PILGRIMAGE LANDSCAPES Stories from the Life and Work of Mark & Lisa Scandrette JANUARY 2002 THE ARTIST�S WAY In the First week in January we began a group that meets at our house we are calling The Artist�s Way. A group of 20-30 visual artists, musicians, film-makers and cultural creative types meet on Sunday nights for a meal and discussion on how to develop a life in the way of Jesus as a creative person. We are each going through a 12 week creative recovery workbook that stresses the connection between creativity and spirituality. God made us in his image to live creatively in his way. Each person is also practicing a common daily spiritual discipline: keeping a morning journal of thoughts and prayers. It has been fun to see how this group is helping one another discover a deeper and more integrated life of faith. This group is the pilot for the kinds of groups we hope to share with non Christian friends in the Spring or early summer. THE BAHAMAS In January, Lisa and I experienced the trip of a lifetime to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. God blessed us with an all expense paid trip to the Bahamas. We were hosted by New Providence Community Church in Nassau and spent time networking with other ministers and missionaries--and also went scuba diving, snorkeling, deep sea fishing and swimming on some of the worlds most amazing beaches. We really felt luxuriated by the hospitality of our hosts and the natural beauty of the Island. And it was fun to experience new foods and a new culture. MLK CIVIL RIGHTS CELEBRATION On the 22nd, I hosted a Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday celebration at a community center in the Lower Haight District. We�ve been exploring how MLK�s Civil rights work was motivated by his understanding of the Gospel and the life and teachings of Jesus. Most people here respect Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but are not aware that he struggled and sought to be a follower of Jesus. CHRIST IN �THE CITY� Later on in the month I spent two days at a retreat center with our Re/Imagine associates--praying and strategizing a vision for our collective ministry. As we were meeting, one of my associates, Dieter Zander, directed us to the words of the prophet Jeremiah 29: 4-7: �This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: �Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.� As this was being read, several of us began to weep --sensing this as a description of the Daniel like calling our families have to root into the city as followers of Jesus. Last Friday, Re/Imagine organized a day with Dr. Dallas Willard, author of the popular book, �The Divine Conspiracy�. By word of mouth, 160 pastors and ministry leaders gathered from across the city. It had been a long time since so many Christian leaders had come together in San Francisco, and it was a powerful visual of solidarity and encouragement. Especially meaningful for me was conversations with several �old timers�--veteran ministers who have been working in the city for over 30 years. I was on a prayer walk yesterday with a group of Seniors from a BGC Church in the East Bay Suburbs. Before the walk, I gave them a brief spiritual and cultural history of San Francisco. To illustrate the proud and defiant spirit of of the city, I shared this recent quote by our Major Willie Brown: �You know I do talk to God regularly. I get down on my knees and I pray and I pray--and then God comes to me and says, �Yes, Mister Willie?� (SF CHRONICLE January 28, 2002 Matier & Ross B1) Later as we walked, talked and prayed, one person said, �I notice you keep saying, �Follower of Jesus� rather than �Christian.� I responded saying, �We really believe that a big part of Jesus� message was that his death burial and resurrection invites us to enter into his kind of life. In our context the word �Christian� is no longer associated with the goodness and beauty evident in the lives of committed followers. � A book I recently read, Nickeled and Dimed--On (not) Getting By in America, illustrates this common irony. The author, Barbara Ehrenreich, spent time as a journalist trying to live on minimum wage in four U.S. cities. At two points in the book, Ehrenreich has occasion to comment on her interactions with �Christians� First she describes her experience waitressing at a truck stop diner in Florida: The worst, for some reason, are the Visible Christians--like the ten-person table, all jolly and sanctified after Sunday night service, who run me mercilessly and then leave me $1 on a $92 bill. Or the guy with the crucifixion T-Shirt (�Some One to Look Up To�) who complains that his baked potato is too hard and his iced tea too icy (I cheerfully fix both) and leaves no tip at all. As a general rule, people wearing crosses or WWJD? (�What would Jesus do?�) buttons look at us disapprovingly no matter what we do, as if they were confusing waitressing with Mary Magdalene�s original profession. (36) Later while working as a maid in Maine, Ehrenreich attends a tent revival meeting, and shares some incisive comments about the message she heard there: The preaching goes on, interrupted with dutiful �amens.