Remember

November 3, 2009 at 4:37 pm (Art)
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I often think about the Eucharist.  I am amazed at how little, in the New Testament, it is mentioned.  Most often, it is called, simply, “breaking bread,” and seems to imply that the Eucharist of the early church may have been a memorial meal, shared by all of the saints, which offered a chance of fellowship and memory, possibly not unlike our own Thanksgiving meals.

We have moved it to something very somber, though.  Most faiths tend to have it as a part of the design of worship, with specific prayers.  Some faiths, even, have the Eucharist offered by a leader in the church.  And, like most human things, it has its varying degrees of executions, but always with some sort of quiet meditation.

And that is not wrong, or offensive.  I shared a conversation with a member of my church, just last week, who said he has grown tired of an image of a crucifed Christ displayed during the communion moments.  Instead, he wanted a picture of an empty tomb, because, he said, “that’s what all of this is about, anyway.”

I believe our exercising of the Eucharist would be found insulting by those in the earliest models of the Christian church.  What seems to be a celebratory meal of fellowship has been turned into just another moment in the design of a worship event.  Long gone are the loaves of bread, broken together, with large pieces eaten and chased by overflowing cups of wine.   Instead, there are small wafers, and a slight sip, all with the idea to remember the remarkable moment in the Christian faith.

Maybe these ideas are foreign to you.  Perhaps you worship in a church where the Eucharist is only observed during special days, or occassions, or maybe you worship in a church where communion is shared every Sunday.  Either way, it deserves a second look.

Which brings me to the following story.  It is a slight story about the Berlin Wall, but I think it says volumes about the human desire to simply remember, both the awful, and the celebrations which follow.

Twenty Years After, Berlin Wall Gets a Facelift
by Kristen Grieshaber, for the Associated Press

Stroke by stroke, Gerhard Kriedner applied pink acrylic paint with a small brush on a 14-yard stretch of the Berlin Wall, recreating the mural he first painted months after the Berlin Wall came down on Nov. 9, 1989.

Kriedner and 90 artists from around the world have gathered again to repaint their original creations on the concrete slabs, bringing new life to images that have been eroded by the elements over the last two decades, on the longest remaining length of the wall that once split Germany’s capital.

“This is a very emotional thing for me,” Kriedner, 69, said, adding that he escaped from communist East Germany to the West himself as a young man. “The Berlin Wall stands for the total lack of freedom we had at the time.”

While Berliners were initially eager to tear down the city’s most detested symbol, in recent months there has been a major effort to restore the 3/4 mile-long (1.3-kilometer) dilapidated East Side Gallery — a major tourist attraction with 106 different paintings and graffiti.

“The wall was rotten through and through,” Kriedner said on a recent chilly, overcast autumn day as he put the finishing touches on his mural — a dark, barren landscape with bursting soap bubbles colored pink and light blue, his interpretation of the promise of Socialist dreams colliding with reality.

“In order to restore the wall, the entire artwork was scraped off, the concrete was chiseled down to the steel insides, and then everything had to be reapplied, but this time with waterproof acrylic paints,” the Bavarian artist said, adding that he’d been working off a photo of his original piece to ensure the new version mimicked the original.

Kani Alavi, the head of the East Side Gallery’s Artists’ Association, has been the driving force behind the restoration work that started in October 2008. Alavi lobbied for years to collect the euro2.5 million ($3.7 million) from the city, state and federal governments needed for the restoration process. That included room and board for the artists, who otherwise worked for free.

Of the initial group of artists, only five declined to participate in the renovation project. Six others died and their murals have been restored by other artists.

“We thought it was really important to recreate the paintings because, by now, there’s a whole new generation that no longer remembers the original Berlin Wall and the historic events that led to Germany’s reunification,” said Alavi, an Iranian-born artist who had already restored his own mural of East Germans crossing Checkpoint Charlie into West Berlin on the night the border opened for the first time.

Every day, the East Side Gallery in Berlin’s formerly eastern Friedrichshain neighborhood attracts thousands of tourists who pose for snapshots in front of the murals.

The western side of the wall was covered in graffiti during the decades after the barrier was erected on Aug. 13, 1961. The eastern side stood barren, desolate and guarded by stern border police for decades. Only after the wall’s collapse did a group of Berlin artists decide to decorate the stretch — the first joint art project of the formerly divided city.

