Killing me Softly with His Song

or as I heard it as a young child "killing me softly with exxon" Like the original, I felt that way about Don McLean especially when he sang "Vincent's Song." Pink Floyd resonated with me as a young adult with "The Wall" but it wasn't until Rich Mullins that someone else really spoke my thoughts. And recently Todd Agnew has come close. So check him out at his website.

Passion and creative tension

After reading an article from The Ooze I find myself wondering about tension between passion for Christ and moderation (or to use Brian McLaren's term "Generous Orthodoxy"). The author of the article in The Ooze maintains that we live in a world that is no longer defined by the bell curve. Perhaps you remember the bell curve from college statistics or better yet from high school teachers who graded on a curve. The bell curve defines normality and extremes. Statistically, the majority of things within one standard deviation of the center (mean). In a bell curve world, 68% of us are moderate/average/normal.
Author/preacher/teacher Leonard Sweet says we now live in the world of the "well-curve" where most of us are at extremes. (The "well-curve" is essentially the bell curve turned upside down.) The author of the article in the Ooze feels that this is a call to be extreme Christians rather than simply average Christians.
Now, I firmly believe that we are called to be radical followers of Christ. Yet, I follow a savior who preached and taught a message that is more balanced than most of us. He balanced law and grace, love and justice, action and belief, personal and social holiness, care for individuals and care for community . . . In everything Jesus showed us a way that is difficult primarily because it forces us to live in creative tension between extremes.
So now as I look at the image of the roller coaster that I suggested in Sunday's sermon was the appropriate image for the Christian life, I notice that it looks like a bell curve. Okay--I'm pushing this a bit far BUT what if in our well-curve, extremist world we are called to live passionately in creative tension between the extremes? Perhaps what our world needs most right now are Christians with a generous orthodoxy that reach out to both ends of the curve?
What do you think?

Don't you just love change?

Medieval Help Desk!

Thanks to Danette Clifton for the highlight of the training on the new conference data base.

HELP!!

September 13th is fast approaching and I still need your help. So far I have raised approximately $600 in bail money for Muscular Dystrophy--I only need $200 more to send one child to camp! But my bail is $2600 for 4 children.

I called Bad Boys Bail bond to see if they could help (and because I wanted one of the cool t-shirts that comes with every bond!), but they said they couldn't help me.

So I need your help. Please help Jerry's kids (and me) by helping me get the word out. You can donate by going to this site and you can help by passing the word to others!

In the meantime, it looks like I need to go shopping for an orange jumpsuit!

Celebrate Good Times!

Today is the 25th anniversary of the Compact Disk. So in honor of this aspicious occassion, I think we should all share one reason why CDs are better than records or cassette tapes.
So here is my entry . . .
CDs are better than records and cassettes because they don't melt! (Especially important this summer!)

. . . but then again you can't make a bowl out of a CD . . .

Coke vs theology

Judging by the larger number of responses on the coke vs soda debate than the jazzaneutics reflection, perhaps I should stick to observations on Southern culture. What do you think?

Seek ye first?

Hidden in the notes at the back of the book, Dangerous Wonder, I found a wonderful quote. Juan Carlos Ortez restated Jesus's words in Matthew as he perceives many Christians actually interpret them.
"Seek ye first what you are going to eat, what you are going to wear, which house you are going to buy, which car you are going to drive, which job you are going to take, who you are going to marry--and then, if there is any time left, and its not too uncomfortable, please do something for the Kingdom of God."
(Disciple)

Help Get Me Out of Jail!!!

Someone turned me in! And on September 13, I will be arrested and escorted to Early Works Museum. I need your help to break out! And the best thing is that in helping me to escape, you can also help "Jerry's kids." So click here and help me get free from my chains!

Jazzaneutic

Back to metaphors--this may be my favorite new metaphor for the Christian life -- jazz. I have really enjoyed reading the Jazz Theologian's blog.

Today he has a wonderful reflection on a jazz-style hermenutic. "Hermeneutics" is one of those fancy theological words that I paid big bucks to Vanderbilt Divinity school to teach me--and it means simply "biblical interpretation" or more accurately it is the way we interpret the Bible (and unlike what some claim--we all do interpret scripture based on our experiences, our culture, etc.) So applying the methaphor of jazz to this idea, our jazz theologian raises the following observations -- a balanced view of scripture includes the following things
...the art of knowing the scriptures by living them and experiencing them in community.
...the willingness to let the Bible interpret us not vice versa.
...seeing meaning not only in what is said but what is being done by the Biblical authors.

Now here is where the rubber hits the road--what this means for personal bible study is that we ask the following questions as we study scripture:

* What is the author saying? (this will take care of the study part)
* What is the author doing? (this will open our eyes to the off beats--syncopation)
* Can I do that with and for others? (this will lead to improvisation and call & response)

I love this approach because I think it fits well with a Wesleyan understanding of scripture that is influenced by traditon, reason and experience but also has that practical (or practicable) aspect of our tradition. What does this scripture mean for how I live my life?!

What would you ask for if you wanted a drink of one of these?

Help answer the greatest debate--which is it? Coke, Soda, Pop or something else.

I added my answer and this is probably the only time that I have aligned myself with red states.

What do you call it? And where did you grow up?

Another sad loss

I just found out that we lost Doug Marlette on July 10th. Doug was an author, a political cartoonist and entertained me each day with his comic strip, Kudzu, which featured the wonderful Baptist preacher, Will B. Dunn. He died young and unexpectedly in a car crash. And his wit, his faith, and his talent will be sorely missed.

If you are unfamiliar with Marlette, check out Kudzu .

It's just not the same

I can't help it--I think it is a shame that Bonds has broken Hank Aaron's record! We'll never know (and he'll never know) if he could have done it by talent alone without the help of peformance enhancing drugs. And yes, I know the arguments about all the other improvements in sports equipment, etc. that changes things for athletes but I don't think drugs are in the same category. And now records created by two men who made them based solely on their athletic ability have been broken by a man whose ability needs enhancement. Perhaps he could have done it on his own, but we'll never know.

In my mind, he just isn't in the same league as Babe and Hank!

Hebrews 12:18-29

18You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, 19and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them. 20(For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death.” 21Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”) 22But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. 25See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven! 26At that time his voice shook the earth; but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.” 27This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what is shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. 28Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; 29for indeed our God is a consuming fire.

This is my scripture for August. My preaching professor suggested that we always have a "naive" reading of the text--that is we needed to read it with no prior study or ideas. Actually, that is pretty hard to do. So I thought I'd ask your help.

So here are some question for you:
What are your first impressions of this passage?
What questions do you have after hearing/reading it?
What resonates with you?
What troubles/bothers you about this passage?
Does anything confuse you?

Okay--I don't know how many of you are reading this, but I'd love to hear from all of you.

Atheist?

Well, I can't say this is the best piece of music I have heard (don't worry Jeff, I won't ask you to play it!), but it does raise some interesting ideas. What do you think?