"Created and Creative"

This last week in Los Angeles has been particularly difficult. It is hard to see your city on the news surrounded by confusion, miss information and conflicting reports. On Sunday we prayed for peaceful protests as many in our city gathered to stand up for immigrants and in the shadow of the reports of National Guard being deployed to our city. As has been the case since January 20th there has been deep fear of invasive and excessive ICE raids in our community. We have done our best to prepare and will be holding a "Know your Rights Workshop" in conjunction with the Community Defense Coalition next week: Wednesday June 18th at 6 p.m. All are Welcome. Also, on Wednesday, June 25th at 6pm at Peck Park the Civil + Human Rights and Equity Department is hosing an event on anti-semitism on response to recent events in our community.Biblical Theologin Walter Brueggamann writes:"We know enough to know that our best religion is never disinterested. The task of prophetic imagination and ministry is to bring public expression those very hopes and yearnings that have been denied so long and suppressed so deeply that we no longer know they are there because imagination is a danger. Thus every totalitarian regime is frightened of the artist. It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of imagination, to keep on conjuring and proposing future alternative to the single one the king wants to urger as the only thinkable one."This Sunday we are beginning our sermon series titled "Creative and Created: God's Creative energy in Art." Each Sunday we will spend time with scripture and a different artistic medium. Rev. Dave will begin the series speaking about the Gospel of Luke of course and the challenges of being a good and loving father! We kick-off a new summer ART Series this Sunday with the theme of film. The lead singer of U2, Bono, on a recent interview with Jimmy Kimmel said that, “people 'go to church in the dark,' seeking transcendence and finding it with others. He viewed music, cinema, and theater as forms of ‘church' for many people". I would have to agree in part with this sentiment where we go into the dark to see things being illuminated. Related to this is the sensibility is film director George Lucas and how his depiction of Star Wars continues to be culturally relevant today because it speaks to the universal Hero’s journey. The concepts and themes of music and film allow access to something mysterious and powerful. 

This theme of a power within us and our universe known as the ‘Force’, can course through us and transform lives. The scripture reading for the day will be drawn from the well known parable of the Loving Father (Luke 15:11-32). This is sometimes called the Prodigal Son from the Gospel of Luke, however, I am reframing this with themes shared in Star Wars and how love continues to transform our lives experientially in our present day and age. Come and join us this Fathers Day as we explore not only the power of cinema, but also the connection to deep religious traditions through the arts and our connection to a transcendent force that we can experience and feel.

Blessings,

Rev. Dr. David Brown & Rev. Dr. Amanda Adams Riley