Wine, bread and prayer with the music of Leonard Cohen
A Eucharist service led by
The Wine Before Breakfast Band,
with Brian Walsh preaching
Sunday, October 14, 2012
7.00pm
Church of the Redeemer, Toronto
Avenue Road and Bloor Street
Click here for:
A poster for the event
More information about the church (incl directions, TTC, etc.)
It seemed over the top.
No, not my sermon last week! I’m talking about Paul.
OK, maybe the sermon was a little heavy too.
But Paul was really laying it on, wasn’t he.
“Those who practice such things deserve to die.”
And, of course the “such things” that he was talking about included everything from sexual predation to covetousness, envy, strife, rebellion towards parents, and foolishness.
For these things, he said, we deserve to die.
(an email that became a pastoral letter)
They’ve come to be known as the “clobber texts.”
You know the one’s I’m talking about.
Those six texts – count them, there are six! ‑ that purportedly are about homosexuality.
Six texts in the whole Bible.
I don’t know, but somehow the more than 2000 texts in the Bible that address poverty and justice just seem to outweigh these six texts.
“Paul, a slave of Jesus the Messiah.”
Seven words to open a magisterial letter and the author has already given notice.
He has, in these mere seven words set the agenda for his most extensive letter of subversion.
Seven words and the hierachically oppressive structures of Rome are thrown on their heads.
Paul … a slave.
Not Paul, a citizen of Rome.
Not Paul, claiming to have the legitimacy that is afforded by the empire.
Not Paul, enjoying his status as a citizen, a free man.
No, Paul … a slave.
Read more Wine Before Breakfast – ‘Seven Words’
You know that I think a lot about “home.”
Some folks think that next to “empire,” home is pretty much all I do think about.
Or at least that I’m likely to find either home or empire (or more likely both) under every verse of the Bible.
Guilty as charged.
But I am not sentimental about home.
I know all about broken homes,
homes of violence,
homes of exclusion,
homes of betrayal,
homes that are far from safe and far from sweet.
Read more Wine Before Breakfast – Coming Home in the Empire
WBB, 9/11 … Ten Years Later
Dear friends:
Wine Before Breakfast was born while the smoke was still billowing from the ruins of the World Trade Center. Exactly one week after that fateful September 11, 2001 we gathered for the first time as a worshipping community at the University of Toronto.
No happy praise songs that morning.
No upbeat enthusiasm to gather in the crowds.
Rather, we began our life together as a community in lament.
And over these past ten years lament has never been far from our worship.
Ten years of war.
Ten years of escalating international terrorism.
Ten years of injustice.
Ten years of increased assault on this good creation and its most vulnerable inhabitants.
And the lament has got personal on all kinds of levels.
We have faced death in the community.
We waited and prayed while Jim Loney and three other Christian Peacemakers were held captive in Baghdad.
And our lament has also been deeply personal at times.
Broken relationships. Struggling faith. Deep disappointments.
But we have still been able to sing.
Read more Wine Before Breakfast Returns
by Brian Walsh
Matt Redman’s song “Blessed be your name” is a powerful testimony to praise in the face of both joy and sorrow.
Blessed be your name
in the land that is plentiful
where your streams of abundance flow
blessed be your name
Blessed be your name
when I’m found in a desert place
though I walk through the wilderness
blessed be your name.
Redman has it right. Blessing the name of God is a radical act that happens whether the “world’s ‘all as it should be’” or we’re “on the road marked with suffering.” And so Redman invites us to sing:
Every blessing You pour out
I’ll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord …
But then in the bridge he pushes the song to a place that I seldom can go. Read more Remembering Gerald Vandezande: Prophet and Friend
Resurrection, Cover up and doubt: Partying Nonetheless
Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
That’s the proclamation on which the whole Christian story hangs.
Indeed, that’s the proclamation on which our Christian life hangs.
No point trying to “practice resurrection” if Jesus is still in the grave.
No point in worship, no point in discipleship, no point, no point.
And the range of responses to this world shattering event are mostly pretty predictable.
