Monday, August 27, 2007
Satire about Satire about Satire
"Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own."
-Jonathan Twist.
If you are not familiar with Douglas Wilson's marvelous little book, "A Serrated Edge: A Brief Defense of Biblical Satire and Trinitarian Skylarking", preview it here:
Today's Devotional From a Serrated Skylark
"I don't know if this is right, but I know it's working.."
"I don't know if this is right, but I know it's working.."
I couldn't help but bristle reading this quote from a well-meaning pastor.
It's just that one of my seminary mentors, Bob Lyon,warned us well (and armed us with Ellul, Bruggeman et al)) re: the dangers of a "means justify ends," "whatEver works" utilitarian model for ministry. Ellul even coined "inutility" as a worthy goal. And I have been greatly influenced by tribesters like McLuhan("the medium is the massage"), Nouwen (whose stark "I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant" is, well, completely relevant) and Hipps ("relevance is a moving target"154)
On visual technology, Tschetter () and Hipps() are to be wrestled with.
In context, the quote may be okay. But out of context it represents what any pastor is tempted to do/by default. Okay, the context:
Leadership: Beyond using visual technology to illustrate sermons, some churches are using video for the sermon. Is it just a novelty or the major trend for the future?
Stevens: We have three campuses, two of which use video. We literally gather in a theater at ten a.m., turn on the computer, and watch a DVD of a worship service—not just the sermon, but the whole service. Everything in me doesn't believe that it will work. I'm not sure I want it to work. But when you go to the service, you realize, it works!
We're experimenting with video with partners all over the world who don't have the resources to do a whole service themselves. I don't know if this is right, but I know it's working right now in a lot of places.
Hipps: You use the phrase "it works." Does that mean video preaching and worship brings people in?
Stevens: It's more than that. They're responding. They're connecting. They're growing. Link
On visual technology, Tschetter ("Sports Ilustrated Swimsuit Issue: Aphrodite, Sex and Projected Images") and Hipps('Video Cafes':TalkingHeads ,Whipped Cream, Graven Images") are to be wrestled with.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Linkin Park's salty worship
More potential Linkin Park worship moments (The first ones are here). By the way, Linkin Park has toured recently with P.O.D. and Project 86, two very Christian bands.
Keep praying for them.
And pray with them below!
"The Little Things Give You Away"
especially 3:11 till the end:
Or "Leave Out All The Rest" below...gee, this almost feels like a CCM song. Please,God;don't get 'em THAT saved(:
also a Bible Study:
"How to Share Your Faith Using Linkin Park’s What I've Done"
here
Yeah, I know the LP singers use a lot of salty language in lyrics and concerts. Read
Salty Dogma/Explicit Confession
or
if that bugs ya.
Maybe even read that great Christian book full of enough gall (pun intended,author: Jim Gall)to o be full of bad words (preview here:"Imagine if being a Christian were about life?")
I am not saying you should cuss..
But:
Years ago, Tony Campolo was speaking at our seminary. My friend Ellis, whom some of you know, asked him "Did you say Bono and the U2 guys are Christians. They sure use some salty language!"
Camplolo shot back:
Of course Campolo is famous/infamous for preaching all over the world with this line.. I heard him do it in a huge crowd of Mennonites and others:
"There are _____ (number) of people starving in the world, and you people don't give a sh__!"......Then he paused, and you heard pins (some were pins in the tied-up hair of Mennonite grandmas) and jaws drop. Stunned silence. Then he continued..."And you care more about the fact that I said sh__ than that those people are starving."
He was right.
Question: How is it touring with POD and Project 86 who are all Christians? Has it been a good example to you guys as to what Christians are really like?
Brad: The tour hasn't started yet... But we're fans of POD's music and also ., Project86. In terms of their personal beliefs, they're their personal beliefs. Not necessarily anything else. The only thing I can say as a band - in terms of extra things that go beyond the music for us, because we all have different personal beliefs in the band - is that we try to make our music as positive as possible for us and for all our fans. link
Lots of rumors swirling that most if not all the LP members are Christian..or at least their arrows often head toward Jesus.
Keep praying for them.
And pray with them below!
"The Little Things Give You Away"
especially 3:11 till the end:
Or "Leave Out All The Rest" below...gee, this almost feels like a CCM song. Please,God;don't get 'em THAT saved(:
also a Bible Study:
"How to Share Your Faith Using Linkin Park’s What I've Done"
here
Yeah, I know the LP singers use a lot of salty language in lyrics and concerts. Read
Salty Dogma/Explicit Confession
or
| Blessings of profanity? |
Maybe even read that great Christian book full of enough gall (pun intended,author: Jim Gall)to o be full of bad words (preview here:"Imagine if being a Christian were about life?")