They called on artists from around the world to join them in expressing their feelings in paint and color on the formerly untouchable east side of the wall.

“We had nothing, only cheap paint and brushes, but we were so euphoric about all the historic changes and we wanted to express them in our paintings,” Alavi said, adding that the murals show the joy and hopefulness of overcoming injustice that people believed was possible at the time.

Since then, pollution, weather and time turned famous images like the fraternal communist kiss between East German leader Erich Honecker and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, or the East German Trabant car that appears to be bursting through the wall, into a sad sight — with long cracks in the concrete and big chunks of paint flaking off.

Then there were the souvenir-seekers who chipped off pieces of rock or scrawled their names and messages atop the paintings.

The East Side Gallery received historic monument status in 1991. But despite new signs asking visitors not to tamper with the bright new paintings, it’s uncertain whether the new art will be free from graffiti, vandalism or souvenir hunters.

Some, however, didn’t seem to mind that prospect.

Julie Zinser, a tourist from Riverside, California who was strolling down along the wall said she loved the paintings, but the bright new colors made the it look less authentic.

“It seems like the gritty beauty of this city got a little lost,” Zinser said and then posed for a photo with her two daughters.

The Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall

What is a memory worth, anyway?  To these artists, it is a teaching moment, a moment when the world will once again understand the oppressive effects of a dividing wall broken against a surge of freedom.  Old artists now want to use it as a canvas, to teach this generation of such a powerful moment, for those in Germany, and even in the world.

We have a need to remember.  We glance through old photographs, share stories around weekend dinners, watch black and white films, all because we really do like to remember those moments.

The Eucharist is a common memory, then, a chance to again find great peace and celebration in an act of deliverance.  But what is this memory worth to you?

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Feast

November 17, 2008 at 3:25 pm (Culture)
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(Note to you, dear reader. I’ve included a quick poll at the bottom of this post. Your answers are completely anonymous, so feel free to vote!)
__________

In early October, I, with a friend, had the opportunity to attend a worship conference in Nashville.

After an afternoon of travel, we entered into the lobby, full of people with coffee cups in hand, standing and networking and talking and laughing and wondering. There were book tables and, in the lobby, a baptistery, with a large glass window which viewed the large courtyard to the back of the campus.

As the sanctuary doors opened, we walked inside and found the auditorium which, with pews, could seat well over two thousand peoples, but instead of pews or chairs, it was filled with tables and chairs, and the thousand or so which came to the conference found their places and waited.

The worship leaders took the stage, an a capella group, with around a dozen singers, and the first note of the first song was angelic. The room erupted into praise from ministers and worship leaders eager to be filled during a worship assembly, a stark departure from spending Mondays virtually emptied from leading hundreds in worship on Sundays. I was one of those people, and found myself in a room of raw emotions and needful people, and could not sing, for my voice weakened, and my emotions softened, and the worship experience, though very subtle without musicians or bands or instruments, was simply remarkable, and easily the most transforming moment of worship I have ever attended.

The night of worship was such a feast for the soul. Great worship songs led into an emotive and energetic and intelligent speaker, which then gave way to another time of worship. That led to a video montage of several movie clips, which had most of us laughing, which then gave way to another moment of speaking. We then engaged into a community activity with those sitting around our table, and then were led again in a moment of worship. The two hour event moved fast, and was a true sensory feast. At the conclusion of the event, I was simply overwhelmed.

And it wasn’t because the quality of the worship leaders or the speakers was any greater than what I see, and in which I participate, every Sunday. It was just the careful and simple planning to ensure that you can connect with God in every single sensory way, from singing to listening to writing to watching to talking.

Traditional churches find this thought very revolutionary, with static schedules of worship. But a teacher in a classroom of second graders understands that if you want students to learn, and you want your learning environment to be a true learning experience, you need to ensure that your students can learn in a variety of ways, by surrounding them with varying angles of the same message.

Yesterday, in the church where I worship and work and lead, was a day very similar to the conference described above. The worship schedule included a brief moment of worship, then a presentation, followed by a longer period of singing. Our church then shared communion, and, before the offering, watched another presentation. We prayed for those who have been saved, and then heard a message on giving. After, we witnessed a baptism of one of our students, but the comments made by her father were just overwhelming and moving. I saw one of our church members at lunch, and he told me that the morning was just great — and that we only made him cry three times.

