tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10647318008797311742024-03-05T02:39:15.386-05:00all the trees of the field will clap their hands<br>
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for you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace <br>
the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, <br>
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands <br>isaiah 55Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.comBlogger281125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-91022495168171274892011-08-18T11:50:00.000-04:002011-08-18T11:50:12.382-04:00reflecting: Mark 6:53-56<div style="text-align: justify;">Amidst all the commotion of Jesus walking on water (and rightfully so, I mean he WALKED ON WATER!), we may have totally skipped over the healing in Gennesaret that Mark records afterwards.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This little episode shows the crowd’s <em>immediate</em> (a great Markan word) recognition of Jesus and how they flock to him for healing. What ensues is the oddest kind of mayhem. Jesus gets rushed by all sorts of people, misfits and outcasts, wherever he goes. If they can but “touch the hem of his garment they’ll be made whole.” This is the same desperation we saw in the interruption in Chapter 5 (Mark 5:21-43) as Jesus was en route to Jairus’ dead daughter.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I’ll go ahead and out myself…I’ve probably been to hundreds of concerts and, Lord willing, will go to many more yet, but the first concert I ever attended was at the Daytona Beach Ocean Center in 1992. Two as yet unknown acts, TLC & Boyz II Men, opened for MC Hammer’s <em>2 Legit 2 Quit</em> tour. My best friend in third grade and me rushed out of our seats, leaving his chaperone mom in her seat, desperate to try and get a hand on those famous parachute pants as Hammer moved freely about the arena flaunting his brilliant new wireless microphone headset technology. We elbowed and vied, only to get boxed-out by some screaming girls, who needless to say, hit their growth spurt before we did.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">All joking aside though, I’m indicted by the fact that my most diligent attempt to get to somebody in a crowd, that I can remember, was not, and tends not to be, me getting to Jesus. In these gospel stories, I’m most struck by how Jesus is the obvious hope for these people’s hopelessness. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is not obvious to me most of the time. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I go through most of my days trying either to ignore the hopeless moments or areas of my life, drowning them out with shear busy-ness, or attempting to solve my own problems so that I don’t have to go through the hassle of having Jesus heal me.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>Jesus, make me desperate for the healing that I need and that you offer. </em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>Show me the ways I clutch at other things and people that aren’t you and can’t do what you can do. </em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>Let me recognize you immediately in my life and in the lives of others who are hurting. </em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>Amen</em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="305" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PpVlKFqxe6A" width="490"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;">A bit better musical accompaniment to Mark 6:53-56.</div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-65442338886811789912011-08-07T11:45:00.000-04:002011-08-18T11:47:42.510-04:00preaching: You Give Them Something to Eat<div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">Sermon text: Mark 6:30-44</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">Stream it from the <a href="http://www.allgather.org/2011/08/07/08-07-11-you-give-them-something-to-eat/">Gathering Church site</a> or subscribe to the podcast <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id349362154?i=88421599">via iTunes</a>.</div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-37403373682095564412011-08-05T11:42:00.001-04:002011-08-18T11:44:55.247-04:00reflecting: Mark 6:30-44<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">Have you ever seen one of those “hoarder shows” on TV? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">They’re kind of fascinating, but they’re also kind of upsetting. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Reality television is largely a case-in-point that truth, or at least “real life,” is stranger than fiction. When I was watching, I was about to totally disengage with the lives on the screen, till a behavioral psychologist came on. It seems that these professionals’ main role is to get to the bottom of some fundamental problem of “enough-ness” in their patient.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I can connect with this issue. The old man on the program hoarded because, in his estimation, there was a good chance that at some point there just was not going to be enough. He held onto things and food and memories because he didn’t believe that the future will be so kind to him. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The sad irony was that this holding onto resulted in him being threatened with losing his home because it was dangerous, losing his relationships because he had alienated the people closest to him, and losing his own possessions because of rust, corrosion and rot.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sunday we’ll explore a famous passage in Mark’s Gospel (Mark 6:30-44), but common to all four accounts, about Jesus feeding more than 5.000 people with just 5 loaves and 2 fish. Sounds suspicious given the lack of “enough-ness” in Jesus’ camp.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We get the privilege of not only hearing the good news about how Jesus manages this, but we also get to participate in a meal of communion together, remembering another dramatic moment when Jesus fed his disciples with bread. Look forward to seeing you then.</div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-62082598099908494722011-07-13T08:22:00.001-04:002011-07-13T08:24:21.322-04:00review: David Rosenfield- Son of Ojito<div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><i>Originally Published at </i><i><a href="http://www.theblueindian.com/2011/07/12/david-rosenfields-son-of-ojito/">The Blue Indian</a></i><i> on July 13, 2011.</i></div></div><br />
To start, David Rosenfield’s Son of Ojito promises an interesting mix, a veritable gumbo, of poetry, folk, blues, punk-rock storytelling. The fourteen tracks seethe with pledges of unorthodox hippy ditties in the vane of mewithoutYou or Edward Sharpe, but ultimately fail to deliver the goods on that oath. The result is an album of busky, suitcase songs, tinged with open-mic emoting and Shel Silverstein jejunery.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilbtASOWefd5SGUGuI6VE-dDu21p3iz04Ma7YipIs-s1dFr9G2CcJpn0TRPT_ICFfUuvkFSVIYL_mqjl4nm59dgEqHh9fX0WVVFqtSUHL6FTQxBo_PKbxSFqsrRmmEp2BuxtFR_-8rwsPy/s1600/son-of-ojito-good2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilbtASOWefd5SGUGuI6VE-dDu21p3iz04Ma7YipIs-s1dFr9G2CcJpn0TRPT_ICFfUuvkFSVIYL_mqjl4nm59dgEqHh9fX0WVVFqtSUHL6FTQxBo_PKbxSFqsrRmmEp2BuxtFR_-8rwsPy/s320/son-of-ojito-good2.jpg" width="320" /></a>This album was incredibly approachable and, for me, initially appealing. Lest you think I’m being too hard on this one, let me try to explain. I wanted to love it; I wanted to sink my teeth into the zanily imaginative snapshots. To put it culinarily: I wasn’t expecting fine dining. I wasn’t hungry for fillet or lobster. I didn’t expect silverware or cloth napkins. I was okay with that. It seemed Rosenfield’s album was to be some sort of fused streetfood, served in a corn tortilla out of the side of an old plumbing truck, alloying cultures and sensibilities. I readied my taste-(ear)buds, and prepared a makeshift bib out of a single-ply napkin, but when I took my first bite, it lacked the basics, the salt and the pepper, and the chicken was a bit on the pink side.<br />
