"all the best songs are co-written with God" U2's 1987 telethon version of "People Get Ready"

bonus:with Springteen

It's Sunday, but Friday's coming: Bob Hyatt, Bruce Cockburn, Monty Python and Lady Galadriel

(picture credit/story)
Reading in seminary the chilling passage in Wangerin's "The Orphean Passages" where the pastor can't even speak on Good Friday has hopefully cured me once and for all of the extreme end of the"It's Friday, but Sunday's coming" spectrum.

From the book:

"Jesus was dead. There was absolutely nothing left to say."
(click for context)

That's not the expected Good Friday sermon.

But it's the only one we have.

I wrote in my response paper, realizing I didn't get Friday grieving:

"Do I know or love Jesus?"

I don't always love lament, but lament loves me. I grieve not grieving.
Here's my Good Friday message from a years ago..

"The Lord Be With You..,,.Even When He's Not!" 

(click to read)

Yes, I know he's not not with us.
But even though that's the point, it's sometimes not the point.
It's partly Friday on Sunday sometimes.

And Len quotes some wonderful companions, Bob Hyatt, Bruce Cockburn and Lady Galadriel:

Boby Hyatt writes:
“I once attended a Good Friday service where the pastor encouraged us to look at Good Friday positively, to see the crucifixion through “Easter eyes.” To be honest, the bright lights and the upbeat music and mood felt to me like a missed opportunity. His intentions were good. He wanted to protect us from feeling defeated as we meditated on the death of Christ. But in doing so, he robbed us of exactly the feeling and experience that Good Friday is meant to give us.
“Those of us who inhabit the sphere of “American Christianity” live in a world that doesn’t know when, how, or even why to grieve. For us, Christianity is about victory, it’s about feeling better about ourselves. It’s upbeat, inspiring, short, and peppy. I know one pastor of a large church who once asked his worship leaders not to play any songs written in a minor key. Too much of a downer.”
So true. And it isn’t merely an eschatological or symbolic reason that we read in the birth narratives of Herod’s attempt to rid the world of a coming king. In this world, as the Lady Galadriel affirms in The Fellowship of the Ring, “love is now mixed with grief.” It’s much harder to escape this reality when living in community with those attempting to shed their addictions. Sometimes, like Bruce Cockburn sings, “life’s a piece of shit — when you look at it..” (Brighter
Side of Life)...
-Len Hjalmarson
(note: the song Cockburn covers is from Monty Python here.
The Bob Hyatt article is here)

Scripture as punishment

“The holy writings are valuable for those who use them right,” testified one Anabaptist at the Regensburg trials in Bavaria. “But their misuse is the source of all heresy and unbelief. To the scribes and the Pharisees the holy writings were not a guide to Christ, but a hindrance and eventually a punishment.”
- Peter Hoover, The Secret of the Strength: What Would the Anabaptists Tell This Generation
(from a good article on bibliolatry by David Flowers)

pastors should be offered drugs a lot more: Chris Seay video

Video interview: Bruce Cockburn

HT: Len

The Passion (and SpaceTime) acc. to Glenn Beck and Pink Floyd

Story and audio here. Fan video below:

Still life a la Giotto : from the passenger seat

The great Rev. Bluenote says you can learn a lot about someone by snapping/painting a still life portrait of any items in the passenger seat of their car. It's true:
:Great book, btw