• On January 21, 2010 by

    Let The Children Play For Peace

    My friends Samuel Nachum and Ahmed El-Sherif will be joining me in dialogue this Sunday, January 24 at Word of Life Church for both services (9 & 11 AM). A Jewish artist, a Muslim scientist and a Christian pastor discussing peace and how we should understand one another in the 21st century world. I hope to see you there.

    BZ

    PS

    Phil Keaggy will be in concert at Word of Life this Friday night at 7:00. Here’s Phil Keaggy doing a Bob Dylan song. Phil always does a Bobtune or two for me!

  • On January 17, 2010 by

    Blood On The Tracks


    35 years ago today Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks was released.
    In this blogger’s opinion it’s the finest album ever recorded.

    Early one mornin’ the sun was shinin’, I was layin’ in bed. It was a Saturday in 1975. I was 15. A Zeppelin freak and a brand new Christian. Bob Dylan was the guy who did Blowin’ In The Wind, Lay Lady Lay and Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door. I woke to Tangled Up In Blue on KY-102. I was in that beta state between sleep and waking and her hair was still red. Every one of those words rang true. Revolution was in the air. I was mesmerized. Something was awakened in me. Something I had never known before. Love of language. Love of story. Love of song. From a different point of view. From a Dylan point of view. That love is still with me.

    Thank you, Mr. Dylan.

    BZ

  • On December 8, 2009 by

    Schooled in Denial

    Last night I dreamed I had a conversation with Walter Brueggemann.

    Maybe it went something like this…


    Read more

  • On November 9, 2009 by

    A Bolder Reformation

    Alright, I’m just going to say it. I’m not going to take the time and effort to fully develop and defend it (it’s just a Monday morning blog after all), but still I’m going to say it.

    The Reformation for all the good it did, did not go near far enough.

    Ecclesial and theological reform were long over due and the reformers, Luther et al., made their contributions, God bless ’em.

    But the reform which was most desperately needed never happened. And what might that be? The reform of the church’s allegiance to Constantinianism. Which would be the abandonment of Constantinianism. Read more

  • On October 22, 2009 by

    Ruminations from Delhi

    Peri and I are laying around in our New Delhi hotel resting up after our travels and ministry in India. We’re getting ready for the long haul back home at 1:00 AM tonight — a journey across two continents and an ocean. We’re looking forward to being back at Word of Life this weekend. We began our morning with a couple of room service cappuccinos and watching the latest episode of The Office online. Living the high life!

    Last night I started reading an Indian novel — The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (winner of the 2006 Man Booker Prize). My favorite novels are those which don’t merely tell a good story, but explore important ideas through the art of story. I suppose that’s why Dostoevsky and Tolstoy are my favorites writers — they don’t just tell stories, they grapple with big ideas. As far as I’m concerned Fyodor Dostoevsky is really a theologian disguised as the greatest novelist ever. Well, anyway, I started Desai’s novel and came across this sentence. Read more

  • On October 7, 2009 by

    Use Me

    Hello there! Remember me? I used to blog here. Well, I still do but more rarely these days. Here’s what I’ve learned: I can write blogs or I can write a book, but I can’t do both. I’ve got a deadline for a book tentatively entitled Seventy Times Seven: The Call to Radical Forgiveness. So that’s taking up most of my writing time.

    But…

    I thought I’d ramble out a few thoughts tonight. Not so much theological thoughts, which is what I tend to do here, but pastoral thoughts. I’d like to try to explain your pain…or some of it anyway. And again, not so much from theological analysis, but from pastoral observation. Here is what I’ve observed… Read more

  • On September 3, 2009 by

    The Cross is a Scandal on Every Level

    http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2603/3885744124_4bffede259.jpg

    The Cross is a Scandal on Every Level

    The Cross is a scandal on every level
    A king with a crown of thorns
    A death march processional
    Acclamation by insult
    It’s a macabre coronation Read more

  • On August 25, 2009 by

    Election

    This is for the armchair theologians out there.

    Election.

    The Bible talks about it.

    The Church has debated it.

    Here’s my take on it.

    Calvinism makes the mistake of confusing the election of Israel for a vocation with the election of an individual for salvation.

    This is a tragic mistake fraught with enormous implications.

    Here is my Swiss inspired ultra-concentrated theology of Election in as few words as possible: Read more

  • On August 4, 2009 by

    Crassus and the Appian Way

    (A slightly reworked rerun. I was digging around in my archieves and decided to bump it up.)

    Marcus Licinius Crassus

    I promise you a new Rome.
    I promise you a new Empire.
    -Marcus Licinius Crassus

    Went down the road to Damascus,
    The road to Mandalay
    Met the ghost of Caesar
    On the Appian Way
    He said, It’s hard to stop this binging
    Once you get a taste
    But the road to empire
    Is a bloody, stupid waste
    And it’s a long road out of Eden
    -The Eagles

    And I discovered that my castles stand
    Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand…
    Just a puppet on a lonely string
    Oh who would ever want to be king?
    -Coldplay

    It shall not be so among you.
    -Jesus

    The Appian Way.
    The Great Road to Rome.
    The Road of the Roman Triumphs.
    “All roads lead to Rome.”
    I hope not.
    I believe there is another way.
    A better way than the Appian Way.
    The King’s Highway.
    Read more

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