Leonard Cohen, Psalmist Has Leonard strained to hear that voice whispering through all of creation? Has he had an ear for that voice without words? Might he have the gift of translating such creational glossalia?
From Trust to Lament to Trust Again We must be a community in which such songs of lament, such abrasive crying out to God, such pain at the depths of our souls, can have free voice. You see, without such lament, without such wrestling with God, individually and communally, we can never sing praise with integrity.
Psalm 137, Exile and Rocket Launchers Songs of home, songs of hope, songs that keep a faith alive, are defiled and profaned when they become the trivial entertainment of voyeuristic oppressors.
Exile, song and rage “By the rivers of Babylon – there we sat down and there we wept.” There, by those Babylonian rivers, we hung up our guitars, put away the drums, packed up the keyboard, and refused to sing. Except for this one blues tune.
James, ‘the Rich,’ and the Complexity Argument (A meditation at on James 4.13-5.20 presented at Wine Before Beer on August 26, 2014.)
You talkin’ to me? James and the Church Some thirty five years ago I published my first article. It came out in a Berkeley, California based magazine of radical discipleship, appropriately named Radix.
A Community of the Word (A meditation on James 3.1-18 at Wine Before Beer on July 22, 2014) We are a community of the word.
Christian Expletives and Public Discourse The question was a test. So it wasn’t a real question at all.
From Grace’s to James (A meditation on James 2.1-26 presented at Wine Before Beer, June, 17, 2014) It takes less than two bars for everyone to know what’s up.
St. James and Regenerative Eroticism I have been re-reading Barbara Kingsolver’s wonderful novel Prodigal Summer over the last few weeks.
Desire of the Rich and Doers of the Word :: A Sermon on James 1.1-27 For James, theology preoccupied with getting your doctrine right, devoid of lives of generous discipleship, is bullshit, no matter how orthodox it may be.
An Epistle of Straw? Might it be that James is just too in your face? Might it be that James is just so damn uncompromising that he makes it all too uncomfortable? Might it be that an ‘established church’ that has made its peace with the empire simply cannot countenance such a radical call to discipleship?
Bud Osborn: Priest, Prophet, Poet. Presente Bud Osborn is dead. He was my friend, my mentor, sometimes my confessor. And he kept me in cigarettes. We have lost a priest, a prophet and a poet.
Nigerian School Girls and ‘Rethinking Risk’ We can help. AGF: Rethink Risk That was the ad running on my CBC feed while I was watching the now infamous video of Boko Harem militants claiming responsibility for the kidnapping of some 300 girls from a government school in Nigeria.
Dan Heap (1925-2014): A Tribute Long before I had ever heard of Dorothy Day, and long before I had heard of someone being a ‘worker priest’ I was inspired by the politics of Dan Heap.