Joni and Jesus: Poets of Endings

18 11 2013

by Brian Walsh

[On Sunday, November 17, the Wine Before Breakfast community joined our friends at the Church of the Redeemer, Toronto, for a service featuring the music of Joni Mitchell. The texts for the evening were Psalm 98 and the beginning of the apocalyptic discourse in Luke 21.5-19. The Mitchell songs performed were "Woodstock", "River", "Shadows and Light", "Slouching Towards Bethlehem", "Passion Play (When all the Slaves are Free)", "Both Sides Now", "A Case of You", "The Circle Game", and "Big Yellow Taxi". While this sermon makes allusions to most of these songs, the primary point of reference is "Slouching Towards Bethlehem." When that song, based on William Butler Yeats' poem, "The Second Coming," is performed just before the reading of this apocalyptic gospel text, it isn't sure whether the song interprets the gospel, or the gospel interprets the song.]

Joni

When things fall apart,
when the centre does not hold,
there will always be a blood dimmed tide,
loosed upon the world.

When nothing is sacred,
and innocence is drowned in anarchy,
then the best will simply lack any conviction,
while the worse will be full of passion without mercy.

It is never pretty when things fall apart.
And there is no cheap celebration when the centre cannot hold.

Maybe things should fall apart.
Maybe it was all a house of cards.
Maybe it was all built on lies.

And maybe the centre could not hold,
because it was a false centre,
rooted in idolatry.

But when you come to the end of things,
it doesn’t really matter how justified
and how necessary that ending might be,
it will always be violent.

Joni Mitchell is a poet of endings.
And it is no wonder that she is drawn
to William Butler Yeats’ apocalyptic poem,
“The Second Coming.”  Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Brian Walsh, Luke, Psalms, Season after Pentecost, Sermons, Wine Before Breakfast

God Bless Toronto: The Piety of Rob Ford

5 11 2013

 

by Brian Walsh

Ford

“God bless the people of Toronto.”

 So ended Mayor Rob Ford’s apology before the press assembled outside his office this afternoon.

And there were audible giggles and laughter from the audience.

He had just said,
“I sincerely, sincerely, sincerely apologize.”

Followed by,
“God bless the people of Toronto.”

Then came the laughter.

Incredible rudeness from the press?
An anti-religious secularist arrogance mocking religious sentiment?
Laughter at the only too obvious allusion to another discredited leader who was always invoking the blessing of God on America?
Or just the involuntary laughter at this cheap faux spirituality at the end of a faux apology?

After a threefold ‘sincerely’ maybe the insincerity of this little bit of piety at the end of it all was just too much.

Let’s be clear about something here.

Rob Ford was clearly embarrassed and it was incredibly difficult for him to make this apology. He said this was one of the hardest things that he has ever done. He said repeatedly how very, very, very sorry he is.

But what was he sorry for? Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Brian Walsh, Politics, Toronto

Poverty, Justice and the Fruit of the Spirit

26 08 2013

by Brian Walsh

(a meditation on Galatians 5.22-25 shared with the Wine Before Breakfast community on August 20, 2013)

In the beginning was fruitfulness.
And in the end, there will be fruitfulness.

From the beginning to the end,
it’s always been about fruitfulness.

A fruitful creation.
A bringing forth creation.
From the fruitfulness of the earth
to the fruit-bearing trees,
to the multiplying fruitfulness of birds, fish and animals,
to the fruitfulness of that creature who images the Creator,
it was all about fruitfulness.

In the beginning was fruitfulness.

And in the end there will be a tree of life,
with fruit borne twelve months a year,
and with leaves that will be for the healing of the nations.

In the end there is fruitfulness.

From beginning to end, it has always been about fruitfulness. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Brian Walsh, Galatians, Sermons, Wine Before Breakfast

It’s Jubilee Time!

24 07 2013

by Brian Walsh

(Sometimes you have to go back to basics. For Jesus that was Isaiah 61 and for us at Empire Remixed and Wine Before Breakfast it might look like Luke 4.16-30. In light of recent events, and in large part in response to Jessica Brown’s post last week on this site, this is the sermon I preached for the community on July 23, 2013.) 

