new blog name

blogging mostly over at nhpastor.wordpress.com now, I think. Same great stuff, only (hopefully) way more of it.

Larry Norman: The Great American Novel

I just downloaded “Only Visiting this Planet” from emusic. If you don’t know who Larry Norman is, you need to look it up. I could not believe the relevancy of this song, written in the 70s. Larry was a strange mix and as such was largely rejected by the Christian community, even as he earnestly sang about Jesus and life in general from a totally devoted perspective. As I think emusic said, many of the things he said and sang have since become cliches… but he was among the first to say them.

i was born and raised an orphan
in a land that once was free
in a land that poured its love out on the moon
and i grew up in the shadows
of your silos filled with grain
but you never helped to fill my empty spoon

and when i was ten you murdered law
with courtroom politics
and you learned to make a lie sound just like truth
but i know you better now
and i don’t fall for all your tricks
and you’ve lost the one advantage of my youth

you kill a black man at midnight
just for talking to your daughter
then you make his wife your mistress
and you leave her without water
and the sheet you wear upon your face
is the sheet your children sleep on
at every meal you say a prayer
you don’t believe but still you keep on

and your money says in God we trust
but it’s against the law to pray in school
you say we beat the russians to the moon
and i say you starved your children to do it

you are far across the ocean
but the war is not your own
and while you’re winning theirs
you’re gonna lose the one at home
do you really think the only way
to bring about the peace
is to sacrifice your children
and kill all your enemies

the politicians all make speeches
while the news men all take note
and they exagerate the issues
as they shove them down our throats
is it really up to them
whether this country sinks or floats
well i wonder who would lead us
if none of us would vote

well my phone is tapped and my lips are chapped
from whispering through the fence
you know every move i make
or is that just coincidence
well you try to make my way of life
a little less like jail
if i promise to make tapes and slides
and send them through the mail

and your money says in God we trust
but it’s against the law to pray in school
you say we beat the russians to the moon
and i say you starved your children to do it
you say all men are equal all men are brothers
then why are the rich more equal than others
don’t ask me for the answer i’ve only got one
that a man leaves his darkness when he follows the Son

Understanding Jesus for who he is, or, the problem of ultimate fighter jesus

Who do you love?
Girl I see through, through your love.
Who do you love?
Me or the thought of me?
Me or the thought of me?

- John Mayer, “I don’t trust myself (with loving you)”, Continuum

This lyric caught me when first listening through the album, because it directly addresses our tendency to idealize on some level the people we love, or more generally to see what we want or expect them to be instead of what they are. For that matter, it’s not even limited to the people we love. We do this with a wide variety of pretty much everybody. Our perception of a person is largely based on our own expectations, desires, and feelings regarding that person.

If we do this with people we physically see and interact with daily or weekly or monthly, how much more likely are we to do it with Jesus?

simplicity …

I just deleted about 200 words that were unnecessarily complicated. Lots of stuff about church. So let me just share what we want spiritual formation to look like in the near future at Living Hope.

long time no blog …

I’m not sure what it is that makes it so difficult for me to maintain a blog consistently … I suppose I just have difficulty calling up the feeling of urgency required to blog when I have a lot of other stuff going on. Anyway, I’ve been thinking a lot about the 2008 presidential campaign, so I think I’ll be posting on that soon.

"Man in Black" by Johnny Cash

You wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.
Well, there’s a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he’s a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you’d think He’s talking straight to you and me.

Well, we’re doin’ mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightnin’ cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we’re reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought ‘a be a Man In Black.

I wear it for the sick and lonely old,
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mournin’ for the lives that could have been,
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.

And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,
Believen’ that the Lord was on their side,
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
Believen’ that we all were on their side.

Well, there’s things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin’ everywhere you go,
But ’til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You’ll never see me wear a suit of white.

Ah, I’d love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything’s OK,
But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
‘Till things are brighter, I’m the Man In Black

The Centrality of the Kingdom of God

Here’s a link to the message I preached at church on Sunday – dealing with the centrality of the Kingdom of God in Jesus’ teaching and in our lives.
http://www.livinghopeconcord.com/downloads/6.24.07.mp3
The first thing I noticed when I listened to it was the excessive verbal clutter … gonna be working on that.

McCain may have dropped the f-bomb in a meeting, but if so, it was definitely in a gerund.

I’m sorry, guys, but this is too hilarious to pass up. It’s from Fox News … I’ve highlighted what to me is the funniest part. It’s an article about an immigration reform meeting that John McCain was involved in.

You can read the whole article here.

Two Republican aides with firsthand knowledge of the fracas told FOX News that McCain, growing impatient with the presentation, interrupted Cornyn and challenged his commitment to strike a deal, describing the delay with an expletive for chicken feces. McCain even suggested Cornyn just leave the room.

An incredulous Cornyn hit back at McCain by insulting his attendance record at meetings and saying the candidate can’t just “parachute” into the room, the aides recounted. According to the aides, McCain then lobbed the “F” bomb at Cornyn and said he is more of an expert on immigration than anyone in the room.

A McCain spokeswoman vehemently denied that the senator had used this highly-inflammatory phrase, suggesting the senator might have used the profanity in a gerund to request that the meeting just move forward. The aide said she had never heard the senator use such a phrase in her year on his staff.

Don’t tell me that’s not funny …

A Savior on Capitol Hill

Since Scott so kindly pointed out that you can get these lyrics online already anyway, here they are if anyone is interested. These are from www.derekwebb.net, which is apparently the hardcore fansite.

A Savior on Capitol Hill
Appears on: The Ringing Bell

Lyrics:

I’m so tired of these mortal men
with their hands on their wallets and their hearts full of sin
scared of their enemies, scared of their friends
and always running for re-election
so come to DC if it be thy will
because we’ve never had a savior on Capitol Hill

you can always trust the devil or a politician
to be the devil or a politician
but beyond that friends you’d best beware
‘cause at the Pentagon bar they’re an inseparable pair
and as long as the lobbyists are paying their bills
we’ll never have a savior on Capitol Hill

[Bridge]
all of our problems gonna disappear
when we can whisper right in that President’s ear
he could walk right across the reflection pool
in his combat boots and ten thousand dollar suit

you can render unto Caesar everything that’s his
you can trust in his power to come to your defense
it’s the way of the world, the way of the gun
it’s the trading of an evil for a lesser one
so don’t hold your breath or your vote until
you think you’ve finally found a savior up on Capitol Hill

Derek Webb: The Ringing Bell

So guys …

get this album. It’s amazing. Derek Webb is going to make more people mad than ever.

I was going to post lyrics to one song, but I figured that might be premature, since the street date isn’t til May 1. So if you want it, you’ll have to go to www.derekwebb.com and preorder, at which point you get an immediate download in mp3 format.

Get it. Seriously.