From Judaic studies today! Fun looking at the odd or peculiar mystical groups in the long religious stories! People who were trying to tap into the Reality behind the traditions. I love studying religious history and especially odd anomalies in them! And movements which had some style and didn’t lose their humor! Looking at those long locked, dancing ecstatic taking over NYC and comedy Jewish Hasidim today! The mystical Hasidic movement, were the “charismatics” of modern Judaism, and birthed folks like, Abraham, Heschel, Martin Buber and many artists such as Marc Chagall…

First major Hassidic (jewish mystical renewal movement of Central Europe) “church plant” in the Eretz—Rabbi Mendel from Vitebsk. Brought 300 students with him in 1777 and came to what was already the birthplace of Jewish mysticism—Tzfat, in northern Israel. So many mystics in one town, not sure how anything got done! But it led to a renewal movement within Judaism, that is still the fastest growing branch of Judaism in the world. How a mystic mows the lawn? Ecstatically, while floating!

Of course, Jewish mysticism itself was brought from the Sephardic (Spain and Portugal and a bit Northern Africa) Jews who were expelled from Spain and Northern Africa, round when old Columbus was sailing the ocean blue…and the Jews got kicked out of Spain and elsewhere in those parts! They settled in Tzfat in northern Israel and got down to mystical business-taking out the trash and mowing the lawn with God!

Been to this “Smurf town” Tzfat, as my hippie friends called it, many times. It has mostly blue doors now, hence the name. But the many movements which started in this small northern town renovated the face of what would become modern judaism! Regardless, of whether anyone’s lawn got mowed!

Wonder if the much later movement of Hasidism (popularized in NYC and America in general) which eventually took the streets and airwaves of NYC (and much of the comedy of SNL), who also moved to the same town 300 years later, gleaned a bit from these early mystics. Seems so. As The Hasid integrated the Kabbalah etc into mainstream orthodoxy. Very controversial then and now! Similar story with the mystics in the daughter religion Christianity of course! But they had more style! Religious renewal movements always have new styles! They kept dancing, still are! Dance on friends! And please, keep making bagels!

They tried to integrate Jewish mysticism into more orthodox tradition (floating but on the earth! A down to earth aerial dance team!), and came up with a blend which is still the fastest growing branch of modern Judaism! If it were a coffee blend, would be intense low and high tasting notes! And they seemed to have retained much of their humor in the the midst! And there long hair locks and cool hats not to mention cool dancing change whatever room they enter! Best Jews on the dance floor, by far!

These dancing floating Rabbis who the great painter Chagall made famous, as did Fiddler on the Roof etc. came early and adopted some things from those mystical friends from the west. Of course the Hasidic Jews were originally from Central Europe, so interesting that they got along with the sephardic immigrants. I’m sure the early house parties were awkward, but somehow it worked. Perhaps the God imminent part was shared! For, Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews still have trouble dialoguing-even in modern Israel!

Anyway, having fun sitting with the tall hatted, long locked and great dancing Rabbis today! They got style, and certainly longevity! They can dance all night! Hope you are enjoying whatever you are studying and being inspired by these days friends! Keep dancing and being who you are!

In appreciation of Jazz, and all those who kept hearing the rhythms and long song of humanity…..which certainly must be a tragic comedy. From my cultural studies meditations today…..Ode to Jazz….

Watching a great documentary about the history of Jazz today—starting from West Africa. You immediately get, that because of all the oppression, they like the Jews, became a diaspora people, who especially in their music and cultural art, had to hang their harps and, in their case drums on foreign land’s branches.

But similarly, brought the mourning and overcoming of that suffering, and created new forms of art, which gave back to the world new forms of healing and life.

And they, through slavery and colonial displacement also went to Brazil and South America and influenced the formation of Salsa, Flamenco and so many other living forms of dance, music art and life! What a powerhouse people group in terms of sheer artistic impact alone!

Of course, there are many great jokes about the relationship between Jews and African descent folks. But, I will let them tell them-as both of those enormously influential and brilliant cultures earned the right to express and inform us about new forms of art and living well in suffering.

