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Blinded By The Light

I will never forget working at a popular clothing store in college (okay, it was Abercrombie and Fitch, I admit it) and constantly hearing a song playing over and over.  The song’s refrain or chorus went, “Blinded by the light…”  The next part of the song could never be understood fully because the singer had horrible articulation. Since we had one CD playing constantly in the store, I heard that song about 50-60 times a month for two months.  I never got the song lyric out of my head.  To this day you might hear me singing it doing some mundane task.

Years later, I found out that the song, “Blinded by the Light”  was originally preformed by The Boss man himself, Bruce Springsteen.  “Blinded by the Light” was from Springsteen’s 1973 album Greetings from Asbury Park N.J. (Before I was born, I know, I’m young.  I hear it everyday.) The song really did not catch on until Manfred Mann’s Earth Band released their version of the song on their album.  Earth Band’s version  reached #1 on both Billboard‘s chart 1977.  It was Earth Band’s rendition that I heard working at A&F.

Anyway, part of the song goes like this:

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blog

Lady Gaga makes chastity cool?

Check out my Times Union Blog Post, “Lady Gaga makes chastity cool?

Pop singer Lady Gaga, known for her racy lyrics, suggestive dress, and public sexuality has dropped some surprising news:

‘and I can’t believe I’m saying this – don’t have sex. I’m single right now and I’ve chosen to be single because I don’t have the time to get to know anybody. So it’s OK not to have sex, it’s OK to get to know people. I’m celibate, celibacy’s fine.’

Read the rest here.

worship

Is it wrong to clap in worship?


 clapping

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The 1970’s rapper, Big Bank Hank from the Sugar Hill Gang, encouraged everyone to join with him in the song 8th Wonder:

“Clap your hands everybody. And everybody just clap your hands.”

Sometimes, in church.  Christians do not want to join in with clapping.

Here at First Baptist Church, we are blessed with many talented musicians, singers, liturgists, and worship leaders.  Often, when one of these types of people, most often singers or musicians, gives worshipful God given talent (a solo for instance) many people want to applaud.  Sometimes, when I speak to congregants about a particular musical performance, a few are weary of the practice of clapping for people.  Those who are fearful of clapping in worship say, “I don’t like to praise a singer with clapping.  We praise God in worship.”

While I can understand the objection, I would encourage those to think more deeply about what is happening in worship.  When someone gives a solo, it is a worshipful act that is lifted up to God in praise.  When people are moved by a soloist’s song, there is something that is stirring inside of them that has moved them.  Their spirit is spoken to because they know that God was worshiped in a beautiful way.  They want to say, “Amen!” or they may want to clap, to express their appreciation to God for such a worshipful moment of praise (to God).

Some might say, “Clapping during worship is not biblical!”  Hold on there, yes it is.  Check out these scriptures where clapping and worship went “hand and hand” (pun intended):

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faith

Doubts, Faith, & Belief

The Barna Group, an evangelical research organization has yielded some surprising findings about America’s Christian and spiritual beliefs:

  • Half of all adults firmly believe that the Bible is accurate in all the principles it teaches. That proportion includes the four-fifths of born again adults (79%) who concur.
  • Just one-quarter of adults (27%) are convinced that Satan is a real force. Even a minority of born again adults (40%) adopt that perspective.
  • Similarly, only one-quarter of adults (28%) believe that it is impossible for someone to earn their way into Heaven through good behavior. Not quite half of all born again Christians (47%) strongly reject the notion of earning salvation through their deeds.
  • A minority of American adults (40%) are persuaded that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life while He was on earth. Slightly less than two-thirds of the born again segment (62%) strongly believes that He was sinless.
  • Seven out of ten adults (70%) say that God is the all-powerful, all-knowing creator of the universe who still rules it today. That includes the 93% of born again adults who hold that conviction.

If the majority of Americans claim to be Christian, then this study brings to light about the faith of most Christians in America.  In our Gospel text for this Sunday, we will examine the faith in the disciples who saw Jesus.

We find our disciples, who are living in fear of the Jews coming to finish off Jesus’ followers, living in a house on a Sunday. The doors are locked and as they are living in a cowardly state Jesus appears in the house.

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blog, twitter

"Twitter Storms" & Haikus Attack Glenn Beck

If a tree falls during a  “twitter storm” and no one is around, does it make a sound?

That is what I asked myself when I stumbled upon this morning’s Washington Post “On Faith” section that caught my attention: Protests on Twitter against Glenn Beck.  That’s right, cyberspace protesting using Twitter: a Twitter storm.  Apparently, this is the first such known protest on Twitter.

You may remember Glenn Beck pleading his listeners to flee their churches if their priest or pastor preached “social justice” because those are code words for “socialism.”  You can read my blog post about this at my Times Union Newspaper blog here and here.

These protests consist of “twitter storming” or “tweet storming” Beck.  Apparently, a “tweetstorm” occurs when users on Twitter inundate a user’s account with thousands of messages, mentions, and replies that use the user’s @ username.  The very interesting and funny website Haik U Glenn Beck has thousands of haikus that speak to our “inner zen” of poetry. The idea is to use these haikus to send to Beck’s twitter account — one a minute till they run out.

