we are monks

The beer these monks brew has been called the holy grail. I love their attitude, they say below that they brew beer so that they can be monks.

clipped from en.wikipedia.org As with all other Trappist breweries, the beer is only sold in order to financially support the monastery and other philanthropic causes. Whilst the brewery is a business by definition (its purpose is to make money), it does not exist for pure profit motives, and they do no advertising except for a small sign outside the abbey which indicates the daily availability of each beer. The monks have repeatedly stated that they only brew enough beer to run the monastery, and will make no more than they need to sell, regardless of demand. During World War II, the brewery stopped supplying wholesalers and since then they only sell to individual buyers in person at the brewery or the visitor’s centre opposite. These methods all go against modern business methods, however as stated by the Father Abbott on the opening of the new brewery, “We are no brewers. We are monks. We brew beer to be able to afford being monks.”. [2]

Just one compact fluorescent bulb

I recently heard that “If every household in America switched out one [regular light bulb for a] compact fluorescent bulb it would reduce energy consumption as much as taking a million cars off the road.” -Rob Bell 7/29/07 brackets mine.

A million cars off the road! Imagine that.

I was introduced to these bulbs by my European in laws. Not only do they reduce your energy usage, they last longer, which means more for your money. Now, perhaps you’re like me, when I hear the word fluorescent I think of those long tubes giving off the nastiest, most unforgiving light. Not the case here. These bulbs actually give off light similar to a regular light bulb. We have switched out almost all of our bulbs for these. It’s really probably the easiest thing you can do to be more mindful of the earth we live on/with.

think about it.

God is Green, huh.

I have been listening to the Mars Hill Bible Church, God is Green series. The series has been pretty interesting. A lot of it is stuff I have been trying to practice in my own life. The best part of the series came at the end, on July 29^th. The preeminent piece is all the practical information (in the form of a list of websites and books) on how to make simple life changes for a huge positive environmental impact. So, I thought would reproduce the list here below. You can download it directly from the Mars Hill Bible Church website here.

And now for the list:

1. energystar.gov

2. consumersenergy.com [green generation program]

3. dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailinglist

4. Habitat for Humanity ReStore [5701 S. Division] – habitat.org/env/restores.aspx

5. localharvest.com

6. eco-cell.org

7. thegreenoffice.com

8. rateitgreen.com

9. ecologicalmail.org

10. treehugger.com

11. grist.org

12. lime.com

13. eartheasy.com [cleaning supplies]

14. earth911.org

15. coopamerica.org

16. crsfairtrade.org

17. javaforjustice.com

18. ecocycle.org

19. gdiapers.com

20. restoringeden.org/about

21. creationcsp.org

22. creationcare.org

23. sustainablestyle.org

24. wmsbf.org

25. clothingmatters.net

26. floresta.org

Books:

• For the Beauty of the Earth by Steven Bouma Prediger

• Saving God’s Green Earth: Rediscovering the Church’s Responsibility to Environmental Stewardship by Tri Robinson

• Serve God, Save the Planet by J. Matthew Sleeth, MD

• Living the Good Life on God’s Good Earth by contributing authors, edited by David Koetje

Monsoon

There is something distinctly beautiful about the desert when it rains. It is always a little ironic. It’s kind of like financiers handing out balloons at an animal shelter. We expect it every year. It is the season that justifies the fact that we call desolate washes, rivers. And they really do become rivers, if only for a couple of days. It usually starts with a lot of humidity and heat. There is some meteorological juju that happens with that combination. And, before you know it, the sky becomes black. We sometimes see lightning, we sometimes hear thunder, and we usually get torrential rains from out of nowhere. The storms don’t usually last long, but while they last, they are vicious. Streets become streams, and as I said earlier, washes become rivers. It’s dangerous to drive. People inevitably try to cross washed out roads and often get trapped. In this situation the best case scenario is, needing to be rescued by the fire department. The worst case scenario is peril. It’s so bad that, we here in Arizona, have enacted the stupid motorist law.

