Sunday Supplication - Always Direct Us

Lord, we pray that your grace will always direct us and go before us and follow us in all we are, in all we say, and in all we do. We pray that your grace will shape and motivate us that we may continually be given to good works.

O God, we humbly recognize our need for forgiveness and restoration. In our weakness and selfishness, we often fail each other, fail ourselves, and fail you.  We also recognize the hope and power we have in Christ. 

Raise us and transform us by the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. Forgive us our sins, and make us ready and able and quick to forgive others, even as you forgive us.

O God, lead us into truth. Show us your ways. Teach us to follow your lead. Help us to turn away from what is wrong and to do what is right. Our hope is in you all day long. Help us to be faithful followers of Jesus and help us to become more like him each day.

It's in his name that we pray. Amen.

Saturday Smile - Campaign Laughs

First, some practical perspective on political yard signs from the good folks at Coffee with Jesus.

Next up, some hilarious silliness from the very funny people at Bad Lip-Reading. In this masterpiece of editing, the first 2012 presidential debate takes an unexpected musical turn toward mystic harmony.

"I love you two. Okay? I want you to turn and look at me."

Friday Food - Farmer's Markets

Time is running out for 2012 Farmer's Markets. I'd love to get to the Mill City Farmer's Market tomorrow (Saturday, Oct. 13) if weather allows, but the forecast looks like it might get rained out.

Click Here to see the Mill City Farmer's Market Schedule for Saturday, October 13. I was surprised to see that my boys, Page and Jack, are scheduled to perform there with The Cactus Blossoms.

CLICK HERE to hear The Splendid Table's Lynne Rossetto Kasper talk about Autumn Farmers Markets.  

Splendid Table host and all around food knowledge savant Lynne Rossetto Kasper joins The Current's Morning Show to talk about the foods she's been tasting lately.
 
Lynne spoke to The Morning Show's Jill Riley and Steve Seel about what makes a tasty corn and how genetic modification alters the taste. She also gave them some rules of thumb for trying tomatoes at the farmers market.

Thursday Thinking - Vulnerability

Last week, I discovered this 2010 TED Talk by Dr. Brené Brown on how important vulnerability is to well-being. Her presentation, The Power of Vulnerablity, is so filled with insights that I watched it several times in order to let them really sink in.

If you live in or near the Twin Cities, you have an opportunity to hear Brené Brown TONIGHT at St. Philip the Deacon Church (Plymouth). As part of their Faith & Life Lecture Series, she will be speaking on The Courage to Be Vulnerable in Life, Love, and Parenting.

If you appreciate this talk, I'm guessing you'll be interested in her follow-up TED Talk -- Listening to Shame (March 2012).

Wednesday Words - A Barred Owl

A Barred Owl 
The warping night air having brought the boom
Of an owl's voice into her darkened room,
We tell the wakened child that all she heard
Was an odd question from a forest bird,
Asking of us, if rightly listened to,
"Who cooks for you?" and then "Who cooks for you?"

Words, which can make our terrors bravely clear,
Can also thus domesticate a fear,
And send a small child back to sleep at night
Not listening for the sound of stealthy flight
Or dreaming of some small thing in a claw
Borne up to some dark branch and eaten raw.

by Richard Wilbur, from Collected Poems: 1943-2004.
© Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

Tuesday Tome - The American Soul

Tonight, Tuesday, October 9, 7:00pm, we'll be having the second  session of my current Book Club at Valley Christian Church. I look forward to discussing the section two of the book, "Crimes and Failings" (pp. 189-268). If you're able to join us, please click here to let me know.

Our book selection is The American Soul (Jacob Needleman). The dates and topics for our book club discussions are as follows.