I am not saying you should cuss..
But:
Years ago, Tony Campolo was speaking at our seminary. My friend Ellis, whom some of you know, asked him "Did you say Bono and the U2 guys are Christians. They sure use some salty language!"
Camplolo shot back:
"Yes, they are awesome Christians. I have personally worked with Bono on mission projects. And let me tell you, sometimes as Christians, our language isn't salty enough!!"
Of course Campolo is famous/infamous for preaching all over the world with this line.. I heard him do it in a huge crowd of Mennonites and others:
"There are _____ (number) of people starving in the world, and you people don't give a sh__!"......Then he paused, and you heard pins (some were pins in the tied-up hair of Mennonite grandmas) and jaws drop. Stunned silence. Then he continued..."And you care more about the fact that I said sh__ than that those people are starving."
He was right.
Christmas..outside your house
I am sure it is an acquired taste.
Brian Healy's (aka Dead Artist Syndrome) music and voice is often haunting...an appropriate word for a Christian who is often called a Goth artist.
"Eerie worship" music or "depressing praise"music do not have to be oxymorons!
I'm up for brooding joy at times...aren't you?
One reviewer attributed to Healy a "biting cynicism that I personally enjoy. Instead of being hopeless and miserable Healy, seems hopeless and pissed. There is a big difference."
I would guess such irony and juxtapostion of lyric and expected tempo was the case with the gut-wrenching, angry Psalm 22's "My God why have you forsaken me?...All day I cry out to You, and no answer...nothing' (You may remember, it gets worse from there). According to the inscription, this depressing little ditty was to be sung to the tune of "Doe in the Morning" ! Hardly a Pink Floyd Prozak accompaniment, I would venture. (Check this for more on all this)
Like many artists who are Christians, not all Healy's CDs are upfront (if Gothic) "Christian" worship music; they are more the stuff of life (and death) from a Christian perspective. So when he did release...at some risk.. his one unapologetically worship disc (well, with the lovely qualifier "It was my desire when recording this record to express my faith clearly and succinctly. Hopefully I have succeeded and not fallen within the realm of propaganda or soda commercials" in the liner notes), it was sure to be amazing. For one, he is backed by what many consider the best band in the world most have never heard of: The 77s (more honest Christians); and what other worship record has a song called "Young Sexy and Dead"....let alone the classic "Jesus I Love You, But I Don't Understand Your Wife." Even the secular reviewers "get" that his "mocking the hierarchical Christian establishment and American culture" is grounded in deep faith in Christ. The disc, of course, is called "Happy Hour." (A later disc was winkingly titled; "Jesus Wants You To Buy This Record")
You'll also get a holy kick out of the songs that were played at his wedding , from
Bach's "Jesu Joy of Mans Desiring" to Alice Cooper's "No More Mr. Nice Guy".
Of course!
His "I'm having Christmas outside your house" (from the delightfully/frightfully titled "Prints of Darkness" CD ( disc...well, cassette...shows how old it is),
which has radically changed my life is a few ways (see this) always evoked for me (among other interpretations) a taunting of Satan; that is we believers are celebrating Christ and Christ-mas just outside the devil's house: Neener, neerer neener, you can't come, Satan!
(That interpretatiom, I should say, works for the chorus)
But one pastor (wow, the only other pastor I could find who has commented on Healy online at all)....interprets almost the opposite: It's Jesus asking us if have we invited him to OUR house. Here's Jesus "having Christmas".. he remains within earshot, but not in our house. "Let's invite Jesus to His own birthday party"...Revelation 3:20 style.
I don't remember the lyrics other than the catchy chorus already quoted, and as usual, the interpretation can be fluid. Besides, the song is apparently so obscure that the lyrics are nowhere to be googled...But I did just locate the song (sans lyrics) currently playing on Healy's MySpace jukebox here..
It has a feel of lament..that you can dance to..of a believer being forsaken/betrayed by church and religion .
(Later edit: Now seven years after the original post..and the whole world has changed. I added video and lyrics below.
We had a separation such a long, long time ago,
I walked away; I know you knew that I thought it was over,
Couldn't play the game, didn't feel much stronger, I only felt pain.
I'm having Christmas outside your house,
I'm having Christmas outside your house,
I'm having Christmas outside your house,
I'm having Christmas outside your house,
I'm having Christmas outside your house,
I'm having Christmas outside your house,
I'm having Christmas outside your house,
I'm having Christmas.
A lot of miles have passed, a lot of years have gone,
Everything I knew went cold, not warm,
Never thought that I would turn away,
I knew that you'd wait for me, and say that you love me, but still...