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Underdeveloped, most tunes lacked the passion and believability they warranted. Sing It exudes some of the <a href="http://www.myspace.com/danielson">Daniels<span id="goog_626605128"></span><span id="goog_626605129"></span>onian</a> charm, laced with dormy acoustics and a campy chorus, that this artist and album are capable of. “Streetlights Playing Dixie” sounds like a song begun in one of <a href="http://www.mountain-goats.com/">John Darnielle</a>’s old notebooks, while “The Cat’s Meowing” too bears some of the marks of playful potential.<br />
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Rosenfield will undoubtedly continue to cook. My hope is not only that these tunes continue to marinate and develop, but also that he hones his unique recipes into something even more square and satisfying.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><i>Rating: 2.5/10</i></b></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="100" src="http://www.theblueindian.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/blue-indian-square-logo-150x150.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="100" /></div></div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-70447449449886751982011-07-12T17:02:00.000-04:002011-07-12T17:02:39.462-04:00Hymns from the Gathering Church Kickstarter<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="410px" src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1812340806/music-from-the-gathering-church-hymns-record/widget/video.html" width="480px"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A very important project to me that I’m currently working on:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">My church (<a href="http://www.allgather.org/">the Gathering Church</a>, Durham, NC) is beginning work on a full-length record of Christian hymns re-spun by our rotating casts of musicians and special guests. I realize that we’re in trying economic times, but I can truly testify that this project is no less than mission-critical to who our church is, where we are going, what we’re called to be.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Our three emphases (by no means innovative) at the Gathering Church are presence before God, connection to one another in community, and engagement with the world. The hymns that we’re getting our hands on are even less novel than the worship our Church hopes to share in. In a lot of ways we’ve come to realize that looking back is our best way forward, and that old idioms can nourish our devotion in surprising ways. This record of reworked songs will serves as a worship/devotional companion, hopefully successful in both clinging to old stories of gospel-fidelity while jarring loose the corrosion that comes with familiarity.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">You may ask, if this is so critical, why didn’t it make it even make a line item in the church budget? By using innovative fund-raising techniques like www.kickstarter.com (sometimes referred to as “crowd-sourcing”) we hope to generate and renew an important culture of artistic patronage within our local community (inside and alongside of the church). Understanding the vitality and gratuity of such endeavors pairs with my understanding of the gospel of grace that these songs sound.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">These songs “make sense” within our community. By that I mean, all of the songs we’ll commit to production have been integral to our Sunday worship at some point. They all have concrete connections to our particular community. These memories span child dedications, Holy Week services, kids’ devotions, baptisms, communion, and of course, ordinary time. They train us in a new way to speak to each other. They anticipate the choruses we’ll belt when we’re granted true union with Christ and one another.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But these songs aren’t only “ours.” We’ve also found that they are disarmingly accessible to even the most hardened cynic. Their melodies and content have a mysterious ability to bring people into a space of exploration and participation in the worship of the Triune God. These mere tunes profess a profound confidence in the creativity and redemption of the Holy Spirit at work in the world.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Finally, my hope is that my excitement about this project be evident and that you’ll consider partnering in some way with this undertaking, even as you are already an invaluable partner in the Gospel of God in Christ Jesus.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;">Here are streams for some of the guest artists to be featured, for your enjoyment:</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></div><iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="100" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=2199791867/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/" style="display: block; height: 100px; position: relative; text-align: center; width: 400px;" width="400">&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://floatingactionmusic.bandcamp.com/album/floating-action"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Floating Action by Floating Action&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;</iframe><br />
<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="100" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=3199970608/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/" style="display: block; height: 100px; position: relative; text-align: center; width: 400px;" width="400">&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://philcookandhisfeat.bandcamp.com/album/hungry-mother-blues"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Hungry Mother Blues by Phil Cook and His Feat&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;</iframe><br />
<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="100" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=92139811/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/" style="display: block; height: 100px; position: relative; text-align: center; width: 400px;" width="400">&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://lizjanes.bandcamp.com/album/say-goodbye"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Say Goodbye by Liz Janes&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;</iframe><br />
<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="100" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=1985168553/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/" style="display: block; height: 100px; position: relative; text-align: center; width: 400px;" width="400">&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://skylargudaszandtheuglygirls.bandcamp.com/album/two-headed-monster"&amp;amp;gt;Two Headed Monster by Skylar Gudasz and the Ugly Girls&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;</iframe>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-24921468215641851652011-06-17T09:50:00.000-04:002011-06-17T09:50:53.384-04:00reflecting: Mark 4:21-34<div style="text-align: justify;">This Sunday we'll continue on in chapter 4 of Mark's Gospel. This chapter is laden with stories and teachings by Jesus on the Kingdom of God. I can't help but remember, when I read this chapter of farmers and mustard seeds, when I was called on to preach one of my first sermons to a rural North Carolinian congregation two years ago. It was pretty intimidating to drive to work everyday that summer past fields and barns and then try to explicate how the Kingdom of God is like something that they knew far more intimately about than I do. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But maybe that's the point.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Kingdom of God is like a seed, even like a mustard seed. Small, but when nourished and come to fruition, yielding great and surprising things. Mysterious at its core. We rely on seeds and their fruit everyday (ie "our daily bread"), but can we really explain them, can we totally domesticate or control them, or do we, at some point just have to sit back and relish in the mysterious bounty and sustenance they provide us?