How Satire Works

Here is a nice little post about how satire works and specifially how the “Djesus Uncrossed” sketch on SNL is more of an endorsement of Jesus and his priorities than one might think. “Djesus Uncrossed” may be difficult to watch but the fact that a sketch like this was made at all suggests to me that the Christian faith still retains its place in the world of ideas. Prophetic may be too strong a word but “Djesus Uncrossed” reminds us that occasionally, like Balaam’s ass, a word from the Lord comes to us through unapproved means.

“Djesus Uncrossed,” Grievance, and How Satire Actually Works

“Djesus Uncrossed” and the Myth of Redemptive Violence

Treasures of the Broken Land

For Randy and Suzi, dear friends to all, brother and sister in Christ.

Treasure of the Broken Land

I see you now and then in dreams
Your voice sounds just like it used to
I know you better than I knew you then
All I can say is I love you

I thought our days were commonplace
Thought they would number in millions
Now there’s only the aftertaste
Of circumstance that can’t pass this way again

Treasure of the broken land
Parched earth, give up your captive ones
Waiting wind of Gabriel
Blow soon upon the hollow bones

I saw the city at its tortured worst
And you were outside the walls there
You were relieved of a lifelong thirst
I was dry at the fountain

I knew that you could see my shame
But you were eyeless and sparing
I awoke when you called my name
I felt the curtain tearing

Treasure of the broken land
Parched earth give up your captive ones
Waiting wind of Gabriel
Blow soon upon the hollow bones

I can melt the clock hands down
But only in my memory
Nobody gets the second chance to be the friend they meant to be

I see you now and then in dreams
Your voice sounds just like it used to
I believe I will hear it again
God how I love you

Treasure of the broken land
Parched earth give up your captive ones
Waiting wind of Gabriel
Blow soon upon the hollow bones. – Mark Heard, Treasure of the Broken Land

Marilyne Robinson talks about fear

“God’s grace exceeds any imagination man might have of it,” she said. That grace, “calls us to bring credit to the faith.” “If Christ will be with us until the end of the age, why such fear?” she asked. “Why not trust and enjoy the country God has created?” Reverence of God’s great narrative, “should prevent its being subordinated by tribalism, resentment or fear,” she concluded.

Three from NT on the Kingdom

“Heaven and earth, I repeat, are made for each other, and at certain points they intersect and interlock. Jesus is the ultimate such point. We as Christians are meant to be such points, derived from him. The spirit, the sacraments, and the scriptures are given so that the double life of Jesus, both heavenly and earthly, can become our s as well, already in the present.”- pg. 252

“Christian holiness consists not of trying as hard as we can to be good but of learning to live in the new world created by Easter, the new world we publicly entered in our baptism.”- pg. 253

“What you do in the present–by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself–will last into God’s future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether (as the huymn so mistaekenly puts it, “Until the day when all the blest to endless rest are called away”). They are part of what we may call building for God’s kingdom.” - N.T. Wright, in “Surprised by Hope”, pg.193