I'm having Christmas outside your house,
I'm having Christmas outside your house,
I'm having Christmas outside your house,
I'm having Christmas outside your house,
I'm having Christmas outside your house,
I'm having Christmas outside your house,
I'm having Christmas outside your house,
I'm having Christmas.
Never figured that I'd find myself in this place,
I don't believe you can fall from grace,
And I always knew you'd call me back someday.
I'm having Christmas outside your house,
I'm having Christmas outside your house,
I'm having Christmas outside your house,
I'm having Christmas outside your house,
I'm having Christmas outside your house,
(etc. fade)
What does it evoke for you?
You can dance to it. It's happy. And scary.
Scary happy.
Like the gospel.
And I fear the good pastor may be right:
It might even be Jesus speaking to me...
but from outside my house; in love with me, but upset with me because as a pastor I am embedded in, and empower, a house/system/hierarchy that doesn't care;
Or worse.
A "realm of propaganda or soda commercials."
Thanks, Brian, for the amazing art, and Christmas carol.
Note:
The album begins with the song "Christmas", which is not a Christmas carol, but a rather sarcastic rock song that was said be a denouncement of the secularization and commercialization of what has become known as the "winter holiday season", Healy himself has stated "Christmas" is about "separation from faith, church, friends and family at what is supposed to be the best day of the year" link
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Celtic Links
Seeing that Len (here)recently excerpted one of my favorite articles (the first one linked below..and illustrated here), I was inspired to link a few (!) of the Celtic related articles found on our forum.
Thank God for my seminary prof George Hunter (fourth article below) who first introduced me to the huge Celtic contribution to The Great Possibility (his term for Great Commission).
Enjoy!
And support Keltic Ken's internet radio station to soundtrack your reading.
Emerging Celtic Church as 24/7 Villages of God
URBAN IONA - CELTIC IN THE CITY
Liminal Thin Places/Celtic Bridges Between Worlds
The New Barbarians & Emerging Celtic Christianity
Keltic KristianityCelts&Anabaptists:Wisdom fromMargins for Tomorrow’s Church
Celtic Christianity
Deeper Celtic Magic, Time Travel, Drugs & RocknRoll
St Peter W.:the Dreadlocked Raw Celtic/nude baptisms..
Celtic "Pagan" Christian Festivals
Fire in Celtic Borderlands: Back to the Future
St patrick is a chinese boston celtic
Celtic Caroline Has a Provocative Bible
Celtic Double Houses: Shacking Up
Church That Will Survive 3rd Millenium=Celtic
heretical imperative, secular culture, celtic beer
Celtic Monks:Maps Suck
wine and skins
Future of the Church: centripetal or centrifugal?
St Patrick
Keltic Ken and Celtic Church
“What if we could do church any way that we wanted?”
A New Kind of Old Christian
The New Barbarians & Emerging Celtic Christianity
Celts&Anabaptists:Wisdom fromMargins for Tomorrow’s Church
Thursday, August 23, 2007
How we got the public & Monasteries paganized us
This challenging argument below is vital to wrestle with. And it must be balanced by some thoughts on a Christian sensitivity to the rhytms of time, holy order, and kairos; perhaps from a Celtic perspective (complines, anybody?)
The shift in consciousness is important to track, however.. as is the reminder that church can often be the most secularizing force in society..especially in shift eras.. I find Whiteheead at times overly reductionist..like Schaeffer..but am pleasantly surprised at the relevance of both authors for these days we live in.
Mark D and Len H. will have valuable insights here :
A tool or a machine (any form of technology) is a constituent of man's symbolic recreation of his world. Moreover, machines that have been owned and operated by only a few members of a society have often influenced the entire society.
Moveable type, for example, completely alyered, within a relatively s hort time, the entire cnceept of medieval man and society. As McLuhan notes in Gutenberg Galaxy:
"Printing from movable types created a quite unexpected new environment-it created the PUBLIC..."
There is, however probably no better illustration of technology altering Western culture (and eventyaly, the world) than nvention of the clock...Lewis Mumford calls the clock "the key machine of the modern indistrial age. In his Techics and Civilization, he describes how during the Middlel Ages the ordered life of moasteries affected life in communities adjacent to them:
"The monastery was the seat of a regular life..the habit of order itself and regulation of time sequences beame almost second nature in the monastery...As this took place,Eternity ceased gradually to serve as the measure and focus of human actions"
...It was in the medieval monasteries, moreover, with their need for rule ansd synchronized order, that the clock started its modern development ..
.Clocks, essentially an extension of man';s own biological clock, became, in effect, autonomous machines. Once started clocks ran by themselves John Whitehead The End of Man, p 114
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
More bibliolatry
Ask a fundy:
"What if you had to give up one, which would you choose: God or the Bible?"