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I look forward to meeting this Sunday to learn more about, to participate in, and to continue to imagine this mysterious Kingdom of God with you. I thank God that his kingdom resists mine, or ours, or really anybody's attempts to control it. I thank God for the mysterious, manna-like provision with which He keeps us and pray for the faith and patience and awe to really appreciate a loving God that works that way. Finally, I pray that I get used to that kind of Kingdom, which looks and feels so different from any kingdom I would imagine on my own or try to make for myself.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://treesclaphands.blogspot.com/2009/06/preaching-mk-426-34.html">Here is the manuscript for the sermon given (sorry there's no audio, but if you were there you'd understand why there is no audio!)</a></div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-28132146833842855702011-06-09T09:46:00.000-04:002011-06-17T09:48:11.199-04:00reflecting: Mark 4:1-20<div style="text-align: justify;">This Sunday we dive back into the story that we put on “pause” since Holy Week. We fittingly pick up Mark’s Gospel in chapter 4. I say that it is fitting because the setting of this passage that features Jesus teaching is a lake. This setting is especially familiar as we spent last Sunday at Camp Chestnut Ridge celebrating the baptisms of Steve, Tanner, and Mike. We can imagine ourselves on the shore of Jesus’ lake because we’ve so recently worshipped by the lake.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We’re involved. We’re invited to participate.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Beyond the mere setting, we’re also invited by Jesus’ teaching itself. Jesus teaches by the lake, but hardly as some sort of professor. Rather than lecture, he tells stories in parables. Jesus uses these parables to involve us. To invite us into the story. To do the imaginative work of figuring where we are in the story.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">To form us rather than just to inform us. To leave us affected.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So when we read and hear Mark 4:1-20 this week, jump into the story. Imagine the scene he paints with a sower sowing seeds that either die or flourish and bear fruit. Let this simple agricultural story put the question to yourselves and your life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">What kind of soil does God’s Word land on in you?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">What are the thorns in your life?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Where are you shallow? Where are your roots weak?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Where are you bearing fruit and how is that fruit blessing people?</div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-87217263901844127882011-06-08T09:25:00.008-04:002011-06-17T09:46:31.074-04:00review: Skylar Gudasz & The Ugly Girls- Two Headed Monster<style>
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><i>Originally Published at </i><i><a href="http://www.theblueindian.com/2011/06/07/skylar-gudasz-the-ugly-girls-two-headed-monster/">The Blue Indian</a></i><i> on June 7, 2011.</i></div></div><br />
After the bizarre <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/feb/21/rufus-wainwright-baby-with-lorca-cohen">announcement</a> earlier this year that Rufus Wainwright would father the resulting offspring of himself and Leonard Cohen’s daughter, the mere metaphor of musical love-childhood largely pales. Skylar Gudasz may not be the real or imagined kin of such folk giants as a Cohen, a Wainwright, or, say Joni Mitchell, but her and her compatriots’ debut forces such family resemblances.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNOBgkbt0JjVIrUYSoc-2BPoH5DKZGc4Rh-o-Z8M_zJpOVI_sZG5oen_PL3ygnXSI8q_S_tTwn14RKKWomJvY3RCqUXmhRCtawY9hfwxgm68T_WQoUk2fTH-NIDlmleWa61bwHnrYFsK8F/s1600/skylarcover.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNOBgkbt0JjVIrUYSoc-2BPoH5DKZGc4Rh-o-Z8M_zJpOVI_sZG5oen_PL3ygnXSI8q_S_tTwn14RKKWomJvY3RCqUXmhRCtawY9hfwxgm68T_WQoUk2fTH-NIDlmleWa61bwHnrYFsK8F/s320/skylarcover.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Two Headed Monster, while clocking in at a all-too-brief twenty nine minutes, weaves tales of midnight-lovers and dream-believers, while painting airy, tranced, sonic landscapes. From the opener, which sits you on the steps of a house in Nowheresville (which simultaneously doubles as Anytown, USA), there is both a fantastic unfamiliarity and a comforting mundanity to the scenery that only happens while you dream.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The warm, trademarked organ whir of <a href="http://arborridgestudios.com/">producer</a> Jeff Crawford continues on the second track, Killing, perhaps the most accessible and infectious of the album. Gudasz leaves behind the mystery and mystique of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Chelsea">Hotel Chelsea lobby</a> muzak for a just a moment to surprisingly channel the absolute best of a nineties coffeehouse Sheryl Crow.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Bison</i> re-injects the kind of tension and drama that can only lead to the extrication of someone who “ain’t taking your words as roots no more.” The freedom of her characters’ newfound “fast sets of legs” sprint throughout the remainder of the album amid the Ugly Girls’ (spoiler alert: they’re really boys!) poppy “badda bahs” and William Taylor’s precise tone on his diligent solos. Skylar’s voice only gets deeper and richer as the album winds to the end of its breathless half hour.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The shape-noted <i>O West</i> closes by employing a gifted choir of some of Triangle NC’s finest young guns. As the choristers’ voices rise Casey Toll’s gravitational double bass tethers the ghoulish party to the studio floor. Keep your eye and ears on this young band, such a mature debut can only lead to yet unexplored, dreamier, more expansive vistas.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><i>Rating: 8/10</i></b></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="100" src="http://www.theblueindian.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/blue-indian-square-logo-150x150.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="100" /></div></div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-81429233249338641832011-06-02T10:06:00.000-04:002011-06-03T10:09:16.864-04:00reflecting: Ephesians 6:5-9<div style="text-align: justify;">The resurrection and work.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This connection is not, at least to me, as readily apparent as the things we’ve been focused on up to this point.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Easier to see how Jesus rising from the dead might represent a fundamental shift in the way we conceive of ourselves (identity) or others (community). It might even spur on a new way to talk to each other (psalms, hymns, spiritual songs) (kind of the ANTI-Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, instead of sealing us down because of traumatic event, it opens us up following the most pivotal positive event in human history!).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But work? What’s an empty grave got to do with work? Or maybe more importantly, how can we say that things are different when they don’t look like it?</div><blockquote style="text-align: justify;">Servants, respectfully obey your earthly masters but always with an eye to obeying the real master, Christ. Don't just do what you have to do to get by, but work heartily, as Christ's servants doing what God wants you to do. And work with a smile on your face, always keeping in mind that no matter who happens to be giving the orders, you're really serving God. Good work will get you good pay from the Master, regardless of whether you are slave or free. –Ephesians 6:5-9 (the Message)</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">This passage puts forth, with painful realism, that the revolution caused by Jesus’ resurrection from the dead might not look like much at all. Wouldn’t we expect Paul instead to say something along the lines of, “Slaves, you’re no longer slaves anymore, forget about what that guy’s telling you to do,” or “Masters, you should be ashamed of yourselves, don’t you know this way of doing things is done for?!” </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Instead of totally flipping over the social tables though, the resurrection does something maybe even more subversive here. The resurrection changes the terms. It teaches us that living into the miracle (if there ever was one!) of Jesus leaving an empty tomb, might (and probably won’t) mean leaving your job to pursue a sexier (and presumably holier vocation), it probably won’t mean telling off that boss of yours, or becoming your own boss. It (gasp) might not even mean going to seminary to learn how to be a professional God-lover.