Set the Captives Free? Yes we can (through the cross)

12 11 2008

by Frederick Harrison

I’ve been gnawing on the Luke 7:17-35 passage over the last month. Especially verse 22.

John is in Herod’s dungeon wondering when Jesus will depose Herod and establish a Godly kingship on earth. He remembers the Isaiah 61 prophecy but doesn’t get the bigger picture.

John has in mind unfortunates like himself, jailed because those in authority don’t like what he is saying. “Brood of vipers!” indeed. We’ll throw him in the pit until he pays us a little more respect. Read the rest of this entry »


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Liberated Imaginations: Kicking at the Darkness Until it Bleeds Daylight

14 07 2008

In May, Brian Walsh was invited to give a lecture at the annual Refresh conference hosted by Wycliffe College. The conference theme this year was “Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs,” with guest speakers Marva Dawn and Graham Kendrick.

For this event Brian chose to reflect on the nature of worship that has emerged in the Wine Before Breakfast community, specifically the role of lament in our life together. So he crafted a talk that integrated music and spoken word and asked members of the Wine Before Breakfast band to help in the presentation.

We make that talk available in our resources section. An audio CD of the presentation is available from Wycliffe College, less the concluding performance of Emmylou Harris’s “The Pearl.”


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Romans Disarmed :: A Salon Discussion

2 04 2008

So we’ve been running a series on Romans over here at empire.remixed. Did you know? Many of the pieces published here on the blog were originally delivered in sermon format throughout last year at Wine Before Breakfast.

WBB is a eucharistic community that meets weekly on Tuesday mornings at 7.30 am during the school year in Wycliffe College’s chapel, and sponsored by the CRC Campus Ministry.

Some of our favourite posts from that series include We’re All in This Together on Romans 3, Creation’s Groan on Romans 8, To Hell With Romans 13 on (you guessed it) Romans 13  and Letters From the Future on Romans 14.

And now, we’re happy to announce our second in a series of Salon Discussions, this time featuring two prominent biblical scholars with expertise in Pauline Theology and the book of Romans. Behold: Read the rest of this entry »


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Remixing the Empire

21 03 2008

by Brian Walsh

A reflection on John 18:28-19:30
Wine Before Breakfast
Originally Delivered March 18, 2008

Prophet, Priest … and now King. Our Lenten journey at Wine Before Breakfast stayed in one place and at one time this year. We spent our Lent meditating on John 13 to 17, the “Upper Room” discourse on Thursday night of Holy Week.

And in the upper room with the disciples we have met Jesus the priestly prophet who demonstrates what kind of a community his disciples are called to be through the washing of their feet.

We have then sat at the feet of the one who teaches us not to fear because he knows where this story is going; who gives a new commandment that fulfills all the commandments; who retells Israel’s story of wine and vines so that it applies to the community he leaves behind. And then we listened in as Jesus exercised his priestly ministry in a prayer, a high priestly prayer, for his disciples … for us. Read the rest of this entry »


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Lament with a Purpose

20 03 2008

by Andrew Stephens-Rennie

And laments have a purpose, and laments have a cost
A requiem playing that gathers the lost
It sometimes tastes sour, this sweetness of hope
When the blizzards are raging on this lovers slope
Yet I don’t want to freeze, inside or out
For it’s you that dissolves the cold walls of doubt

- Martyn Joseph, “Turn Me Tender” from the album Deep Blue

Tonight is a night for laments. As I sit here in my home, after a dogged afternoon of writing prayers for an ecumenical Stations of the Cross experience tomorrow in St. James Town, I feel tired, worn. Read the rest of this entry »


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Will You Take My Cup?

7 03 2008

by Andrew Stephens-Rennie

A reflection on Romans 15:1-13
Wine Before Breakfast
Originally Delivered March 13, 2007

Jesus cries out,
battered and bruised
in the garden of torment, sweat, and blood he prays:

Take this cup from me.
Will you take the cup? Read the rest of this entry »


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To Whom Shall We Live (or Die)?

25 02 2008

by Rachel Tulloch

A Reflection on Romans 14:1-12
Wine Before Breakfast
Originally Delivered February 27, 2007

Upon first glance, we might wonder whether Paul doesn’t sound like a modern liberal in this passage with his commands about accepting diversity and not passing judgment.

However, while tolerance has become the buzz word today for accepting differences and not judging, the Christian ethic goes much further than this – it is an ethic of welcome. “Welcome the one whose faith is weak”.

I can tolerate someone whom I do not love, but a community committed to Christ opens its arms in welcome, embracing a diversity of ethnicities, classes, opinions and practices and breaking down those barriers that divide. Read the rest of this entry »


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Letters from the Future

18 02 2008

by Stuart Basden (via)

A reflection on Romans 14.13-23
Wine Before Breakfast
Originally Delivered March 6, 2007

A letter found shredded in a garbage dump. Dated March 6, 2048.

Dear Paul,

I write this to you to inspire you with hope. I am near the end of my life and I remember when life was much different, when we had considerably more freedom, and when global devastation seemed so far off. But you are young and may have many years ahead of you, so let me now pass on to you some of the history of the past few decades.

I am one of the more conservative of our community, although I do not always allow these colours to show. Times change, and so do words. Things that were once wonderful and life-giving can become stifling and deadly. Read the rest of this entry »


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To Hell With Romans 13

14 02 2008

by Brian Walsh

A reflection on Romans 13:1-7
Wine Before Breakfast
Originally Delivered February 6, 2007

Let me put my cards on the table right from the outset. I am sick and tired of hearing Christians who have something at stake in the status quo of economic, social and political systems of injustice appealing to Romans 13 to legitimate unswerving obedience to oppressive and deceitful regimes.

I speak a fair bit in the US and whenever I am addressing the question of the meaning of the gospel for our political lives someone invariably asks, “yes, but what about Romans 13?”

What about it? I reply.
Read the rest of this entry »


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We’re all in this Together

5 02 2008

by Rachel Tulloch

A reflection on Romans 3:9-31
Wine Before Breakfast
Originally Delivered October 10, 2006

It was all over the news when the gunman entered the one-room Amish schoolhouse killing five girls and wounding several more. This was evil. I remember clearly when I was told that four men had grabbed my 14 yr. old friend on her way home and dragged her to a deserted field to assault her.

This was evil. When we think about events like this which seem all too frequent in our world, evil is easy to identify and easy to become angered at. We look at those who commit these horrible things and quote along with Paul,

Their feet are swift to shed blood;
ruin and misery are in their paths,
and the way of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Read the rest of this entry »


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