faithasawayoflife

For the Broken Hallelujah spotters . . . a part of chapter three

I am, despite its long overdue-ness, writing Broken Hallelujah, a book on faith and pop culture.  I actually think it is going to be pretty good, better than I thought (that's usually the case since I have fairly active self-doubt as part of my personality).  Well, if you'd like a peak, I'm giving bits along the way to Valparaiso University's journal of literature, arts and culture, The Cresset.  Check here for the latest installment, a piece of chapter 3 (title: Why God Loves the Blues).  I'm writing chapter 4 now (title: Cries) on a wisdom interpretation of Scripture that attends to cries as its core feature.  If you bump over to The Cresset to read the excerpt, let me know what you think of it here.  I'd guess you'll see how the cries of the blues chapter set up the discussion of cries in scripture in the chapter I'm working on now.  It begins with Exodus, taking off from Walter Bruggemann's quip in a lecture at Luther last year, "It took a cry to get God into the book of Exodus."  There's a comment for advent.  We cry, Maranatha!

Anon, and +advent peace,

Chris

Luther Brass does Advent Christmas Chapel (This one's for the family)

Hey, here we are playing the season's favorites!  Special share, esp. for mom and dad, who gave me the euphonium back in 1989 for college graduation--look! I'm still tooting my own horn!  And for Will, whose own brass proficiency surpassed me a loooooooong time ago.  Check out esp. Lo, how a rose.  So beautiful with brass.

anon, and advent peace,

Chris

Art for Advent 4: Visio Divina with Guayasamin's "Ternura"

My last post before Christmas as this week I'm trying to write the chapter on 'cries' for Broken Hallelujahs. This stunning painting has hung in our living room for a decade. It is titled, "Ternura" or "tenderness."  It is all the more stunning to me that an artist living is such close proximity to suffering and violence, to the evils we inflict on one another, could also find such a powerful vision of tenderness as well.  Perhaps they are deeply connected.  This picture connects to the Benedictus (Luke 1:68-79) and its vision of the 'tender mercy of our God' that will "shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the path of peace."  May it be so, dear God. 

 Anon, and +peace  Chris

 

"Just a storefront seminary" (City Seminary New York)

 I am honored to serve on the board of  City Seminary New York, one of the most innovative experiments in theological education globally.  Their headquarters are in an modest brick building on Frederick Douglas BLVD in Harlem (see picture on the left).  A Senegalese bakery is just next door.  

 Duke Divinity School, which always seems to have  an enormous new Lilly-funded project, now has a "Leadership" project that has featured City Seminary and its director, Mark Gornik.  The article, by Bob Wells, gets at some of what they are up to, and why I'm so inspired by their ways of answering key questions of theological education today. .  Read it here.  It explains, among other things, the importance of their practice of "Pray and Break Bread" which I've adapted for our use at Luther as we transform to take account of our changing urban reality in the Twin Cities.  CSNY may be, as Mark says, "just a storefront seminary" but in that humble assessment is a parable for faithfulness today.  Read the article. It is, I'd say, an advent meditation full of hope.  

Anon, and peace,

Chris

Art for Advent 3: Visio Divina with Guayasamin's "Las Manos de la Esperanza"

"the evil results of our lifestyle": Rowan Williams on Advent and Praying for Creation

Art for Advent 2: Visio Divina with Guayasamin's El Grito II (1983)

 

Fantastic new song and video from The Swell Season

I loved the movie Once, and the soundtrack, by Glen Hansard and  Marketa Irglova.  They released an album of music from the movie under the name The Swell Season and now have a new album out called Strict Joy.  Check out the new video for their single "Low Rising."  As I so often find, they somehow get at very real and not always easy aspects of relationships.  Enjoy.  Wish I could hear them tomorrow night here in Minneapolis, but I'm otherwise occupied with our worship class final retreat.

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Art for Advent 1: Visio Divina with Guayasamin's Manos del Mendigo

 
Oswaldo Guayasamin's Manos del Mendigo (hands of the beggar).  An Ecuadorian painter whom I love and whose work 'fits' with Advent in very deep ways, especially advent in a world convulsed by wars and rumors of war, especially in a world where some stuff their faces with good things while others die of lack of the most simple basic nutrition.  Maranatha.  Come.   

Anon and +peace,

Chris

U2's White as Snow

Happy Advent 1, people. I'm going to post a series of songs that fit the genre of 'crying out' as a way to pray through the advent season.

Download 09 White As Snow