Something New Breaks Open

Wednesday in Holy Week

In the midst of this Holy Week, we fully grapple with the enormity of the sacrifice of Jesus as he moved from a parade of palms to the pain of the passion. We are reminded once again that God is not remote and distant from us, but through Christ, enters our lives filled as they are with both sorrow and joy.

In the season of Easter that is upon us, we make an awesome claim that God who relentlessly pursues us in love will not abandon us. We are not left to sin and evil; we are not left to death. The miracle of the empty tomb is a promise of life. Between Good Friday and Easter, something happens to Jesus. Between Good Friday and Easter, something should likewise happen to us. We too are to be changed.

And so as the Easter light breaks, something new should break open in us. There is a new future for the world for which Christ died. The late William Sloan Coffin once said in a sermon,

Christ is risen to convert us, not from life to something more than life, but from something less than life to the possibility of full life itself. Christ’s resurrection promises to put love in our hearts, decent thoughts in our heads, and a little bit more iron in our spines.

In these Great Fifty Days of Easter may you live into our Easter love, have the mind that was in Christ Jesus, and be a courageous Church that dares to follow Jesus Christ in his life of fearless love for the world.

God’s blessing be upon you.

America's Second Finest

A few weeks ago a poll was released that suggested that San Diego is NOT America’s Finest City. Actually, we came in second. We were beat out once again by the Big Apple.

However, there is a curious footnote to this Silver Medal performance. New York, the most desirable place to live, is also…wait for it…wait for it…is the number one LEAST desirable place to live! As it turns out, this scientific survey was simply asking people where they most wanted to live and where they most don’t want to live. So in my mind you can’t be the best and the worst and win.

So let’s look at some of the raw data*:

Mean travel time to work:
New York = 39.4 minutes; San Diego = 22.6 minutes

Acreage of major outdoor space:
New York's Central Park = 843; San Diego's Balboa Park = 1200

Average temperature in January:
New York = 39 degrees; San Diego = 66 degrees

Okay I have to admit that I envy their public transportation system and lament our dependence on the car. And goodness know, the Yankees could let us have just one of those 27 World Series championships or the Giants one of those three Super Bowl wins.

But when all is said and done, we have some things in San Diego that you can find no where else: slow mo skating down the pier in Pacific Beach, watching the ships pass by Cabrillo Point, more evening stars, great sunsets, and if we are lucky some of those sunsets will include a green flash.

So for me it remains America’s finest city. I will hang in there with the Padres and the Chargers. I will continue to give thanks for all my neighbors.

*from the October 22, 2010 issue of the San Diego Union Tribune

Human Life Well-lived in Common

Over the last two weeks, business, civic, and political leaders have been meeting in Tijuana in a conference, Innovadora, aimed at building a hopeful and collaborative future for our regions, a future that transcends the international border that separates Tijuana from San Diego. On this side of the border, we are keenly aware of our own critical needs. Nevertheless, it is surprising to no one that Tijuana is in dire straits. Indeed, the future of these two cities are inextricably connected—thus, the international nature of the conference.

The conference planners focused on four areas: infrastructure, human capital, public safety, and cross border ties. These issues were framed in business and economic terms. However, it is good to remember that the word, "economy," is the word, "housekeeping." In reality, four focal issues of Innovadora are issues of housekeeping for the human family sharing hearth and home along a maritime desert coast. These issues are theological issues to which the Church is called to be a player.

Rowan Williams rightly suggests centering these matters of economy in his new work, Crisis and Recovery: Ethics, Economics, and Justice:

“…the question of how we think about shared wellbeing is the central one before us. Theology does not solve specific economic questions (any more than it solves specific political or scientific ones); but what it offers is a robust definition of what human wellbeing looks like and what the rationale is for human life well-lived in common.”

I am a bit haunted by the word that dangles at the end of that quote, "common." With a guarded border, there is no sense of the commons—no common space, no common economy. In our diocese, we are working more and more with partners at Dorcas House in Tijuana and with the Diocese of Western Mexico.

Maybe, just maybe, our contribution will be in creating a sense of life lived in common. Could it be that these two cities could increasingly be seen as one?