three Neil Young songs for church/Sermon on video: Neil Young as Prophet

Opening hymn/Call to worship

 1) Opening hymn/Call to worship 
"Walk with Me":

 I feel Your love
I feel Your strong love

I feel the patience
Of unconditional love

I feel the strength
I feel Your faith in me

I'll never let You down no matter what You do
If you just walk with me and let me walk with You
I'm on this journey I don't wanna walk alone

Walk with me
Walk with me

Walk with me
Walk with me


Walk with me
Shine me a light
Walk with me
Walk with me

I lost some people I was travelling with
I miss the soul and the old friendship

----------
2)Meditation:
"When God Made Me""

 Lots of interpretation  of the song at this link, even some quotes from Young:

In an interview with The New York Times by Jon Pareles, Young commented:

"I feel like our religion and our faith have been hijacked.

What is bothering me the most is the misappropriation of religion and faith, the misuse of God and the house of worship. It's one faith with different people trying to express it in different ways. It's all about being the little guy in the big world."

In an interview in Rolling Stone magazine by Alec Wilkerson:

"Young has a seeker's sensitivity, a susceptibility to impressions received in passing or only half-clearly. The hymn "When God Made Me" is deeply subversive. It is meant to unsettle those ardent believers whose certainty of holiness makes them feel they can abusively enforce their beliefs on the rest of the world.

"I was asking questions about faith," Young says. "But one kept evading me. I couldn't figure out what the last question was."

I love what someone commented under the live Farm Aid version on YouTube (posted below...be sure to see the genuine tears at the end):

Jeff Leach:

I love this, because it isn't a straight religious song. So many questions, that's what makes it realistic.

 Why can't church music be more realistic indeed..questions included?



WHEN GOD MADE ME

Was he thinking about my country,
or the colour of my skin?
Was he thinking about my religion,
and the way I worshipped him?
Did he create just me in his image,
or every living thing?

When God made me.
When God made me.

Was he planning only for believers,
or for those who just 
had faith?
Did he envision all wars
that were fought in his name?
Did he say there was only one way
to be close to him?

When God made me.
When God made me.

Did he give me the gift of love
to say who I could choose?

When God made me.
When God made me.
When God made me.

Did he give me the gift of voice
so some could silence me?
Did he give me the gift of vision
not knowing what I might see?
Did he give me the gift of compassion
to help my fellow man?

When God made me.
When God made me.
When God made me.

-------------------
3) Prayer challenge:"Change Your Mind"
I know this song was included on an album largely a response to Kurt Cobain's death
(Cobain even mentioned Young in his last journal entry), but I can't not also hear without interpreting "the one you love" as "the One you love"...thus another honest churchsong.

Hmmm...God "supports" you, "embraces" you, "soothes" you, 'restores you" (could be a CCM lyric so far) "convinces" you....

.and "destroys" you.
Isn't that the God you know?(:


 
(Song interp here)



 
When you get weak, and you need to test your will
When life's complete, but there's something missing still
Distracting you from this must be the one you love
Must be the one whose magic touch can change your mind
Don't let another day go by without the magic touch

Distracting you (change your mind)
Supporting you (change your mind)
Embracing you (change your mind)
Convincing you (change your mind)

When you're confused and the world has got you down
When you feel used and you just can't play the clown
Protecting you from this must be the one you love
Must be the one whose magic touch can change your mind
Don't let another day go by without the magic touch

Protecting you (change your mind)
Restoring you (change your mind)
Revealing you (change your mind)
Soothing you (change your mind)

You hear the sound, you wait around and get the word
You see the picture changing everything you've heard
Destroying you with this must be the one you love
Must be the one whose magic touch can change your mind
Don't let another day go by without the magic touch

Destroying you (change your mind)
Embracing you (change your mind)
Protecting you (change your mind)
Confining you (change your mind)
Distracting you (change your mind)
Supporting you (change your mind)
Distorting you (change your mind)
Controlling you (change your mind)
Change your mind (change your mind)
Change your mind, change your mind (change your mind)
Change your mind (change your mind)

The morning comes and there's an odor in the room
The scent of love, more than a million roses bloom
Embracing you with this must be the one you love
Must be the one whose magic touch can change your mind
Don't let another day go by without the magic touch

Embracing you (change your mind)
Concealing you (change your mind)
Protecting you (change your mind)
Revealing you (change your mind)
Change your mind, change your mind (change your mind)
Change your mind (change your mind)
Change your mind, change your mind (change your mind)
Change your mind (change your mind)
Change your mind, change your mind
Change your mind
Change your mind, change your mind
Change your mind
Change your mind, change your mind
Change your mind, change your mind

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo credit: Neil Young standing under the cross..like all prophets do

Here's  video of a sermon  (excerpts below, full sermon here) by  John Van Sloten of New Hope Calgary which considers Neil Young as prophet.

