A Summer Celtic Christening for Robert Leonard Bernlohr

Please join our Open Hand community Sunday evening at 5:30pm, June 26th for a pitch-in feast in honor of the extended Bernlohr/McGee Clan. (Reynolds home - 3173 N. Delaware St.)

We will celebrate the arrival of the wee lad Robert Leonard Bernlohr along with his proud parents, Mariann and Andy, with an outdoor Celtic Christening.

Be with us and bring a blessing! Amen.

O'

Curb Your Anxiety Friday - With Indy Summer Interns

Kick back with us on the front porch Friday, june 17th as we hear from several interns laboring to lower Indy's collective anxiety this summer. Enjoy pizza, cold drinks, and snacks with them from 6:30 - 9:oo pm - 3173 N. Delaware Street.

Three of these interns living in our community include Andrea with AmeriCorps (Reynolds home) , Jeannette with the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic (215), and Najib at the Indianapolis Star (Rod's home).

Bring a friend......

cheers,

O'

What the Hell! Love Wins?

Ok, I bought the book to read for myself what the commotion is all about. Glad I did.

My main criticism is that someone inflated a 40 or 50 page manuscript into a 200 page, triple spaced, 3/4 sized hard cover book with enough blank space for a second bonus book tucked inside.

Its not a book of poems. No need to take Rob Bell's words and sprinkle them so sparingly on each page. It almost appears as if the book is laid out to be read aloud, perhaps for a podcast series.

But back to the content. I suppose his notion that Heaven and Hell are within each other, intertwined, interwoven and bumping up against each other, is enough to gall any evangelical fundamentalist. (Remember its not what you believe but how you believe what you believe that makes one a fundamentalist.)

He goes on to define Hell as "our refusal to trust God's retelling of our story." The backdrop for this interpretation is Luke 15 and the story Jesus told of two wayward sons and a loving father.

The youngest son believes he is cut off, estranged, no longer deserving to be his father's son because of all the horrible things he has done. His sees his badness as the problem.

The older brother believes that he deserves to be a favored son because of all the good he's done. He obeyed all the rules and 'slaved' for his father all his life.

Yes the younger brothers wrongs have led him into misery and separation, but the older brothers rigid goodness has also served to distance him from his father. Bell's point is that our badness can and does separate us from God's love and so can our goodness.

The father throws a celebratory feast for the youngest son welcoming him back into the family with a robe, ring and sandals. The older son refuses to join in the lavish reunion party. He becomes bitter, thinks he has been wronged and is furious with both his father and younger brother.

The father responds with a different story, "My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours." He redefines fairness. Grace and generosity aren't fair and the father sees the younger brothers return as another occasion to practice unfairness.

Obviously he doesn't deserve a party. That's the point. That's the profound unfairness of the father. People are given what they don't deserve. The father retells the older brothers story just as he did with the younger brother. After all, "You are always with me, and everything I have is yours."

Whose story will the sons believe? Their own or their fathers. As Bell points out, the difference between the stories is, after all, the difference between heaven....and hell.

Jesus puts the older brother at the party, but refusing to accept the father's version. Being at the party is hell for him and that's what makes it so hellish. It's not a picture of separation, but one of dis-integration.

Hell is our refusal to trust God's retelling of our story. We all have our own version of events and believe all sorts of things about ourselves.

The gospel confronts our story with God's version of our story. Beginning with the certain truth that we are loved in spite of our sins, rebellions and hard hearts. No matter what's been done to us, we are invited to live a whole new life without shame, blame or anxiety.

Hell is refusing to trust, often stemming from a distorted view of God. "We shape our God and then our God shapes us. A distorted understanding of God, clung to with white knuckles and fierce determination, leaves people in hell at the party."

"The father's love cannot be earned and it can't be taken away. It just is." It goes on no matter what, and all our darkness, sin and goodness and rightness are irrelevant when it comes to the counterintuitive ecstatic announcement of the gospel.

There is nothing left for the son's to do but trust the father's love. God's love simply is. "Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing." Jesus forgives everyone without their asking for it. It is a unilateral love and God isn't waiting for us to get our act together.

"The only thing left to do is trust." We are already at the party. Heaven and hell, here and now. Our story? Maybe its time to listen to a new story, because the good news is better than that.

Love wins!

All things Irish with Generation Wes....Bono's Beach!

Hey Hey Wes: Just praying for you today and all the amazing young folks from 215 that populate my imagination from the past two decades. What a profound blessing.....Here is an email I sent back to Open Hand Indy during our visit to Dublin back in 03.

Today the wind was hallowing in Dublin, the rain blowing sideways and one could really feel the foul weather...

We scheduled our "foot race" for 3:00pm from the front door of Wes' house to Bono's gate (the front gate of Bono's home) in an exclusive area of south Dublin on a cliff overlooking the Irish sea...a mere 5 miles one way. Ann, Kath and Nat were to meet us via an auto at the finish with photo's and warm, dry clothes.

We were off, battling the lanes, traffic, and the elements...loving every minute, chatting away like a couple of school kids.

After the first flat 3 miles the final 2 were hilly, slippery and narrow...passing by famous people's homes...there is Van Morrison's, there is the Edge's home....and on toward our final destination, Bono's front drive gate.

