Mark 10

a quote i read in reflection on Mark 10:45

the good news is that the radical call to Christian discipleship is NOT a call to serve Jesus, but to be served by Jesus as we serve others, and to be ransomed by him from death.

what do you think.

black smoke

day one

no pope yet. i was struck two days ago about the fact that i have barely prayed for this event. man this is huge. we pray for leaders of the groups we are involved with, we pray for church leaders to be appointed in the Presbyterian church there is prayer for the committee that will pray for the group that will appoint the nominees that will be involved in selecting the committee that will then choose the people who will look at resumes, applications and choose a pastor. man, dont be beyond praying for the next leader of the catholic church and be involved in the Holy Catholic church. read some stuff out there about what is shaking. look for the white smoke.

on a lighter note. the cardinals in the conclave choosing the pope are sequestered there until the pope is chosen. i thought to myself i wonder what they eat where they sleep. i mean you have a little over than 100 of the most influential people in the catholic church, what do you feed them, what if it is months, where will they do laundry, do they think red tomorrow yah i think i will wear red how about you, yah red for me too!! love it.

U2

the title of the post doesnt need anything else. they really do speak for themelves. here is the setlist for those that are interested and a little review:

11.04.2005
San Jose, 2nd Show

Love and Peace
Vertigo
Elevation
Cry / Electric Co.
An Cat Dubh / Into the Heart
City of Blinding Lights
Beautiful Day
Miracle Drug
Sometimes you can’t make it on your own
New Year’s Day
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Running to Standstill

Pride in the name of love
Where the Streets Have No Name
One

The Fly
Mysterious Ways
Original of the Species

All Because of You
Yahweh
“40”

the show absolutely blew my mind. as Capp put so well on his blog,
"It was in intricate experience that I am still picturing in my mind when everything else slows down". I feel the same way. The night started with a redezvous with our frinds Mark and Julie from Walnut Creek. dinner at a nice little restaraunt in downtown San Jose. and what U2 concert would be complete without some Irish fare aswell and across the street there was an Irish Pub. we ventured across and found out that on sunday nights they had love Celtic jams. so there was a circle of about 10 people playing the fiddle, whitles, flutes, pipes, drums and a hammer dulcimer. it was great and a perfect intro to the night. and the Guiness was properly served at room temp. i couldn't have scripted a better begining. the show blew me away. it was as if i had lept out of an airplane and the adrenaline was pumping and caused things to be a blur, but then in the song An Cat Dubh / Into the Heart it was as if the parachute opened and then i was able to take the whole thing in, ecen clearing more in Miracle Drugs. the Kings of Leon were not that good, very loud and very hipsters, but what a daunting task to open for U2. i still dont think i can sum it up. i dont know what to write down as to record so many great things about the evening. i guess here goes some bullet highlights:
-the stage was crisp in set up and design. not a lot of clutter or amps or anythinglike that. they each had their won monitor, bono had a teleprompter, the edge had his set up, and that was it. the colors were the Vertigo bullseye with the outer ring extending out into the crowd creating two areas for the general admission ticket holders to be.
-the show opened with Love and Peace, they walked out with large hand held spotligths shining all over the arena and then there was a deep tom drum at the apex of the little walkway stage that was banged on by Larry and then when he sat in to his own kit, Bono remained out on the walkway and banged away. beautiful driving opening song. always a mystery and anticipated moment for any good show.
-bono shared the story of his interaction with the pope and the exchange of fly shades for a crucifix. you could tell he valued the crucifix greatly
-bono wearing a headband that had a cross, the star of daniel and and islamc crescent all across it while shouting "coexist" he pulled it in front of his eyes and made his way onstage without sight.
-the plug for the One campaign, which is coupled with the make Poverty History campaign, was introed with a call to all people breaking out their cell phones. immediately all lights were turned off and a sea of blue cell faces were seen. it was pretty impressive. and the whole concept of the cell phone being a powerful tool to raise a voice to what is important. as well a call to what if, a group of people as large as an arena got untied for one thing.
-their refernce to their love of the bay area and all that it holds in creativity and support of them
-a welcome and shout out to San Jose, "the home of the IPod"
-a great dance number with a female from the crowd who i think caught Bono off guard with her moves during Mysterious ways, which lead to a little spontaneous gathering in front of the drum set to launch into Original of the Species.
-THE EDGE rocks who else can play rhythm and lead at the same time, or the organ and guitar at t same time, come on the bro did the unimaginable

i could write so much more, i think this quote from a reveiw on filter magazine's sight sums up Bono's political and social and spiritual union and performance

"For those of you who don't like your politics in your rock and your chocolate in your peanut butter, don't worry, it’s not as heavy-handed as it sounds. He doesn't claim to have all the answers but never stops questioning the world around him. If that is bad thing, then I'm a bad man. Too often, Bono is the big target, often labeled as preachy. Preachy is when there is no action to follow up the talk, and with this lone man that just isn't true. You have to give him credit and unfortunately there is no one behind him paying attention and learning any tricks. Chris Martin has a message but he will have to do better than literally writing it on his hand. Subtlety is an art."

this is so true. U2 closed the show with an acoustic "Yahweh" right into "40" with the band exiting one at a time, first Adam, then Bono (who strung his rosary from the pope on the mic stand dangling. then placed the spotlight on the floor with the loght shining directly on the Christ, then the Edge left, and finally the drums stopped and the crowd was left singing "I will sing, sing a new song" and then the drums came back hard and then that was it.

the band caused the whole place to think hard about what they stand for and they did it in such a sublte way. and i know that change will come from it. it was worshipful and beautiful. wish all could have seen it. thanks for reading the scattered review. there are more review on their website. hopefully i will see them again.