And it makes so much sense after getting historical context, why the African American community and the Jewish American community have so much to teach into our current climate of division.

We certainly need a new Jazz movement and some Neo-Klezmer music about now!

Good watch if you like cultural history and people groups who did not just overcome, but flourished even in the midst of great suffering. The blues comes from suffering, but implies a Living Hope, as one said. And rock and roll was just an emulation of what blues birthed. But, Jazz just taught the human imagination to dream in new patterns of being and ways!

I also wonder, if the other great diaspora displaced people groups-The Native Americans, for example-are also our current teachers. Being myself, partly of their decent.

Interesting how redemptive history is, and who become the true Wisdom voices which last through time! Thankful that generations kept playing regardless and invented Jazz—one of my favorite forms of music. So complex mathematically, but still emotional and essentially human! Keep it jazzy friends! And appreciate those who miraculously did!

Of course, i have a dear half brother who is African American, and I’ve experienced the echo of racism in this world, from many angles of the human room. But when i look at Jazz, it gives me hope that even in art, those boundaries of hatred can be overcome and healed. He writes books on the matter of racial reconciliation, but Jazz is another level of discourse which started long ago. I look forward to all these dividing walls dissolving so we can all be family, collaborate and make great art together! In the meantime, Jazz still helps!

I still stand by this statement I wrote when around 19 years old, about Jesus as The Circus Master and an avant garde artist! I saw myself as a missionary to the church and art worlds back then….gosh, I was so much older then! Jesus is avant garde, was my title to this little excerpt I stuck in my clown suitcase and guitar case back then….glad I found it again. I’m still interested in about the same things…..I was a bit too serious about it all back then, to really join the circus, but eventually I did work as a clown to get myself through college! True story!

My original intro to my ministry, as a missionary to the religious and artistic: those trying to get “delivered from religion-even freed from the art world- into creative freedom”. Those who want an authentic spirituality. Those who want to join the Real circus.
I like mystics and artists, and it appears to me that Jesus is the Ultimate of both! He is the mist that came into the mystics, and the art that enters the heart!
Jesus was/is avant garde. His church unfortunately has lacked some of His experimental and exploratory tendencies. I’ve always been drawn to creative explorers myself. People who were Reality and then came and taught about it, interest me. Folks who lived it first, then spoke about it. Their art is overflow from who they are. Jesus was like that. People who were from more than about. Being precedes expressing, as they say. Live it to teach it–Jesus was and is that sort of fellow.
Jesus made everything, and then came into everything. Can’t beat that for avant garde. He was the artist, then became the art!
People still want to go to the Circus of what’s Real. And people still need to become kid like to encounter God. And that implies freedom to be.
One critique most artist have of organized religion is that it lacks creativity and the ability to improvise! “Where the Spirit is, there is freedom.” The book says, but most of institutional religion lacks freedom. Even freedom to be—ontological freedom! Much less freedom of expression or all the prized values of the West. Jesus knew He was loved, and He knew His own Name. That allowed Him to explore, to grow in Wisdom, which He was, and understanding, which He also was. That’s mysterious to me.
But one thing it models is that we are here to explore in relationship who we are, and who others are, and in this aquarium of wonder which we live within, to be in awe might be the highest calling.
Jesus was a circus Master, but the circus left town, and we were left with was some rules and buildings. But somewhere, He is juggling and the animals are dancing around Him. Somewhere, people are free to be. Somewhere there is an endless supply of cotton candy in every color imaginable. Somewhere there is an art gallery which never ends, an exploratorium which never runs out of wonder. That’s where He is. Or, at least that’s where I live, under the enormous Big Top!
And Jesus is often in the alleyways outside the churches and galleries, just waiting for a q and a with the Artist to occur!