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Working in light of the resurrection is instead going to entail a lot of the hard work of service. It’s going to be a new perspective on the same old thing, seeing everything, every moment as an opportunity to demonstrate the kind of world that Jesus’ risen body sets up and anticipates. It shows off the fact that living only comes through dying, and that God is faithful and able to raise the dead, to heal what’s broken, and to bring about peace, justice, and restoration even in the darkest and most unlikely places. Oh, and maybe one of those places is where you punch a clock.</div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-31710134856695827632011-05-26T10:04:00.000-04:002011-06-03T10:06:05.459-04:00reflecting: Ephesians 4:4-6<blockquote style="text-align: justify;">There is one body and one Spirit- just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call- one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:4-6</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">Sometimes it is hard for me to grasp this new identity that Jesus’ resurrection makes possible. Paul’s letter to the people in Ephesus tells them, like it tells us, that they are now free to be one. One with God and one with each other. Because of what God did through Jesus on the cross and afterwards we have this hope. We are called to this hope. Resurrection hope touches every part of our lives: our work, our words, our families, our communities, even our own hopes, dreams, and expectations. Because our sins have been atoned for (literally putting us at-ONE with God) we can live this new life.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">As we prepare for <a href="http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=122937444451613">next week’s baptism service at Camp Chestnut Ridge</a>, we’re called by this passage to remember our own baptisms. To remember that moment when we dramatically signaled that we’ve died and been raised to new life with Christ. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is a time to re-repent, recognizing the ways we still live underwater, dead. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But it’s also a time to re-rejoice, remembering what has surprisingly and mysteriously happened on Easter, and recognizing the “call to the one hope that belongs to your call.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">My prayer over the next week and a half is a prayer for one-ness. That we feel near to the God who has brought us close. That we share in this unity together as we worship and celebrate the one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Amen.</div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-5648061209935571062011-05-15T10:00:00.000-04:002011-06-03T10:19:23.392-04:00preaching: Psalms, Hymns, & Spiritual Songs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">Sermon text: Ephesians 5:8-20</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">Stream it from the <a href="http://www.allgather.org/2011/05/15/5-15-11-psalms-hymns-spiritual-songs/">Gathering Church site</a> or subscribe to the podcast <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id349362154?i=88421599">via iTunes</a>.</div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-86446094407634597922011-05-13T09:55:00.001-04:002011-06-03T09:58:35.492-04:00reflecting: Ephesians 5:8-20<div style="text-align: justify;">This Sunday I have the privilege of continuing the theme that we’ve been hitting on post-Easter. The resurrection is so central to the Christian faith it must have some pretty major implications.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It means that we have a new identity (Ephesians 2:1-10), marked not by our performance or the road that we’ve paved (cause that’s gotta end, and it will definitely end in the grave).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It means that we have a new conception and possibility for community (Ephesians 2:11-21), surprisingly open to different people than the ones we see in the mirror (and the resurrected Jesus tells us through Paul’s writings that this is an occasion for praise and not fear or strife).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And this week we find that we have a new resurrection language (Ephesians 5:8-20): Song. (song?!) That can’t be right, with all the bad stuff going around we need ways to speak that do things, good things, and you’re asking us to make music?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here’s a parable about what possibilities song has following Jesus’ victory over death in the resurrection. I look forward to seeing you there!</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9nnLTPPDRXI" width="480"></iframe></div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-60883909921971619442011-05-12T09:45:00.006-04:002011-06-03T09:59:04.604-04:00reflecting: Ephesians 2:11-22<div style="text-align: justify;"><style>
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</style></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sitting in church during Mark’s sermon on Ephesians 2:11-22 last Sunday, I was distracted in my thoughts by a book I’m current reading. It is, I think, a pretty regular phenomena for someone just finishing a school program forcing tireless amounts of academic reading over the past three years to want to read some of the leisured non-fiction they’ve missed out on.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I started with the short-story fiction of Flannery O’Connor. If you’re not familiar with O’Connor, she was a brilliant Catholic writer from Savannah who, perhaps better than about anyone, spun gripping tales about the “Christ-haunted South” in which she lived (and we still live).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzmmwPrkr2lNLYMXJAYTXq8EYpEBA6z9zzYc2uw-X0S6HLmF_6qDqJmq18bzt2ovt2KshTNOxmWvi9F_amwrhKE3WKw85u2EQmeLUYeNJHIew5XH8pD_s4drAwFULTxt0MAi5Lr2ST5mH4/s1600/Self-Portrait1953.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzmmwPrkr2lNLYMXJAYTXq8EYpEBA6z9zzYc2uw-X0S6HLmF_6qDqJmq18bzt2ovt2KshTNOxmWvi9F_amwrhKE3WKw85u2EQmeLUYeNJHIew5XH8pD_s4drAwFULTxt0MAi5Lr2ST5mH4/s320/Self-Portrait1953.jpg" width="273" /></a>As Mark expounded on Paul’s exhortations for Christians to understand and live into the “peace-making” work that Christ bought on the Cross and made possible by rising and defeating death, I mused on Flannery’s hard-hitting critiques of how much the church lags to do so. In her famous (infamous?) short story, <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/30444531/Revelation-by-Flannery-O-Connor">Revelation</a>, she introduces a terribly unsympathetic (pathetic?) character named Ruby Turpin. Mrs. Turpin sits in a doctor’s waiting room assessing those around her, measuring herself by demeaning others. She even falls asleep at night by trying to sort out the hierarchy in her head (confused about whether it be better to be a land-owning n____r or white trash). Regardless, she is glad to be who she is, pious and with quite a “good disposition.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Just when you want to really hate Mrs. Turpin, her world gets turned upside down by a series of events that forces her to see that the “bottom rail” might be on top, and to cry out to God at the apparent injustice of such a thing, at “those people” being not just included in God’s mission but actually prioritized.