“He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written.”

He went looking for this prophecy.

This was his home town, the family was there,
so were the neighbours who had watched him grow into the man he now was,
and so also, his Torah teachers were waiting to hear what their student would say,
and he wanted to get it right.

So he took a moment and found the prophecy.
And as he began to read, smiles came upon everyone’s faces.

Yes, this was the prophecy that was on their hearts,
this was the prophecy that they could recite by heart,
this was the prophecy that was at the heart of it all.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.”

The Spirit that brooded over the face of the deep in the beginning,
the Spirit who was blown into the earth creature and he became a human created in the image of God,
the Spirit who restores the face of the earth,
the Spirit who filled the builders of the tabernacle as they made an earthly home for God,
the Spirit who led the children of Israel as the Shekinah presence of God in the wilderness,
the Spirit who indwelt the Torah and led them in paths of righteousness,
the Spirit who possessed the prophets to stand up against idolatry and injustice …
that Spirit, says the prophet ‘is upon me,’
because he has anointed me …

to bring good news to the poor,
to proclaim release to captives,
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.

Jesus reaching for Isaiah 61 was almost as predictable that morning in Nazareth
as is my reaching for Luke 4 this evening in Toronto.

If you want to get to the heart of things quick,
then these are the texts. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Brian Walsh, Luke, Sermons, Wine Before Breakfast

Anti-Terrorism: Let’s get serious!

24 04 2013

by Brian Walsh

Let’s talk about two bills that have been before the Parliament of Canada.

Today, the Federal government passed Bill S-7 which amends the Criminal Code to give the state escalated powers to hold people without charge if they are suspected of conspiring towards a terrorist act. That the bill was pushed into the House this week is, of course, just a tad cynical. I mean, who would want to limit the state’s power to combat terrorism in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing last week, and the arrest this week of two men accused of conspiring a terrorist attack on a Via train.

A mural of murdered Salvadoran Environmentalist Marcelo Rivera, who opposed Pacific Rim’s mining efforts in San Isidro, El Salvador.

Now consider another piece of proposed legislation. Liberal MP John McKay put forward Bill C-300 a couple of years back: “The Corporate Accountability of Mining, Oil and Gas Corporations in Developing Countries Act.” This bill would have imposed sanctions on Canadian mining companies when they engaged in unethical behaviour in other countries. This bill was defeated in the Fall of 2010, and I simply note in passing that then Liberal leader, Michael Ignatieff, made a point of not being in the House for that important vote.

Bill C-300 wanted to find a way to insist that Canadian businesses who engaged in environmentally destructive mining, unsafe and oppressive working conditions, and even murder, would be somehow held accountable in Canada.

Let’s be clear about something here. Both of these Acts are about protection. The one that passed was about limiting personal liberties in order to protect Canadian citizens and society. The one that was defeated was about limiting certain corporate liberties in order to protect citizens, society and the environment of other nations. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Brian Walsh, Canada, Health, Politics

The Time Was Ripe: Bruce Springsteen, Hope and Jesus

22 04 2013

by Brian Walsh

(On Sunday, April 21, the Wine Before Breakfast band led a service at the Church of the Redeemer. The songs they played were “The River,” “We are alive,” “My Father’s House,” “Hungry Heart,” “Rocky Ground,” “If I should fall behind,” “Land of Hope and Dreams,” and “The Promised Land.” The texts for the evening were John 10.22-30 and Revelation 7.9-17. This is the sermon from that service.)

 

The time was ripe for the question,
and the suspense was unbearable.

This wasn’t the kind of thing that you played around with.
This wasn’t the time to be elusive.

While some asked the question to confirm their worse suspicions,
for others the question arose from their deepest hopes.

“Give it to us straight,
don’t mess around with us,
if you are the Messiah,
then tell us so plainly.”

