blessed are . . .

Welcome to the show for Sunday, November 27, 2005. Today’s sermon is entitled “Blessed are the Oppressors, the Un-chosen, the Impure, the Dirty Deal-makers” and was originally delivered on Monday, July 29, 2002. Long-time listeners will recognize this sermon as my first podcast, but since I didn’t really know what I was doing then (not much has changed), I thought I’d re-present this one. As I mentioned last week, this one hits pretty close to the bone on anything I might have to say. The notion of God’s radical and subversive grace, incarnate in the Christ, is one that has been on my mind and my heart in these past few years and this sermon is as perhaps as close as I’ve ever come to articulating my own experience of that divine love and grace, a grace and love that has only recently for me become much more than a belief, more than a dry piece of dogma, but more a breathing, living reality.

The musician this week is the Rev. Will Burhans, who serves as pastor of Charlotte Congregational Church, in Charlotte, Vermont. Will’s song today was, “The Stream and Flow.” I happen to know that this is one of Will’s favorite songs, and its easy to see why. Many thanks to the Rev. Will Burhans for today’s music. You can find out more about Will and information about ordering his Cds at www.revwillburhans.com. You can find the show notes on my podcast host page at http://newchristianmanifesto.blogspot.com.

Thanks for listening, see you next week!

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"sheeps, goats and the folsom prison blues"

Welcome to the show for Sunday, November 20, 2005. Today’s sermon is entitled “Sheeps, Goats and the Folsom Prison Blues."

Our musician this week is Kevin Kane, a folk singer/songwriter from New York City. You can find out more about Kevin Kane and information about his music at http://www.kanesongs.com. While I’m pretty sure that Kevin wouldn’t consider himself a Christian artist, I haven’t heard a song yet that so closely matches what I imagine our Christ saying himself about the religious right’s use of him as the poster-boy for such a heartless and hate-filled set of domestic and foreign policy agendas. Can’t say I agree with everything in the song, but I sure do stand up and salute his sense of humor, and his honesty and courage in singin’ it. Hope it made you laugh out loud and squirm a little bit too. I don’t think Kevin needs to hear today’s sermon. Right on.

"I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice. Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD to them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep."

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introducing . . . crossleft!

Welcome to the New Christian Manifesto Podcast for Sunday, November 6, 2005.

(click on the title to listen or if you have iTunes, subscribe with one click button to right on the homepage)

Today I’ve got a little something different for you. I’d like to introduce New Christian Manifesto listeners to another podcast that I’ve begun to produce for CrossLeft.org, a new grassroots progressive Christian organization. You can subscribe to the podcast in the iTunes music store and find it at http://crossleft.blogspot.com. So, for this week only, the crossleft podcast will, by way of introduction, stand in for the New Christian manifesto podcast. I hope you enjoy it!