We all do different things with our Summer’s. Here’s what mine’s been like thus far. Always good to do an update so you can be thankful for all that is given seasonable by Grace. Here’s what I’ve been up to this season:

This Summer I’ve been pooling in these studies: existentialism as it relates to 20th C art; finding the philosophers behind each major art movement; early church history, (especially the more Eastern Orthodox and Coptic writers) the Jewish mystical (experiencing the Imminence of God—these guys are the charismatic of modern Judaism) movement Hasidism and how it survived and grew, and looking again at the centrality of The Trinity in a practical way.
I love learning how Christ dialogues with each art and philosophical movement, and enjoys people seeking the why and how to live well.
In addition reading fairy tales and historical novels! My wife and I read fairy tales to one another at night—before George Macdonald, now on to Madeline Engle’s lovely five volumes of wise and other worldly works! Her’s somewhere between fairy tale and early sc-fi! Good stuff. She was smart and kind, and knew language and history well.
And also trying to memorize parts of the Psalms in Hebrew, as I continue to take modern Hebrew on line from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv! I’ve gotten to intermediate level, which is fun, as I can try to do crosswords in Hebrew, which was my Summer goal.
My brain and heart are stimulated. And I’ve had so much time to pray and encourage friends from around the world during these slant times! Plenty time to learn to listen, which to me is what prayer is. I feel like my prayer life has become even more foundational to everything else I get to collaborate on! Have met several artist who are working with the Ukrainian situation, and hope to do some more projects focusing on this important tale of our times. And to let art be part of the healing process.
Now to get back out in the field next week towards Europe and dear friends. Also, got to be involved in some cool photo projects this summer, documenting people’s art and stories, and telling stories of our times through art!
Life is rich, even in the wilderness like heat here! Gotta keep growing to know. What a wonder knowledge and this beautiful world is. Nice to manage a trip over to Israel in the midst of these times as well. I’m thankful that wonder and increase of knowledge never end!
Also got to finish three classes on line, one with Robert Alter, the translator, one on jewish versus greek modes of knowing with Brueggeman, then another from Hebrew university on secular versus religious zionism. And then locally, with the Presbyterians a class on second temple Judaism as a context for the New Testament. Ok, it has been a busy season in my heart and mind. But I feel the lines of learning integrating into wonder!
And it’s fun to be aware of what themes you are circling around each season! And to take note of what your heart is being drawn into seasonally!.
In the meantime, have been writing up some of my God stories from life, and being at wonder at His version of my life instead of mine. I’m working towards a memoir, but more from The Narrator’s perspective than mine. Trying to see my own life from His Perspective. Very meaningful spiritual practice for me.
I even got to review a few books for an old professor friend of mine who has focused on Van Gogh’s spiritual journey for over forty years.
His books are great, and it was an honor to get to listen to his insights about a “failed pastor’s son” who journeyed out loud through his art, and later got famous. And to be back in contact with this elder after so many years.
That wonderful trip to Israel with my whole family, and my wife’s continued enjoyment of learning and teaching design, clothing and spirituality on line, has left me happy and strangely joyful in a clamorous season on earth. She’s a poetic wonder, and continues to flourish forwards in Him, and has just grown as a practical mystical alive teacher, and great artist! I’m thankful. God must love me.
My mom’s health was good enough to make it up Via Dolorosa and she was so present in His Presence throughout our whole pilgrimage to Israel this year. Plus, less tourist meant you could actually encounter Him in all the popular spaces. Once again I was transformed by being with Him in that special touched Land.
It’s been a rich season for me. And I’m extremely thankful for my health on many levels. And His faithfulness to myself and my wife, and His felt Presence around and over and in us, daily!
We are doing some more pod-cast on authentic spirituality, and God as relationship. Staying real, in short. Staying real with The Real.
She is working on a project on knowing His Sabbath, and on how to meet The Father personally. Should be good!
Bless you with whatever is bringing you passion in Him. God is uninterrupted by our times, and is forever in friendship with those who want to be. More updates soon. Just thankful today for this season we are in, and all new areas within us that will be formed and informed by Our Brother and Friend Jesus.
Thanks makes room for Praise, and God always inhabits the praises of His People, as they say! Thankful for this season. Hope yours is resplendent as well friends! Although I know it’s been a season of suffering for many. Joy is fortunately tethered to the same pole.
We lost my dear uncle this season, but he ended so well, and as always with class. Many other friends have passed through as well during all this. I at times, am shocked to still be here to bear witness to another season, and hopefully many more, of His Wonders while here!
More soon friends, but hope you are finding things to be thankful for in the midst! Gratitude makes a way. And each of us is named, claimed and loved right now! Rough weather makes good timber, as they say where I’m from. To the stars through difficulties. But also, Love is uninterrupted!
We continue to pray for many of you weekly, as we do our part to make the garden grow! Let’s keep inspiring, encouraging and instructing one another hourly in whatever mediums we are given to megaphone love through!!!! Much love, Derek