They actually hesitate!
------------
Have conservative evangelicals fill in the blank:
"In these days,the primary way God speaks to us is through His ____"
Why do 9 out of 10 immediately fill in "Word," when this is simply Hebrews 1;1-2, and the answer is "Son"?
----------
At a number of camps, conferences and retreats, I simply read the following list of Scriptures; warning that they are all off by only one word. I get one word wrong every time. By the end of the list, the lesson is (hopefully) obvious.
· “Do not take Thy Holy Bible from me!”
· “’Not by might, not by power, but by my Holy Bible,’ says the Lord.”
· But before Mary and Joseph came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Bible.” · “As Jesus was baptized, the Holy Bible descended on him, as a dove in bodily form.”
· “John baptized with water, but I have come to baptize with the Holy Bible and with fire.”
· “There will come a day when all worshippers worship correctly: in the Holy Bible and in truth.”
· “All other sins can be forgiven, even those against the Son of Man, but there is an unpardonable sin that will never be forgiven: the blasphemy against the Holy Bible.”
· “I will send you another Helper, who will counsel you, and will be like me, the Holy Bible.”
· “The Holy Bible will lead you into all truth.” · “You will receive power when the Holy Bible comes upon you” ·
“All of them were filled with the Holy Bible, and began to speak in other tongues as the Holy Bible gave them utterance”
· “Don’t worry about what to say, words will be given you; it will not be you speaking, but the Holy Bible.”
· “Go, therefore, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Bible…”
· “The fruit of the Holy Bible is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, self-control.”
· “On the day of Pentecost, when they were all together in one place, the Holy Bible fell on them.”
· “Don’t be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Bible”
· “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Bible?”
· “The love of God, the grace of the Lord Jesus, and the fellowship of the Holy Bible be with you all.”
· “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord,” except through the Holy Bible.”
· “Do not grieve the Holy Bible.”
· “The one who has an ear, let them hear what the Holy Bible is saying to the churches”
---------------
cartoon by branthansen
Having written and taught a bit (here and here) on our tendency toward biblioltary...:
I recently caught these quotes from John MacArthur:
"There is no substitute for submitting to ____"
"If you are not a Christian, you need ______ for salvation"
"_____ is perfectly able to open an unbeliever's eyes to the truth of the gospel, convict him of sin, or even do radical surgery on his soul."
Astoundingly, he answers wrongly ("The Bible") every time...in a book (ironically titled "Our Sufficiency in Christ" (link)
And a reader of the Bible will know chapter and verse (1 Cor 2.14) for MacArthur's third misquote above:
"The unbeliever cannot understand and does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."
Observe:
Christianity is NOT a Book-religion ©1998 by James A. Fowler
link
"What if you had to give up one, which would you choose: God or the Bible?"
They actually hesitate!
------------
Have conservative evangelicals fill in the blank:
"In these days,the primary way God speaks to us is through His ____"
Why do 9 out of 10 immediately fill in "Word," when this is simply Hebrews 1;1-2, and the answer is "Son"?
----------
At a number of camps, conferences and retreats, I simply read the following list of Scriptures; warning that they are all off by only one word. I get one word wrong every time. By the end of the list, the lesson is (hopefully) obvious.
· “Do not take Thy Holy Bible from me!”
· “’Not by might, not by power, but by my Holy Bible,’ says the Lord.”
· But before Mary and Joseph came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Bible.” · “As Jesus was baptized, the Holy Bible descended on him, as a dove in bodily form.”
· “John baptized with water, but I have come to baptize with the Holy Bible and with fire.”
· “There will come a day when all worshippers worship correctly: in the Holy Bible and in truth.”
· “All other sins can be forgiven, even those against the Son of Man, but there is an unpardonable sin that will never be forgiven: the blasphemy against the Holy Bible.”
· “I will send you another Helper, who will counsel you, and will be like me, the Holy Bible.”
· “The Holy Bible will lead you into all truth.” · “You will receive power when the Holy Bible comes upon you” ·
“All of them were filled with the Holy Bible, and began to speak in other tongues as the Holy Bible gave them utterance”
· “Don’t worry about what to say, words will be given you; it will not be you speaking, but the Holy Bible.”
· “Go, therefore, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Bible…”
· “The fruit of the Holy Bible is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, self-control.”
· “On the day of Pentecost, when they were all together in one place, the Holy Bible fell on them.”
· “Don’t be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Bible”
· “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Bible?”
· “The love of God, the grace of the Lord Jesus, and the fellowship of the Holy Bible be with you all.”