Those guarding the tomb “shake like dead men” and their supervisors amongst the religious elite buy them off to say that the disciples came and stole the body.
Deceit.
Bribery.
Cover up.
Nothing new there. That’s the way that the ruling authorities have always dealt with anything that would radically undermine their world.
The women are also full of fear, but to them comes good news from both an angel and the risen one himself, “do not be afraid.”
And so their fear is mingled with great joy. Read more WBB: Resurrection, Cover-ups, and Doubt–and Partying Nonetheless!
Dear friends:
More than half a lifetime ago I co-wrote my first book, The Transforming Vision. And there was one response to that book that continues to ring through the years to me. No, actually, there were two responses, and they are deeply connected to each other.
The first response was from my friend and co-author, Richard Middleton. Upon completing the manuscript and offering up prayers dedicating this work to the furthering of the Kingdom of God, Richard looked at me and said, “You know that there is something missing in this book.” I thought that was an odd thing to say at this particular moment, and I couldn’t guess what he was talking about. Then he said, “This book says nothing about suffering, even though suffering is so central to the biblical story.” And then Richard added, “But that’s okay, we don’t know anything about suffering.”
An honest and telling moment of self-evaluation. These two young men had written a fine book on a Christian worldview – indeed, a book still in print – but missed a central motif in biblical faith.
The second comment was more inexplicable to me at the time. A friend and former student simply said to me, “It’s a great book, but you don’t know anything about the Eucharist.”
I had no idea what the woman was talking about. The book wasn’t about the Eucharist. What was her point?
Well, if you don’t know anything about suffering, then you likely won’t know anything about the Eucharist either, will you.
If you promote a Christian worldview without reference to suffering, then of course this will be a worldview without the Eucharist. It will be, if you will, a worldview without the cross. Or at least it will be a worldview without a deep enough grasp of the cross. And it will be a worldview that knows nothing of a profound dwelling in Holy Week.
As I look back on that period of my life I also recall that I was studying with Douglas John Hall at McGill University. Professor Hall was always talking about the “theology of the cross” and I was always pushing back with a “theology of resurrection.” Around that time, Hall wrote:
“Against the promotion of easy solutions to difficult human questions, the Bible offers the cross: that is God involved in the ambiguity of existence, broken by alienation, powerful only in the weakness of love.”
There was something about a God who was “powerful only in the weakness of love” that didn’t sit well with me. And that is likely why I knew nothing about the Eucharist. Read more A Pastoral Letter for Holy Week 2011
Vineyards, Justice and Jesus
Cultural discourse totally hangs on allusion and reference. You know what I mean. You can’t watch any episode of The Simpson’s without picking up the references to other cultural products – whether they be other television shows, cultural stereotypes, music, art, sports, or politics. Now, of course, you don’t always pick up all the references every time you watch The Simpson’s or go to the movies or listen to a new song on the radio. And not all cultural products are created equal. Some are hopelessly flat. What you see is what you get and you aren’t getting very much.
Kind of like the difference between ABBA and Dylan. Okay, that is too close to home for some of you. How about the difference between Britney Spears and Joni Mitchell?
And it seems to me (in this little email that is starting to sound like an essay!) that the richer the allusions and references, the deeper the cultural product is. That’s why The Simpson’s is great television.
Well, Jesus knew all about allusion. He goes up a mountain to teach a new way, a new Kingdom, and everyone thinks of Moses at Mount Sinai. He feeds the multitudes in the wilderness and everyone thinks of the exodus and sustenance in the wilderness. He walks into the Temple and throws the furniture around and everyone thinks of Jeremiah’s temple sermon (Jesus actually quotes that sermon during his rage).
In all four gospels, Jesus makes reference to a vineyard. And just as you couldn’t tell a story today with a wolf and a little girl in it and not catch the reference to Little Red Riding Hood, so also everyone who knew anything about Israel’s faith would remember Isaiah’s parable of the vineyard. Just say “vineyard” and the allusions immediately will come to mind.
And it is a vineyard that does not produce what was expected of it. Isaiah’s parable ends this way: Read more WBB: Jesus, Justice, and Vineyards