Okay, so the point of all of this is, contrast. I was in Belfast this summer hanging out with some friends. When we arrived the weather was rather warm and balmy. They told us it had been like that for a few days, and that such weather was really odd. We were told that there was supposed to be a change the next day. Sure enough, the next day it began to rain. It continued to rain for the duration of our stay. It was that second day however, that was really remarkable. I guess because it had been so hot previously that when it began to rain, the ground wasn’t ready to receive it. Consequently, they had what we refer to as the great flood of Belfast. It was so bad that a friend of ours had to be rescued by firemen. I had left the windows open at the house we were staying, the house of our friend Jayne. I had met her the day before and thought for sure that I had destroyed her house. Rest assured that her house was not ruined.

This week we have been enjoying a pretty good monsoon season. Now, note that I am a native to Tucson. I have seen my share of monsoon storms. So when I say this year we have gotten some decent storms, it means something. Twice this week my street has become a river. It has been nice. So, at last we come to the anti climax of this narrative. I wanted to share some photos with you. Enjoy. All of these photos were taken outside of my home near the University of Arizona.

cook out

So I promised Ben that I would upload some photos of the cookout we had outside of his home. Don’t let him fool ya, he can cook a mean steak for a Finn! we also had grilled figs filled with chocolate, very interesting. Oh and notice that even in Finland weber is the only way to grill.

a question

if you were presented with the option of living a long but rather regular life or a shorter but more inspired life which would you choose?

(A/Poem…

Quiet, subtle and queer, the man like Jesus.
He wore eyes like emerald in their sparkle-
Much like a warriors’ arms, disarming hostility.
Blessed are the peace makers.

Landscappy, abstacty, and smiling eyes.
Cheers

Jerky, quick, generous and genius.
The philosopher is. And always laughing.
He’ll speak in tongues when no one is looking,
Buckdaft, nice one, take the piss, bang on, and cheers.

Oh and she knows pain, she’s so creative with it, that, and those liquid Caucasians’ she’s an artist-princess and he has such cool hair, he’ll rouse the crew for a drink or two.

I feel hope; it emanates from the wall of this new expression. Roxie’s a dreaklock dog that aint dreading so well.

Oh well, he’ll ramble us through and explain it better than any of us, with fire.

Add tunes and she’ll capture our faces landscaped in a dream.

They are… iconic, apocalyptic, heretical, emerging, failing…

and they are friends.

for lent

So this past lent season I gave up morality. What a ride. More to come…

How (Not) to speak of Pete Rollins

We spent the week with Pete Rollins, author of “How (Not) To Speak of God“, and a founder of ikon. What can I say except it was fun. Pete is a great guy and if you ever get the chance to hang out with him, do it. I say it is even better than reading his  book.

I thought that was a metaphore

A friend sent me this and I just couldn’t resist sharing.

Church Beer!

I don’t know why I haven’t posted on this before, but our church, or rather one of the communities that I am a part of, is brewing it’s own beer. Yep, it’s true, in the ancient tradition of Christianity, mostly monks, and Martin Luther, who, at one point in his life was a monk, we are brewing beer as a community. This generally gets a lot of responses when we tell people, especially since a lot of us come out of an evangelical background. And the word travels fast. In fact, I was at a conference recently and was approached by a Welsh guy, one of the speakers, and his first question was “You’re from Arizona right? You’re the guy with the church that brews beer?” -And he flashed a big smile. We became friends quickly and planned a pilgrimage to Ireland.

Okay, so some questions on this:

Why? Lots of reasons. We can talk about those in the comments section if you’d like. For the most part it is to create something as a community. And to offer a great product to others.

What? Well right now we are experimenting with various brews, learning the process and trying to settle on an initial recipe that we like.

What’s it called? We’re not sure yet. We are still thinking of names, do you have any ideas for us?

