By Allan E. Naplan
Performed by the Intermezzi Choir from the Pacific Boychoir Academy
Podcast (music-samples): Play in new window | Download
Author Archive
Hine Ma Tov
Sunday, January 11th, 2015
In A Manger
Sunday, January 11th, 2015
By Witold Lutoslawski
Performed by the Intermezzi Choir from the Pacific Boychoir Academy
Podcast (music-samples): Play in new window | Download
In the Beginning
Sunday, January 11th, 2015
Rev. Ben discusses the new beginnings described at the start of the Gospel of Mark, relating it to our need to respond to violence at home and abroad with love and grace, helping make a new beginning for our world.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Walking with Mark in the New Year
Thursday, January 8th, 2015
Over the course of the next year most of my sermons will be taken from passages in the Gospel According to Mark. Mark’s Gospel is interesting because it was the first gospel written and it is one of the oldest books in the New Testament. As such, it was written at a time when early church’s ideas about who Jesus was were more vague and less settled. Mark does not speak of Jesus’ miracle birth, and while it speaks of his resurrection Jesus never appears in his resurrected form. Mark is filled with stories of miracles, but Jesus’ role as a teacher is less important (though his miracles are all object lessons, which means that in Mark, Jesus leads more with his actions than with his words).
The Gospel of Mark is written with a strong sense of urgency. It seems that the author of Mark was convinced Jesus would be returning soon, and he wanted to make sure the story got out. Mark’s literary style makes use of short, simple sentences (think Earnest Hemmingway rather than Gabriel Garcia Marquez), and many of the stories of Mark begin with the word “immediately.”
As we go through Mark together, I hope you will consider what it means to meet God in ways not necessarily encumbered by Church doctrine, and I hope you will ask what it means to practice an urgent faith, a faith that is eager to change the world, a faith that is quick to dispense grace and to live lives marked with God’s love.
I look forward to reading and considering Mark with you!
Ben
New Beginnings
Thursday, January 8th, 2015
Happy New Year!
I went to the gym on Monday and was surprised to find I couldn’t find a machine to work out on. Where did all these people come from? And what are they all doing in MY gym? Oh, of course, I remember – it’s national guilt-trip month, America’s favorite way to purge away the sinfulness of our holiday glut. All the consumerism and consumption leaves quite a hangover and so we collectively whip ourselves into shape for a few days — perhaps even all the way until February.
I’ve never been a big one for New Year’s resolutions, and never much succeeded at them either. Some of us can accomplish things simply by setting ourselves the task, and others (myself included) have to resort to tricks and illusions to force lifestyle changes. I am best at creating new habits when I structure them into my life, and the best way for me to do this is to sign up for commitments I can’t back out of. I know there must be some others of you out there who also announce your commitments as a way of creating accountability, so you’ll understand this: I’m going to meditate more this year, and I’m announcing it to anyone who will listen, in the hopes that when the benefits of meditation seem low, at least the cost of going back on my word might seem high.
Paul writes in his epistle to the Romans, “what I do, I do not want to do,” and perhaps January should be the national month of reading Romans (see chapter 7 and 8) as we begin to see our resolutions unravel at the seams. We understand that inner battle, when parts of us want things quite different from the other parts. Sometimes it’s hard to even begin finding which one of those parts might be our true Self. Paul counsels us to put all that striving and fighting in the past, to let go of the Mind-vs-Body struggle, and to live in the Spirit where we can know freedom and receive grace beyond what we could earn. For if we look with the eyes of the Spirit we can see Christ living within us, and know that the love which binds us is immeasurable. Yes, by all means, try hard to achieve your goals. But know that however we go forward into the New Year, whether we do it with graceful beauty or with a spectacular belly flop, all is held in the kind sight of Divine Love.
Every Blessing,
Talitha
What Star Is This?
Sunday, January 4th, 2015
Rev. Ben Daniel discusses what has happened at MPC and in the wider world since he was voted in as pastor a year ago, and encourages us to stay focused on a higher purpose, much as the Magi followed the Christmas star.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Wes Moore Book Talk at MPC
Wednesday, December 31st, 2014
Saturday, January 17th at 7pm, New York Times bestselling author Wes Moore will be at MPC discussing his new book The Work. A follow up to his bestselling book The Other Wes Moore, The Work continues a remarkable quest to find a meaningful life. We hope you will join us for what is sure to be a fascinating evening.
From the Publisher
The Other Wes Moore ends when Wes heads off to Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. But what happens next? He had to figure out the answer to the question: What is your work? More than finding a job, he had to find the work he was meant to do. THE OTHER WES MOORE was about surviving childhood. THE WORK is about how to come alive as an adult.
