Author: crc

The man who began his letter by identifying himself as a slave …
‘Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ’ …
and who has at times in his epistle called his readers to be …
‘slaves of justice’ …
comes to the heart of his correspondence by writing …
‘For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but you have received a spirit of adoption …’

Slaves of Christ, even slaves of justice, but for those very reasons, not captivated by a spirit of slavery.

Obviously the apostle is playing with this (and many other) metaphors in this letter.

Read more Wine Before Breakfast – On slaves, bastards, adopted children and Jamie Howison

There have been a number of amazing musical moments in my life.

Moments when the joy fills the room, even as the artist leads us into deep places of pain.

Often enough, those moments happen on Tuesday mornings.
There is something about the Wine Before Breakfast bandhood that finds a way to reach deep into our souls; something that gives us voices to sing – even at 7.22 in the morning!

In my life the WBB band stands in a rich tradition of artists whose music they will often bring into our worship. Artists that I have had the good fortune to enjoy performing live:
Leonard Cohen, Bruce Cockburn, Josh Gritter, EmmyLou Harris, Daniel Lanois, Van Morrison, U2 and Bob Dylan.

And it is a Dylan concert that this week’s music will conjure up for me.

It was the late 70’s and Dylan had ‘got religion.’ In fact, the show that he was touring was nothing less than a gospel revival! And there he was on the stage of Massey Hall singing:

Read more Wine Before Breakfast – “Gotta Serve Somebody” and Getting Wet

There was something sassy about how she delivered the lines. If you were there, you would know exactly what I mean. And only our own beloved Deb Whalen could actually pull off those lines in church:

“Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you’ve been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you’ve been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows”

Read more Wine Before Breakfast – Sin, Grace and What “Everybody Knows”

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.

Read more Wine Before Breakfast – Sinners Only Invited