The time was ripe for the question,
and the suspense was unbearable.

I mean, hadn’t he just awakened such hopes
with all of his talk about sheep and shepherds?

“I am the good shepherd,” he had just proclaimed,
stunning the people with the double audacity of it all.
Audacious for a Jewish man to employ those two words in this way,
­– “I am” –
and audacious with its reference to the deepest Messianic hopes
– the hope for a shepherd leader who would feed the flock,
protect the sheep and bring them home.

So, given that kind of talk,
the time was ripe for the question.

But it was also the right day for such a question.
The time was ripe, even on the calendar.

It was at the time of the Festival of the Dedication.
It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple.

It was the Festival of the Dedication. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Brian Walsh, Eucharist, Music, Toronto, Wine Before Breakfast

WBB does Springsteen

18 04 2013

Springsteen Poster


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Categories : Brian Walsh, Music, Toronto, Wine Before Breakfast

Ambivalence and Resurrection

2 04 2013

by Brian Walsh

(A sermon preached at Wine Before Breakfast, April 2, 2013, on John 21.4-19 in the context of U2′s “Beautiful Day”) 

The ambivalence is there from the beginning.

The story is clearly one of deep, deep hope,
but the ambivalence shows in the first words.

Maybe you can only taste such deep hope,
such profound restoration,
in the face of such ambivalence.

Yes, the ambivalence is there from the beginning.

The heart is a bloom,
shoots up through the stony ground.

On one level we hear echoes of Isaiah,
the wilderness will blossom,
surely that is appropriate on a Easter Tuesday.

And yet, that heart is a bloom, shoots up through the stony ground.

A farmer went out to sow, and some seeds fell on stony ground.
Maybe those seeds grew into new shoots and began to bloom,
but there is something ominous, something ambivalent about that bloom:
it won’t last.

It’s a beautiful day, don’t let it get away.
But not all that you see on this beautiful day is all that beautiful.
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out.
See the oil fields at first light.
It’s a beautiful day, but it is not without its ambivalence. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Brian Walsh, Sermons, Wine Before Breakfast

A Pastoral Letter for Holy Week, 2013

23 03 2013

by Brian Walsh

The story was going a certain way.
Sure, there were some detours along the way
and things didn’t always go totally as expected,
but the overall plot remained clear.

It was all about home.
It was all about being in exile from home
and longing for a return home.

Truth is, everything is about home.

Really, when it comes right down to it, what else is there?

And if it is about home, then it is, of necessity about story.
Stories that tell us the memories of home.
Stories that shape the contours of home.
Stories that will lead us home.

But sometimes these stories meet a dead end.
Literally.

Detours along the way are one thing, but death
… well, death brings it all to a grinding halt. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Brian Walsh, Eucharist, Holy Week, Wine Before Breakfast

Romans 13 … again: love in the night, longing for the day

7 03 2013

by Brian Walsh

Returning to Romans 13.
Wine Before Breakfast, March 5, 2013

The whole thing is really rather curious.
This injunction to obey the governing authorities.

Curious because it seems so out of place.
Curious because it just doesn’t seem to follow
from all that has proceeded it.
Curious because it is in such profound tension
with the vision of community that Paul
has just so powerfully evoked.

Could it have been ironic?
Could it have been that Paul doesn’t
mean exactly what he says
in these seven verses?

And could so much Christian legitimation
of violent and oppressive states hang on such a misreading?
If so, then this is a joke that has gone terribly, terribly wrong.

I’ve been down this path before.
Six years ago, in a rather infamous sermon
called “To hell with Romans 13”
I offered my reading of these seven verses
that tries to catch the irony,
and tries to set this text free from its political shackles.

So this time around, I’d rather go to the next seven verses
in this enigmatic chapter.
Seven verses that put the final nails in the coffin of the empire,
even as they open up paths of resurrection for the church.
In these seven verses, Paul answers two foundational questions:
in the end, what is the law to which we are subject?
… and …
what time is it? Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Brian Walsh, Romans, Sermons

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