He is not alone. Great moments of humility typically follow genuine encounters with God. Isaiah, the prophet, could not speak when he saw the cherubim of God, and heard His voice. The face of Moses glowed after speaking with God on a mountain, but that was well after God approached him in a bush glowing with fire, but never quite burned. Elijah heard God in a whisper. Peter and Andrew and James and John, and others, saw God as a human, and watched him heal the withered legs of a crippled man. And they were soon given the same power to heal.

Moreover, all of those stories attest to the fact that God has no one favored way of approaching humanity, but, in fact, approaches us in a variety of ways, because we have varied ways of sensing and feeling and understanding. I believe we have every right, and every capability, to find and worship God with every emotive response we possess, for we are created that way.

We again tested this idea last night, when we hosted a more contemporary worship event, targeted for teenagers, with a sensory worship environment, that included, of all things, a painter, painting a scene from the crucifixion. With the lights dimmed, the schedule was again broken into parts, which alternated between moments of speaking and singing, and watching. It wasn’t variety, for the sake of variety, but rather, a genuine, honest attempt to reach a new generation of seekers, whose lives are filled with multiple tasks at once. They expect their experiences to be total and complete and surrounding. Others don’t, but find God in new ways when they engage in worship like this.

It was a worship of surrounding, with people finding God in layers of emotions and responses and experiences. It was truly a feast.
__________

Share your thoughts! Your submissions are completely anonymous, even to me, so please, vote!

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Chain

September 22, 2008 at 5:29 pm (Culture)
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You would think that social networking is a brand new thing.

The phrase, social networking, is new, but maybe not the concept.  But if you say the phrase out loud, and you may want to do so right now, it makes you feel good, almost like you know more than you’re supposed to know.

It is also the phrase most used to describe the Facebook phenomenon.  A recent article reported that Facebook is the number one social network website in the world.  In just a span of twelve months, Facebook added 75 million unique monthly visitors (from 40 million in April, 2007, to 115 million in April, 2008).  Of those 75 million unique visitors, 62 million were from places other than the United States of America.

MySpace, in the same time span, has not grown enough to even chart it’s progress.

Facebook began as a toy for college students, almost a tongue-in-cheek graduation from MySpace.  But, as you may know dear reader, your friend list, if you are on Facebook, includes people outside of that demographic.  It’s rate of growth has outpaced other social networking sites.

And the reasons for its success are almost immediate.  If you have your own Facebook account, you will notice a few things.  One, you were probably asked to join a network, which, according to Facebook, most people do.  Another, is that you are asked a slate of questions about yourself, and you almost feel compelled to answer them accordingly. 

In it’s purest form, Facebook is almost about vanity.  You are telling your own private world, in online terms, what you value, who you like, and even your current mood.  And you are given complete control.  No one in the real world can force anything here. 

Because, as I’ve written before, millions of lives are now lived on computer screens.
__________

I have a theory. 

Facebook has made relationships cool again.  We have taken a phrase, social networking, and made it sound almost technological, and very much inventive, though, at its core, social networking is just a new way to describe relationships.  And Facebook has given us a place to invest in relationships.

And I guess we need that.  The cultural swing of America has gone from small towns to a scattering of friends across this continent, and has placed us in isolated areas, away from family, and away from longtime friends.  The Internet was, for a time, the savior of relationships, with email being the hottest ticket in town.  But that became cumbersome.  So cell phones became the rage.  But rates were too high.  So text messaging followed next in this evolutionary tale.  But we wanted to say more.  So MySpace happened.  But MySpace is a public page, and maybe we don’t want everyone to see what we have to say, and the need for control developed.  So there was a need, and the development of Facebook filled that need.  But it also provided competition for MySpace among those who use each one.  One psychologist even cited research that both users MySpace and Facebook could be seen through socio-economic lenses.

So even relationships, lived online, are now divided among class lines.  Interesting, isn’t it? 

In the end, though, Facebook offered privacy, and controlled access.  And most people seem to like that.  So Facebook is the student who has become the teacher. 

But what holds Facebook together, and makes it work so well, is the accountability that ensures that these relationships survive.