� It would be nice if someone would read this sad-eyed crowd the Sermon on the Mount, accompanied by a rousing commentary on income inequality and the need for a hike in the minimum wage. But Jesus makes his appearance here only as a corpse; the living man, the wine-guzzling vagrant and precocious socialist, is never once mentioned, nor anything he ever had to say. Christ crucified rules, and it may be that the true business of modern Christianity is to crucify him again and again so that he can never get a word out of his mouth...I get up to leave, timing my exit for when the preacher�s metronomic head movements have him looking the other way, and walk out to search for my car, half expecting to find Jesus out there in the dark, gagged and tethered to a tent pole.� (68-69) Whether Ehrenreich�s perceptions are offensive to us or fairly accurate, it seems that the watching world is waiting to see the followers of Jesus both trusting him as the way to eternal life and the way in life. At all times there are people and communities for whom Jesus is both Savior and visible Lord. Aristedes (117-138 A.D.), a non-believing observer had this to say in defense of Christians in his time: �Christians love one another. They never fail to help widows; they save orphans from those who would hurt them. If a man has something, he freely gives to the man who has nothing. If they see a stranger, Christians take him home and are happy, as though he were a real brother. If one of them is poor and there isn�t enough food to go around, they fast several days to give him the food he needs. this is really a new kind of person. There is something divine in them. � We hope to become the kind of Christians and help others become the kind of Christians for whom this can be said--people who live in the power and love available in Jesus. Re/IMAGINE! Mark A. Scandrette 3166 25th St. San Francisco, CA 94110 415.235.9552 415.824.7683 9724611daniel millerThursday, February 14, 2002publish<a href="http://nomoreaolcds.com/">No More AOL cds</a> 9669861daniel millerTuesday, February 12, 2002publishWent to see Cake tonight. V cul group of guys. Like the old line up I saw at a very small club in Tucson in 1997 better, but it's mostly all about John the lead singer and songwriter anyway. Irony of the evening: I queued in the parking lot right behind a Ford Excursion. Cheers, 9669749daniel millerpublishI live in Hypoluxo, which is basically just the far-east end of Boynton Beach, a pretty big town in West Palm Beach county in South Florida. That capital S because it's like its own world. Whenever I have to get something, almost anything, really, I have to go to Congress. I think it's an avenue. Congress Avenue. Well, I don't know because everyone here knows it as plain old Congress. In Boyton Beach, the entire west side of Congress is shops. It is the consumer heaven. There is nothing in this world that a normal person could every want, need, or not really want or need but buy anyway that they could not find in this area. It goes on forever. Name a store. Say it, outloud. Yep, there's one there. So I'm on my way to get something. It's not really important what because if I need to buy it, it's going to require me to go to Congress in Boynton, because if it can be bought, it's on Congress in Boyton. The west side of the street. Everytime I go there I am both amazed and nausiated. The funny thing is, that at this one spot, for about half a mile, on the east side of Congress, is a farm. Well, I'm not sure you can call it a farm. But there are open fields with nothing but old broken fencing, rolls of fencing laying here and there...and two cows. Two cows. And a little house on the one side of the property. My guess is it's about 10 acres. 10 acres of uncommercialized real estate. Directly across from the giganto Boyton Beach Mall. Right across from where the throngs lay down their hard-earned cash for new leather handbags and colorful mobile phone covers, two cows--<a href="http://www.tucows.com">two cows</a>--two cows--graze lazily on 10 acres of grass. Right across from where people daily put out the greenbacks for specially branded coffee and shoes with a particular logo on them, two cows pretend it's 1892. That's alright. 9658916daniel millerpublishSHE MADE IT! 9656801daniel millerpublish<a href="http://www.eastgate.com/ReadingRoom.html#">Eastgate Hypertext Reading Room</a> Checked this out again this aft and oh yeah. Gonna send them hatemail. Some great stuff here. Check lasting image... 9655913daniel millerpublishMiriam called this morning to say the first .25 went really well. I wish she had another second to call again. I'm getting sick again from nerves. 9651945daniel millerpublish<img src="http://www.adbusters.org/creativeresistance/jamgallery/street/tree.jpg"> <a href="http://www.adbusters.org/creativeresistance/jamgallery/street/">Adbusters: Jammers Gallery</a> Tree Wrap Guerrilla urban planning in downtown Vancouver brings the chaotic aesthetics of nature closer to our commodified preferences as consumers. This installation was set up this spring in different parts of the city bewildering passersby and fouling traffic. Definately check this page out 9645666daniel millerpublish<a href="http://www.changingtheclimate.com/latimes.html">homepage</a> we are currently experiencing, Dines says, "the last spurt of overconsumptiveness in America, with SUVs being . . . " Lind chimes in, " . . . the most perfect expression of consumer madness." 