From the streets of Baltimore and the Bronx, to being an American student at Oxford University after 9/11; a combat officer in Afghanistan during the most intense years of fighting; a White House Fellow during the tumult of the late Bush years; an Obama organizer during that historic campaign; a Wall Street banker at the cusp of the financial crisis; and finally, back home to Baltimore, working to revitalize the troubled city of his own youth; Wes Moore has been at the center of many defining moments in our country’s recent history.
THE WORK urges us to ask ourselves:
- If money weren’t a factor, what would you be inspired to do?
- When was the last time you had fun at work?
- If you were as successful as you could possibly imagine, what would you do to give back?
- Have you ever thought of the impact you could have rather than the profit you could make?
- Who do you most admire at your job and why? Are they efficient, kind, successful, or busy? Are they funny, stressed, happy, or supportive?
- Do you feel fearless at work?
- When was the last time you were courageous?
THE WORK is the story of how one young man traced a path through the world to discover the meaning of his life and how he found that meaning in service. He tells stories about his adventures and the lessons he learned about how to create a life that matters from the people he met along the way—from the brave Afghan translator who taught him about what it means to find your fight to the resilient students in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina who taught him the meaning of grit to his late grandfather, who offered him the lessons of grace in service. He also tells the stories of other remarkable changemakers who’ve found deep meaning in their work—from Daniel Lubetzy, the founder of KIND to Esther Benjamin, a former director of the Peace Corps. What their lessons, as well as his own experiences, reveal is that our truest work happens when our personal talents and ambitions meet the needs of the world around us. It’s at that point of intersection—between our gifts and our broken world—that we find the work of our lives, the work that lasts.
Wes Moore on MSNBC, 1/12/15
About Wes Moore
Wes Moore is an Army combat veteran, national bestselling author, and social entrepreneur. His first book, The Other Wes Moore, became an instant New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller as a story that conveys the importance of individual decisions as well as community support. He is also the host of “Beyond Belief” on the Oprah Winfrey Network and Executive Producer and host of “Coming Back with Wes Moore” on PBS.
Getting Here
Street parking is available behind the church on Grisborne Avenue, further down Thornhill Avenue next to Thornhill Elementary School, or on nearby Mountain Blvd. More parking and directions information is available on MPC’s parking and directions page.
Tidings of Comfort and Joy
Friday, December 19th, 2014
Dear Friends,
Over the last few weeks I’ve had the opportunity to talk with several of you about the existence of God, which is, perhaps, the most basic questions of faith. Montclair Presbyterian Church is a congregation in which quite a few people describe themselves as atheist and even more people are self-professed agnostics. To be honest, this probably is true of most Presbyterian congregations, but what makes MPC special is that so many of you are willing to tell your pastors about your doubts and disbeliefs. I love you for that. The honesty leads to rich conversations.
Part of what makes Advent and Christmas so wonderful is that the stories of Christ’s birth have the potential to speak to us in places that lie beyond the simple binary of belief and disbelief. During this time of year, stories of Mary’s faithfulness, Joseph’s wisdom, the Shepherd’s wonder, the angels’ beauty, and the Magi’s curiosity can inspire us even when we don’t believe the stories are historically accurate. Motifs of light shining in darkness and of relentless joy that abides against all odds are universal.
It’s probably not a coincidence that Jean-Paul Sartre, who was, famously, an atheist (and who was, less famously, Albert Schweitzer’s cousin), wrote and directed the performance of a Christmas play while in a German prisoner of war camp during World War II: even when we don’t believe, still we long for tidings of comfort and joy and we incline our spirits toward the light in winter’s darkest hour. And the language that (perhaps) best articulates these aspirations is the mythic vocabulary of sacred story. Here is a passage from Sartre’s Christmas play Bariona, or the Son of Thunder. The character speaking is Balthazar the Magus; he’s addressing the protagonist, Bariona, a shepherd who does not believe the message of the angels:
…You were telling me before that God has no power of human freedom, and it’s true. But so what? a new freedom is going to shoot up toward heaven like a great pillar of bronze. Would you have the heart to stop it? Christ is born for all the world’s children, Bariona, and each time a child is born, Christ will be born in him and through him to be forever mocked, along with him, by all the pains of life, and in him and through him, to escape all those pains. Forever. He is come to tell the blind, the disabled, the unemployed, and the prisoners of this world…for even for the blind and the disabled and the unemployed and the prisoners there is joy. [From The Writings of Jean-Paul Sartre, Volume 2: Selected Prose by Jean-Paul Sartre, edited by Michel Contat and Michael Rybalka, translated by Richard McCleary (Evanston, Il: Northwestern University Press, 1974), p. 131]
So whatever you do or don’t believe, come to the manger-side where you are welcome regardless of your faith, lack of faith, or faith that rocks back and forth, squeaking like the rusty chains on a playground swing. There is room for you in Bethlehem’s stable.
