A Full-Week of Videos on a Theme

Charlie Haden and Hank Jones

Spiritual

From one of the all-time amazing albums, this Charlie Haden piece with Hank Jones brings a week of spiritual videos to a close. I hope they moved you.

Another "Theme" Song

Hubert Laws

Amazing Grace

One of the most powerful and meditative versions of this classic. Day six of seven on a spiritual theme.

Day 5 of a Theme

John Coltrane

Dear Lord

Considered by many the most "spiritual" of all jazz masters of any time or place. Coltrane. Day five of seven on a spiritual theme.

Four Days in a Row

Horace Silver, 1955

The Preacher

A non-trumpet player, but a great trumpet part. I keep wondering about this becoming my jazz theme song? Day four of seven on a spiritual theme.

Still Got the Theme for the Week

Doc Severinsen, 1966

He's Got the Whole World in His Hands

How could I not have Doc Severinsen in a series of spiritual jazz pieces? Day three of seven.

Staying With a Theme

Maynard Ferguson

Gospel John

When I posted yesterday's video of a fantastic Freddie Hubbard song, The Gospel Truth, I wasn't planning on making it a series. But, hey, if the Spirit moves you, go with it. Just call it a "Spiritual Theme."

Music for a Monday

Freddie Hubbard, 1973

The Gospel Truth

Couldn't say it better with words!

What is Required of Us?

Since I don't preach any more, I don't usually look at the Sunday lessons. But I thought this week would be a good one to do so. There are many things that have happened in this first week of the Trump era, I wondered what wisdom and guidance might be found in Sunday's lectionary. I wasn't surprised or disappointed.

The Hebrew Bible Lesson: Micah 6: 6-8

“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you but to

• do justice, and
• to love kindness, and
• to walk humbly with your God?

The Gospel Lesson: Matthew 5: 1-12

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

• “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
• “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
• “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
• “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
• “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
• “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
• “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
• “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
• “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

May we hear and then heed.

Ash Wednesday

All

Calendar of Saints: St. Luke

Twice a week I post a quote from saints from the Episcopal Calendar of Saints that week. They are to be meditative and mindful, playful and thought inducing. I hope they are helpful in your spiritual journeys.

Luke the Evangelist
October 18

Only one post this week from the Calendar of Saints. Today is the feast day for St. Luke the Evangelist. What we know about Luke comes from the New Testament. He was a physician (Col 4:14), a companion of Paul on some of his missionary journeys (Acts 16:10ff; 20:5ff; 27-28). Material found in his Gospel and not elsewhere includes much of the account of Our Lord's birth and infancy and boyhood, some of the most moving parables, such as that of the Good Samaritan and that of the Prodigal Son, and three of the sayings of Christ on the Cross: "Father, forgive them," "Thou shalt be with me in Paradise," and "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit."

In Luke's account of the Gospel, we find an emphasis on the human love of Christ, on His compassion for sinners and for suffering and unhappy persons, for outcasts such as the Samaritans, tax collectors, lepers, shepherds (not a respected profession), and for the poor. The role of women in Christ's ministry is more emphasized in Luke than in the other Gospel writings.

I chose a quote for this week from the end of Luke's Gospel as the disciples on the road to Emmaus reflect on what happened when they met Jesus on the road. It is a text worthy of much reflection in our daily lives.

-Link

Let's Bribe Good Old Santa

There is a commercial that has been playing recently. It shows a young man who wants a shiny new luxury car. So, with Christmas coming he naturally locates Santa and starts doing nice things for him. Then on Christmas morning there it is- the bright, shiny, new luxury car.

If only it were that easy.


Actually, maybe not. No, I'm not going to say the old cliche about it having more meaning when you work for it, etc. It's about the bribery side of it. Be nice to the old man in a red suit- bribe him with coffee and kindness and he will bring you what your heart desires. Somehow that isn't the lesson I think of when I ponder Christmas. I DO believe there is a war on Christmas- but it is NOT the one you hear about from the right-wingnuts. The real war on Christmas is the one embodied in this ad. It is the war of materialism and getting what we think we want and finally, bribing God. Ooops- I meant Santa.