The Musical Ascent of Herman Being

i read the book the Musical Ascent of Herman Being in an intro to Classical Music class i took in college. the basics of the book are, to listen to the symphony or opera you are going to go to many times before you attend and then you will understand it better. when you know the piccolo will hit that high note you should be ready, if not you will miss it. that is what i am doing right now. for the past few days i have been pumping non stop U2. i created a U2 tour playlist gathering songs from the set lists that are posted on their website. it has been pure bliss. and now we will drive to San Jose and i will fulfill a lifelong dream of seeing U2 in concert. i am pretty stoked. i am even more stoked being a sunday night. the HP center in san jose for a night will be turned into a place of worship that wont be lead by a "Christian" band or worship artist, but it will be lead by a group of musicians who get it and live their life accordingly. by musicians who worship in their art. not a bad way to spend sunday night. thanks to my classical music class i will be ready for the high piccolo notes as well as all the notes that will never be recorded on an album.

one hit wonder contest

here is the summary of the contest if you didn't want to read the whole post below. as well please post your recommendations on this post. thanks.

but most recently people have been throwing away there bottles or not bothering to look under the cap. Pepsi and Apple have teamed up and until April 11 they will give away free downloads off of ITunes. people are throwing these things away. all you have to do is enter in the code under the cap and get your song. this brings forth the dilema i am in. as we get these songs, we give them away to people up here and myself. i have these free songs burning a hole in my pocket. it is a lot harder to pick one song than you think, so that opens up with my idea here. i would love for you to send me recommendations of the best one hit wonders that you know. or a song off of an obscure album that blows your mind and i hope that these recommendations will aid in me choosing a few songs. if i do choose your recommendation, i will email you the code for a free down load. that simple. please get your recommendations in asap so i can get you the download and choose one myself. please post your recommendations in the post above this one. also this will reveal a little about all of us. i will let you know which songs i chose after april 11th.

lost and found and itunes

nothing theological or deep here. part of my job at camp is maintaining the lost and found (LF). as we sort through the LF there are usually some cool things. we wait the allotted 90 days for someone to claim the items and then either give them to staff members who like them or take them down to the Manna house a charity that gives the clothes away for free. some of the best finds have been a GameBoy advance, that now resides in the Accommo Office, a Helly Hansen rain suit, some cool shirts, and a ton of Nalgenes. so many that i have made a set of Nalgene cups that are 16, 22 and 32 oz in size. along with LF people throw away money all the time at camp. how you ask??? well they throw their bottles in the garbage can when they could be recycling them right next to the can. it blows my mind, but that is another topic. anyway so we collect the bottles and take them down to Heartland the developmentally disabled recycling center and make a little money off of them. good for a pizza here and there for the Accommo team (we are the ones digging in trash) or to help build better recycling facilities. but most recently people have been throwing away there bottles or not bothering to look under the cap. Pepsi and Apple have teamed up and until April 11 they will give away free downloads off of ITunes. people are throwing these things away. all you have to do is enter in the code under the cap and get your song. this brings forth the dilemma i am in. as we get these songs, we give them away to people up here and myself. i have these free songs burning a hole in my pocket. it is a lot harder to pick one song than you think, so that opens up with my idea here. i would love for you to send me recommendations of the best one hit wonders that you know. or a song off of an obscure album that blows your mind and i hope that these recommendations will aid in me choosing a few songs. if i do choose your recommendation, i will email you the code for a free down load. that simple. please get your recommendations in asap so i cna get you the download and choose one myself. please post your recommendations in the post above this one. also this will reveal a little about all of us. i will let you know which songs i chose after april 11th.

going bonhoeffer

i was listening to a john piper sermon and he said at one point refering to speaking to a specific group. "i just had to go bonhoeffer on em"! i just fininshed reading Vision and the Vow in which the author Pete Grieg i get the feeling has gone Boenhoeffer on some people and himself a time or two in his life. and then today i saw a quote from Steve Hart, "love community and you will kill it, love your brother and you will build it.". that quote is from Bonhoffer. i think this is what i was getting at the other day with the post on the hope of the future. you could sub the word church for community and you will get the same result. the focus cannot be on local church. the focus must be on living as and building disciples. maybe it is semantics in the word but i think until that word "church" contains a propper definition, it may still be tainted in my head.

the hope of the future is...

i heard that bill hybels, the pastor of the mega church willow creek, has a battle cry that the hope of the future is the local church. i disagree. the hope of the future is the gospel lived out in the janitor at the elementary school. the gospel lived out in a wealthy banker, the gospel lived out in a local pastor, the gospel lived out in the donny the grocery store clerk. the hope of the future will be seen in the unseen. do you believe that if you are faithful with the few people that He has put in your life, that will you will change the face of the world. that is what He has most recently asked me? lord teach me to desire not an empire?