9645524daniel millerpublish<a href="http://www.changingtheclimate.com/">Changing the Climate</a> 9645366daniel millerpublish<a href="http://mirrors.meepzorp.com/xpsucks/">Microsoft XP adbust in Shoreditch, London</a> 9644988daniel millerpublishNote to all but Miriam: you can skip this mushy post. Miriam, You are so perfect. I can't believe that you are my wife. Today I am so overwhelmed by that fact. How did a scumbag like me get you? Perfect you? I don't know, but I must be the luckiest guy in the world. Watching you drive off today. I still have the image of you sitting in the car, looking perfect in your suit. I am overwhelmed. And your mind is an amazing thing, Miriam. It is so amazing. You are so smart, it blows me away sometimes! You're everything I'm not: mind like a trap, organized, confident, say the right thing...willing to take risks and grab life by the balls at any instant! I worship you. May God be with you, Miriam, because He's the only one who could keep up with you! My love is so inadequate for you. But I will try my best. But my heart will most definately explode. 9640442daniel millerpublishLord, you know best. You know our future. You are our security. But we really want this, you know that? We'll never know if it was right if she doesn't make it in. Do you really expect us to have faith for anything else after you've laid out this path clear and bright in front of us. More than that Lord, she's the best. She's the bomb. She's perfect. Watching her leave this morning, looking perfect, more perfect than ever, and thinking about how great she's going to be today, I just was overwhelmed, Lord. Made me think 'how can I be such an ass?' You have to stay with her Lord. I won't be able to watch her all the time. These last few months have been so great, being able to be with her all the time, to watch out for her; for myself, to know that she's right in front of me, the security of that. But right now, having watched her drive away to both be scrutinized by potentially bad people and have the greatest success of her life, I'm feeling very small and in need of You to watch her for me. You hear? Her life is so much greater than I can fathom. Only You can do that. So do that. And love her. And protect her. I know, i know. You're perfect. Thanks for that. Cuz I sure am not. So just watch over her, ok? Thanks. 9640341daniel millerpublishJust had a cool worship time. I think it's over but it's kinda weird. I'm downloading Keith Green tunes off of Morpheus and listening to FREAKING KEITH GREEN on my computer. Things like this happen sometime I guess. Oh, maybe it was Keith Green, but he was saying the words before they were sung. You know the worship leader thing. Nothing kills my feeling the spirit like that. I was having a very cool time. OtR had warmed me up and I started with the Choir's Restore My Soul. Then two OtR songs, I Radio Heaven and The World Can Wait. Then I just worked through my book, a song here a song there, and it was really perfect. At one point it was starting to get bright out and I thought, what time is it? I looked at the clock: 7:17 and I just thought of Miriam. I got goosebumps like crazy. Felt that connection. Keith Green is just one of those dudes. He and Rich Mullins were the two most authentic Christian musicians ever. If it were anybody else singing these songs, they'd be super cheese. But it's Keith. So it's real. I had all the candles out, too. It was cool. I was still dark outside and I've got a little private shrine going on, singing to the Lord. Funny thing is when I was singing the more standard worship numbers all I could think about was worshiping in a group. I think it might be two things: the way I worship individually has changed a lot. It's still really good to have that quiet time to be with myself, but my true worship has leaked much more into my everyday exsistence. And two, those worship songs, including the ones I've written, are made to be sung in a congregation. That's their purpose. They're as much rah rah group dynamics songs as they are really worship songs. I guess the same could be said of even the Psalms, so I'm not suggesting this is a bad thing. We just have to be cognizant of it. 9640204daniel millerpublishI'm having to listen to <a href="http://www.overtherhine.com">Over the Rhine</a> all morning to keep me calm. Karen's voice soothes. U2 does it for me, too, world, but OtR are definately my new priests. 9638978daniel millerpublishJust uploaded my latest tune to mp3.com. Should be up for listening in about a week. 9638849daniel millerpublishi'm definately the one who's nervous in the fam. miriam just left about 4 minutes ago. she's going to rock. Lord, be with her. like I told You, 10 angels. Got it? 9638593daniel millerpublishoh and the article was trite...no shit marriage is forever...getting that through your head is the easy part...living it is the other matter that singles could never understand...i'm glad i have transparent friends who can struggle alongside us... and of course we're not doin too bad ourselves :) 9638582daniel millerpublishIn my mailbox this morning, 850 words of Relevant, the publisher I'm dealingwith. I wrote an article on the band Cake which I sent to them, but the fact that it includes the lyrics to "Satan is my Motor" I'm sure will make them flinch. This morning though, I was greeted with a feature article on marriage and fidelity while given the suggestion I watch Dr. Zhivago if I want to get romantic with my honey, a story about a Russian who leaves his wife and son for the blonde... 9638561daniel millerpublishso you're wondering what I'm doing at 5:24 AM? Miriam's big day has arrived. I'm more nervous than she is. She's going to rock their world. 9638283daniel millerpublish<a href="http://nonlinear.blogspot.com">check out my non-linear blog for a bunch of interesting links</a> 9638274daniel millerpublish<a href="http://www.markamerika.com/">m a r k a m e r i k a</a> 9576993daniel millerSunday, February 10, 2002publish