Joel Burdeaux

Thou preparest a table before me

This is from a sermon by Nadia Bolz-Weber after the Boston Bombing, the West, TX explosion, etc… A gorgeous and delicious view of the Gospel from within the valley of the shadow of death…

…See, in the 23rd Psalm God does a counter intuitive thing when it comes to our very real fear of enemies. God doesn’t say “Let’s go smite them” and God doesn’t say “Let’s analyze the data ” God says “let’s eat!”

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

I don’t know what to tell you this week. And I’m too scared to be anyone’s shepherd. I can’t lead you anywhere, But I can gather with you around this table – a table God has set in the presence of everything that attempts to snatch away our peace. A table set in the presence of enemies and fear and evil. I have nothing to say. There is no clever theology or social commentary that can take away the sting of this last week. But I can gather with you around this table and I can tell you the story. I have no stories of my own, but around this table I can again tell you the story of how God has come to dwell with us, to make us people of God. I can tell you of how the God of Israel protected his people and walked among them.

I can tell you how this same God took on flesh and was born in a time as violent and faithless and terrifying as our own and this Jesus of Nazareth was so full of grace and truth and love for his enemies that he was killed by those he came to save. And I can tell you how on the night before he died he gathered around another table with some real screw-ups and held up bread and said it was his body given for forgiveness and how he held up a cup and said it was for salvation and that when we eat this bread and drink this cup we do so in remembrance of him. And I can tell you that even from the cross on which he was hung he did not stop loving the enemy – even those who nailed him to it and I can tell you that despite human fear and violence, death did not have the final word and that after 3 days Jesus defeated death itself and then he again gathered his friends around a table from which he fed them breakfast and then he said for them to feed his sheep. And as his sheep, it is at this table where he desires we be fed. Fed by his story and his body so that we can be the people of God who know that not even death can separate us from the love of God, and thus we can fearlessly face this world’s valleys of the shadow of death knowing that there is a love stronger than the grave. Knowing that Love conquers hate and that death has no sting and Forgiveness is more powerful than violence and that despite it all it is always always worth it to love God and love people and to continue to gather around the tables God has set – so that we can behold who we really are and become what we receive in a world that like us, so desperately needs to be loved – and not feared. AMEN.

Read or listen to the whole thing here.

Easy & Delicious Sausage & Kale Soup

We are trying out a low carb & (mostly) dairy-free diet. Heather and I are both carb/sugar addicts, and the kids are getting torn up by dairy.

After searching through some recipes to plan out our week, I combined a few ideas I saw in various places and came up with this recipe:

SAUSAGE AND KALE SOUP
- 4 links of thinly sliced sausage.
- 1 bunch kale, sliced into thin strips & stalks removed
- 1 medium red onion diced
- 1 can coconut milk
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1 cup water
- coconut oil
- 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper

1. In a large pan, brown sausage in coconut oil.
2. Remove sausage & set aside, leaving grease & oil in the pan.
3. Sauté the onion in the grease until tender.
4. Add water, coconut milk, stock, & sausage to pan & bring to a boil.
5. Place kale on top of liquid to steam.
6. After 3-4 minutes, stir in kale.
7. Cover & reduce to simmer for 45-60 minutes.
8. Stir in salt & pepper. Serve hot with a slice of whole grain toast.

Makes 4 servings.

All of their talk at the table was about the Lord of the hill…

I have a good friend named Matt. (He goes by @islaygiants on twitter.) After our two hour conversation today in which we discussed the eucharist, the creed, Hebrews 11, and pistis Christou (you know… normal guy stuff), I was reminded of the following passage from The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Now I saw in my dream, that thus they sat talking together until supper was ready. So when they had made ready, they sat down to eat. Now the table was furnished with fat things, and with wine that was well refined; and all their talk at the table was about the Lord of the hill: namely, about what he had done; and wherefore he did what he did; and why he had built that house. And by what they said, I perceived that he had been a great warrior, and had fought with and slain him that had the power of death; but not without great danger to himself, which made me love him the more.

All of their talk at the table was about the Lord of the hill…

I have had many gospel-based friendships, but not many that I could also say this about. I can say this about my friendship with Matt, though. Even when our talk is not about the Lord of the hill, we come back to it quickly, and I love Christ more after talking with him.

He is a very good friend.

Happy Labor Day

“Kids don’t have a little brother working in the coal mine, they don’t have a little sister coughing her lungs out in the looms of the big mill towns of the Northeast. Why? Because we organized; we broke the back of the sweatshops in this country; we have child labor laws. Those were not benevolent gifts from enlightened management. They were fought for, they were bled for, they were died for by working people, by people like us.”

~ Utah Phillips

Ecclesiastes 2:24-25 HCSB

There is nothing better for man than to eat, drink, and enjoy his work. I have seen that even this is from God’s hand, because who can eat and who can enjoy life apart from Him?

Fun Fun Fun

I can’t believe this line up. I had hoped to see Quicksand on this list, but this is still amazing. Here’s who I want to see:

Explosions in the Sky
Superchunk
Minus the Bear
Seaweed
The Promise Ring
Cursive
Against Me
Converge
Lagwagon
Braid
Run DMC
De La Soul
DAVID CROSS!!!!
El Ten Eleven
Balmorhea
Refused

The day I gave up

About 10 years ago I was at a benefit concert at Notsuoh’s, and I struck up a conversation with a guy standing by the door. This is, to the best of my knowledge, an exact recollection of the conversation. I’ll call my conversation partner “Larry.”

ME: Misfits fan, huh?
LARRY: (obviously confused) what?
ME: (pointing at his shirt) The Misfits. I asked if you are a Misfits fan.
LARRY: Oh, this is a punk rock shirt.
ME: Yes, sort of. The Misfits were a punk rock band, and that is a Misfits shirt.
LARRY: I don’t think so. The guy at Hot Topic told me that this is a punk rock shirt, so…
ME: (dying inside) I bet you are a huge punk rock fan then. What’s your favorite punk band?
LARRY: Oh God, there’s so many. Probably Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The Church and Suffering

“It was divine necessity that Jesus had to suffer and be rejected. Any attempt to hinder what is necessary is satanic… because it intends to prevent Christ from being Christ. The fact that it is Peter, the rock of the church, who makes himself guilty doing just this after he has confessed Jesus to be the Christ and has been commissioned by Christ, shows that from the beginning the church has taken offense at the suffering Christ. It does not want that kind of Lord, and as Christ’s church it does not want to be forced to accept the law of suffering from its Lord. Peter’s objection is his aversion to submit to suffering. That is a way for Satan to enter the church. Satan is trying to pull the church away from the cross of the Lord.”

Bonhoeffer - Discipleship, 85. Emphasis added.

Discipleship

“As Jesus was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.” (Mark 2:14)

The call goes out, and without any further ado the obedient deed of the one who follows. The disciple’s answer is not a spoken confession of faith in Jesus. Instead, it is the obedient deed.

~ Bonhoeffer, Discipleship