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Text of the page (random words):
to start the instrumental track by the end of the first sung phrase after just eight notes the audience erupts not in jeers but in cheers they can hardly believe their ears as a glorious voice comes out of this unassuming body jaws drop hands clap smiles break across faces and tears fill eyes as the shock and perhaps shame rolls over the crowd in one phrase the hearts of the crowd were transformed and they fully embraced the dream of this humble woman from a village in scotland and as i indicated before i can t help but wonder if the exuberance of their acceptance of her was in some way an act of penance for their initial readiness to laugh at her they judged her on worldly standards of what a star should look like they lowered the bar on their expectations based solely on this woman s appearance and their assumptions could not have been more wrong it was a moment of transformation as the expected was turned on its head the crowd was changed and i d like to think in some ways because of the lesson they learned when susan sang many of them will never be the same our gospel text for this morning takes place directly after the text we read on easter sunday the story on the road to emmaus at the conclusion of that reading the couple on the road returns to the disciples and tells them of their experience of how the risen jesus had been made known to them in the breaking of bread the story of emmaus continues to be my favorite resurrection narrative but as you all know phil already preached on it this year and so i am left with the next part of the story and there are some things about the continuation of the story that are a bit sticky for many of us for here we have jesus appearing among the disciples keep in mind that he doesn t knock or do anything else quite so mundane to signal them to his presence he just sort of appears out of thin air as they are talking amongst themselves he then proceeds to prove to them that it is indeed he the crucified one who is standing among them he does a number of things to back up his claim he asks them look at his hands and his feet there the marks of crucifixion are clear he asks them to touch his wounds making even more real the truth of that event but notice that this still doesn t quite do the trick for them while the disciples begin to experience the glimmers of great joy at the possibility that this could indeed be jesus they dare not jump into the water and prefer instead to still just dip a toe in checking to see if the water is alright they like us still need some convincing and so jesus asks them to give him something to eat and he then eats some of the broiled fish in front of them do you see what he s doing here he is once again at table with them participating in the eucharist something he did with them on many occasions think back to the stories of the feeding of the multitudes what did they eat bread and fish and here in these back to back accounts of jesus appearing before those who loved him he breaks bread and eats fish what a beautiful way to make himself know to them in their midst experiencing him doing what he always did and finally after jesus eats the fish he opens their minds to understand the scriptures and the transformation is complete this last part has caused many of us some trouble because too often we read it as just another example of proof texting which i really don t think jesus was about but there it is right there in print for all to read however this week i was enlightened by the insight of one of my professors brandon scott who says jesus is not appealing to specific texts to prove his messiahship he is not proof texting he is appealing to the pattern of scripture as indicated in the stories of moses and the prophets the prophets and the messiah proclaim god s word and are always rejected persecuted and killed and still god affirms them that is the pattern of divine necessity it is another one of those over arching themes of the bible of which i am so fond of speaking there are many themes that ark their way throughout scripture and the mis treatment of those with prophetic voices is certainly one of those consistent themes the story of jesus is further affirmation of that theme and so the writer of luke sets the scene for us seeing jesus being with him and seeing the wounds he suffered eating together and sharing scripture together these things combine to open the hearts and minds of the disciples there is something important i want to point out in this appearance of jesus though when jesus tells the disciples to look at him to see and touch his hands and his feet he is giving them the opportunity to see and embrace the crucified christ this is not feel good warm fuzzy stuff this is pain and suffering with the marks to prove it right there in plain sight this is not jesus as he was before this is jesus in a new form made stronger in death but not denying that death not glossing over it as though it does not have implications for his ministry for it most certainly does it sheds new light on all that came before it opens the minds of the disciples to new understandings of what jesus said to and modeled for them time and time again it transforms them barbara brown taylor preaches poignantly on the way jesus draws attention to his hands and his feet she reflects on the ways in which his hands and feet have been important in his ministry of healing people breaking bread and traveling around to share the good news his hands and feet were wounded now all of them the hands that had joined him to other people and the feet that had joined him to the earth they had holes in them sore angry looking bruises that hurt the disciples to look at only it was important for them to look because they had never done it before he wanted them to know he had gone through the danger and not around it as another scholar reflects the important phrase here is through the danger and not around it much of our time and energy is spent on finding a way around things rather than living through them we don t want to experience pain or danger or even to come face to face with the suffering of other people or the suffering of the earth what can we do about all of that and yet taylor says we bear hope for the world because of that commission jesus gave the disciples and the whole church long ago when that world looks around for the risen christ when they want to know what that means it is us they look at not our pretty faces and not our sincere eyes but our hands and feet what we have done with them and where we have gone with them resurrection is a strange and wonderful thing it s one of those things that is really difficult to wrap our minds around especially considering the scientific and reason driven context in which we currently live the idea of a person dying and then coming back to life again is unbelievable but in fact that is not really resurrection that is resuscitation which is not what we are talking about here lazarus coming back to life was resuscitation jesus appearing to his disciples is resurrection the difference is that it is not a corpse coming back to life resurrection is jesus in new form a form that is not initially recognized by those who see him in their midst here in this story resurrection is something that is experienced in the community gathered together breaking bread sharing a meal studying scripture being the body of christ together the resurrection