The Internet Monk Archives

Reconsider Jesus – The First Look at the Family

Today we are going to do something a little different. Scott Lencke had suggested that for a change of pace, readers might be interested in hearing one of the original audio Bible Studies which are among the sources used for Michael Spencer’s upcoming book: Reconsider Jesus – A fresh look at Jesus from the Gospel of Mark. For those who would rather read the transcription, David Clark, one of 35 volunteers who helped us with process, provided the transcription you can read below. Note that this is a raw transcription. Don’t expect it to read like a book. Expect grammatical and other errors. However, as you are reading think about what your family’s reaction has been to your own following of Jesus. We would love to hear your stories. If you would like to be contacted when Michael Spencer’s book is available for purchase, drop us a note at michaelspencersnewbook@gmail.com.

The First Look at the Family

Mark 3:20-21; 31-35

²⁰Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. ²¹When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”…³¹Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. ³²A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” ³³“Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. ³⁴Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

The transcription picks up after the Bible reading…

We’ve been privileged to know a number of people who’ve gone to the mission field as missionaries. I’m thinking particularly of one couple right now, who the young woman was raised in a wonderful Christian family, and I believe all her life, probably, in church and in her home missionaries were held up to her as heroes. And I have no doubt that as she grew up many people in her church said, “She would make a wonderful missionary,” and I think she is just perfectly suited. And probably as she got a little older folks said, “You know I believe God may be calling her to the mission field.” But when, and then she married a man who was committed to go to the mission field, and they began to pursue actively seeking placement on the mission field, and I remember I was their pastor when they received the appointment to go to Nigeria and teach in a seminary there, and this young woman’s mother pleaded with them not to go. Been a lifelong dream. Almost seemed like a foregone conclusion. But she pleaded with them not to go. We are going to lose an OBI, one of our treasures Michelle Mouw comes over here and plays the horn for us every so often. She’s marrying a Presbyterian minister, and I think they are on the way to the mission field, I feel strongly that’s the case, and as they were kind of discussing with family about appropriate wedding gifts and she noted that she is registered in every place in Minneapolis and receiving lots of china and silver and things she doesn’t want. She said, “One of the things I said to my mother was, well mom, you know we’re probably going to the mission field.” And her mother said, “Shhh, don’t let your grandmother hear that.”

Every parent understands that, don’t we? It may be our dream that our child be in the center of God’s purposes in this world. It may be our dream that our child be useful to God and devoted to God and committed to God. And we may expose that child in church and elsewhere to everything possible to say, “Give your life to Jesus Christ and live for him with passion and abandonment.” But when that child says, “I’m going to go put my life in harm’s way. I’m going to go to a place where missionaries aren’t allowed. I’m going to go to a place where Christians are being killed, where churches are being burned, where there’s open hostility towards Christians,” any parent would be strongly tempted to say, “Don’t go, this is not right. This is not what God has for you.” Now we would probably be wrong in that sentiment, but we can understand it, can’t we? So, we need to remember that as we come to Mark chapter 3 and find Mark’s surprising introduction of Jesus’ family.

Now, in the other gospels that followed Mark (and if you recall, Mark is the first gospel, Matthew written ten years after him, Luke ten years after that, and then John sometime afterward) in the gospels that followed Mark, especially Matthew and Luke, a very positive portrait painted of Jesus’ family. And that portrait is primarily painted around the Christmas stories, that the angel announces to Mary that this is going to be a very special child, the Son of God, and she says, “I am the Lord’s handmaiden, I understand that for his purposes to be done in this world someone must bear this child.” And in Matthew’s gospel Joseph, who is at first surprised and outraged by the events that are happening to his pregnant fiancée, Joseph when God speaks to him says, “Yes, this is a special child I’m willing to go through whatever it takes to bring this child into the world.” And the two of them make the commitment to raise this child in the way of the Lord. Luke’s gospel says that Jesus grew in his family in favor with God and man. They took Jesus to the temple, they had him dedicated there. Simeon and Anna speaking like voices from the Old Testament said, “This is God’s chosen and special child.” Even when Jesus began to push at the boundaries as young people will always do, at age 12 staying in the temple for days while his parents look frantically for him. When they found him he said to them no doubt something he had heard him say was appropriate, “You need to be about your Father’s business.”

So sometimes with those pictures from the other gospels, we are not prepared for what we read in Mark, and as I take people through the gospel of Mark all the time, this is one of the places people have real problems. They have a lot of questions, because Mark has not introduced us to Jesus’ family. He has begun his gospel with the baptism of Jesus. Everything he has had to say to us about Jesus’ background was wrapped up in the sentence: Jesus came from Nazareth. So it takes us by surprise to read in verse 21 that as Jesus is gathered in a house with a crowd ministering, in the midst of his time of working miracles and teaching, it says in 3:21:

21 When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

That doesn’t fit very much in our picture of Jesus and his family.Continue reading “Reconsider Jesus – The First Look at the Family”

Summer Sounds from CM: Dave

dmb_creditmatthewlamb — Photo by Matthew Lamb

Summer would not be summer for my kids without one word: Dave. Oh yeah, and I love Dave and his band too.