Dates and Topics:
September 25, 7:00pm - Ideas and Beginnings (pp. 1-188)
October 9, 7:00pm - Crimes and Failings (pp. 189-268)
October 23, 7:00pm - Democracy and Hope (pp. 269-356)

From Publisher's Weekly--
San Francisco State philosophy professor and author Needleman invites readers to contemplate the deeper spiritual meaning of the American legacy of "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." Finding a deep resonance between the founding principles of this country and the ancient spiritual quest for an inner liberation, Needleman proceeds to examine and "remythologize" the founders and some of their great deeds.

The reader is asked to consider Franklin's courageous experimentation ("...the man played and worked with lightening!"), Washington's restraint retiring from the army and later from the presidency rather than exploiting his matchless popularity and political power, Jefferson's brilliant articulation of the value of community, and the sheer gravity and awareness in Lincoln's face.
....
While Needleman clearly finds much to love about America, he balances our light with our darkness, our genuine good will and spirituality with our great crimes of slavery and the genocidal abuse of the American Indian. Decidedly not for strict materialists or historical literalists, Needleman's latest work gives open-minded readers a new set of spiritual role models and much valuable food for thought at a crucial moment. 

Monday Music - Skypiper

My twin nephews Graham and Gabe have a great band called Skypiper. They recently did a Daytrotter Session. CLICK HERE to hear to hear that performance. If you're not registered with the Daytrotter, you can sign up for a free trial. It's easy and worth the effort.

Check out the Skypiper website here.

Here is one of my favorite Skypiper songs.

Sunday Supplication - We Put Our Trust in You

Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear us than we are to pray. Your readiness to provide for our needs is greater than our readiness to live for your glory. You remove our fears, you graciously bless us, and you draw us into fellowship with you through Jesus Christ our Savior.

Thank you for your promise to forgive and purify us. Thank you for being the one who saves. Forgive us our sins. Renew us by your Spirit. Show us how to act, think, and live as Christ.  As you have forgiven us, make us merciful and ready to forgive those who have sinned against us.

O God, when we are afraid, help us to be still and put our trust in you. When we feel like running in the face of challenges and obstacles, give us the courage to stand firm. Be our help, our shelter, and our deliverer.

Through Christ, we pray. Amen.

Saturday Smile - More Than a Rusty Old Minibus

This is the first episode I've seen of Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, but I assure you it won't be my last. This show is a lot more than funny, it's a blend of genius and grace. This particular episode is good for a lot of laughs, it's also good for the soul. Pay attention to things like friendship, loyalty, forgiveness, encouragement, and redemption. It makes me smile on so many levels.

Friday Family - Perry and Soren

Today's Friday Family post features one of my nephews and one of my grandsons.

First of all, I'm sending greetings and best wishes to my nephew, Perry Burkum, and his lovely bride, Jill DeVault, who are getting married tomorrow. I'm not able to make it to their wedding, but my wife, Cheri, will be there. Congratulations, Perry and Jill! I hope you have a wonderful wedding. You're a sweet couple and I pray God's blessings upon your marriage.

Perry and Jill make a lot of wonderful music together and with friends as The Kanesville Boys. Never underestimate the power of sharing music. It's the Burkum way! I firmly believe that the couple who sings in the car together, will go far together.



Yesterday morning, I got a phone call from my daughter-in-law, Ali, reporting that my grandson, Soren, had a fantastic time at a the Missy Higgins and Gotye Concert in Nashville on Wednesday night. He got to stay up WAY past his bedtime and had a blast backstage. He really enjoyed meeting Missy Higgins, Butterfly Boucher, and Gotye.

Now I guess we can say that Gotye is somebody that Soren actually knows!

Thursday Thinking - Winter Christianity

A couple of days ago, Richard Beck published a post on how faith has shifted it's position in people's lives from 1) the historical position of being a given individuals take for granted, to 2) the contemporary position of being a choice individuals are required to make. This shift, while having the potential for deeper and more authentic faith, also makes faith more difficult, tiring, and fragile. A faith that must be chosen, defended, and sustained presents individuals with a significant personal challenge and produces existential angst.