If you want to make it a Merry Christmas you have exactly one month left. Therefore, from last Sunday's Gospel, ne more time....

.........Feed the hungry
.............Clothe the naked
.................Visit the lonely and prisoners
.............Uplift the least and the lost
.........Heal the sick
......and then
...Love your enemies!

When you do those, we will have a truly Merry Christmas.

Otherwise, have a happy holiday.

Reflecting on Mission

Last Sunday was Mission Festival at a local church. I went to hear what the speaker- a dynamic young man with the Board of World Mission had to say and to worship in support of the ideal of missions. Mission Festivals have been a significant part of the life of the Moravian Church (and others) for a long time. The Moravians were the first Protestant missionaries, sending the first workers to the West Indies in the early 1730s. They went to share the Gospel with the slaves, not a particularly popular thing among the slave owners. The first missionary even went so far as to proclaim that he would become a slave if he had to in order to share the Gospel with them.

When I became a Christian at age 15 it was through a mission-oriented Baptist congregation. There was a mission training facility a few miles up the road and one of the sons of the congregation was a mission worker through them. Every year or so he would come home on furlough and share his work with the congregation which was giving him financial support. In addition we would regularly get letters from him outlining what he was doing. This was out version of the Mission Festival and always was moving and exciting to me.

So it should come as little surprise to anyone (but me, of course) that when I found a denomination that I felt called to be part of and to be ordained in, the Moravian Church, mission pioneers, was where I settled. I have been part of the church now for over 43 years, forty of those as an ordained pastor. Mission work has, of course, changed and, in reality, expanded to something I find even more exciting than I did back in my high school years. Mission has become far more than the sharing of the words and promise of the Gospel. It is now sharing the heart, life, healing, and soul of the Gospel where it needs to be shared.

This, too, was part of the early Moravian mission work and there are many stories about care and concern beyond simply converting the unbelievers. But it has been the changes in world cultures, technology and the self-understanding of the church that has made the biggest impact, taking the basic understanding of mission into more than it ever was.

One of the ways I understood this was to begin with the people at home and introduce them to mission as something THEY do, something they are engaged in. It becomes, at that point, a combined educational and missional experience. I first learned this through a Lutheran Church in Greenwich Village when I was doing an internship in Bethlehem, PA. The church in New York would bring youth from outside the city into the Village for a weekend of what the city was about. They had a mission to runaways and, in those days of the early 70s that was significant. It was quite an experience. When I moved to my first Moravian congregation, I signed up to take a group. Later we went to another Moravian Church on Staten Island to experience the city and its potential for mission.

You see what I learned at Operation Eyeopener was that when you enter New York City you are simply placing a big magnifying glass over the problems and needs. The same problems and needs are to be found in your local community. Once you can begin to see them, you can begin to minister to them. To me that was an essential and basic understanding of what the Christian Church is to be. Without that, we are nothing but a country club. (I do have a way of exaggerating for emphasis.) A few years later I moved to Wisconsin where a “mission trip” movement was beginning at the church I was called to serve. The day I was installed as pastor, one of the members was in Alaska on a mission trip. The point was not lost.

Three years later I arranged a trip of about 15 youth and adults to travel east from Wisconsin to New York City where the denomination had a food program for the homeless and were about to open housing for older people who had been homeless. We raised the money and traveled by train in what may have been one of the first such mission trips from the Western District. Others began to organize trips for adults to Central America and the West Indies. It took off- and hasn’t stopped.