is a transcendent moment it is the moment when jesus becomes christ it is the moment that makes possible our experiences of the risen christ in our midst this day and every day the resurrection reminds us that when it comes to god things just aren t the way we expect them to be god cannot be put in a box just when we think we have things figured out bam something happens that shakes us to the core flipping everything we thought was so on its head forcing us to re evaluate to re configure to re imagine so i invite you to open yourselves up to the transformation that comes in the wake of resurrection and re imagine the world with me posted in uncategorized tagged resurrection worship leave a comment watch your language april 8 2009 by emily not long ago i was singing along in worship and i suddenly realized the magnitude of the lyrics that were coming out of my mouth we were singing the song jesu jesu it s a folk song out of ghana one i learned when i was a member of a united church of christ congregation a number of years ago i always thought it was a great song lifting up the example of jesus who served his friends by washing their feet reminding us that all people are our neighbors regardless of race or proximity calling upon us to serve our neighbors the same way jesus served his disciples jesu jesu show us how to love show us how to serve the neighbors we have from you but on this particular sunday in a different church singing out of a different hymnal i suddenly felt ill at ease here are the lines that caught my attention kneels at the feet of his friends silently washing their feet master who acts as a slave to them loving puts us on our knees serving as though we are slaves this is the way we should live with you i m sure i have sung this song a number of times before but never had that line hit me the way it did on that particular sunday we should live as slaves with jesus what i looked around at the congregation and thought to myself how do our brothers and sisters who perhaps have ancestors who were sold or born into slavery feel as they sing these words what does such a line mean for them i tried to justify the words by reminding myself that there is a lot of slave language in the bible especially in the epistles reminders that we are to be slaves to christ slaves to one another in love so that s where the language for jesu jesu comes from but then i started thinking when i learned this song in my ucc church did i learn it with the slave language i pulled out my new century hymnal and thumbed through the index to find out here are the two corresponding verses in the new century hymnal knelt at the feet of his friends silently washing their feet jesus you acted as servant to them loving puts us on our knees showing our faith by our deeds serving the neighbors we have from you the version from the new century hymnal shows that it s possible to sing this song in a way that communicates the same idea without using slave language this is a great example of the way that lyrics can be modified in order to preserve rather than change the meaning of a song but why did the other hymnal i sang out of a few weeks ago not take notice of such language why did it not strike the hymnal committee those responsible for putting together all of the hymns as troublesome what is it about the songs that we sing why do we still find it acceptable to sing male dominant language for god all while seeking to use inclusive language in our speaking why is it ok for our hymns to be drenched in the language of hierarchy when we preach mutuality why doesn t it bother us that serving as a slave is lifted up as a good thing in our hymn singing when we live in a country still haunted by the institution of slavery and all of its consequences and repercussions language is so loaded all of us bring our experiences and our baggage to our understandings of words and while some of the lyrical changes in the new century hymnal trip me up i have to applaud the intentionality with which they did their work in compiling this new hymnal published in 1995 the hymnal committee took seriously concerns of patriarchy sexism racism and other forms of prejudice and considered how these prejudices are often reinforced in the words we sing they took a close look at the theology of the hymns we sing and discovered the ways in which our singing theology is often very different from our preaching and practicing theology and worked to compile a hymnal that was more consistent a clear example of their work is the hymn jesu jesu fill us with your love because of hymns like this i will keep my new century hymnal nearby for those times when we need an alternative vision for the songs we sing a vision that celebrates god s call for mutuality and love of neighbor for further information about the thought process behind the new century hymnal go to http www ucc org assets pdfs intro pdf posted in uncategorized tagged diversity emergent emergent church feminism hospitality hymns inclusivity music mutuality progressive racism worship 2 comments christianity 21 march 24 2009 by phil i m excited to hear about the upcoming christianity 21 conference which features 21 female voices sharing their vision on the future of faith in the 21st century one of the long standing knocks on the whole emerging church conversation has been in relationship to its lack of diversity with few exceptions it has seemed like its main spokespersons have been straight white males ala brian mclaren tony jones doug pagitt dan kimball etc and while i love the work of each of these leaders i m really glad to see the public face of the emergent conversation become more diverse in scope and i know that they are as well i say public face of the emergent conversation intentionally because behind the scenes and in the blogosphere the emergent conversation has long been much more diverse than what first meets the eye it s no longer possible to pigeon hole the emerging conversation to just one particular group of folk for the voices around the table are growing much more diverse at christianity 21 for instance in addition to featuring 21 female voices there are representatives who are young and old gay and straight evangelical and progressive etc i can t help but think this is a good thing for the church in general and the emergent conversation in particular i m also noticing that the influence of the emergent conversation is finding its way into most of the dominant expressions of western christianity its influence in evangelical culture is well noted but it is slowly finding its way into mainline expressions of church and worship as well and just last weekend the first ever catholic emergent conference took place in time i won t be surprised if the whole labels of emerging and emergent begin to wane in fact i think they are already beginning to do so emergents resist labels as it is and i wonder if the influence of the emergent conversation is beginning to carry enough weight in western christian circles to stand on its own without having to constantly refer back to itself for more established institutions of church the emergent conversation serves as a much needed critique while those in the academic world have been thinking and writing about the import of postmodernism and pluralism for quite some time at least since the sixties emergents have been the first to significantly wrestle with what all of this means on the ground at least in terms of the church and if the emergent critique is r...