· “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord,” except through the Holy Bible.”
· “Do not grieve the Holy Bible.”
· “The one who has an ear, let them hear what the Holy Bible is saying to the churches”
---------------
cartoon by branthansen
Having written and taught a bit (here and here) on our tendency toward biblioltary...:
I recently caught these quotes from John MacArthur:
"There is no substitute for submitting to ____"
"If you are not a Christian, you need ______ for salvation"
"_____ is perfectly able to open an unbeliever's eyes to the truth of the gospel, convict him of sin, or even do radical surgery on his soul."
Astoundingly, he answers wrongly ("The Bible") every time...in a book (ironically titled "Our Sufficiency in Christ" (link)
And a reader of the Bible will know chapter and verse (1 Cor 2.14) for MacArthur's third misquote above:
"The unbeliever cannot understand and does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."
Observe:
Though often perceived as the "religion of the Book," Christianity is only rightly understood as an ontological relationship with the Person of Jesus Christ who is the Word of God.
link
Girls or God
It occured to me that most of Coldplay's songs ("Green Eyes')try to be about God, but end up being about a girl.
U2's songs ("Mysterious Ways") often try to be about a girl, and end up being about God.
Maybe all of both groups songs are about both.
U2's songs ("Mysterious Ways") often try to be about a girl, and end up being about God.
Maybe all of both groups songs are about both.
The Future: Ends, Not Means
"Most people think of the future as ends and the present as the means, whereas, in fact, the present is the ends and the future the means.”
_Fritz Roethlisberger,
Harvard Business School,
quoted in Alan Hirsch's "The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church" p, 233
--------
For more on the Future (Kingdom) invading the present, try reading
"Moving information from the future to the past"
_Fritz Roethlisberger,
Harvard Business School,
quoted in Alan Hirsch's "The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church" p, 233
--------
For more on the Future (Kingdom) invading the present, try reading
THE KINGDOM’S RETROACTIVE RETROFUTURE: SEND ME MORE ARROWS
or"Moving information from the future to the past"
The Secret is Letting Go
The old joke goes something like this;
A man was greeting the pastor in the "handshake line" after church. When his turn came, he smiled and said "Pastor, excuse me, but why do you preach the exact same sermon..word for word..every week" The answer: "Well, when you all start practicing that one, I'll give a new one!"
I realized long ago that I only have one sermon.
And I'm not too good at practicing what I preach.
In a word, the sermon is:
Surrender.
In two words, AKA:
Let go.
The mystics have always known this is the secret. It's the stream running through the early fathers and mothers, through de Caussade ("Abandonment to Divine Providence", free online here) , by way of Madame Jeanne Guyon.
And closer to our day, Watchman Nee ("The Release of the Spirit" free online here) and..
..of course..
U2.
From their early days:
"If I want to live, I've got to die to myself someday....Surrender, surrender" ("Surrender").
To the 90s, when Bono ("To live in the Scriptures....To surrender; to live in the moment..these are things I am trying to understand."), in full ecstatic prophecy mode, Spiritaneously speaks to the Mexico City crowd, backdropped by a film clip of doves: "Mexico City...let go, let go, let go!"
(PopMart DVD. watch it below, the last two minutes...5:07ff...though the first minute is incredibel..he is lost in prayer on his knees):
Through the most recent tour, where the message of this backdrop below was unmissable:
Beth Maynard has blogged beautifully on this and the other texts flashed on the screen during "The Fly." I too have blogged here.
And an Israeli bloggers comments hit me most recently (note:
some of this is lifted from Beth Maynard without attribution)
For some reason, of late, I've been struck by a number of situations in my life and in those of some of the people I know where they've had to keep learning the message of surrendering in the face of Love. There's a U2 lyric that has run through my head often as this has been happening: "Love is not the easy thing/ The only baggage you can bring/ Is all that you can't leave behind."
Which of course resonates quite heavily in statements from the gospel like "Those who wish to save their life will lose it, but those who lose their life for my sake will find it." It's profound and yet obvious that real love -- of family, friends, partner, God -- can't happen until we drop all that we can of what we're carrying. And we'll find a way in that love to drop that which we think we can't. One must stop holding tightly to things and people if one wants to give and receive, because we only do those with open hands.
So it rang a little bell for me to find out that this continues to play out (glad for the pun) on the European leg of the Vertigo tour. While playing songs from Achtung Baby, the part of the show where slogans have traditionally filled the huge video screens and flashed through at high speed ("beLIEve" "Everything you know is wrong" "Watch more TV"), that trend continues, but the message is vastly different.
