The Anti-Triumphal Entry I had the privilege to teach on Palm Sunday last week at Crosspoint from Mark 11. You can listen to the sermon HERE. Wishing you Shalom this Holy Week, Joel K PS - I am going to write on this blog again someday, not just post sermon audio, but it has been a blur lately so this is the best I can do.
I had the opportunity to preach at Crosspoint Community Church again last Sunday. It was the first in a series of sermons drawn from Jesus' last week. The text was Jesus looking over Jerusalem and the scene in the temple where he drives out the vendors.
I had the privilege of preaching this past Sunday evening at Crosspoint on the first part of John 14 - in particular I AM the WAY & the TRUTH & the LIFE.
The sermon was delivered in three segments with music between each mini-talk for reflection. The music has been removed on the recording.
I had the privilege to play a set on the main stage at the Anchorage Folk Festival this past Thursday night. I've wanted to play there for a while and always failed to send in an application. For more about the festival click here. I really enjoyed playing. Was super nervous at the start and my vocals (which are never stellar) are reflective of those nerves on the first track in particular. I've experienced a ton of technical issues trying to post the show here. If you would like to hear the show goto my Facebook page by clicking here.
My Nativity Project: A Journey Through the Manger Scene in Sermon and Song (#8 - The Shepherds) Here it is the third, and final, sermon installment for the My Nativity Project. It is a sermon I delivered this past Sunday at Crosspoint Community Church (Anchorage, AK) as part of the "Christmas Visions" series. You can listen to "The Shepherd's Vision" here. (You will need to search for it under the series title "Christmas Visions" or for me as a speaker). Happy New Year!!! Joel K BONUS: If, on the this New Years Eve, your not totally done with Christmas I can highly recommend Rob Bell's discussion of Christmas with Alexander Shaia here. This podcast blew my mind - like everytime I listen to Alexander Shaia. Also the audio of Rob Bell's "Revolutionary Christmas - Live at Largo is available for download here. It is TOTALLY worth the $5 (which is being donated in full to Charity:Water). This was another mind blowing look at Christmas
My Nativity Project: A Journey Through the Manger Scene in Sermon and Song (#9 - The Star - Bonus Christmas Day Edition) NOTE: #8 The Shepherd's - will be available soon. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Often at the top of the nativity sits a star. We don't talk much about the star at Christmas other than to mention it in the Magi story. I once heard a sermon that was preached from the perspective of the star. I remember it being rather good, but I can't tell you one specific thing that was said. Such is that fate of even the best work of preachers, I guess. In my defense, and the preacher's, it was over twenty years ago. Speaking of the Star atop the manger scene, reminds me of one of my favorite songs from this Advent - "Another Christmas" by the Ohio-based band Over the Rhine. This melancholy holiday song offers some memorable and thought provoking lines such as:
"This old world so sweet and so bitter
Seeds of violence we humans have sown
And these weapons we still love to handle
May our children have strength to let go
When we look at the stars after midnight
Sparkling rumors of redemption at play
Can we still hear the echoes of angels
Who were singing that first Christmas day"
The lyrics speak directly to the current state of the world and offer the hope of redemption brought by Jesus moving into our neighborhood. However, it is the refrain that has drilled it's way into into my mind and spirit this Christmas...
" ‘Cause I’ve committed every sin
And each one leaves a different scar
It’s just the world I’m livin’ in
And I could use a guiding star
I hope that I can still believe
The Christ child holds a gift for me
Am I able to receive
Peace on earth this Christmas"
While we often seek feel good songs at Christmas, it is the depth of reality that is sung by Linford Detweiler that strikes me. As he confesses his need for a guiding star I sense my turn in the confession booth making the same claim. When he asks if he is able to receive a gift from the Christ child, I too wonder if I can trust that the baby Jesus still has a gift for me.
So as we finish this exploration of the nativity I find myself placing this hope of a guiding star on top of the manger scene residing in my blistered soul in hope that a true guiding star will take the place of that hope. That guiding star would be a gift I would be glad to receive.
Joel K
You can find the lyrics for "Another Christmas" here.
BONUS TRACK:
The second song I fell in love with this Christmas is Sam Phillip's "Cold Dark Night." It is just a great track and I offer it to you as a gift on Christmas Day!
My Nativity Project: A Journey Through the Manger Scene in Sermon and Song (#7 - Jesus) For a few years I was a Bible teacher for a small Christian school. The main subject I taught was the Gospels. In that class, each week, the students were assigned to write a single page on Jesus. All the prompts began with "Jesus is / was __________" with some provocative word of phrase in the blank. Today we turn our thoughts to the child in the manger at the center of the nativity. In doing so I offer these two statements for consideration: Jesus is/was a rebel. Jesus is/was a refugee. Each with a song to guide our reflection. Back in the days before downloadable content I used to trade for bootleg live recordings a bit. One of my favorite trades was for a recording of Bruce Cockburn doing a live radio Christmas special (he did those for a few years). On that particular recording was a special guest appearance by Jackson Browne. The song Browne choose to sing solo is "The Rebel Jesus." That song is a critique of Jesus' followers. The third verse always strikes me with its bluntness and often needed rebuke: "We guard our world with locks and guns And we guard our fine possessions And once a year when Christmas comes We give to our relations And perhaps we give a little to the poor If the generosity should seize us But if any one of us should interfere In the business of why there are poor They get the same as the rebel Jesus"
But as we gaze into the manager at the center of our nativity and see a baby it is hard to see a rebel. A few weeks ago a Facebook friend of mine (Nate Bacon) posted this thought:
"Advent. The coming of the King…as a defenseless child. The age-old adage, ‘might makes right’ is literally undermined by the birth of a Child who had no place to lay his head…born at the margins of Empire whose local manifestation—Herod—teetered with insecurity at this threat from below, and responded with violence and infanticide. Terror has long roots in our world…the white-knuckled gripping onto transient power…the hatred and persecution of those who would oppose and subvert our regimes…the pitting of race against race…denying our common humanity and ignoring the common threats to our existence on this planet. Into this malaise comes a child who will lead the Way."
Looking at the child in that light begins to unlock the rebel-ness of Jesus and hints at another prompt I used to hand out - "Jesus is/was a revolutionary." Can we see in the Baby Jesus, laying in a manger, the subversion of a rebel and a revolutionary? Can we hear in the words of Jackson Browne the reality that often we, as Jesus' followers, are far from rebellious or revolutionary?
If I were still teaching high school students this Christmas season I would have assigned the prompt "Jesus is/was a refugee." All the talk of national security with Presidential candidates and politicians making statements daily about closing our borders and other responses to the crisis' at hand we forget that Jesus is born into volatile political environment. Luke's account of the birth starts by telling us who the Roman ruler was that was ordering the census and a few verses later Luke is stealing a title from that ruler - "The Lord" - and giving it to the baby in the manger. That is an act of political poetry that speaks to the unrest of the time. The birth account in Matthew tells us about how threatened Herod by this new King. Put another way, the situation was so tense that a king was put on guard by a baby, so much so that he kills any potential rival to his throne and power. It is at that exact moment that Jesus becomes a refugee as he and his family flee to Egypt.
Can we look into the manger this Christmas and see a baby refugee? Can we see Jesus in the faces of those forced from their homes and countries because of political unrest that often flood our TV news broadcasts? Can we see the story of the birth of a rebel, revolutionary, refugee has happening in a world much like our own?
I offer the song "If You Were Born Today" by Low as a soundtrack for mulling over the rebel, revolutionary, refugee who came as a baby to be "God with Us"?
