IrvingD

Yesterday after church, I entered into a conversation that I haven't had for a long time. Over a "coffee hour" of shrimp cocktail, specialty breads, and marvelous dips, this astute gentleman and I discussed theology and culture. We both discovered that we shared similar values and views, which was not surprising in itself. What did surprise me was our mutual understanding that American spirituality over the past half-century has shifted from one grounded in firm religious dogmas to one grounded in purely subjective feelings. Totally divorced from anything external or objective, beliefs have become a purely fanciful thing. For example, the name "Jesus" can mean anything a person wants it to mean, depending on how she feels about the word "Jesus." No connection with the Jesus of record is necessary. In fact, for many people today, any connection of Jesus to the Christian New Testament is suspect and often rejected ipso facto because the New Testament ca...

Our school building just entered the late Twentieth Century with the installation of a new elevator in the east wing. For the four years that I've been a teacher in the building of the old Bushwick High School in Brooklyn, I had grown accustomed to the very old style, manually operated elevators. In September of 2006, I stood open-mouthed as the elevator door opened revealing a little gentleman in a guayabera shirt asking, "You going up?" I stepped into an art deco car that had to be as old as my mother and watched as Sanchez pushed up on a bar closing the door and swiftly pushed the brass collapsible gate across the threshold of the car with his left hand. With his right, he pushed down on a wooden handled crank that started the motor and cables lifting us with a high-pitched whooping noise to the fifth floor. It was right out of the movies. It was right out of my earliest childhood memories, when my mother took me to places unknown that had elevators with human operato...

Pentecost is perhaps the least understood of the events observed in the Christian Calendar. Christmas, for many obvious reasons, is the most accessible and universally acceptable of the these events. Less so are the solemn events surrounding Jesus' death and resurrection. These milestones of the church year demand much more of those who would observe them, requiring a deeper commitment not only to the events commemorated, but to their meaning for faith and life. Then along comes Pentecost. How do we access it's meaning, let alone assess it? Where are its holiday markers: it's wreaths or cross or basket of eggs? The Book of Acts tells us that on the Jewish feast of Shavuot (Pentecost in Greek), Jesus' followers were gathered in an upper room when without warning they experienced an outpouring of the Holy Spirit accompanied by strange occurrences—the sound of a strong wind with apparitions of flames that looked like human tongues resting on each individual in the room. Im...

I was just contemplating my career in a rather WASPy mainline, Protestant denomination, and thinking of just how I don't really fit into its dominant culture. My traditional beliefs and orthodox theology have a place, however contained, in this church.  Even the West Coast generally features churches of a more conservative sort, the California congregations represent a very upper middle class, culturally WASP identity by and large. Just another indicator that this little brown brother of Spanish/Filipino extraction does not fit in. Ironically, I am preaching regularly in a nice, liberal church in a very affluent part of the city that boasts a more suburban than urban feel. The community represents one of the more elite neighborhoods of the city with beautiful, large homes on a peninsula jutting out into the Long Island Sound. This is Great Gatsby country.The people there are very lovely and welcoming towards me. Their hospitality has been wonderful. Yet I can't help but feel ...

Walking down Roosevelt Avenue the other day, I passed a Quickly bubble tea place. I called my daughter to ask her what kind of bubble tea she'd like and she wanted me to order her a green. Quickly is the name of a chain of principally cold tea and fruit drinks that describes itself as a "New Generation Asian Fusion Cafe." There is some food, but they feature drinks galore with 264 varieties of teas, slushies, and fruit juice combos. However, the main feature is "Bubble Milk Tea," a creamy cold mixture of strong black tea and milk with chewy purple tapioca balls in it. The cups are heat-sealed with a thin plastic cover which does not leak when the cup is shaken or placed upside down. One takes a wide, plastic straw from the counter and punches a hole in the cellophane lid to enjoy this exotic concoction. You have to be careful to control your suction so that you don't inhale the tapioca balls, or bubbles, and at the same time enjoy the sweet milky tea. I usua...