There are dialogues in different colors:
I HAVE NO MONEY I HAVE NO POWER
THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO THINK
As we learn how to fight "Them," "They" go on telling lies, often in red and black, and near the end the truth comes out, superimposed over big white words like HOPE:
THE SECRET IS YOURSELF
THE SECRET IS YOUR PAIN
THE SECRET IS LETTING GO GIVING UP GIVING IN
TO... [and here I was expecting at last to get the ironic turn, the way "it's your world you can change it" used to shift to "charge it," but, no, the 90s are well and truly gone:]
GIVING IN TO...
LOVE
all gold and white. And then the thing reverses itself, and plays the beginning backwards until "their" lies and "our" apathy/powerlessness disappear into nothingness before your eyes.
That is how we overcome the power of the world we live in--we live into love. I was speaking with a friend a few days ago, and he was talking about how the ultimate power is information, how knowledge can defeat what one's enemies throw at you, how information is the ultimate tactical weapon, whether one is a state, a person, an organization. I remembered that love is stronger than all that, because it removes us from needing or caring about the tactics of advantage and dominion. When we live into love, like Oscar Romero or Aun San Suu Kyi, power and advantage and death cease to have real meaning.
And you can learn this at a rock concert.
Link: http://hydepark.hevre.co.il/topic.asp?topic_id=1760652
It seems paradoxical (that is, unobvious and ironic, but just like God) that spiritual surrender can be taught and caught at a rock concert. But perhaps in these days, it is only in a secular venue that we can be reached.
Which is why Bono " uses his interview in Q to demonstrate how to pray a prayer of total surrender to God" (link).
Sigh...maybe someday soon I will faithfully practice my one sermon.
I may just be getting more creative at new ways of wording it.
A man greeted the pastor at the door and said:
"I like every sermon better than the next one."
Maybe I need to pray some more; and soundtrack my prayer to Cheap Trick..
who can be (accidentally?) prophetic..
(see "it's a Cheap Trick to surrender when in a crappy mood")
Whatever the case..
I only have one sermon.
It's a surrender thing.
You may have heard how I almost made the Guiness World Record for shortest sermon ever.
It was literally one word:
Nothing.
(story here)
Is that all I have to do to surrender?
A man was greeting the pastor in the "handshake line" after church. When his turn came, he smiled and said "Pastor, excuse me, but why do you preach the exact same sermon..word for word..every week" The answer: "Well, when you all start practicing that one, I'll give a new one!"
I realized long ago that I only have one sermon.
And I'm not too good at practicing what I preach.
In a word, the sermon is:
Surrender.
In two words, AKA:
Let go.
The mystics have always known this is the secret. It's the stream running through the early fathers and mothers, through de Caussade ("Abandonment to Divine Providence", free online here) , by way of Madame Jeanne Guyon.
And closer to our day, Watchman Nee ("The Release of the Spirit" free online here) and..
..of course..
U2.
From their early days:
"If I want to live, I've got to die to myself someday....Surrender, surrender" ("Surrender").
To the 90s, when Bono ("To live in the Scriptures....To surrender; to live in the moment..these are things I am trying to understand."), in full ecstatic prophecy mode, Spiritaneously speaks to the Mexico City crowd, backdropped by a film clip of doves: "Mexico City...let go, let go, let go!"
(PopMart DVD. watch it below, the last two minutes...5:07ff...though the first minute is incredibel..he is lost in prayer on his knees):
Through the most recent tour, where the message of this backdrop below was unmissable:
Beth Maynard has blogged beautifully on this and the other texts flashed on the screen during "The Fly." I too have blogged here.
And an Israeli bloggers comments hit me most recently (note:
some of this is lifted from Beth Maynard without attribution)
For some reason, of late, I've been struck by a number of situations in my life and in those of some of the people I know where they've had to keep learning the message of surrendering in the face of Love. There's a U2 lyric that has run through my head often as this has been happening: "Love is not the easy thing/ The only baggage you can bring/ Is all that you can't leave behind."
Which of course resonates quite heavily in statements from the gospel like "Those who wish to save their life will lose it, but those who lose their life for my sake will find it." It's profound and yet obvious that real love -- of family, friends, partner, God -- can't happen until we drop all that we can of what we're carrying. And we'll find a way in that love to drop that which we think we can't. One must stop holding tightly to things and people if one wants to give and receive, because we only do those with open hands.
So it rang a little bell for me to find out that this continues to play out (glad for the pun) on the European leg of the Vertigo tour. While playing songs from Achtung Baby, the part of the show where slogans have traditionally filled the huge video screens and flashed through at high speed ("beLIEve" "Everything you know is wrong" "Watch more TV"), that trend continues, but the message is vastly different.
