Prayer Litany: Psalm 2 through the lens of Jesus What happens when you pray Psalm 2 through the lens of Jesus?
Parental Advisory: Idols are F**ked up When you don’t give a flying f**k about the people in misery, when you are happy to rape their land, wipe out whole towns of peasants, allow education and health care to become almost non-existent, and in the process leave the nation with insupportable debt for generations to come, then it sure looks like some sort of idolatry is afoot. Only idolatry can explain this sacrifice of people, land and the future. Idols require sacrifice, and they have an insatiable appetite for children.
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.
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?
Thomas, Doubt and Practicing Resurrection [An Easter sermon on John 20.19-31 preached at Wine Before Breakfast on April 22, 2014.
The Cross – This Ain’t No Prom A sermon preached on John 19.17-42 at Wine Before Breakfast on April 15, 2014.
Everyone’s Got a Game A sermon on the conclusion of the trial scene before Pilate in John19.1-16 preached at Wine Before Breakfast on April 8, 2014.