The Week Ahead

Romeo Dallaire (author of Shake Hands with the Devil) will be speaking to a sold-out crowd at Alumni Hall on Friday at 7.30pm. Doors open at 6.30pm. I’ll be down front – join us!

Monday, the Connections small group will meet at 8.30pm at my house. We’re reading 2Peter together.

Tuesday, Graduate Christian Fellowship will meet at 9am. Two of our group are off on internships so we’ll be a smaller group this week. This would be a perfect time to check us out if you’re looking for a fellowship of graduate Christian students.

Wednesday, the Theology Reading Group will tackle chapter 2 of John Webster’s book, Holy Scripture.

Thursday, the Connection will meet at 5.30pm and will continue to tackle The As, Bs, Cs, and Ds of a Mature Christian Faith. Join us as we explore the essential ingredients of a living faith.

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Newsletter

“Ain’t No Reason” by Brett Dennen

There ain’t no reason things are this way.
Its how they always been and they intend to stay.
I can’t explain why we live this way, we do it everyday.
Preachers on the podium speakin’ of saints,
Prophets on the sidewalk beggin’ for change,
Old ladies laughing from the fire escape, cursing my name.
I got a basket full of lemons and they all taste the same,
A window and a pigeon with a broken wing,
You can spend your whole life workin’ for something
Just to have it taken away.
People walk around pushing back their debts,
Wearing pay checks like necklaces and bracelets,
Talking ‘bout nothing, not thinking ‘bout death,
Every little heartbeat, every little breath.
People walk a tight rope on a razors edge
Carrying their hurt and hatred and weapons.
It could be a bomb or a bullet or a pen
Or a thought or a word or a sentence.

There Ain’t no reason things are this way.
It’s how they always been and they intend to stay
I don’t know why I say the things I say, but I say them anyway.
But love will come set me free
Love will come set me free, I do believe
Love will come set me free, I know it will
Love will come set me free, yes.

Prison walls still standing tall,
Some things never change at all.
Keep on buildin’ prisons, gonna fill them all,
Keep on buildin’ bombs, gonna drop them all.
Working your fingers bear to the bone,
Breaking your back, make you sell your soul.
Like a lung that’s filled with coal, suffocatin’ slow.
The wind blows wild and I may move,
The politicians lie and I am not fooled.
You don’t need no reason or a three piece suit to argue the truth.
The air on my skin and the world under my toes,
Slavery stitched into the fabric of my clothes,
Chaos and commotion wherever I go, love I try to follow.

Love will come set me free
Love will come set me free, I do believe
Love will come set me free, I know it will
Love will come set me free, yes.

There ain’t no reason things are this way
It’s how they always been and they intend to stay
I can’t explain why we live this way, we do it everyday.

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I’ve mentioned Brett Dennen before in this newsletter and here he is again, singing about the brokenness of the world, the materialistic pride of our society, the militaristic anxiety we experience around the world, our infatuation with violence as a means to cultural peace, the debilitating victimization of the poor in the world, as well as the liberating power of love: “Love will come set me free.”

We rarely acknowledge it because it’s like the water in our fishbowls, but in many ways we have become an enslaved people in our (post)modern society today. The rat race of occupational and financial success binds us as with chains to our careers. Our insecurities about being perceived as inferior to our peers oppresses us with consumeristic demands few of us can shoulder. And in our highly mobile society, oftentimes even our families shackle us with expectations that cut against the grain of our own personal hopes and aspirations we hold dear. In many ways, we’re told that we’re not good enough as we are and because these messages come to us in manifold ways – many of them hitting horrifyingly close to home – we come to believe that in order to experience life we must assume lifestyles consistent with the ambient culture around us, no matter the cost.

This is why I love, follow, and serve Jesus. Because Jesus is the great emancipator who comes to break us free from the things which hold us in bondage. Jesus liberates us right down to the core of who we are from every force which seeks to minimize us, marginalize us, straight-jacket us, and flatten out life until its hardly worth living at all.

This is one angle we are invited to consider during Holy Week which begins on Palm Sunday, runs through Good Friday and silent Saturday, and concludes with celebrating on Resurrection Sunday. We are invited to consider Jesus who humbled himself to the bondage of abuse, injustice, torture, and death that we might be set free as God’s dearly loved children.

The Apostle Paul captures this in his hard letter to the Galatians. Here are his friends in Christian community who have been liberated by faith in Jesus Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice but who have allowed themselves to be subjugated to another form of slavery – the performance trap of legalistic religion. And in his letter, Paul lovingly but strongly reminds his friends that they can’t begin with the free gift of faith and then try to end with merits intended to impress God. He argues,

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery…For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh [sinful human ways of living], but through love serve one another. For the whole law [God's design for flourishing human life] is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’” (Galatians 5.1, 13-14, with my explanatory comments added).

The events of this Holy Week 2008 are opportunities for each of us to be reminded that we have been set free in Jesus Christ for a life marked by love – love of God and love for neighbour. Love has come to set us free through the Kingdom-bringing life, sin-defeating death, and victorious resurrection of divine love incarnate – Jesus Christ.