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">What bothered me though, in conjunction with Mark’s sermon, is that I’m not sure this is true. That the bottom rail does get put on top. Ephesians 2:14-18 says,</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><blockquote style="text-align: justify;">“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.“</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">When it says this, it seems that rather than the rails switching places, the train skips off the track. Indeed, rather than the bottom rail being on top, the Cross and Resurrection have actually totally de-railed the way things are and will be. And the Church is the first place that we should actually see proof of this.</div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-60581561501568535112011-04-15T17:31:00.002-04:002011-04-16T00:58:58.580-04:00jamming: Mount Moriah live @ Cat's Cradle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvhXYGfsRJnTFpaqCQHZeNHX2mEin905F2W-WBlFVx7ERVFPUaG1LgJRjy_P7MNLpbNgN5XULu2UdEKrUkPKY6HMCb7h9RDJ7OLmawJx1MOnytdG8Nw6alzfscMyprQBbjs6FmmcjZdCBT/s1600/mount%252Bmoriah.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvhXYGfsRJnTFpaqCQHZeNHX2mEin905F2W-WBlFVx7ERVFPUaG1LgJRjy_P7MNLpbNgN5XULu2UdEKrUkPKY6HMCb7h9RDJ7OLmawJx1MOnytdG8Nw6alzfscMyprQBbjs6FmmcjZdCBT/s400/mount%252Bmoriah.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=1064026769/size=grande2/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/" style="display: block; height: 355px; position: relative; text-align: center; width: 300px;">&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://mountmoriah.bandcamp.com/album/mount-moriah"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Mount Moriah by Mount Moriah&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;</iframe><br />
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</div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-87550527180952339222011-04-07T09:21:00.002-04:002011-04-07T09:21:56.809-04:00reflecting: Mark 2:18-22<div style="text-align: justify;">Why a wedding? I’m still stuck on that.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Read back through <a href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Mark%202.18-22">Mark 2:18-22</a>. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Why, when asked about rule-keeping and rule-breaking, does Jesus go down this rabbit trail?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">How, when these folks are asking legitimate questions about the ethical out-pouring of their worship, can Jesus get all sentimental and abstract and start talking about going to the chapel? We’re talking about obedience here. We’re trying to be God-lovers. Here. Now.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last week at a talk at Duke, world-renowned artist <a href="http://www.makotofujimura.com/">Mako Fujimura</a> brought this theme into better focus. He described the vocation of the Christian, for his talk specifically the Christian artist but more generally any follower of Christ, as being a Wedding Planner.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">That's what we are...Cosmic Wedding Planners.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We are wedding planners because we always have an eye on the end. The <a href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Re19">Wedding Feast of the Lamb</a> when we are united with Christ and worship God face-to-face forever.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ask anyone who has ever planned their wedding how myopic their vision can get among all the stress and organization and details. How easy it is to separate the preparation from the celebration. How easy it is to forget the reason you’re doing all this in the first place.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Jesus reminds us, as he reminded them. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Our faithfulness now is not just for our own sake. Our present suffering is not for naught. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Rather we plan constantly for a Great Wedding Feast. We keep our <a href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/Heb12">eyes fixed on Jesus</a> so that we don’t loose the plot. Every bit of our planning (praying, loving, sacrificing, serving, cultivating our specific callings, and being faithful where God puts us) needs to know the end.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So why a wedding? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Because, without a wedding, none of this makes sense. Without the <a href="http://listen.grooveshark.com/s/Groom+s+Still+Waiting+At+The+Altar/3woowE?src=5">groom waiting at the altar</a> all of our work, even our best attempts, is in vain. Because, if we can’t recognize Jesus in our midst and can’t look forward to being united with him in the end, we’ve missed the point altogether.</div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-91977920314785178152011-04-04T22:49:00.001-04:002011-04-04T22:49:00.347-04:00jamming: Luego & Jeff Crawford live @ MotorCo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkfOPAXTIshEP05of0y_0xL5oAGCW2Vqt1EYfRl5JrC3KL2Z0i9GdOTqByk7Ai7pquAUNIDsrWChWOa1S_K19sb1MYrA3IJkutXPSPPbj5HMMJh6RuDdgf4GiM1fYHzN6l-WrXCKGXjLWz/s1600/tumblr_libh7fqvqc1qerma0o1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkfOPAXTIshEP05of0y_0xL5oAGCW2Vqt1EYfRl5JrC3KL2Z0i9GdOTqByk7Ai7pquAUNIDsrWChWOa1S_K19sb1MYrA3IJkutXPSPPbj5HMMJh6RuDdgf4GiM1fYHzN6l-WrXCKGXjLWz/s1600/tumblr_libh7fqvqc1qerma0o1_500.jpg" /></a></div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-9412126560015066272011-03-31T11:34:00.000-04:002011-03-31T11:34:12.039-04:00reflecting: Mark 3:7-21<div style="text-align: justify;">This Sunday, we continue to follow Mark’s narrative of Jesus’ ministry (Mark 3:7-21). Fresh off the heals of Jesus’ surprising encounters with the Pharisees and the crowds where he gives a fresh vision of the Sabbath, wineskins, and what it means to be in the presence of Christ (<a href="http://www.allgather.org/2011/03/24/the-bridegroom-lord/">in short: the feasting and celebration that belongs to a wedding!),</a> we find a bit of a summary of what’s been happening. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Crowds. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Impure Spirits. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Different levels of recognition. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And a sort of expansion and contraction. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">By that I mean, the withdrawing of Jesus before the crowding around him; the gathering of his disciples before the sending of them to preach and drive out demons. This might seem exhausting. We know what it’s like to be busy, over-extended, scattered. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But it is Jesus, who brings us together. That brings us to Himself, in order to send us back out to involve others in this dynamic life with God. It is Jesus who also has the discipline to retreat to a quiet place, to narrow everything down to communion with his Father, before re-igniting His hectic life of being “for” others. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This retreat and mission, contraction and expansion, receiving and giving, reminds me of something that Paul leads with in his Second Letter to the Corinthians (2 Cor 1:3-5): </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><blockquote>Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. </blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">As we gather this Sunday, I invite you to come to the Fount, the source of comfort, refreshment, forgiveness, and life-abundance, that you may share in these gifts, be recharged, and be (<a href="http://www.allgather.org/2011/03/30/bread-and-juice-and-you-and-me/">as John Jay mentions</a>) <i>re-membered</i> for the purpose of offering that the power, love, friendship, and resurrection-hope to others who are hurting in our families, communities, and world. I pray that we all might find time and space to be with Him, that He might then send us out.