There was some initial push-back from others, though not usually from the congregation itself. Other pastors would periodically say that we shouldn’t be spending the money that way or that it wasn’t really mission. We were simply doing tourism. While there is some truth in that, it is as much educational as it is mission so that when we got home we were more mission-aware. Adults or youth would invariably comment that they were touched, moved, changed by the experiences. Interestingly some of those clergy who raised concerns would later go on their own mission trips and become convinced of the importance and power of the experience.

As a result of some major work in the Southern Province along with a number of lay people from the Western District the whole mission trip experience expanded in the 90s and 2000s to include a number of different opportunities. Some of us even began to also take youth to places like the West Indies, Jamaica, or Native American reservations. Friendships were made, rebuilding work was done, mission was expanded.

I thought of all those things last Sunday listening to the next generation of mission leadership challenging us to keep our vision. The work of the church – what we call “mission”- is alive and well. It is just as essential as it ever has been. No, it is not always bringing people to Jesus. It is often more like taking Jesus to them.

I am excited for the future of the mission of the church. The “church” is at a time of change and uncertainty. Politics and fundamentalism have combined forces in our world to distort the message of Jesus into something I don’t believe Jesus would recognize. It is not a triumphalist attitude that mission work promotes. It is just the opposite. It is like the first Moravian missionary, willing to become a slave in order to share the Gospel.

Crumbs of Grace

Sunday's Gospel text was the story of the Phoenician woman who pleaded with Jesus for his healing. He refused with a somewhat snide remark.

It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.

But she was quick with a comeback:

Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.

Which led me to think the title of today's post. All any of us get in our day to day lives is truly nothing more than a few crumbs of grace falling, I believe, from the bounty of God. Crumbs of grace.

Yet it is enough. It is always enough. Grace is never deficient.

I have never thought,

Gee, if only I had a little more grace today. Things would go so much better.

Nor have I thought, (out loud, anyway!)

I deserve more grace. Look at all I have done. Look at how wonderful I can be. Surely there's more grace set aside for me.

I know that when I write that it sounds downright silly, if not idiotic. We all know (intellectually) that grace is unearnable. It's free, a gift, far beyond anything we deserve -or would get if justice were based on our human standards. Yet I have heard many people over the years make statements, in coded language of course, but the message is clear:

Look at me, I deserve more grace.

Sunday evening then I was doing some research for a presentation this fall that includes a look at "feminist ethics." As I was reading the description and insights of feminist ethics, it struck me that in the scene from the Gospel on Sunday, we were seeing an example of the "ethics of care" that the woman was presenting.

The "old ethics" was that this woman was below any attention. She doesn't even deserve grace. (I know, that's an oxymoronic statement!) But her ethic is far stronger. Her ethic is based on relationships and healing, not strength and force. Her ethic is based on caring for her daughter. So, in essence she says to Jesus and the disciples:

I don't care what your ethic is, mine is to take care of my daughter. It is as good as your ethic. Maybe better? Even the dogs get to eat the scraps, and Jesus, you are a man of grace and have a lot to share.

I then came across a quote in my reading that, for me, summed up the difference between her ethic and the ethic of force and wielding power:

grace is a healing power rather than a saving force.

What a statement. Healing vs. saving. Force, or a gift. Perhaps if we were more attuned to the Canaanite woman's ethic, we would be more open to caring for those around us in a more helpful way.

All In One

Jesus says that he is
the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

So what does that mean?

Let's keep it simple..

• The Way- the road
• The Truth- the direction of the road
• The Life- what you find on the Way of the Truth.

I am sure that this can (and has been) easily misused, abused and twisted. But the simplicity of it struck me as I was reflecting on the passage which was today's Gospel.

In Jesus we can find the road that is the best one to take. Once we find the road, we will find the directions (the map) that shows us how we are to travel. With the map in hand we begin to travel the road- the pilgrimage of faith and Spirit and there we find life in all its abundance.

I don't think God intends this to be a very closed and difficult road.

I don't think God intended this just to be for that small, elite group that believes right or has some kind of inside track.