God’s Peace,
Ben
Change?
Thursday, December 11th, 2014
Q: How many Presbyterians does it take to change a light bulb?
A: CHANGE?!
It’s an old joke, and to be fair, Presbyterians probably aren’t any more afraid of change than other denominations (though, again, to be fair, my first serious crisis in leadership as a pastor involved pouring oil on the waters of an insurrection that erupted when a couple of young woman in the congregation—one of whom was the Pastor’s Wife—changed the setup of tables in the fellowship hall of the Gonzales Community Presbyterian Church where I served my first call).
Churches and pastors put a lot of time and energy into studying change within congregations. We learn how to manage change and even to lead change that is constructive and life-affirming, and as a result we are getting better at changing within the church. Less well-studied, and less familiar, is how to address change that happens outside of the church. When society changes we feel it in the church but we don’t always know how, as congregations, to address the feelings of discomfort societal change can bring.
I’m mentioning this because currently we are living in a time of societal change and upheaval. We’ve entered into an era when Americans are having to face the fact that our economic, educational, and justice systems are organized around preserving White privilege, and, while we’re at it, we’re needing to confront the fact that the United States used torture in a futile attempt to gather intelligence during the war on terror.
And as we’re processing all of this change, we need also to address the fact that old modes of protest and trusted forms of dissent no longer seem to work—or at least they’re not being used by today’s leading activists. Todays’ protestors are more likely to block a freeway than to boycott a business. They’re more prone to die-ins than to teach-ins. The change is hard to confront, hard to process, hard to accept.
What hasn’t changed is this: congregations like ours can be places of mutual support and strength. If we live with a lot of grace and extra measures of patience and kindness, if we do not neglect the sacred duty of laughter, if we remember to love one another, then our congregation can be support and strength, even in the most strenuous days of change.
Here’s what I know about MPC: in the past, during times of societal change you have been a strong support for each other, and I know you are equal to the task of meeting the stress of contemporary change. I’m glad I’m here with you for the ride.
Why Wear a Collar to Protest
Thursday, December 11th, 2014
This past Friday, after a pleasant evening at Beer and Theology, I went to join the Black Lives Matter protests in downtown Oakland, in order to respond to the recent deaths of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and others. With me were ruling elder Anna Santos and office administrator Sherrill Figuera. We were part of a group of several hundred who peacefully marched downtown and briefly blockaded the 880 freeway as an act of civil disobedience. These protests are important expressions of the grief and outrage we have both for the specific instances of injustice which need to be addressed through judicial and legislative means, and also for broader societal concerns that need awareness and improvement – most especially, the racism that continues to infect our society in ever more insidious ways. It is important that we participate, that we speak out, that we give voice to the voiceless, and that we do so with our faith at the forefront.
Our faith may show up in many different ways. Whether it is in praying for police and protestors, tweeting relevant Bible verses, or singing spirituals while awaiting detainment and arrest – as Berkeley protestors did most beautifully on Monday night – the Christian faith is not one that can be compartmentalized out of our civic engagement. This is why I chose to wear a clerical collar to the protest. It shows the participants (and, sometimes more importantly, the cameras) that the church is present, active, and engaged.
Clerical collars, like clergy robes, are not holy garments nor are they uniforms, and their significance is culturally determined. The white “tab” was a passing fad in the 1800s which clergy held onto after it passed the rest of world by. Geneva tab collars and black robes, such as Ben prefers to wear, descend sartorially from the 17th century styles of professors and judges. The white robe which I prefer has even more ancient roots in the baptismal garments of the Roman church. But for us Presbyterians neither collar nor robe confers any blessing on its wearer, other than what the general public may read into it. I wear a collar when I want to be visible. Once I rode Amtrak across the country wearing one, sitting in the café car where other riders constantly approached me to test out their theological musings or to confess their secrets. Ministry comes to you when you wear one. Ben and I decided to wear robes in Celebration during Advent and Christmas to show how special this season is, and to help the many newcomers who come through our doors around the holidays easily visually identify us as the leaders.
There is, however, one garment that even we Presbyterians hold as sacred, set aside for particular ministries. That is the stole – the stripe of colored cloth you will see Ben wear in colors corresponding to the season. I will not wear one until I am ordained as a teaching elder. Its origins are ancient and obscure, but it is most commonly compared to a Jewish prayer shawl, or a symbolic yoke signifying our labor for Christ, or (my personal favorite) the towel which Jesus used to wash his disciples feet. I look forward to wearing these as a mark of service in the church.
Blessings to you, wherever your ministry may take you this week.
Talitha