense? Or is it rather about seeing who in the world is not 'Christian'?
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 10:13 AM | Comments (100)
May 06, 2007
Nicholas and Leslie Video (Part 1)
Our friends Nick and Leslie posted thier first video (of several promised) of thier trip to Geneva. It is below. I'll post some photos soon from the visit as well.
Posted by joshuacase at 01:23 PM
May 05, 2007
Seriously good conversations...
Conversation at Obama.com's The Gospel is a message of Hope. This is one of the conversations that demonstrate many people are pro-Obama, and you should be too!
Tallskinny Kiwi's Mark Driscol and Paris Hilton and Banned Video Rumors.For a funny and yet sad view of the skinny. There was another article i found on this too, but lost it. It was pretty seriously good too. Sorry.
Brian T Murphy's steve malone.A great honest reflection on life in ministry, transition, and 'church' as job.
John Smulo's Not Against For. and Rethinking Education
Jason Smith's Consequentialism.
Posted by joshuacase at 12:07 PM | Comments (245)
May 03, 2007
New Shema Series
Here is the flier for the new Shema series. Pretty excited about it. Wanted to post it here!
jc
Posted by joshuacase at 04:07 PM | Comments (1)
May 02, 2007
Tuesday was for Thomas, Fr. Antony, and Philip
Yesterday our team (as well as Nicholas and Leslie) had the opportunity to spend some time with a couple of the Pastors/Priests in Geneva. As you may remember from my blog here on Lusmarina, it is a opportunity for people in the YFC Geneva office to get a little bit better glimpse of some of the streams of within Christianity as they are practiced/experienced in Geneva.
Fr. Antony is one of the priests at Pope John XXIII Centre. It was amazing to listen to him talk about "The Sacremental Life'. As a person who before coming to Geneva spent 32 years in East Africa, he has some real amazing stories. He has also done a significant amount of thinking and work on spiritual direction and the Ignatian Way.
The other person who came to talk to us about "The Spirit-filled Life' was Philip Kuruvilla, pastor Church for the Nations in Geneva. Coming from a completely different stream, that of the pentacostalism, Phillip shared some of the amazing stories of healing, of release from demonic oppression, of worship, and of freeing the captives of addiction that takes place in his community here in Geneva. Combined with his own personal stories of healing and deliverance, it as a really special time for many on our team who had never hear such stories.
To sum up the experience, I thought I might quote from Merton:
Man, the microcosm, the heart of of the universe, is the one who is called to bring about the fusion of cosmic and historic processes in the final invocation of God's wisdom and love. In the name of Christ and by his power, Man has a work to accomplish-to offer the cosmos to the Father, by the power of the Spirit, in the Glory of the Word. Our life is a powerful Pentecost in which the Holy Spirit, ever active in us, seeks to reach through our inspired hands and tongues into the very heart of of the material world created to be spiritualized through the work of the Church, the Mystical Body of the Incarnate Word of God.
If I can unite in myself, in my own spiritual life, the thought of the East and the West, of the Greek and Latin Fathers, I will create in myself a reunion of the divided Church, and from that unity in myself can come the exterior and visible unity of the Church. For if we want to bring together East and West, we cannot do it by imposing one upon the other. We must contain both in ourselves and transcend both in Christ.
Posted by joshuacase at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)