I don't think God intends that this is a way to keep people from entering into God's amazing presence through some sorting of having been fortunate to have been born in the right place at the right time.

I have discovered that this is a way of openness and grace. If

The Way is open to someone like me and
The Truth is understandable by all, then
The Life can be mine.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

A Thought from Sunday's Gospel

Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
--Mark 10:42-45

Cerezo Barredo's weekly gospel illustration

Somehow, in this election season, the contrast between the leaders of the Gentiles (i.e. the nations, the politicians, the wealthy and famous) and true leadership and greatness is striking.

--Link

Just Before Advent

Well, before we get all mushy and sentimental about Christmas, here is a paragraph from the Huffington Post.

Convincing the church she does not exist for the benefit of her members, but for the life of the world is a bad church growth strategy. It's also exactly what the church must do. It's a tough sell because crucifixion seems like a losing strategy unless you believe in the resurrection. Faithfulness seems like a losing strategy unless you believe that the power of the gospel trumps our ability to come up with all the right answers to all the right questions.

Yes, I said the Huffington Post. When we in the church begin to talk like this, whether from the left or right sides of the culture, we will not find our numbers expanding. Of course, I don't think we see numbers expanding anyway. We just see people moving around from one place to another.

Anyway, on this day before the First Sunday in Advent where even I get a sentimental twinkle in the eye and on the blog, I thought I better post this to at least keep the whole thing in perspective.

Now, on with the sentiment. I have a hunch that Jesus liked that, too.

The Sunday Lectionary: Keeping Trust

With all the Penn State news this past week I was not surprised to see the assigned Gospel for this week was fitting. If I had thought about it I would have been even less surprised. These last two weeks of the Church Year are about the end of times, the final judgement. And judgement (all kinds and the lack of it) have been part of what we have hearing all week. So here is this week's judgement Gospel.

Matthew 25:14-30

14“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; 15to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. 17In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. 18But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. 20Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ 21His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ 22And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ 23His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ 24Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; 25so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? 27Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. 28So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. 29For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 30As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

The talents this week were the young lives entrusted to Jerry Sandusky and others. The talents were the young lives he said he was there to help. The talents were the university students who have now been brought into the midst of something not of their doing.

When the owner comes back and asks Sandusky and Paterno, university officials  and non-profit leaders what they did with the talents entrusted to them they will hide their heads in shame. They will stand convicted by their actions, their lack of actions or just the desire to stand by and ignore what was happening.

Hear the prophetic words where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth...

coming first from the victims.  Listen. Listen. They call to all of us.

Chaplain Mike at Internet Monk had a wonderful quote from one of my favorite writers- Frederick Buechner. It says so much about the power of story- and truth.

The Gospel is bad news before it is good news. It is the news that man is a sinner, to use the old word, that he is evil in the imagination of his heart, that when he looks in the mirror all in a lather what he sees is at least eight parts chicken, phony, slob. That is the tragedy. But it is also the news that he is loved anyway, cherished, forgiven, bleeding to be sure, but also bled for. That is the comedy. And yet, so what? So what if even in his sin the slob is loved and forgiven when the very mark and substance of his sin and of his slobbery is that he keeps turning down the love and forgiveness because he doesn’t believe them or doesn’t want them or just doesn’t give a damn? In answer, the news of the Gospel is that extraordinary things happen. Henry Ward Beecher cheats on his wife, his God, himself, but manages to keep bringing the Gospel to life for people anyway, maybe even for himself. Lear goes berserk on a heath but comes out of it for a few brief hours every inch a king. Zaccheus climbs up a sycamore tree a crook and climbs down a saint. Paul sets out a hatchet man for the Pharisees and comes back a fool for Christ. It is impossible for anybody to leave behind the darkness of the world he carries on his back like a snail, but for God all things are possible. That is the fairy tale. All together they are the truth.

• Telling the Truth, p. 7f

Easter - The Lord is Risen