Ideas

I would love for my church to enroll in the GreenFaith Certification Program or the GreenFaith Shield Program.

Who Am I?

I am an seminarian.  I am an MDIV candidate at Pacific School of Religion and hope to go into Congregational ministry in the United Church of Christ.  I am a process theologian and panentheist.  My favorite things are the early church, biblical exegesis, critical feminist theory, Eucharist, transformative worship (rooted in European American Congregationalist stylings), and the intersections of religion and contemporary American politics.  

I am passionate about environmentalism, vegetarianism, ethical consumerism, human trafficking, equal rights, immigration reform, Palestinian freedom (and intersectionality of liberation), and church reform.  

I’m a huge Joss Whedon fan and general pop culture nerd, which means that many of my friends work in tech and computer-y things… I hate computers and technology in general except as it is immediately practical and provides me a place to rant about religion.

I have two cats and I am obsessed with them.

I am a Bay Area native and proud to say that my family has been here for at least 6 generations.  I am proud to be from a place that prizes liberalism and diversity, although there is (always) work to do.

I enjoy time outdoors but am averse to cold and strenuous activity.  I’m not well traveled, but my family spent a lot of time camping in Wyoming and Truckee.  I love beaches, stars, water formations generally, oak trees specifically, the smells of eucalyptus and campfires, the spelling of “Champagne,” and singing in the car.

I can be unexpectedly radical.

I’m the kind of person who likes to listen to both Bill O'Reilly and Bill Maher.  

You will be surprised by my use of curse words, how out of hand I get watching football (specifically: Niners games), the cards I play in a game of Cards Against Humanity, my cackle, my karaoke skills, my breadth of Joss Whedon-related knowledge, and possibly:  that I know I’m talking about.

To Enter that Rhythm Where the Self is Lost

Why?

Why isn’t there a version of the Bible that is colored by JEDP?

Death and Rebirth

"You know when you were a little kid and you believed in fairy tales? That fantasy of what your life would be, white dress, prince charming who’d carry you away to a castle on a hill. You’d lie in your bed at night and close your eyes and you had complete and utter faith. Santa clause, the tooth fairy, prince charming, they were so close you could taste them. But eventually you grow up and one day you open your eyes and the fairy tale disappears. Most people turn to the things and people they can trust. But the thing is, it’s hard to let go of that fairy tale entirely, because almost everyone has that smallest bit of hope and faith that one day they would open their eyes and it would all come true.
At the end of the day, faith is a funny thing. It turns up when you don’t really expect it. It’s like one day you realize that the fairy tale is slightly different than your dream. The castle, well it may not be a castle. And it’s not so important that it’s happily ever after, just that it’s happy right now. See, once in a while, once in a blue moon, people will surprise you. And once in a while, people may even take your breath away."

—

From “Save Me,” episode 1x08 of Grey’s Anatomy

Experiencing a loss of faith can be like grief.  Coming to terms with the reality that you don’t believe in God like you used to can feel like losing God entirely.  If I can no longer believe that God is in control of my life, what does that mean? 

Perhaps it can give us the agency to see that we are truly God’s hands and that our lives can have enormous meaning, wonder, and joy even if it isn’t being handed out by God.  We can create these things with God and come to find a life that is seeped in creativity and holy work.  

Life can surprise us and faith can be reborn into something new if we let it.

Sacrament

There are fewer paintings of old, dead white guys (as my professor so lovingly warned us) than I expected. #mdivlife (at PLTS: Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary)

Clergy and Laity

In reading from Maria Harris’ Fashion Me a People, I was struck by her insistence that divisions between laity and clergy must dissolve.  So much of what I have read in seminary seems to take for granted how different the roles between laity and clergy are.  This assertion related to the tensions she articulated, in particular (for me), vocation.  

Harris’ consideration of the tension between individual and larger concerns speaks to the difficulty that people of faith often have (in my experience) in discerning whether, in a given moment, to give of or to themselves.  Where are the lines of self care and selfishness, and how does justice fit in?    I feel that the division between clergy and laity can lead to a congregation that perceives laity as “just” laity. When the division is perceived to be great, a community may feel that living God’s call is the work of clergy, who serves, while it is the role of laity to receive.  It is often hard for me to communicate to friends outside of my religious contexts that I don’t see my future role as minister to be “authoritative.”  For many, to be clergy is to be authority.