Prayer requires a door! I love to pray, and feel like I’ve developed a lifestyle of prayer. Not for religious reasons, but because it helps me know more about how God really is.

When we pray, we put our hearts in contact with more of how He thinks, feels and perceives the person or situation. It takes us out of some of our thoughts and puts us in contact with more of His. The two are often quiet different!

Lately, i’ve needed a door to really listen to Him well. When i lived on the road, i could use parks or wherever, but it does require some spiritual concentration to pray. We are listening, turning our whole selves consciously towards Him, and listening attentively.

After prayer, i usually know how to act or help in a situation much more wisely. That is another gift of prayer. Prayer leads to informed action.

It is wisdom to pray, for it is admitting that God is not just good, but is smarter and bigger in His perspective than ours.

Once again praying is always about getting to know more of Him.

I always come away in wonder–wow, He really does have a 1000 daily thoughts towards each of us, and He really is so specific in His loving towards each of us.

Prayer begets or cultivates this awe of who He is.

Life is a balance of in and then out. But prayer places those in the right order. Go in with Him, to go out with Him. Watchman Nee used to call it sitting before you stand and walk. Prayer is sitting very near to God and just getting to know Him by watching how He is intervening with people and situations. When you hang out with Him, you get more in wonder of just how deeply He cares and is actively intervening in all our lives.

God already knows how it’s going with them. We often ask, when we haven’t seen someone in a while–“How’s it going?” Well God already knows how it’s going for that person. When we pray we visit them through God, and so when we meet up, we can address their deeper heart needs. That’s another benefit of prayer.

Prayer is us actively seeking to come more into alignment with His Purposes and perceptions. It changes us, not Him. His children come and sit with Him and listen to how He is caring for others. It changes your life.

In prayer we are not doing something for God, He is sharing something with us–part of His Heart and Ideas and Ways. It changes ours to be in His Presence just listening.

Prophecy is birthed and comes out of prayer. You see this in Jesus’ life on earth, but also you experience it in prayer. After being with Him for another person, you know how to speak His Words, in His Tone! You know how He is speaking to each person or situation. So you can deliver His message in His Tone, if you feel led to. So i would say, prayer precedes prophecying.

Yet, the two are intimately connected. I can’t give words of life to people if i haven’t prayed for them first. That’s how it works for me anyway.

Pray without ceasing, St Paul avers. He was speaking of a lifestyle of being tuned into God as you live. But I also find for focused prayer, it helps to close yourself off, or be alone with Him, so that the roar of the world’s voices does not muddle your listening. There is something about spiritual concentration that requires some solitude. Although, you are not really alone with all the cloud of witnesses already there around you!

After prayer, my trust in Him has grown. That is another gift of prayer–it builds trust that God really is good, kind, patient and caring, and very active in each our lives, whether we are aware of it or not!

Prayer also makes it easier to be intimate with people. Why? Because you have more of God’s Heart for His friends! You want to be their friends too! We come to love more of how and who He loves through prayer. So it actually helps us love people more easily once we’ve been in contact with His Love for them.

These are just a few thoughts on prayer from my prayer cell today. Now, back to praying……..