There are dialogues in different colors:
I HAVE NO MONEY I HAVE NO POWER
THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO THINK
As we learn how to fight "Them," "They" go on telling lies, often in red and black, and near the end the truth comes out, superimposed over big white words like HOPE:
THE SECRET IS YOURSELF
THE SECRET IS YOUR PAIN
THE SECRET IS LETTING GO GIVING UP GIVING IN
TO... [and here I was expecting at last to get the ironic turn, the way "it's your world you can change it" used to shift to "charge it," but, no, the 90s are well and truly gone:]
GIVING IN TO...
LOVE
all gold and white. And then the thing reverses itself, and plays the beginning backwards until "their" lies and "our" apathy/powerlessness disappear into nothingness before your eyes.
That is how we overcome the power of the world we live in--we live into love. I was speaking with a friend a few days ago, and he was talking about how the ultimate power is information, how knowledge can defeat what one's enemies throw at you, how information is the ultimate tactical weapon, whether one is a state, a person, an organization. I remembered that love is stronger than all that, because it removes us from needing or caring about the tactics of advantage and dominion. When we live into love, like Oscar Romero or Aun San Suu Kyi, power and advantage and death cease to have real meaning.
And you can learn this at a rock concert.
Link: http://hydepark.hevre.co.il/topic.asp?topic_id=1760652
It seems paradoxical (that is, unobvious and ironic, but just like God) that spiritual surrender can be taught and caught at a rock concert. But perhaps in these days, it is only in a secular venue that we can be reached.
Which is why Bono " uses his interview in Q to demonstrate how to pray a prayer of total surrender to God" (link).
Bono: When I was 16, my head was exploding. I just felt my life was going nowhere. I didn’t fit in. I couldn’t get a job. I didn’t know how I could do my exams and I wasn’t even sure I could concentrate at college. In those days, I remember, a prayer came up inside me. I said “I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life but if there’s a God out there, and I believe there is, and You want me to do something, then I’m ready. I don’t have any plans for myself and I’m available for work.” Pretty much within a few months of that epiphany I had joined U2 and started going out with Ali. A pretty good two months! Now had my destiny been — if the God in heaven had said I want you to become a fireman and run up very dangerous buildings and save people’s pets, I’d like to hope I’d have gone at it with the same gusto. So — I couldn’t let go of my faith. But what’s more interesting is that I don’t think God will let go of me. I love it when people on bar stools rub their chins and say do you believe in God? That’s so presumptuous. A much more important question is does God believe in us?
Q: That sounds like you believe you were chosen.
Bono: No, no, no, I don’t believe that. I do think God gets a laugh out of using some very poor materials. I volunteered is what I’m telling you.”
Sigh...maybe someday soon I will faithfully practice my one sermon.
I may just be getting more creative at new ways of wording it.
A man greeted the pastor at the door and said:
"I like every sermon better than the next one."
Maybe I need to pray some more; and soundtrack my prayer to Cheap Trick..
who can be (accidentally?) prophetic..
(see "it's a Cheap Trick to surrender when in a crappy mood")
Whatever the case..
I only have one sermon.
It's a surrender thing.
You may have heard how I almost made the Guiness World Record for shortest sermon ever.
It was literally one word:
Nothing.
(story here)
Is that all I have to do to surrender?
sometime around 6 years go, one afternoon at jack in the box ...
"Sometime around 6 years go, one afternoon at jack in the box ..."
so begins Michael Toy's convicting read here...
..which somehow reminded me of a Richard Mouw piece "Christ Killers and Praying at Burger King"
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Some God-haunted music
Sinéad O'Connor is not your typical Christian music diva.
Neon Bible...too much salvation? Arcade Fire
Hear the new song "The Christian Sex Anthem"
Smashing the Zeitgeist With Pumpkins
Charlie Peacock on John Coltrane
Smashing the Zeitgeist With Pumpkins
Charlie Peacock on John Coltrane
list most inspiring songs...."Christian" or not
The Gospel According to Sting and The Police
Flyleaf 's Sexy Prayer
The Gospel According to Sting and The Police
Flyleaf 's Sexy Prayer
Gospel Songs by Keith Richards..
3 of U2 speak at retreat for Christian musicians
The Gospel According to St. Radiohead
Peter Gabriel Climbs Solsbury Hilll with Jesus
Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.
Bad Day For Jesus on the Upper West Side
My friend Blondie (does she realize her brilliance, her prophetic insight into music, movies and sexuality; or that she's an emerging church blogger?) blogs:
Bad Day For Jesus on the UpperWest Side
Today in Lincoln Center, magic dude, David Blane is on his 7th day of sitting in a bubble of water. I went to go see, mostly for my sister who is a fan, so I could send her a picture. It wasn't really that cool. He just looked all pruney and white. The line to go up to the bubble and get a closer look was quite long. It wrapped around the Center and was not moving fast, still the crowd was eager to get a close up look and the soggy magician. Around the corner, it is the first day of Bible Reading Week. This is where people take turns reading passages from scripture over a microphone and speakers. Two people were standing there listening.