This notion is undoubtedly mistaken and is manifested in older frameworks in which indoctrination is used to lead participants in “know[ing] the lore and obey[ing] the laws” (2).  As Harris rightly suggests, the role of clergy can no longer be to use authority to continue in this method.  I must perceive my role as a member of a community whose work cannot be done alone or by instructing children (or adults as if they were children).  Work must be taken up as a community and participated in by the whole community.  The ways that I educate in my ministry must put this reality in the forefront.

In considering these truths, and dissolving the divisions that are so often taken for granted in the work I have done in seminary, I had to ask myself, How is my role different?  At this point, I see the difference to be my areas of expertise.  I am/will be trained in ways of interpreting the Bible that can bring meaning and inspiration; in creating corporate and individual reflection upon our scripture, traditions, and actions; in care and counseling that can help guide people through transitions and intense experiences; and in spiritual practices and worship experiences that can build up and reflect upon the work that we do and the experiences we share.  I hope these can be my strengths as a minister in a community.  While these skills will be important, they are not the only skills needed in justice and community– they are simply what I (hope to) bring. They are hugely deficient in the array of skills needed to create Kingdom.  This is why the future of the Church will be so important.  Kingdom requires all of our gifts.  

(1) Maria Harris, Fashion Me a People: Curriculum in the Church (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1989), 28-29.

(2) Ibid, 45-46.

Bibliography

Harris, Maria. Fashion Me a People: Curriculum in the Church. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1989.

@Regrann from @chrisrock - #Regrann

Inner Voice

@Regrann from @elizberkley - #love this so much. Thank you for sharing this my dear mama @lindsayjprice 

So true!!🙏🏻🙌🏻🌟✨💫❤️ #child #children #birth #mama #Regrann

THIS.

Urban Adamah

“Let a world of kindness be built.” At Urban Adamah

Turlock

#nofilter #dontknowwhyimtellingyou #irarelyusefilters (at Stanislaus State)

Privilege

@Regrann from @thejusticeconference - “At its core, privilege is the ‘othering’ of people in a way structurally that becomes the norm”. Last year her wisdom on the Racial Justice panel left us holding onto every word. We’re so expectant for the message Pastor Traci will be bringing this year to close out #JUSTICE16 #Regrann

The New Standard

This. @Regrann from @zady - #TheNewStandard #Regrann

Bill Nye

@Regrann from @neil.degrasse - #billnye #neildegrassetyson @billnye #Regrann

Thomas Groome

Thomas Groome articulated the truth (as I perceive it) that Christianity, understood in an “individualized and ‘otherworldly’ manner is an impoverished and inaccurate understanding of salvation” (1).  I, too, feel that the many manifestations of Christianity that seem to focus on salvation and orthopraxis as individualistic, concerned primarily with “admission” to Heaven, miss the core of Jesus’ ministry.  I believe that this bankrupt understanding of the Christian faith results from the post-Enlightenment conflation of faith and belief; it has led Christians to believe that Christianity is about believing “correctly,” as opposed to living in line with Jesus’ ministry (2).  Jesus’ articulation of the Kingdom of God (3), primarily achieved through loving our neighbors (4), is key to bridging this divide and building an active faith in the Christian communities I will serve.  

In both preaching and more explicitly educational contexts, I think this can be done by focusing on Jesus’ themes of healing and justice, as well as by uncovering the meanings of Kingdom that better align with Jesus’ ministry.  In the communities I will serve, we must co-discover ways to bring Kingdom forth and avoid articulations of Kingdom as afterlife or an end-times event.  In discovering what the Gospel means for our lives, yada and its meanings can be explored; if biblical ways of “knowing” are related to love, so our learning needs to be related to love (5).  As people, most of us know that love is unhealthy when it is only words or sentiments; love must be acted upon in order to be healthy.  It must be kind and compassionate.  Love fails to have meaning if it is only spoken of.  

Imagining faith as a verb can also help communities discover the ways that Christian faith is and can be active (6).  In telling Jesus’ stories and other stories in the Bible, their actions (or calls to action) must be considered.  While the ways that folks in my non-creedal denomination view faith and salvation may vary, discussing these biblical understandings of knowing and having faith can help set a foundation through which to explore scripture.  

Groome’s articulations of faith as verb and yada will help me to create building blocks for exploring Bible stories by asking communities to study the stories of our tradition through the lens of loving action.  In essence, I must ask, “What can these stories teach me about how to love my neighbor?” and “How can I act in the world in ways that bring forth Kingdom?”  If I bring these questions and lenses to my ministerial contexts, I will hopefully challenge myself and my community to bring Jesus out of “up above” and back down to earth through our hands and feet.