Beck posits four ways people deal with this existential faith problem:

A taken-for-granted faith settles and puts to rest a host of existential anxieties about the meaning, significance and purpose of life. But when faith is a choice all those existential questions get pushed out into the foreground where we can worry and obsess about the significance and meaningfulness of life and our life choices.

...Christian people to tend to face this existential challenge in one of four ways:
 
1. UNFAITH
Some people do follow the predicted path of secularization theory and opt out of faith.
 
2. SPIRITUAL BUT NOT RELIGIOUS
In the marketplace of faith many people buy a lot of different products and cobble them together into a personal bricolage of spirituality.
 
3. WINTER CHRISTIANITY
Some Christians learn to life with doubt, reconciling themselves to the fact that faith is always going to be tentative and fragile.

4. DOGMATISM
Some Christians, unable to live with the anxieties produced by modernity, will seek existential solace, comfort and consolation in dogmatic certainty.

Read Complete Post at Experimental Theology

What do you think? Do you agree with the assertion that faith has moved from the position of cultural given to that of personal choice? I think this is accurate.

And what do you make of Beck's four options for dealing with the existential challenge of choosing faith in a pluralistic culture? Is there an option he missed?

Which of Beck's options most accurately describe the way you deal with faith? I'm most definitely in category #3, though I'm not thrilled with Beck's label, "Winter Christianity."

"Winter" implies cold and dying, which I don't believe is the case for everyone in this category. I'll admit that faith in the post-modern world feels pretty chilly at times, and, yes, much of the old-time religion of my childhood has suffered a wintry death. And as a pastor, I'm constantly pressing against the cold-north-wind realization that most of the people I work with are in categories 1, 2, and 4. Yet, in my view, the doubts and questions I live with in category #3 serve to purify and authenticate my faith. Christian faith in the post-modern world is more difficult, but it's also more honest and humble.

I would prefer Beck's category #3 be called something like, Hopeful Christianity, or Humble Christianity, or Intentional Christianity. Christians can be (and, in the contemporary post-modern world must be) hopeful, humble, and intentional about their faith. Post-modern faith requires believers to live with the tensions and questions engendered by doubt and uncertainty. This type of faith is, in fact, the faith I see presented in Scripture--people acting upon their beliefs in the midst of profound uncertainty.

Acting upon beliefs is the only way to build confidence in them. Living by faith is the only way to overcome doubt. Day to day experience is the necessary crucible for refining trust and hope. Maybe the best name for category #3 would be "Authentic Christianity."

Please post your comments at: Altered Faces.

Wednesday Words - Better Day

I've already written my "Thursday Thinking" post that will appear on this blog tomorrow. It's titled "Winter Christianity," and that sounds pretty bleak. So in preparation for tomorrow, I thought it would be good today for me to post these hopeful words from my song, "Better Day." You might want to revisit them after reading tomorrow's post.


Click Here if Music Player Doesn't Appear

Better Day
Abel made a sacrifice.
Enoch somehow never died.
Noah built an ark
And left the world outside.
Abraham didn’t have a son,
But by faith he traveled far.
His children now outnumber
The stars.

Take another step,
Breathe a little deeper,
Straighten up and take a stand.
Walk another mile,
You’re headed for a better land.

Isaac blessed and prophesied.
Jacob worshipped, staff in hand.
Joseph spoke of exodus from
Egypt’s land.
Moses chose to be mistreated--
Pharoah’s pleasures he would deny.
The Red Sea parted and the ground the children walked
Was dry.

Take another step,
Breathe a little deeper,
Straighten up and take a stand.
Walk another mile,
You’re headed for a better land.
Think about the joy,
Don’t forget the promise,
Let the Spirit lead the way.
Tomorrow’s gonna come--
It’s gonna be a better day.

Gideon, Barak, and Samson--
There’s not time enough to tell
Tales of Jephthah, King David,
And Samuel.
There were those who closed the mouths of lions;
Those who quenched the fury of the flames.
They suffered this world’s hateful scorn
And shame.