Sorry God.
(link)
She also inspired me to comment on sex and sheep stealing here
You might also enjoy her "Why I am Independent, Not Republican or Democrat")
U2 Can Overcome the Death Bomb
U2 Can Overcome the Death Bomb
Many have asked to see this clip below; having heard me teach on it. The set up:How about this amazing live version of U2 doing "Where The Streets Have No Name" only days after Bono's father died ("It was his send-off")...so you have the
incredibly emotional prayer/death wail/tongues leading into outright worship-in/midst-of grief including an old-fashioned "glory run"...and that all in the first minute and half before the song "starts"! (read about this phenomenon in the article and comments here)....Then at the close of the song, "like the heavens have opened..Bono appears to be actually experiencing the beatific vision at stage right" (Beth Maynard,p.120, "Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalog")...."Note how the band behaves at curtain call moment at the end (p. 180)." What is drummer Larry looking at, Who is Bono applauding? Why can't guitarrist The Edge keep his eyes open? (from 5:01 till the end).
Watch the clip already:
(of course, U2 are no strangers to a theology of "death and Jesus"...click THIS for my teaching on all that)...If you love to watch Bono worship, start this song at 5:57 to hear/watch: "Blessings! All praises!":
In other words:
"the rule has been disproved" (9th post down)
(watch it happen)..
Monday, August 20, 2007
tied with beer and sex and losing only to the iPod
Fill in the blank:
"______________ was named as the second most 'in' thing among undergraduates, tied with beer and sex and losing only to the iPod."
For the answer,click this!
"______________ was named as the second most 'in' thing among undergraduates, tied with beer and sex and losing only to the iPod."
For the answer,click this!
Saturday, August 18, 2007
What Is(n't) the gospel?
Track this Dallas Willard and Len Hjalmarson (two theologians everybody should track with) inspired discussion "The gospel of sin management/The Vampire Gospel."
Friday, August 17, 2007
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Transvestites and Christian Jerks
"Uprising" posts this picture and story:
Have struck up a friendship with someone. This person is a transvestite, & I've asked em to do the film documentary on The Justice Project. I wonder how all my other friends & partners in The Justice Project community will handle themselves around a cross-dresser. He/She is brilliant, funny, kind, but clearly 'different'. Will grace & kindness be the dominant theme? I hope so.
Link
Elvis's Greatest Legacy?
"________was Elvis's greatest contribution to rock 'n' roll and to our cultural life in general. That's his greatest legacy."
Fill in the blank, and then read the article below, comparing answers:
"I really think he was trying mostly to escape the pain
of the guilt, the pain of believing that he was tapping into voodoo and the
spirit of the devil. All of that must have affected him because of his
Pentecostal upbringing. And he must've known, instinctively, that when he sang he was touched by the Spirit of God. And he apparently did read countless books trying to figure out such questions., but I don't think he ever got a satisfactory answer. It's the thing that Bob Marley lived, and not just in terms of the sex and the spirit but interms of the politics. He had that three-chorded strand. That's the wholeness I'm looking for. It says in the Bible 'the
three-chord strand cannot be broken.' That's a reference to the Trinity,
obviously, and the Trinity is God the Father,God the Son -- which is the flesh,
Jesus wanting to understand what it's like to have a body -- and the Holy Spirit.
That's what we must aspire towards. But Elvis didn't reach that state of being,
he was crushed under the weight of not figuring out how to draw together those three strands. And crushed under not being able to accept that God loves him, loves his creations as they are, and where they are.That's the tragedy. Though the problem also is learning how to live with the tensions between those forces and the thought that you may never pull them together. Maybe even feeding off that, which I think is what I do in terms of all the music I create, and my life.
Elvis was left with those two great energies,sexual and spiritual, and even
though he never resolved how to draw themtogether, with the the third strand,
his music did help so many of us to pull together at least two of those strands.
That was his greatest contribution to rock 'n' roll and to our cultural life in
general. That's his greatest legacy."
-Bono http://www.u2station.com/documents/variousarticles/irishtimes_article.txt
Comic Relief Appeal for Africa
Ricky Gervais fakes an appeal for Africa at the 2007 Comic Relief with the help of Jamie Oliver, Bob Geldolf and Bono.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Radical Links..sex, celts, Both Bonos, best blonde joke ever