Under the video was this quote:  "The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us..." - Walter Brueggemann in The Prophetic Imagination 





Of course, you won't be surprised this pastor has also preached:
Coldplay, Viva La Vida & Christ’s Spirit of Revolution

and wrote a book called "The Day Metallica Came to Church"...

More on Neil?:

• Pastor Neil Young on Romans 7 and 8

• Neil Young's Joyful Le Noise

• The Prophets: Rush, Neil Young, Genesis

 

Praying for Saeed,Gentle Violence, St. Akemi, Dudley Do Right, Romans 16 and Junia's sex change, Skyping in two new members from Germany

What a great day!  Here are some highlights, and links some of you asked for from our Sploosh gathering.


we prayed for Saeed. Here's his wife: 


Sign the petition:
www.SaveSaeed.org

------------


First the "violent" video.  Headsup, the first one is graphic; we didn't show it all
Saturday Night Live's "DJesus Uncrossed" below, and discussion here by Kurt Willems

Jamie Arpin-Ricci asked, "Did anyone else think the DJesus sketch was a recycled version of this classic"

Gandhi 2:

And...it also called to mind this from MADTV (hat tip: Mirielvy 
and my students):

---



Interesting scriptures on the paradox of gentle violence..

Especially Romans 16:20:
"The God of peace will soon
violently crush Satan under your feet"..

Because we started Romans today by( of course) reading the lase chapter before we start from the beginning.

We were so blessed to note all the women Paul mentioned in his list of names..

Take just the first few sentences:

 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon^[a][b] of the church in Cenchreae. ² I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me.

Then:

 Greet Priscilla^[c] and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus. ⁴ They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.

⁵ Greet also the church that meets at their house.

We noted that this is  husband and wife, but strangely, subversively,
Paul mentioned the wife's name first!

And then:

6 Greet Mary, who worked very hard for you.

And then the gal who was such an anointed apostle that we have deleted her from the Bible and history

⁷ Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among^[d] the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.

This is also  likely husband and wife.

We read from:

Junia's sex change:female apostles lost in translation

Let me come out of the closet  to recommend Scot McKnight's E-book, Junia is Not Alone.  If you don't have a Kindle, Amazon offers a free Kindle reader.. 
I wonder why an E Book?  Too controversial for Christian bookstores?



 Todd Littleton says:

Scot takes readers on a tour of how Junia has been treated in translation. Over the years the politics of interpretation created an occasion for Junia to have a sex-change. And then, and how the new Junias was killed off in the process of restoring Junia to her place in Scripture. If you would like an introduction into E.J. Epp’s, Junia: The First Woman Apostle, then Junia Is Not Alone is a good place to start.,,

Oh, and if this is not enough to prompt you to read Scot’s new book, Bill Kinnon said you should!

Related:

• I need some token women...

  • 
    

    Sex Change and Bible Translation

• Banning Women/Missional Chicks 

•   Women in Leadershift: Rob Bell & Peruvian alpaca 

---



We read Akemi's great blog post: here,
which really enlightened our discussion of the law.

Related:

Remember the Canadian Mountie who was

-was NOT Dudley Do Right
-broke the "no hat" rule (that great story is told here (sorry, some pages are missing in this online version/


:

This led to discussion of Pharisees and Sadducees on the law

Pharisees .lay scholars/ middle class   Oral and Written Torah    angels, demons, resurrection........
 Sadducees   priestly/aristocratic         Written Torah only               no angels, demons, resurrection 












In other news,. see:

Gay sex rings, 'The Filth' corrupting the Vatican...and why the Pope REALLY quit

• Sickened by moral corrosion in his own shadowy cabal, Benedict can only rid Rome of its malign influence by resigning... a leading Catholic writer's explosive analysis

--

Then of course., the highlight of the day.  Thanks to Keltic Ken's konnection, we were able to Skype in and meet two new amazing  and delightful friends/members from Germany Ruth and Janna.  They are married, and had heard that we were the kind of Christians who wouldn't hate them for it:

They were a joy..more to come:

PS Don't forget to join Keltic Ken's fan page here..

See Your Ad Here

Keltic Ken

Do you love Keltic Ken? Show your love, join us See all his websites, watch his videos. hear his k...

Like · Dave Wainscott likes this.

Advertise Your Page

Ads Manager

• Now
• February
• 2013
• 2012
• 2011
• Joined Facebook