</div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-58429236537183965002011-03-31T10:56:00.003-04:002011-03-31T10:56:57.525-04:00Mako Fujimura @ Duke Divinity School<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM66BEEsCyoUI3XFJjmbTZh9ZkAf5slOSsrTKp_V-Q4Ch5BWBeCwr04wmxihTP16OuSBduIyiVq5QNzyJyfjOre2Pv4XVEeZcAdhrvSIUQ3bBGXcaGh9I5GtPyv-tcCQiQG4VBxWTI3CvQ/s1600/DukeAd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM66BEEsCyoUI3XFJjmbTZh9ZkAf5slOSsrTKp_V-Q4Ch5BWBeCwr04wmxihTP16OuSBduIyiVq5QNzyJyfjOre2Pv4XVEeZcAdhrvSIUQ3bBGXcaGh9I5GtPyv-tcCQiQG4VBxWTI3CvQ/s640/DukeAd.jpg" width="406" /></a></div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-54949432807558179252011-03-24T09:33:00.000-04:002011-03-24T09:33:41.738-04:00reflecting: Mark 2:18-28<div style="text-align: justify;">This coming Sunday we’ll keep moving through Mark’s gospel (Mark 2:18-28) and catch Jesus in a couple of encounters with observers trying to figure out what following Jesus entails, and Pharisees, the good Jews who know what being in relationship with God requires and looks like.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">First, the question is put to Jesus about fasting, essentially asking, “John the Baptizer’s followers and the Pharisees are taking this whole thing seriously, bending their wills and their bodies in order to worship God, why don’t you teach that to yours? Why instead do you hang out late with these scoundrels?” Keep in mind the major contrast that’s happening here, considering the previous scene shows Jesus wining and dining with Levi and Co (Mark 2:13-17).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jesus’ response is a deeply theological one. One that tells what time it is (not time for fasting, but rather feasting!?), and understands what’s going on not as anything less than a sacred event like Marriage (“how can the guests of the Bridegroom fast?”) </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This frames Jesus’ call to and hang with Levi not as something periphery, but as the main event to Jesus’ ministry. If Jesus had just identified himself as a Doctor (Mark 2: 17), now he describes his coming as a Bridegroom looking for a bride. In the Levi feast, we get a glimpse at what it looks like when Jesus finds one. And celebration is in order; diet starts Monday, because today it’s time to party (ie Luke 15’s story of the Prodigal Son that we studied in last fall)!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The next encounter about the Sabbath again shows this reckless perspective. It features a Jesus who does not seek to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. It reveals a God walking amongst us that is so full of Grace that He and only he is Lord, only he has the authority (a big word in Mark’s gospel that keeps popping up…), to interpret what such a grace-full thing as the Sabbath means for God’s people.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">What it means is that the Sabbath is a time for feasting; a time to understand the freedom and joy in God. That God-with-us (the definition of Emmanuel) means abundance (John 10:10) and revelry. But not just a party for partying-sake, but a party that celebrates when Jesus looks for his long-lost Beloved, often the least-likely looking bride in a soiled dress, and as the Bridegroom Lord, finds and claims her for His own!</div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-88061368270986962472011-03-23T20:50:00.003-04:002011-03-23T20:57:36.368-04:00jamming: New York Hymns- Songs for Lent<img border="0" height="0" src="http://c.gigcount.com/wildfire/IMP/CXNID=2000002.0NXC/bT*xJmx*PTEzMDA5MjQ*MjEyMjQmcHQ9MTMwMDkyNDQzNDUwNSZwPTE5MDI4MSZkPWZiYjMzOGI4LTIzZmUtNDg*ZC1hNjM*LWEy/ZTUxZWU*YmM4MCZnPTImbz*5NzFiOTU5MWMwNmI*ZWJlYjM4ODU1ZDFiYmRkMjBmZiZvZj*w.gif" style="height: 0px; visibility: hidden; width: 0px;" width="0" /><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHPlBskkZEwdkwD5q5OvCSwaq5g1k4WmApRkEZFY6RZH9mdECSIzqTWu0f5Q0ma-qMW4l1hvyFp-rTa7lJdFcTn1AD3BKI2VSmrQOVwTZ_3xj25hpkyDZAD8E4juPVeMO_g4fRyp9ZdqM5/s1600/newyorkhymns.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHPlBskkZEwdkwD5q5OvCSwaq5g1k4WmApRkEZFY6RZH9mdECSIzqTWu0f5Q0ma-qMW4l1hvyFp-rTa7lJdFcTn1AD3BKI2VSmrQOVwTZ_3xj25hpkyDZAD8E4juPVeMO_g4fRyp9ZdqM5/s200/newyorkhymns.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>I don't know if jamming is the right way to necessarily put it, but you should certainly check out this free offering/compilation/devotional project by New York Hymns available for stream/download at <a href="https://www.noisetrade.com/newyorkhymns">NoiseTrade</a>. It reimagines the Stations of the Cross through newly written and newly arranged tunes. Some of the stand-outs include buddy <a href="http://cardiphonia.org/">Bruce Benedict</a>'s meditation (track 5) on Jesus meeting his mother on the road to Golgotha, an unbelievably poignant <i><a href="http://www.bowerbirds.org/">Bowerbirdsian</a></i> rumination by Benj Pocta on Christ being stripped of his garments (track 13), and of course <a href="http://www.jasonharrod.com/">Jason Harrod</a>'s resurrection song (the final song). I thoroughly appreciate and commend this project.<br />
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<img border="0" height="0" src="http://c.gigcount.com/wildfire/IMP/CXNID=2000002.0NXC/bT*xJmx*PTEzMDA5MjQ*MjEyMjQmcHQ9MTMwMDkyNDU4NjIzMSZwPTE5MDI4MSZkPWZiYjMzOGI4LTIzZmUtNDg*ZC1hNjM*LWEy/ZTUxZWU*YmM4MCZnPTImbz*5NzFiOTU5MWMwNmI*ZWJlYjM4ODU1ZDFiYmRkMjBmZiZvZj*w.gif" style="height: 0px; visibility: hidden; width: 0px;" width="0" /><br />
<div style="height: 400px; width: 240px;"><object height="400" width="240"><param name="movie" value="http://static.noisetrade.com/w/widget.swf?wid=fbb338b8-23fe-484d-a634-a2e51ee4bc80"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed src="http://static.noisetrade.com/w/widget.swf?wid=fbb338b8-23fe-484d-a634-a2e51ee4bc80" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" width="240" height="400"></embed></object></div><br />
</div></div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-29218633993778436682011-03-15T21:48:00.001-04:002011-03-15T21:49:18.616-04:00review: Arthur Alligood- I Have Not Seen The Wind<div style="text-align: center;"><i>Originally Published at </i><i><a href="http://www.theblueindian.com/2011/03/15/arthur-alligoods-i-have-not-seen-the-wind/">The Blue Indian</a></i><i> on March 15, 2011.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i>Who has seen the wind?</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Neither I nor you:</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>But when the leaves hang trembling,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The wind is passing through.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Who has seen the wind?</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Neither you nor I:</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>But when the trees bow down their heads,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The wind is passing by.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>-Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)</i></div><br />
I know nobody wants to be preached at. I know no one wants to be made aware of where they’ve come up short. Where they could do better. Where their vision is blurry, their faith shaky, their knowledge incomplete. Where they took what wasn’t theirs or thought better or worse than was the case. But maybe our best friends are those that know how to preach to us without coming off as self-righteous. They tell us the kind of truth that make us want to be the kind of person that believes it. Maybe the most intimate conversations are just really good sermons. Maybe confessing your own crap is the best homeletical move: vulnerability over fire and/or brimstone. And maybe good sermons can be better poems. Maybe they can even be woven into an album of great songs.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLi-fx5ZRca-tgnJUmGM7blprSZdH47tp1Ss1z3BAGWMEY7tB9iwh2tN4S0U_LFc4tvYZYzIeUsX0QqeJCa-78ay7CoFPoXVCSm9CgDMyOmISIVFtU8mp6K65DAAfBW_AB3T7B07Y4VYp_/s1600/arthur-alligood-i-have-not-seen-the-wind.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLi-fx5ZRca-tgnJUmGM7blprSZdH47tp1Ss1z3BAGWMEY7tB9iwh2tN4S0U_LFc4tvYZYzIeUsX0QqeJCa-78ay7CoFPoXVCSm9CgDMyOmISIVFtU8mp6K65DAAfBW_AB3T7B07Y4VYp_/s320/arthur-alligood-i-have-not-seen-the-wind.jpg" width="320" /></a>Enter Arthur Alligood: a preacher disguised as a folk singer. At the get-go, Alligood hums the sparse tune “Show Some Heart,” pleading earnestly with the listener to let down some walls, unlock some doors, and follow some of those suppressed dreams. He might as well have written this tune with a busted guitar over late-night drinks with Bill Mallonee.<br />