Some of the haikus that stuck out on the website are:

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blog

Get On the Bema via Email

Check out a new plug in for On the Bema: subscribe via email to my blog.  Look to the right of your screen, in the fourth box down: “Subscribe to On the Bema” and enter your email address.  Now, you will be send blog posts via email and you can be updated on the latest.  Do it!

Holy Week

What is so good about Good Friday?

Good Friday?  How about Bad Friday, Black Friday, or Depressing Friday?  If this is the day in which we remember Jesus suffering, bleeding, and dying on the cross, what is so good about it?  The movie, The Passion of the Christ, in many ways, change the way we feel about Christ suffering.  The graphic and bloody movie was a stirring portray of Jesus’ last hours.  For some, Good Friday induces feelings of guilt, depression, and even remorse.  Christians, on this day, truly feel a sense of sadness.

On this day of sadness, we wonder: Where did we get the term “Good Friday?  There is no clear answer, but the word “good” and “God” mixed together in the English speaking world.  For instance, the surname “Goodspeed” derives from “Godspeed”, which comes from the expression “God speed (with you)”  The expression, “good bye” came from the phase, “God be with ye (you).  Despite the origins of the phases, we don’t really feel “good” on Good Friday.

No matter what the origins of the phase comes from we cannot escape our feelings.  Are we meant to feel guilty and depressed on Good Friday? We don’t feel “good” about Christ suffering.  Are we meant to feel the pressure to be grateful of Jesus’ torment?

Christianity Today recently published an article that gives a good take on this day.  John Witvliet explains why we should not punish ourselves:

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Holy Week

What is Maundy Thursday?

Today, Christians around the world commemorate Maundy Thursday — no, not Monday Thursday, which would be an interesting concept: society could work Monday through Thursday, with Fridays off!  Some Christians misunderstand that this day is only a “Catholic” celebration.   Christians both ancient and modern have remembered Christ’s last supper with his disciples on Maundy Thursday, which begins the great triduum, the three days of the paschal celebration.

The word “maundy” comes from the Latin word maundatum for “commandment”, which comes from Jesus’ words from the last supper: “I give you a new commandment; that you love one another…”   The full Latin phase is maundatum novarum, which means “a new commandment.”  According to Robert Webber (The Services of the Christian Year, #252), these words were translated in the French word mande.  This in turn was anglicized into “maundy.”

During this day, Christians celebrate Jesus’ last supper with his disciples through serving and receiving communion with a special service. Often, all of or some of John 13 is read.  This scripture recalls:

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Holy Week

Prayer for Holy Week

God whose word cannot be broken:
with Jerusalem we are stunned this Holy Week.
Like a city overcome with sudden devastation,
we are swept up in the confusion and desolation,
wondering what is happening.

Liturgy, Scripture, and song immerse us in the river
that flows to betrayal and the cross.
The gospel we have tried to make manageable
has overturned our tables of control.
The sufferings of Jesus
that we try to avoid engulf us.
The fruitless fig tree withers before the majesty
of one whose mission is
relentless and uncompromised.

Help us with all of your church to watch and pray,
to behold anew the unfolding scandal
and the ragged good news of salvation.
Behold with mercy the agonies of the world
where the suffering of Jesus is being completed,
both then and now.

Let the Via Dolorosa for us
be both acts of devotion and worship
and of compassion and justice,
so that Christ’s abundant sufferings
become the world’s abundant consolations.

Silent prayer and listening

Order of Saint Luke Publications. This prayer, written by Dan Benedict, is from The Daily Office: A Book of Hours for Daily Prayer (Volume II: For Lent and the Triduum).

Holy Week

Palm Sunday Prayer

Call to Worship

Leader: On Palm Sunday, Jesus entered the Holy City, Jerusalem. The crowds cheered and cried out;

People: Hosanna to the Son of David!

Leader: Jesus rode upon a donkey and the crowds spread their garments before him, cheering:

People: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Leader: When the leaders asked, “Who is this?” the crowds said:

All: This is the prophet, Jesus of Nazareth, from Galilee. (Matthew 21:11)

Prayer of Confession

Leader: On Palm Sunday, Jesus entered the Holy City, Jerusalem. The crowds cheered and cried out;

People: Hosanna to the Son of David!

Leader: Jesus rode upon a donkey and the crowds spread their garments before him, cheering:

People: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Leader: But by the end of the week, the crowds were gone and only a few followers remained.

Let the people be silent, offering silent confession.

Leader: The night he was arrested, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives, as was his custom.

People: May we pray with Jesus as we remember the night he was arrested; may our faith prove true and sure.

Leader: Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.”

People: May we, too, pray not for comfort and ease,
not for the easy road, not for a life without trial or worry;
but, like Jesus, may we pray that we will do the will of the Lord,
no matter the circumstance, not counting the cost.

Let the people pray in silence.

from: Hosanna to the Son of David! A 21st Century Worship Resource for Palm Sunday, The Rev. Dr. Steven F. Plymale

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