(1) Thomas H. Groome, Christian Religious Education: Sharing Our Story and Vision (New York: Harper and Row, 1981), 35.

(2) Ibid, 57-60.

(3) Ibid, 44-45.  I would define “Kingdom” similar to McBrien’s fifth school of thought, although I would suggest that Kingdom does not arrive fully at the end of time, but when we (as humanity) truly realize our inherent interrelatedness and live that truth.

(4)  Ibid, 39-41.

(5) Ibid, 141.

(6) Ibid, 68.

Bibliography

Groome, Thomas H. Christian Religious Education: Sharing Our Story and Vision. New York: Harper and Row, 1981.

Dorothy Day

#Repost @thejusticeconference
・・・
“The mystery of the poor is this: That they are Jesus, and what you do for them you do for Him” - Dorothy Day

Organs

Organs in the chapel at the Lutheran seminary. #mdivlife #abundance #whattimburtonmovieisthatthingfrom (at PLTS: Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary)

Pita Sandwich

This is one of my favorite lunches and my husband (an omnivore) is particularly fond of it as well.  It's something my mom often made for my sisters and me and it's full of deliciousness if you live in a place with good avocados.


Lunch: avocado and sprout stuffed whole wheat pita with Wildwood Zesty Garlic Aioli

Very simple.  You can find this aioli at Whole Foods.  It's also at Rainbow Grocery in SF.  

Cut the pita in half and separate the pockets.  Line the sides with aoili and fill it up with avocado and sprouts.  Easy peasy.  It's also delicious if you add tofurkey (I recommend the hickory smoked one).

Inspirational Movies

Maybe there could be a once-a-month movie club that watches a movie that raises awareness or addresses a justice issue or highlights an important moment in history.    If there’s one in theaters, we could go together.  If there’s not, we could watch one at church.

John Wesley

@Regrann from @hannahmtheisen - Love this quote by John Wesley. Thanks for sharing, @bevygoods ! #Regrann

Within This Tree

By Jane Hirshfield #poetry

Stanislaus State

#nofilter (at Stanislaus State)

Potatoes and Sauerkraut

Potatoes and sauerkraut. #vegan

If you know me, you know that my favorite food ever is potatoes.  Ditto for most of my family.  We could eat potatoes at every meal and not even get mad.  

I am also a sucker for sauerkraut.  lurve it.  

It is no surprise that this is one of my favorite vegan dishes.  My omnivorous husband is also very fond of it.  As I have mentioned, I don’t really do recipes, but here’s the deal:

First I let some minced onion, water, and oil (usually olive oil, but tonight I used sesame oil because you can’t tell me what to do) heat up while I cut up potatoes.  This time I used fingerling potatoes, but I’m not really particular.  Whatever is most affordable is what gets made.  I add the potatoes and “water sautee” them for about 15 minutes over medium heat, adding some seasoning (chipotle powder, garlic powder), then add some sauerkraut.

BTW, sauerkraut is super good for you, so you’re welcome.

The “different” thing that I do with my sauerkraut is add nutritional yeast.  It gives it a cheesy flavor.  Again, I’m not a measurements person, so use your own judgment.  Your tastebuds will let you know.

Then I put everything in a casserole dish (uncovered) and stick it in the oven at 400 for 20 minutes.  

And then I eat it.  

Cost: $3/person.  All ingredients are vegan, organic, and local.

Word.

Vegan

I am a mostly vegan vegetarian.  I believe that this is better for my body and the body of the earth and its inhabitants, as long as it is done mindfully.

I'll share some things I make and eat because I think people often do not understand that ways that I eat.

I am not a big breakfast person.  I prefer to graze on my coffee for a while before eating.  So: this is the kind of thing you might find me eating for breakfast.

Avocados are high calorie, but healthy fats.  In moderation, they are a wonderful addition to a colorful, healthful diet.  I love to slice them in half and eat them with some seasoning.

Warning: if you are not a California resident (or somewhere else you can get avocados that haven't been shipped from a bazillion miles away), this may not be as fun to eat.  Avocados picked ripe are delicious; avocados from distant lands can be weird and tasteless.


Breakfast: avocado with creole seasoning.