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He hauls the next several songs over Wallflowers dirt roads, all chugging percussion and whining steel. Just as<i> I Have Not Seen the Wind</i> starts really moving with Nashvillian adroitness, Alligood crashes with the confessional “Piece Me Together.” And in so doing, he empties any pretention that he knows exactly where he’s going.<br />
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Alligood re-mounts his whistle-stop soapbox on “Gavel”: the sweetest, most <i>Townes Van Zandt</i>-ian polemic against hypocrisy and shallow judgmentalism I’ve ever heard. Instead of harping on the sodden now, or looking for a clean-slated future, he asks us to remember the past when we “were better as a criminal begging for a second chance.”<br />
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The title track, for me, actually surpasses Alligood’s own <a href="http://www.arthuralligood.com/2010/09/demo-reel-song-2-%E2%80%9Ccome-on-something%E2%80%9D/">humbly-opinioned</a> tune for best-written song on the album. Alligood grafts an image from the Bible into an allusive and illustrative prayer. The small, humble situatedness that Alligood shares with Christiana Rossetti and sings like Josh Ritter is a powerful centerpiece, a saw dust altar call, of sorts, to the type of meekness that shall inherit the earth.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i>Rating: 8.4/10</i></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="100" src="http://www.theblueindian.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/blue-indian-square-logo-150x150.jpg" width="100" /></div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-47680167401808776622011-03-14T11:19:00.000-04:002011-03-14T11:19:09.229-04:00review: luz- Light Among Other Things<div style="text-align: center;"><i>Originally Published at </i><i><a href="http://www.theblueindian.com/2011/03/14/luzs-light-among-other-things/">The Blue Indian</a></i><i> on March 14, 2011.</i></div><div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4w6dM5h1GUxqk7TdDE7LKccQUKsV5OTs4QGD0ZYyMcezW2QOizVMNBIMngG_LpJRZ4hUxt2s8jW0Vw5cx5NM3FF2ZVgvLNNtjRSotRKHrpXsItaG6jvZwMSywA8p0rE_pLc3bD3J4F6nL/s1600/luz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4w6dM5h1GUxqk7TdDE7LKccQUKsV5OTs4QGD0ZYyMcezW2QOizVMNBIMngG_LpJRZ4hUxt2s8jW0Vw5cx5NM3FF2ZVgvLNNtjRSotRKHrpXsItaG6jvZwMSywA8p0rE_pLc3bD3J4F6nL/s1600/luz.jpg" /></a>In just under 32 minutes, Charlotte, NC’s luz (formatted that way) manages to bring you on a bumpy sonic ride of fear, faith, and vulnerability. The goal of this project, seemingly, from a band with such a name, is to illuminate via lyric and musical texture what it means to move from dark to light; despair and disrepair to hope and wholeness. Interspersed with screeching atmospheric guitar and affective ambient noise, the EP is an offering from an honest young artist to do just this.<br />
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Stephen Morrison strives to express and discover what it means to have “religion” and “try believing.” The record’s opener, “Nobody Knows My Name,” reads as a hopeful lament. The blues: frustrated with stuck-ness, fearful of the pain that change might involve, but hopeful for that better future. There’s always a tinge of hope in the blues.<br />
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“Try Believing” continues this narrative, starts to employing more of the light (than the “other things”) in order to dream of possibilities, and to struggle to find an apt “object for affection.“ The future again proves simultaneously hopeful and dreadful. Kids. Family. Fulfillment. Security. In the immediate present: none of this, and no way to get there. This is an achingly practical take on what it means to believe. To believe that these will come about, to not despair in how long they take to form, and to not force the issue in the meanwhile. The substance of the belief we’re being invited into being “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”<br />
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The next few tracks shed but more glow on the danger of living this way, leaving behind. “What I Leave” and “Come On Honey” weave eerie vocal harmonies and aggressive guitar sections to form a tapestry of regret-tinged remembrance and forward-moving closure.<br />
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Finally, “Effect” (which could have come right off of For Emma, Forever Ago), uses Bon Iver’s sprawling falsetto to close the journey. This is perhaps the short album’s pinnacle, where the band most artfully combines all the threads its been pulling, with the effect of exposing the false and pursuing “new ways to get born.”<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i>Rating: 6.7/10</i></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.theblueindian.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/blue-indian-square-logo-150x150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="100" src="http://www.theblueindian.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/blue-indian-square-logo-150x150.jpg" width="100" /></a></div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-68369647208073383042011-03-09T06:04:00.001-05:002011-03-09T06:04:01.097-05:00reflecting: Ash Wednesday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtGVF6EtWy_Ga6COe3BcwUJUuMsSGRXx6q5k8Q0JF7zep3kn7kobHlnw7o3hzALzZy8l4GMQPYK_UWkzVlRZC-Q2TmQ3WEyuZVr1nEe2Yi00syVGjMj5M8p1mTISSVUMPfONFmQAdya_fm/s400/AshWednesday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtGVF6EtWy_Ga6COe3BcwUJUuMsSGRXx6q5k8Q0JF7zep3kn7kobHlnw7o3hzALzZy8l4GMQPYK_UWkzVlRZC-Q2TmQ3WEyuZVr1nEe2Yi00syVGjMj5M8p1mTISSVUMPfONFmQAdya_fm/s320/AshWednesday.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Growing up going to Catholic school, it never really occurred to me how odd it is that so many Christians show up at work or school on some seemingly random Wednesday with a dark smudge on their foreheads. The more I think about it the stranger it is. It can certainly remind us of our mortality (the whole “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” thing). It marks off a season of penance for that hard-partying during Mardi Gras the night before?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ash Wednesday is a pretty enigmatic holiday for Christ-followers. Historically, it marks off the beginning of a Lent season, a lean period before Easter, which in itself is wrought with paradox. The word “Lent” comes from the word meaning “Spring.” This is a season of longer days, abundant flourishing, and a brilliant turn of seasonal weather. But it is also during this change that we’re asked to stop for a second and consider where we’ve come from, and who we are. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps its only by having a big, sloppy smudge placed right between our eyes that we are stopped from jumping into the feast of spring by observing a period of fasting and repentance. It is this forty day period of hesitation and evaluation that slows us down enough to see where we are, what we depend on most, who we are becoming, and where we are headed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of famed poet T.S. Eliot’s most renowned poems reflects on Ash Wednesday and Lent’s ability to do just this, letting him re-center himself. When he starts to till this ground, he turns up all sorts of mis-directions that require acknowledgement and repentance: from false hopes, to distorted love and vain wastes of time. Eliot’s prayer starts the Lenten season by entreating that God may “Teach us to care and not to care, Teach us to sit still;” that we may be reoriented in our wants and needs and freed from anxiety enough to be present to God.</div><blockquote>Because I do not hope to turn again<br />
Because I do not hope<br />
Because I do not hope to turn<br />
Desiring this man's gift and that man's scope<br />
I no longer strive to strive towards such things<br />