Will it be made available to the public? We hope so, eventually. We would like to offer it as gift, as hospitality, to the world. And we would love for a portion of the proceeds to go into our works of Social Justice.

An interesting link: This is what I got when I googled church beer.

These sites are especially interesting: www.churchbrew.com, www.beerchurch.com, www.thechurchofbeer.com

Cheers!

ikon website

f’n brilliant, I think. Have you seen Ikon’s website lately, the one that is modeled after wikipedia? It really says something, when a community allows their web-presence to be edited by the masses. But should we expect anything less from this group of createalogians. (I made that word up, let me know if you like it.) It is from this group that we get the fantastic book How Not to Speak of God.

update on the hole-ie bible

Of Course I am referring to the Western Bible, which apparently has sold quite a few copies in the short time that it has been out.  This is the bible that has literally cut out the harder parts of scripture, things like really loving your neighbor, living in simplicity, seeking true justice, without prejudice, for all people. So why, why would they do that? Because it’s funny! And perhaps it is the slap in the face a lot of us need.

see also this post…for more on this.  Oh and the bible is only avainalble in Dutch, so far.

the soul friend/ Celtic Spirituality

I have been reading Anam Cara by John O’ Donohue these days. Actually I have been taking a class on Celtic Spirituality this semester and this book was a great surprise of a reading assignment. The class has actually been a good journey. If you ever find yourself at the University of Arizona wondering about Celtic Spirituality, I suggest Dr. Peter Foley’s class.

So, I just wanted to share a few quotes from the book Anam Cara with you. These are in no particular order, I hope they enrich you as they have me.

“To be holy is to be natural, to befriend the worlds that come together in you.”

“Friendship is a creative and subversive force. It claims that intimacy is the secret law of life and universe.”

“Behind the facade of image and distraction, each person is an artist in this primal and inescapable sense. Each one of us is doomed and privileged to be an inner artist who carries and shapes a unique world.”

“Love is our deepest nature, and consciously or unconsciously, each of us searches for love. We often choose such false ways to satisfy this deep hunger. An excessive concentration on work, achievements, or spiritual quest can actually lead us away from the presence of love. “

” The blade of nothingness cuts deeply. Others want to love, to give themselves, but they have no energy. They carry around in their hearts the corpses of past relationships and are addicted to hurt as confirmation of identity.”

“Real friendship or love is not manufactured or achieved by an act of will or intention. Friendship is always an act of recognition.”

“You can never be fully visually present to yourself…Your Anam Cara [Gaelic for Soul Friend] is the truest mirror to reflect your soul.”

“The Celts had an intuitive spirituality informed by mindful and reverant attention to landscape.”

“One of the tasks of true friendship is to listen compassionately and creatively to the hidden silence.”

if it don’t fit- CUT IT OUT!

Someone actually did it. They took the steps and cut all the ish out of the Bible that they didn’t want in there. And in the best interest of capitalism it is available to the public. Introducing the Western Bible, released by the Western Bible Foundation in the Netherlands.

I found this on Pete Rollins blog. As you can imagine this “translation” is causing quite a stir. I thought it is just funny that someone has actually done it. I mean how many preachers have joked saying something like. “Well if you don’t like that part of the bible just cut it out. ” And someone, in this case the Western Bible Foundation in the Netherlands, said “okay, good idea”.

So what did they cut out? They cut out difficult parts surrounding economic justice, possessions and money, ha of course. Their reasoning is along the lines of well, no one actually takes those things seriously, so let’s just take them out. And you know, when it comes to the church in the west, I would have to say they’re right. We don’t take those things seriously, if we did, it would certainly stand out. I know that a lot of people who call themselves Christian are going to be really upset by this bible. The fact is though, many of them have been cutting out those same passages with their lives. Cutting paper is one thing, cutting people is another. Before we judge let us judge our selves and ask if this is only a manifestation of the gospel we have been proclaiming with our lives for years.

Please read Pete’s post here.

peace.