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The Jazz Theologian

Resolution follows Acknowledgement Resolution:  Jesus in his death was showing us how to live.  Once we hear the call we must resolve to respond.  This part of the cross-examen is a prayerful consent to embrace the excruciating life.  May have died for the truths we have just acknowledged but what if they are not just…

Jesuit Christians daily practice the Prayer of Examen.  It is a simple form of prayer that seeks to develop receptiveness to the call of God for the purpose of a response. We need to "examen" the cross not "examine" the cross.  Jesus’ death was a supreme act of love–a love supreme, that is.  "Greater love…

The English word "excruciating" comes from the Latin "excruciare" meaning "out of the cross."  It is a wrod invented specifically to describe the pain of crucifixion.  We must never minimize the cross.  it is the center of our faith.  In the same way the jazz never leaves the blues behind, Christians daily carry their cross.…

The Apostle Peter understood that we are to become strange fruit.  Legend says that he was crucified, literally, upside-down.  He in turn calls us all to see the cross as a pattern for our lives. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his…

How do you follow strange fruit? We must know the answer to that question.  It was Robert Lewis who wrote that, "We could not make sense of the New Testament in particular, or Christianity in general, without its central figure–Jesus Christ.  Christianity is not a philosophy or an ethic, but a person:  Christianity is Christ. …

Former slave Ida B. Wells launched a campaign against lynching.  She and her five brothers and sisters were orphaned after the death of her parents.  At the age of sixteen she stood for keeping her disintegrating family together and though she was in shool herself she applied for gained employment as a teacher.  "Ida believed…

For those of you in Denver looking for something to do this weekend check out the Five Points Jazz Festival.

That is the question isn’t it?  How do you follow strange fruit?  We as followers of Christ wrestle with that everyday.  How do we follow strange–unnatural–fruit.  For the loveliest lynchee was our Lord! Without Sanctuary:  Lynching Photography in America is a pictorial history of lynching.  Each stomach turning page brings home the reality of this…

Abe Meeropol was a school teacher in the Bronx.  After seeing one of these pictures he put pen to paper and wrote the disturbing and undeniable poem Strange Fruit. He convinced jazz singer Billy Holiday to lend her distinct voice to the haunting tale.  When she performed it in concert people didn’t know how to…

My love…You are beyond description.  As it was sung at our wedding, "If you find a love that’s tender, if you find a love that’s true, then thank the Lord, He’s been doubly good to you." Barbara, you are proof of God’s goodness, mercy, grace and providence in my life.  When I said, "I do"…
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