Monthly Archives: April 2011
An Easter Song, or Quote of the Day #7
The lions in the street
bend their heads
for the reckoning day
’cause the interstate’s
giving up her dead
for the reckoning day.Would you come alive everybody?
Would you come alive everyone?
Get up out of bed for the
sound of the song unsung.Bury all your guns in the sand
’cause the temperature’s changed
and the boot shot
eye of the sun
stains the bones of the slain.Would you come alive everybody?
Would you come alive everyone?
Get up out of bed for the
sound of the song unsung.The hour’s gonna take you apart
on the reckoning day
if the property lines of your heart
are drawn in the clay.Would you come alive everybody?
Would you come alive everyone?
Get up out of bed for the
sound of the song unsung.The tidewater’s taxing the shores
of the washing away.
The flood stands
high at the doors
of the houses you’ve made.Would you come alive everybody?
Would you come alive everyone?
Get up out of bed for the
sound of the unsung.Lift up your head,
Oh you gate.
Life up your head,
all you who wait.
Daughter and son,
ashes and dust,
come untied from the
weight of the age.
John Mark McMillian, “Reckoning Day.”
Good morning, everyone. It’s Sunday.
An Easter Vigil Song, or Quote of the Day #6
Though the earth cried
out for the blood,
satisfied her hunger was.
Billows calmed on raging seas
for the souls of men she craved.
Sun and moon from balcony
turned their head in disbelief.
Precious love would taste the sting,
disfigured and disdained.On Friday a thief,
On Sunday a king,
laid down in grief,
but woke with the keys
of hell on that day,
the first born of the slain.
The man Jesus Christ laid
death in his grave.So three days in darkness slept,
the morning sun
of righteousness,
but rose to shame
the throws of death
and overturn his rule.
Now daughters
and the sons of men
would pay not their dues again.
The debt of blood
they owed was rent
when the day rolled anew.On Friday a thief,
on Sunday a king,
laid down in grief,
but awoke holding keys
to hell on that day,
the first born of the slain.
The man Jesus Christ
laid death in his grave.He has cheated hell
and seated us above the fall
in desperate places he paid our
wages one time once and for all.
John Mark McMillan, “Death in his Grave”
Sunday’s coming.
Christ has died.
The Gospel according to St. Mark, 15:21-39.
They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. Then they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull). And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh; but he did not take it. And they crucified him, and divided his clothes among them, casting lots to decide what each should take.
It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. The inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Hews.” And with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!” In the same way the chief priests, along with the scribes, were also mocking him among themselves and saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also taunted him.
When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “Listen, he is calling for Elijah.” And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”
When I woke up for class today, all I had was Greek. We came prepared to take our weekly quiz, but after we did so, the normal lesson did not follow. Instead, Dr. Clapp pulled up the New Testament and turned to Mark 15. For the rest of class, we read the Passion narrative in Koine Greek. As we corporately read, we moved from phrase to phrase and I could understand bits and pieces — some from memory others from actual Greek vocabulary. Regardless of whether I knew what was being said or not, there was a power about the reading of the words. So, if you have the opportunity, go to a Good Friday service today and hear the story told again. If you do not, gather in your households, dormitories, or apartments and read the story again together. You need not parse out the theology (or the Greek), just hear the story again. Here it again and again and again. Read the rest of this entry
“Unbind him, and let him go.”
[[This is the sermon I preached last Sunday at Kyle Avenue Baptist Church in Alabama City.]]
“Unbind him, and let him go.”
10 April 2011
What do we do with a story that we have all heard? This is the perennial problem when preaching out of the Gospels. So often, we have heard this story before. Is there even value in telling it again? I think so. I think the most powerful things that we do in the Church involve repetition, not novelty. When we come to the Table for the Lord’s Supper, it is something we do the same almost every time, but it is in this repetition that it develops meaning. It is in doing something again and again that you find purpose and reason in it. These are like parts of a conversation. In coming to the Table, we hear Christ say, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In doing so, we say amen with our actions. Reading Scripture is not all that different. When we come to Scripture, obviously we are usually not coming to it for the first time. So when we read a passage that we have heard again and again, we ought to stop and listen. Scripture, tradition, prayer — all of these are ways we talk with God. Scripture is sacred space. The Bible is not unlike a cathedral, I think. When we approach it, we must do so with reverence and expect to encounter God there. And if traditions like the Lord’s Supper and prayer are when we speak to God, it is in reading Scripture that we listen. With that in mind, listen to the story of Lazarus as it is found in the eleventh chapter of the Gospel of John. Read the rest of this entry