Still they took another step,
Breathed a little deeper;
They weren’t afraid to take a stand.
They walked another mile,
Headed for a better land.
They thought about the joy--
Thought about the promise;
They let the Spirit lead the way.
They gave a little more,
Hopin’ for a better day.

So take another step,
Breathe a little deeper,
Straighten up and take a stand.
Walk another mile,
You’re headed for a better land.
Think about the joy,
Don’t forget the promise,
Let the Spirit lead the way.
Tomorrow’s gonna come--
It’s gonna be a better day.

Words and Music by Dave Burkum from Breathe a Little Deeper. © Copyright 2000 by Dave Burkum.

Tuesday Tome - Four Holy Gospels Bible

As a Christian, I'm very interested in The Four Holy Gospels project. I love the arts and I care about culture. I really like Makoto Fujimura's work and I'm looking forward to seeing this Bible.

When I first heard about it, my first response was that I'd like to have a copy of it. A lack of funds makes that unlikely, but more importantly, I'll admit to having serious reservations about the project in general. Something about it doesn't sit right in my gut.

What are the philosophical implications of making illuminated texts. Why have people chosen to illuminate texts in extravagant ways, and does such extravagant illumination add a layer of meaning/message? If so, does that added meaning enhance or diminish the text? How do the the motives for the Four Holy Gospels illumination compare with other illumination projects, both ancient and contemporary? What is accomplished by these illuminations?

Is the authentic nature and purpose of the text rightly served by such a project? Is the result a piece of art or is it a Bible? Should the Bible be turned into a work of art? Is this appropriate? Does doing so make the Bible more approachable or less approachable? More compelling or less compelling?

Are the realities and underpinnings of the contemporary art scene so removed from the ethics and values of Jesus that such a project is ultimately antithetical to the heart of the Gospel? Would Jesus buy this book? Would he want his followers to buy this book?

What is the motivation for this project? Who will be profiting from this project? Is this about art and personal expression? Is this for those who love Scripture or those who love art? Which of those loves compels a person to buy this book?

Is this project an attempt at cultural relevance or cultural influence? Is such an attempt authentic, effective, or misguided? Does this project communicate a position of power or weakness? Is this about publishing, marketing, and money, or is it about proclaiming, sharing, and sacrifice? Will it serve an elite and wealthy few, or will it serve to better all of humankind?

I'm conflicted. Honestly, I think my doubts are overshadowing my enthusiasm.



Copied from Press Release by Crossway Publishing:
Renowned artist and writer Makoto Fujimura is not shy about the importance of his latest project. “Whether I like it or not, this is what I will be remembered by,” Fujimura asserts. “I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that it is a commission of the decade, if not more,” says Valerie Dillon, whose Dillon Gallery is Fujimura’s main exhibitor.

The commission is an illuminated manuscript published by Crossway, to commemorate the four hundred year anniversary of The King James Bible, set to be released January 2011. The leather-bound English Standard Version of the Bible, printed with a six-color metallic process, will comprise the four Gospels as designed and illustrated by Fujimura.

Five major new works, painted in the artist’s Manhattan studio, will be the volume’s main images, making this the first such manuscript to feature abstract contemporary art in lieu of traditional representational illustrations. It is this unprecedented marriage of a modern, usually secular art form with ancient scripture that most interests Fujimura, who aims to depict “the greater reality that the Bible speaks of… for the pure sake of integrating faith and art in our current pluralistic, multicultural world.”

Monday Music - Pickathon 2012

Here is a great new video of the The Cactus Blossoms recorded by Peacock/KBOO radio during the Pickathon Music Festival 2012 (Pendarvis Farm, Oregon).



Sweet memories from the busy summer of 2012.

Page Burkum: guitar and vocals
Jack Torrey: guitar and vocals
Mike "Razz" Russell: fiddle
Liz Draper: upright bass
Randy Broughten: steel guitar/dobro

http://thecactusblossoms.com/