(From the finding God in the ordinary series)

Today

i walked my border collie Jakob

he stopped precisely and peed

on his usual tree. I waved

to the old man across the street

who said i was living the life,

went on to the seminary,

joined their library to

read more oversized jewish books,

came home and made

my wife some coffee

went outside and mulched a bit

mainly under our old roses

which the little Irish catholic girls who once

lived here planted…

cleaned the top of my old airstream

in case anyone needed to be haven-ed there soon,

went down to the local pub

to watch jeopardy and do crosswords

with my friends,

talked map making with Mark

a fellow lover of antiquities

and curiousities-a cartographer by heart;

had a new local beer

with lemon which

reminded me of

my love of Germany and Czech,

told three people

they looked cool today,

took their photos,

then came back home

to write and study

in other languages;

as i did, a friend wrote

who was in pain

so got to listen

and offer my

ten cents of Love.

That was

a good day.

i think i was present

for each part

and spent my nickles well,

as my grandfather used to say

at the end of a good day.

This day

just tending a few roses

for a friend,

watching birds in their particular

modes of flight

and thinking how

they already participate

in paradise- less interruptedly than us- and

watching art documentaries

considering how to symbolize things well;

went to the empty cathedral this morning

and prayed alone, or with all those saints

on the walls…

tried to just listen to people’s hearts as they passed by

the church.

It’s a good day-

now for some coffee.

My neighbor, Joshua, has a bubble machine

for his daughters, turned on high today, so

bubbles fill the air over the garden….

he’s an artists and gets fresh fish delivered to his house today-i

think i’ll head over there later

to be with kids and bubbles,

maybe eat some grilled fish…

that’s where i belong!

It’s a good day

as i said.

Sitting with Mark Rothko again……my wife first took me to see his work, and i felt it’s depth and what it required of me to encounter it! Still does. Re-visiting his work recently, made me want to learn more about his life….

Watched a nice documentary on the great painter and thinker Mark Rothko last night–sad and beautiful, his story and his work was just so nuanced and spiritual. I’ve sat with many of his pieces, and they have a way of changing you from the inside. It’s like an invitation to a real church or something that if you encounter won’t leave you the same afterwards.

This documentary of his life story makes sense and contextualizes his work as well. His jewish parents fled Russia like 2.5 million others between 1880-1924; he found himself a foreigner in a foreign land and, thankfully, didn’t hang his harp on the willows!

To encounter his work you have to “show up” on another level, as they say. And his art invites that I-thou encounter., which Martin Buber challenged us to live out! Good art should teach us to engage and empathize more deeply, and to live with more awareness of life’s levels and layers. Rothko’s layerings require us to enter beneath life’s surface to find a deeper meaning.

Good to learn more about his life and times. What an inventive time in American art, just after the war when the art center switched from Paris to NYC. Good to remember the context to interpret the art movement well. In terms of thinking: existentialism meets Freud and Jung. In terms of expression, almost brand new, but drawing on Kandinsky, Mondrian and others who were heading towards expressing abstract rather than representational, inner rather than outer realities.

His art chapel in Houston, alone is worth a retreat if you haven’t encountered real art in a while. Good reminder that some refused to not ask their deeper inner quest-ions while here.

I’m friends with these sorts of people on earth and beyond. They make sense to me. And their integrity in finishing some of their questions gives me hope.

As the Japanese artist interviewed in this one said, some people felt existential despair in his work, i kept sitting with them until i felt Hope.

I like that his art does more than invite, it actually almost requires the viewer to consider the meaning of life. Is there meaning? Is there joy? Is there hope? Perhaps, if you are willing to go just beneath the surface and then again a bit farther. As the Rabbi Rashi said of scriptures. You have to keep fishing the same spot for a long time to find the fish. The life is hidden beneath! But, you must be willing to fish patiently to find them. All great art, requires that type of fishing, but especially Rothko’s. Fish well to find the meanings beneath the austere surfaces.

