Sermon on Luke 3:7-18 (Advent 3 C)

Zephaniah 3:14-20: 14Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! 15The LORD has taken away the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies. The king of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more. 16On that day it [...]

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Reading the Bible with the Church Fathers

From Ancient Evangelical Future… 1. The New Testament authors clearly applied Old Testament texts in ways that departed seriously from the plain, surface meaning of the text. When Paul cites Psalm 19 in Romans 10 (“their voice is gone out into all the world”), he applies the Psalmist’s statement about the heavens to the preaching [...]

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Greater Than Putting Flowers on a Grave

From the Ekklesia Project: And while a decoration of a grave may dwell on our loss, All Saints’ Day sharpens our focus on the resurrection. A death date on a gravestone may remind us of the day someone “left us.” The tradition of lifting up the death dates of historic Christian martyrs calls us to [...]

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Mystery – by Charlie Hall

This is one of the most creative attempts at a worship music video I’ve seen in a while. The low-fi feel is perfect. Lyrics are: Sweet Jesus Christ my sanity Sweet Jesus Christ my clarity Bread of heaven broken for me Cup of salvation held up to drink Jesus the Mystery Christ has died and [...]

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Marva Dawn on sabbath, rest, and creation

from The Work of the People Questions for reflection: Where do you “over do it”? Where do you need to slow down? How does your church/ministry counteract the need for Sabbath? Does your church/ministry promote “going” to church, or “being” the church?

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Three Levels of Participation in Worship

Don Saliers (in Music in Christian Worship) presented the idea of three levels of participation in worship. The first level of participation is the actual doing of the liturgy (singing, praying, reading, etc.). The second level of participation is the same actions of the first level, but doing them as the church. This level implies [...]

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A Worship Servant

OK, if you haven’t figured it out, I heart Twitturgies. If you’re a worship musician and you tweet, you need to follow this. Last week one came through that really got me thinking: in worship a servant, in service a worshipper. Those are pretty good lyrics right there, with enough content to fill a book. [...]

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Die and Be Raised

The Work of the People, an excellent source of films for worship, has a new video of Walter Brueggemann called “Die and Be Raised.” He speaks about death and resurrection in light of our economic turmoil. By and large, very few people go to church on Good Friday. A lot of people go to church [...]

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Why God might hate Christian radio (part 1)

Now, do I really think God hates Christian radio? Probably not. But, He might. He might avoid it on the dial as much as I do. Here’s a good reason: Approximate quote heard on the radio today… I’m just so amazed every time I see the sky and think “Wow, God created that just for [...]

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