How Shall We Then Live?

So, as part of my “Ministry Portfolio” that is needed as I look for ministry positions within the Church, we are supposed to post a link in our online portfolio to examples of sermons.  Most Episcopal Churches do not record the sermons of preachers, although more are doing so.  There isn’t the “tape ministry” turn “.mp3” recordings of preachers sermons culture within the Episcopal Church as has been common for a long time among Evangelical churches.

Anyway, I’ve started recording some of my sermons… because that is what is expected these days by those who make up search committees.  Here is my sermon at St. Paul’s Church Carroll St. in Brooklyn, NY.  The text comes from James, Proper 20 of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Meet Jillian Jensen

These things can be so sappy.  This isn’t so much – and she certainly isn’t.  What we do to our kids and allow to be done to them!

Give a listen (3:45 is when her song/singing actually begin)…

Here she is singing this song in an early performance:

The song is by Jessie J, an English performer.  Here is a video of Jessie J singing her song “Who You Are”:

DETROPIA Trailer

This is an American problem. It is a problem with the lack of vision and with the American psyche at this time. It is a problem with those who refuse to consider the civic good over what profits the self or “my little group”, only. It is a problem of not being able to conceive of a 21-century America that will be very, very different than the 20-century America.

It is all being upended, and there is great potential and great hope for those who can understand it and move within these new days of new realities (and it doesn’t matter whether you’re rich or poor, of whatever race or ethnicity, etc., but a matter of understanding, attitude, and determination). We have to be able to remake ourselves, transform ourselves and our communities, and evolve rather than trying to cling to an imagined, idealized “America” that is quickly ending.  Where do we go from here?

(It isn’t just notions of self-sufficiency offered by conservatives or government-sponsored anything offered by liberals, but the need for a different way of approaching the problems and conceiving of the future. It is all predicated on cooperation and compromise – nasty words in today’s social and political climate.)

What the trailer for the new Detropia movie.  This may be Detroit, but I see the same in Lima – town where my parents and my sister’s family live, home of the fictionalized “Glee.”

DETROPIA Trailer from Loki Films on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/45929284?action=share&post_id=521576524_168269353310529#_=_

For a Good Future

We all have a part to play in the creation of a good world, a fair and just society – all for the emerging generations that are coming after us.  To be selfish, to be self-centered, to be arrogant in our assumptions that all revolves around “me” or “us” or “our generation” or for only “our people” or even for “our specific time in history” is ridiculous. It is self-deceptive and in the end self-defeating – as individuals, as a culture, as a people.

There is much to indicate that things are bad and getting worse.  If we learn from history and receive the wisdom of tradition, we know that this has always been the case.  What makes a one people different from another is, perhaps, that one dwells on the “bad and getting worse” and one dwells on “what can be.” Another difference might be this – if a people reside within a collective hubris or whether within a collective humility.

While I do not believe the locus of “salvation” rests with human endeavor, I do believe that the way humanity works and believes and behaves will certainly lead to either a good or a terrible end.  Such potential in the faces of our young people, but we as adults have an obligation and a call to make sure that the potential is realized not for ourselves or for the here-and-now, but for a good future!

The Future is Ours from Michael Marantz on Vimeo.

Finding love…

Code/Space, Story Telling, and Artificial Intelligence – we all just want to find love. 🙂

A presentation by James Bridle at a recent Lift conference entitled, “WE FELL IN LOVE IN A CODED SPACE”

From an airport check-in space (just a warehouse with angry passengers if the software fails) to the fact that most of our culture and literature now abide/live in “coded spaces.”

After giving a “canonical” example of an airport check-in space being turned into “warehouse of angry people if the software fails,” James Bridle goes on to say:

I want to push the metaphor… I suggest that most of our cultures lives now and particularly our literatures are lived in code spaces.

We live in a world where we increasingly outsource our memories and experiences to the network; which is fine and good but it has these intensive consequence for us. Our time is spent in negotiation with the network in order to understand these memories and experiences that we have. Our experiences are co-created with these repositories of memory experiences and so on online and on.

Speaking of the Presidental Race of 2012

I think this is rather humorous!  Not that I’m taking sides, mind you, although I certainly do have an opinion.  So, give a look, and realize what most of the world must think of us as average citizens in what is supposed to be the “greatest country on earth.”

For some reason, Yahoo! doesn’t allow this video to be embedded.

http://news.yahoo.com/video#video=27797158