(Why should the aged eagle stretch its wings?)<br />
Why should I mourn<br />
The vanished power of the usual reign?<br />
<br />
Because I do not hope to know<br />
The infirm glory of the positive hour<br />
Because I do not think<br />
Because I know I shall not know<br />
The one veritable transitory power<br />
Because I cannot drink<br />
There, where trees flower, and springs flow, for there is<br />
nothing again<br />
<br />
Because I know that time is always time<br />
And place is always and only place<br />
And what is actual is actual only for one time<br />
And only for one place<br />
I rejoice that things are as they are and<br />
I renounce the blessed face<br />
And renounce the voice<br />
Because I cannot hope to turn again<br />
Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something<br />
Upon which to rejoice<br />
<br />
And pray to God to have mercy upon us<br />
And pray that I may forget<br />
These matters that with myself I too much discuss<br />
Too much explain<br />
Because I do not hope to turn again<br />
Let these words answer<br />
For what is done, not to be done again<br />
May the judgment not be too heavy upon us<br />
<br />
Because these wings are no longer wings to fly<br />
But merely vans to beat the air<br />
The air which is now thoroughly small and dry<br />
Smaller and dryer than the will<br />
Teach us to care and not to care Teach us to sit still.<br />
<br />
Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death<br />
Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.<br />
[T.S. Eliot, Ash-Wednesday, 1930.]</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Let us take this time to realize where our loves lie, where our time goes, who and what we are dependent on, and where we are headed.</i></div><i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i>Let us see the new creation of the springtime through the smudged realization of our own brokenness, mortality, and lack.</i></span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i>Let us follow Jesus through this season, to the cross and into the resurrected, free, and abundant life he made possible for us and gives to us.</i></span></i></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none;"> </span><span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none;"> </span><span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none;"> </span><span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none;"> </span><span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none;"> </span><span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none;"> </span><span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none;"> </span><span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none;"> </span><span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none;"> </span><span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none;"> </span><span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none;"> </span></div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-50629869958964048592011-03-03T10:22:00.000-05:002011-03-03T10:22:57.378-05:00reflecting: Mark 1:40-45<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTE5prJj7PZNN57iRw3dVcMw7l1fwRvGsoqsyorOKP_S9d1l8cqaQi8YcfMnRYIJyDejTNkGlirRAGJ5dax56W7-rIyL7ZX9h0yeEuYpj4mdMszky61-5rtL4PKCF23idccsXw1H54Tfjz/s1600/PictJesusHealsLeperRembrandt1655-60.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTE5prJj7PZNN57iRw3dVcMw7l1fwRvGsoqsyorOKP_S9d1l8cqaQi8YcfMnRYIJyDejTNkGlirRAGJ5dax56W7-rIyL7ZX9h0yeEuYpj4mdMszky61-5rtL4PKCF23idccsXw1H54Tfjz/s1600/PictJesusHealsLeperRembrandt1655-60.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I don’t envy the folks that do bible translation and scholarship. I’m in the second semester of my second biblical language and am tired of it. Most days it’s incredibly tedious. You spend essentially a whole semester learning language and syntax, vocabulary and verb conjugations, and only get to the gratifying stuff way later. With this in mind, it’s puzzling to me when I actually come upon a verse or word that these really smart academics can’t boil down. <br />
<br />
So we find at the end of Mark’s first chapter in Jesus’ dealing with the leper. A man suffering from leprosy, a terrible disease where your flesh rots even though you’re alive, comes to Jesus in order to be healed. Rather than asking earnestly, “Can you heal me? Can you stop me from being the living-dead? From being a social, religious, and physical outcast? Can you make me whole?” Instead, with desperate confidence he states, “If you want, you can make me clean.” <br />
<br />
It is in Jesus’ response that the translators and commentators make their money. If you pick up ten bible translations mostly likely seven will say something along the lines of “<i>being moved with pity and sympathy</i>” (Amplified Bible), “<i>moved with compassion</i>” (NLT/KJV), “<i>moved with pity</i>” (ESV/NRSV/RSV), or “<i>Deeply moved…</i>” (The Message). The greek word that yields these translations has to do with the human bowels (<i>splangknidzomai</i>). His guts; the very depths of the Jewish understanding of the person. His compassion is literally sympathetic, it makes Jesus sick to his stomach. It churns his insides to see this man in this state. <br />
<br />
The other three bibles will say something along the lines of “<i>Jesus was indignant</i>” (NIV 2011/TNIV) or “<i>Jesus was incensed</i>” (CEB). What is ticking Jesus off and why? Is he upset at the presence of this man’s brokenness before him, his deadness? Put off by the gross display of depravity? What gives? <br />
<br />
Readers of Mark’s good news have long tried to marry these two emotions of Jesus. Based on what’s just happened (the speaking with authority and confronting demons in Mk 1:21-28), both give us a valuable insight into how Jesus encounters and overcomes evil. Jesus has just cast out an unsettling and unclean spirit from a man at the synagogue and his fame is spreading. Mark scholar Joel Marcus helps us understand that, “<i>Jesus’ rage at the disease or at the demon that has caused it is mixed with his compassion for the man whom it has attacked, and by his gesture of touching the man he even risks contracting ritual impurity himself. But instead of impurity passing from the man to Jesus, the purity of Jesus’ holiness passes from him to the man, and the latter is cured</i>” (from Marcus’ Anchor Bible Commentary on The Gospel of Mark, Vol 1). <br />
<br />
Jesus doesn’t merely rage at the evil that is singling this man out and ravaging his body. Neither does Jesus’ healing good news handle his broken, dirty death with the kid-gloves of disinterested pity. He takes it on. He feels and risks. He gets angry at the right things (because this man’s sickness isn’t what it means to be human) and responds in the right ways (because of his authority, things can be different). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is good news that reaches down to his guts. </div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1064731800879731174.post-10905518142253585932011-02-25T10:57:00.000-05:002011-02-25T10:57:29.794-05:00jamming: Jessica Long & Wind & Willow live @ Motorco<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://c2so.reverbnation.com/data_public/artist/image/53/534320/056_1286736211_1286736546.jpg?1" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://c2so.reverbnation.com/data_public/artist/image/53/534320/056_1286736211_1286736546.jpg?1" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" data="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2194402696/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB//" height="100" type="text/html" width="400"><param name="movie" value="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2194402696/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB//"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="allowNetworking" value="always"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never"><object data="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2194402696/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB//" type="text/html" width="400" height="100"></object></object></div>Chris Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01917891637198620147noreply@blogger.com0