It is the same with the church, or people, if you aren’t willing to look into and then through the surface to find the luminous fish teeming with life beneath, you probably won’t catch anything! Art viewing and life are similar in that way. But some artist are teachers of how to fish well. Rothko was. All great artist teach us to see, but some can also teach you how to fish!

And Rothko’s work does so in a peaceful way, without preaching or manipulation. It says, here we are, both human, let’s consider this together in this chapel. His art gives you room to be long enough to consider it. Selah, as they used to say after a verse or painting. Consider from your heart, almost outside of time. Rothko’s art does at least that much, which has gotten very rare these days. His art is like a chapel you need to pray in.

“His art is a space to decompress, and think about bigger issues in life. It’s not escapist, it’s exactly the opposite, it’s to experience a context on your own suffering and daily wonders.”

Again as the younger japanese artist said: “His work is a puzzle i don’t want to solve, but to open up to the next generation.”

That’s a good riddle, or something like wisdom, when art can keep an open dialogue across time, and keep reflecting our real quest-ions. A hidden joy, not an obvious joy, in his work, but one you must sit with, contemplate and enter to sense. But a joy and hope implied beneath the 20th C’s despair at itself. His work requires at least that much to know.

Some have described, while sitting in front of Rothko’s paintings, “deep sounds coming from silence”, and others have felt the “religious content” in his painting like an old testament Jew seeking God.

This would make sense, if as an immigrant Russian Jew, whose parents fled the Pale of Settlement, was seeking the ultimate meaning and context for our sufferings here on earth, and wanted to express his quest-ions in a way which allowed others to ask theirs. Perhaps, his works, especially his later works, are like Lamentations or Ecclesiastes (Qoholet) in the bible. They ask questions about suffering which can only be answered if you enter them deeply enough. He entered the questions for us, and invited us into their deep commonly human wails of sound, and if you go deeply enough, even songs of praise.

Reading today in Vincent Van Gogh’s letters to his brother Theo (“Letters to Theo”), which if you haven’t read, reveal the heart of the man (and “failed minister”), and most artist- that he wanted to paint the garden, and Jesus’ last night with his disciples, but it was too painful for him to paint Jesus and his friends, so felt the whole story by bearing witness to the Olive trees which covered and sat with Him as he prayed.

Had to write a short art response to that, as i often do when i think of the real stories! To try to interpret them through art, is still my favorite way of listening.

And as i just visited some of those trees recently on that mount of Olives!

But, also considering another artist friend, who encountered that moment through nature, as an indirect direct way to interpret the story!

Try making art responses to the stories, they come alive when you do! Art engages the imagination to enter the stories. As Tillich taught us, “The symbolic allows us to encounter the Reality embedded in the true stories!” Another great reason for making art!

This one is a bit of a St Francis take on the story, as seen through the Olive trees accompanying Jesus in prayer, but also a touch from my friend St Vincent’s eyes, i hope.

Jesus’ friends, the Olive trees!

You waited and prayed alone with olive trees that night.

When everyone fell asleep,

you heard soldier cries for a fight,

and saw them looking for you instead;

the olive trees watched and remembered, recalling

all you cried out in their bark…

they still do, i’m sure, old and scarred for life by it.

but we too, can barely hear or wait still,

and we fall asleep easily while you pray on;

we can’t wait or bare it like those trees

you carved your name on that night-

we wack off ears and run away fast still…

we are weak, but you

are like an olive tree inside

a temple

inside

our

hearts

now, with

your friends

the trees

still crying out

Your Name…

Reading today in Vincent Van Gogh’s letters to his brother that he couldn’t paint Jesus in the garden because it was too painful, so he planted the olive trees. My art response to that:

(Jesus’ olive tree friends did better than us)

you waited and prayed with olive trees

when everyone fell asleep

you heard soldier cries for war

and saw them looking for you instead;

the olive trees watched and remembered

all you cried out…

they still do, i’m sure.

but we can barely hear still,

and we fall asleep easily

we can’t wait or bare it like those trees-

we wack off ears and run away

we are weak, but you

are like an olive tree inside

a temple

inside

our

hearts

now.