The information in any given profile is checked every time new access is granted to your profile by adding these friends.  And, in turn, whenever you are given access to someones profile, by the unique privilege of being their friend, you can check their information.  And you will ask about something that doesn’t play well.  And you will be asked about something that someone else disputes.  Facebook would not be the most dominant social networking site in the world if accountability wasn’t so accessible, or so necessary.  It is what makes any relationship work.
__________

It would seem, though the lens of technology, that humanity craves a chain of people, where we find ourselves connected somewhere. 

But, of course, it isn’t the first to offer such a place.

The greatest social networking site on the planet is in the lobby of any church.  Try it this Sunday and see.

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Changing

April 16, 2008 at 3:41 pm (Church, Thinking)
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I teach in a state-of-the-art classroom.

I began the semester, however, teaching in a temporary classroom, without any computer, without internet access, and without any projection. The classroom was in a trailer at the back of the campus where I teach two different history courses on the collegiate level.  The only teaching medium the room offered was a chalk board.

The beginning of the semester was difficult without the assistance of what now seems to be needed technology.  In some ways, I felt the course would become primitive to the current collegiate standards of teaching today, and I was not satisfied at all with the arrangement.

Intimacy, however, was one advantage in the classroom. The student tables were in close proxemity to each other, and I stood in the front of the class, very, very close to the students at the front. I turned what I believed to be a disaster into a blessing, changing my teaching style to flow without the crutch of media presentations. And so the course began with intimate teaching and great discussions.

After spring break, my class was moved to the newest building on campus, which houses some of the most advanced classrooms in the country.

My first introduction to the classroom was the entrance, with lights that were activated by sheer motion. The lectern was a stalwart piece of furniture, with two screens. One was for the desktop computer, the other was a touchscreen for all of the technological aids the classroom offered. It controlled projection, the computer itself, as well as a laptop, a DVD player and a VHS player, and the document camera that also was equipped to the lectern. A flat panel television serves as a personal monitor for the instructor. There are also cameras in the room, and microphones placed at various intervals in the ceiling tiles, which serve for recording purposes, if the instructor so chooses to record the lecture to stream online at a latter date.

The only thing that is missing is a chalk board.

That chalk board became the focus of my course this semester. I was able to write and talk and move across the front of the room, as well as field questions and prompt discussions. But the new room, with all of its advances, is without the one thing that has driven education for the better part of a century. 

The room communicates to me, and to the students, that the teaching medium will change, or has changed already, and the presentation offered by the instructor must be different than what has been offered in the past.

That frightens me.

Overnight, I was asked, inadvertently, to change to an entirely different teaching style, one that is more technogically interactive, and one (dare I say) more impersonal.  I feel like the methods that were successful in the first part of the course are now, in a broad brush stroke, irerelevant.  I can adapt, and will, but the shock to me was great. 

The course now feels different.  Same students.  Same material.  Same instructor.  Different room.   And now, with only three meetings before the end of the semester, I feel like I need to prove, if to no one but myself, that the final three meetings can, and will be as beneficial and interactive as the first few, blending the succesful elements of teaching during this semester with these incredible advances. 
__________

I must admit that I see change in a different way now.  My generation looks at the previous generation, and is tempted to say that their familiar ways of communication are antiquated.  And those methods may be antiquated, from our persepctive.  But now, I am part of a ”previous generation,” teaching high school and first year college students, and their modes of communication are familiar to them, but new to me. 

Change is needed to communicate effectively.  Colleges are expecting instructors and professors to rethink how they communicate material to their students.  And instructors who fail to adapt will no longer be given students to teach.  Or students will refuse to listen. 

To be fair, too, when we look at change from religious perspectives, change generally refers only to communication mediums.  Vibrant members of any church want to see truth presented in ways that are easily digested.  And a casual look at the social climate of any given era mentioned in the bible will show that communication mediums changed with the era. 

Moses stood on top of a mountain, and, when discussing important matters, only communicated with the leaders of each tribe.  Judges sat beneath trees, or in common places to decide matters.  Kings used more noble approaches to communication, with edicts and mediators when speaking to their enemies.  Prophets walked through the streets, in very brash ways, to communicate lean and tough messages.  Jesus used personal approaches, with stories and object lessons.  Paul went to synagogues and, in some instances, to very secular, even hostile environments.

Mediums of communication changed.  But the message remained static. 

And maybe that is the point.  The message should always remain static.  But if the medium does not change, the static message may never be heard.

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