On a recent walk with one of my clergy mentors, we talked about the importance of opinions, exchanging ideas and truth telling. Each is different, yet our contemporary lives often confuse them.  In doing so, we cultivate a landscape of distrust, cynicism, and the extremes of apathy and rage.  We probably don't want to live in a world where opinions are muted for the sake of comfort.  Nor do we want to live in a context where the truth about important issues like climate change, economic inequality, and global hunger are impossible to discern.   

 

I remember that when weapons of mass destruction were not found in Iraq, there were a number of articles about the problems of "groupthink."  This mentality led people in the former administration to make decisions about going to war they might not have made had they known more of the facts, or listened to alternative viewpoints.  Eli Pariser writes in The Filter Bubble that our online lives now limit our exposure to information that does not fit our prior assumptions, leaving us in isolated bubbles. When I have conversations with non-religious people, the questions raised often feel like a breath of fresh air and challenge me to think more clearly about my choices, desires, commitments, and hopes.  This helps me to escape the church bubble.

 

 

 

One argument in favor of committed engagement with diverse religious communities, especially in a highly secular context like San Francisco, is that this can help pop our own limited bubbles.  In conversation with others in our community, other people's opinions actually broaden and stimulate our own.  Community dialogue offers space for the exchange of ideas and discernment of truth. So this week's invitation is to think about your bubbles.  Which ones do you live in?  Which ones would you like to become more conscious of?  Which ones need to be popped, and finally, which ones are just fine, thank you very much!

 

Yesterday at St. Cyprian's Wednesday Eucharist, Lee Dora read from Exodus.  The passage told of how the Israelites, after being liberated by God from bondage in Egypt, started complaining in the wilderness.  The Israelites were missing their well-fed lives in slavery and said, "If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."  In some ways the Israelites had grown accustomed to living in a particular bubble.  Their time in the wilderness was an opportunity for the people to discover a new identity through a shared adventure. May our life together at the corner of Turk & Lyon be a shared adventure in discovering our shared identities as beloved and liberated children of God.

  

On Sunday, in the gospel we'll listen to how Jesus described the realm of God as a mustard seed that starts out small and eventually becomes quite a large shrub and home to fowl. The poem below reminds us how a seed ultimately must break out of its own shell, skin, bubble in order to grow.

 

What the Seed Knows   

by Anita Skeen   

 

winter plods on like a Russian novel, spring
     hints, haiku

tight blouses unbutton, jackets unzip,
     skin is not just skin

rich soil proliferates
     in the heart, in the hand
     that can never let go

rivers flow unseen, underground, unfettered
     unfathomable

some dig down, some rise up
     some survive

sleep is not dreamless:
     how else the orange, the dogwood?
     the phalanx of asparagus?

coddled in the pod,
     all the seed needs:

darkness, more snug
     than light

grit splits the rock, raises
     a tiny fist, screams
     the world into profusion
     of petaled racket

     to uncurl and unfurl
     to unhusk from the crust

to inhale, exhale
     turn toward what's bright   

 

See you soon at Turk & Lyon.

Info: greenturkandlyon@gmail.com or 415 218 7937

Lisa Sangita Moskow & Lawrence Ball

A co-production of Lisa Sangita Moskow & Cyprian's

Tickets at Door Only

$15 general / $13 students w ID, seniors

See "Getting to Cyprian's" for bus & bike transport and car parking

Lisa Sangita Moskow brings her personal global quest for musical expression to Cyprian's in this special performance. Lisa plays the sarod, a multi-stringed lute from North India. She trained with North Indian maestro Ali Akbar Kahn for 15 years to refine her use of the sarod and combine it with vocals. At Cyprian's, Moskow teams with pianist Lawrence Ball whose music bridges classical composition with electronic and computer-generated expressions. Ball collaborates with Pete Townsend and The Who. Moskow and Ball have performed at several Planet Tree Festivals in London, the last one begin at Pete Townshend's studio. A live recording of the duo performing Kali Spirit is available here, anda few selections of Ball's music is available here.

Saturday, August 6, 2011, 8pm

Co-Produced by California Jug Band Association & Cyprian's

Tickets at Door Only

$15 general / $12 students w ID & seniors

Music upstairs, great food & party downstairs

Cyprian's is thrilled to partner with Bebo White and the California Jug Band Association to produce the return to San Francisco of the Jug Band Festival on August 6th. This special benefit celebration will help Cyprian's bring more music and programs to the community and better equip our space as the newest venue in town.

You don't want to miss Devine's Jug Band, The Amazing Dr. Zarcon's Breathing Machine, and The How Long Jug Band.