45 minutes into it we sprinted the final 100 meters neck n neck, shoulder to shoulder, hoping the women could get a photo finish so we could record the winner....no way...the girls were late, we blew by the gate, soaked to the bone, sweating and steaming...and skidding to a halt on the wet pavement. We made the best of it, found a narrow public path down the steep side of Bono's property and to the beach. Wes ran straight into the Irish Sea, with me on his heels and we shocked our exhausted bodies back to life...tumbling on the surf, rocks and sand.

Maybe Bono saw two crazy American's from his cliff perch above the sea or maybe he saw two Celtic Druid's doing what they had done on many wild days....jumping into the frigid waters to stone their souls with a searing clean pain....Amen.

Stoned cold on the edge again,

O'Steven

PS I filled my water bottle that day with Bono's beach Irish Sea water and brought it back to Open Hand Indy where we blessed, christened, and baptized many over the years before it was finally empty. I guess I need to get back there and refill that bottle.....Amen.

"Dear soul-mate and worshiper of life!

Here is another archived email from the queen of Norway to Beowulf.......dated October 1, 2003.

Dear soul-mate and worshiper of life! First of all, I can't tell you how much I would love to have been in Indy celebrating you and Erica's LOVE for each other! Sitting here in Norway reflecting and looking back at our history together, I feel so privileged and alive! I realize how blessed I have been through our friendship which has given me so much fun, joy, laughter, love, anger, thoughts, faith and understanding. To see the beauty in life through your glasses has been exciting, passionate and a big portion with fun!

Remember my first day in Indy, Easter 1999, and you asked if I wanted to join you and Pete (your car) to an Easter party at Judy's. Since I came from YWAM you loved telling me the story about another YWAMer, Lionel ! He cooked food naked in the kitchen at 215! You really loved telling me that story, shame that I never got to see it.

You and Josh dressed in all black at the Patio when Todd was playing.

Your birthday party, when the whole 215 went to the Martini bar in downtown - me, you, Eric, Wes, Marc and Emerson - we all dressed up! That was my first night at the Jazz Kitchen as well, and many stories start there.

I love your passion for European pants, those tight ones, which people in Indy don't use! Keep on wearing your leather pants; I'm sure Erica doesn't mind at all.

Thanks for introducing me to the whole Latin community - Juan, Ruben and those "Mexican's". That was the start to the best international parties at 215!

Sunsets, discussions, gourmet dinners at the backyard, holy time at the grave yard, 215 parties, Juan, Ruben; thanks for sharing them with me!

African dance at 215 when you had a great scene dancing to Johnny Clegg. Your great aunt and nephews in Johannesburg; thanks for inviting me to this great family! Brewpub, swing dance at Babka's place! The black and red dress we bought at East and 38th street. The mini marathon with the banana. Our speed walks at 6am along Washington Street. Your poems. Shoe shopping, together. I am going to stop here, Nolan! Emmanuel is screaming and wants my attention, badly.

My soul is in Indy today blessing this beautiful couple. I am so happy that Erica is the ONE for you, Nolan! I knew it the first time I got to know her, she is a beautiful woman, with a strong sense of self, and an incredible passion and care for those around here! I am at peace.

I and Emmanuel are giving our blessing all the way from Bergen in Norway - and we really hope to see you here, maybe next time you go to Ireland? You are really welcome. Mi casa es tu casa - My home is your home.

All the best!

Cheers, Salute and Skal!

Faith, Hope and Love - Elisabeth and Emmanuel

"I'm smiling with the sun in my face. Could I be Irish?"

I was reading journal #44 this morning and found this simple email message from Rich Starkey. "I'm smiling with the sun in my face. Could I be Irish?" Here was my response:

Hey Rich....If you can answer yes to the following questions I'd say "hell yes" you are Irish!

1. Do you get stoned to the soul by the power of words and music?

2. Do you often drink beers as large as your head?

3. Can you slide across the floor on your knees when dancing?

4. Do you get loud under the influence?

5. Are you under the influence now?

6. Do you practice heroic hospitality?

7. Have you been married to the same woman for more than 20 years?

8. Do you have a son to carry the Starkey name to the next generation?

9. Do you cry easily?

10. Do you have a warped sense of humor -laughing when others wouldn't?

11. Can you swear and not take the Lord's name in vain?

12. Can you hold a paradox until you burst with tension?

13. Can you pick a fight and then be over it the next day?

14. Do you spoil your children?

15. Do you spoil your wife?

16. Are you kind and generous?

17. Do you have a fair complexion?

18. Do you go upstream instead of downstream?

19. Do you like to read, I mean really read?

20. Do you attend church, at least occasionally?

21. Do you drink the blood of the Lamb?

22. Could you kill another with your bare hands if necessary to protect the life of many?

23. Are you deeply connected to your best friends?

24. Is the world your play ground?

25. Have you read C.S. Lewis - alot?

26. Do you like U2?

27. Can you tolerate rain, lots of rain?

28. Can you tolerate pain, lots of pain?

29. Do you get depressed in the dark cold half of the year?

30. Will you spend more money than you actually have?

31. Can you close a deal on a handshake?

32. Have you ever been Chairman of a Board?

I'm pretty sure you are Irish Rich, and I even found the Starkey name on mugs in Dublin to prove it!

Cheers,

O'

Open Hand May Day Anarchists Gathering - Sunday, May 1 - Reynolds home