Gods of Decor

Is it just me, or is the Walmart rug sort of out of place in the Great Hall? I don’t know who the fashion police were for 19th century Lutheran academics, but they surely wouldn’t approve. #mdivlife (at PLTS: Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary)

Four Quartlets

From T. S. Eliot, _Four_Quartlets_

Heresy

https://www.instagram.com/p/BF1HsHaQqt_/

I am glad to be part of a denomination that is noncreedal.  

My Books Are My Favorites

spinachandmushrooms:

Thank you, undergrad, for giving me resources for my research papers. #rels #seminary

Theological Anthropology of Critical Religious Pedagogy

Theological Anthropology of Critical Religious Pedagogy

It is important to critically analyse how we conceive of those we teach and beyond that, how we conceive of the human condition.  As a “heretical” Christian, I find little in “traditional” anthropologies that I can identify with or that I feel offers a life-giving understanding, although Rosemary Radford-Reuther’s calls toward a feminist anthropology hit home.  I like to think of people as co-partners in creating Kingdom.  

As a future minister, my task is to take all of the theoretical ways that I interpret scripture and the world and embody them with intentionality.  It is one thing to talk about equality and another to live it.  Groome’s suggestion that “we are now Christ’s representatives to each other” he turns in on itself– this means that I need to consciously think about how I represent Christ, but furthermore, how my parishioners will (Groome, 268).  It can be easy to step into hierarchical roles that lead us to abandon our “surface” theologies when we step into ministerial or teaching roles.  The ways that I manifest Christ’s presence in my life will be critically important, but I must be continuously conscious of the reality that while I must live my anthropology, I must also make sure that I do not grasp it so tightly that I articulate my worldviews in ways that become empire-building over kingdom-building.  Christ will work differently in different people’s lives and I must honor the ways that other people represent him (Groome, 268).  

Groome, Thomas H. Christian Religious Education: Sharing Our Story and Vision. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999.

Neil deGrass Tyson

@Regrann from @neil.degrasse - Ready for this.. If you are 25 years old, the universe is 552 million times older than you. 552,000,000 years. If you are 25 years old, you’ve existed for .000000002% of all of the time that has passed, and that’s rounded up, it’s actually less than that.

We’ve stepped on the moon .. That’s 220,000 miles away, pretty cool.. Pretty impressive. The sun is 92 million miles away. Pluto is 3.5 billion miles give or take a few. It took our fastest space craft a decade to reach Pluto. The time it would take to get to the center of our galaxy alone would be 20,000 years .. Traveling at 186,252 miles per second. We’re not even on the outer edge. Our galaxy is 100,000 light years across. There are 5.8 trillion miles in a light year. Times 100,000! That is a lot of zeros. But wait.. The nearest galaxy to us is 2 million light years away, and we’re going to collide with it!!! In about 4 billion years.. But don’t worry, the sun will have expanded into its red giant stage by then and engulfed the earth and everything in between. A million earth’s fit into our sun (at its current size). There are over 100 billion stars….. In our galaxy alone. There are over 100 billion galaxies with over 100 billion stars in each. Each with their own planets orbiting them. Each the size of our sun or much, much larger. Shall I go on? I’ll let you ponder about this for a little while. #neildegrassetyson #Regrann

Balance

"I have an aunt who whenever she poured anything for you she would say “say when”. My aunt would say “Say when” and of course, we never did. We don’t say “when” because there’s something about the possibility, of more. More tequila, more love, more anything. More is better.
There’s something to be said about a glass half full. About knowing when to say “when”. I think it’s a floating line, a barometer of need and desire. It’s entirely up to the individual and depends on what’s being poured. Sometimes all we want is a taste. Other times there’s no such thing as enough, the glass is bottomless. And all we want, is more."

—

“Enough is Enough,” episode 2x02 of Grey’s Anatomy

Much of life is about finding balance– between work and play, family and friends, self care and care of others.  Too much of something can deplete our resources or wear us out.  Finding balance can help us to continue on our path without falling.

Liturgical Art

This picture doesn’t even capture today’s wonderful altar art that accompanied a wonderful musical performance. Always so inspired by my community. #church #ccsm #myccsm

#sharewisdom

I’d like to create a weekly #hashtag thing where we participate in a “think,” like “kidsneedtoknow” or something.  It could be a prompt in a weekly email and folks from church could send in their wisdom, some of which could be used in church social media that week.  Like, the email asks folks what they think kids need to know in today’s world and create and share a cool compilation of wisdom from the people.