Dave Matthews Band concerts are an annual rite of summer for them and for many around the country, as throngs turn out to hear amazing live music. DMB is a group that defies easy categorization, mixing rock, folk, and jazz into a jam-band stew that must be tasted in person to fully appreciate. They play long and loud; these are marathon events that attract some of the most loyal fans in the world, many of whom camp out for the weekend and attend as many shows as DMB might play at the venue.

The following video of “Two Step” is from several years ago: a 2007 concert at Piedmont Park. I chose it because it exemplifies their jams well, and it makes a pretty strong case for me when I say that the best drummer in the world today is DMB’s Carter Beauford.

As Long as We Approach the Bible This Way, We’re in Trouble

I will confess: I have been away from this kind of thinking for quite awhile now, so whenever I hear a clear example of it, I am almost shocked at how silly it sounds to me at this point in my journey.

I saw a post recently by Pastor/Evangelist Greg Laurie with this title:

Where is the United States in the End-Times Scenario?

For those of you who don’t know, I was once immersed in the world of fundamentalist Bible teaching that grew out of the Scofield Reference Bible and the dispensationalist approaches taken by schools like Dallas Theological Seminary. But even back when I was in that world, topics like this annoyed me because I didn’t find anything in the Bible that seemed to resonate with such a question.

Even back then I think I might have responded to such a query with an answer like this: “Because the Bible is not about America and its prophecies are not detailed “news reports” of the events of our day cloaked in ancient language.”

But before we get to what I have to say, let’s see how Greg Laurie handled this issue.

First of all, he starts by assuming that modern nations are part of the prophetic teaching of Scripture:

It is interesting to note that a number of nations are mentioned in the Bible that will be active in the last days. Libya is mentioned by name. Persia, which became modern Iran and Iraq, is mentioned. Ethiopia is specifically mentioned. Quite possibly China and Russia are mentioned. And certainly Israel is mentioned. But the one nation that is strangely absent is the United States of America.

Second, he assumes the absence of the U.S. from prophecy means bad news for the nation. Laurie suggests that the U.S. might be destroyed in a nuclear war. This enables him to bring up the enemy du jour, the terrorists and rogue states that might get hold of a weapon and use it against us. He also suggests an internal collapse, giving him the opportunity to express concern about the “soul” of our country and go to preaching against the common contemporary moral concerns of the religious right:

As our country becomes more and more secular, systematically eliminating God and the Bible from our education system, courts, and the arts we will begin to reap the inevitable results of sin. We will begin to rot from the inside.

Historian Will Durant pointed out that a great nation is not destroyed from the outside until it has first fallen apart on the inside. Certainly you can see the moral decay in America today. The Bible says, “Godliness makes a nation great, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Proverbs 14:34 NLT). If we forget God and abandon the Bible, which is his Word, then we will reap the inevitable results of sin. I think to some degree, we already have as we have seen the breakdown of the family, rampant crime and so many other problems that have come from disobeying God.

What once was freedom of religion seems to have now become freedom from religion. We have succeeded in getting God out of our schools, out of our sporting events, out of our public places and out of our workplaces.

Christmas – which was once, at least to some degree, a celebration of the birth of Jesus – now has simply turned into Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings and for some, even winter solstice. Good Friday and Easter, which are times to remember the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, have now turned into spring break.

And why would one ask specifically about the U.S. anyway? That betrays a great deal of national hubris on the part of the questioner and the preacher who thought it a worthy inquiry. Sure we’re the world’s biggest superpower at the moment. And perhaps that’s it. Everyone’s being told that we’re living in the “last days,” and the U.S. is so prominent in the world today — why then aren’t we mentioned?

There are so many wrong assumptions bound up in the question alone.

Laurie’s third possibility strains credulity even further than some of his other points. He says perhaps the U.S. will have a massive revival that will result in a significant percentage of the population getting saved. Consequently, when the Rapture occurs, the infrastructure of U.S. will be so weakened because of the absence of those Christians that it will simply collapse.

Finally, Greg Laurie concludes his message by calling his listeners to pray that the U.S. will “turn back to God.” This gives him the opportunity to repeat the standard historical assertions of the Christian Right — that the U.S. is a Christian nation, founded upon biblical principles, whose founders “called upon God” in the early days of the country. The subject of prophecy disappears completely from the message at this point. In true form, the evangelist calls us to return to the old ways that presumably brought God’s blessing upon us in the past, and forsake the wayward paths we’ve since taken.

* * *

As long as we approach the Bible this way, we’re in trouble. Unfortunately, this kind of prophetic teaching is still all too popular in fundamentalist and conservative evangelical churches and organizations. It turns the Bible into a giant puzzle book of detailed divine plans for the future. In combination with a moralistic approach that sees the Scriptures as “God’s instruction book for life,” it creates Christians and institutions that separate from the world in all the wrong ways and set their minds on teachings that are esoteric and and in some cases, simply silly.

Such cartoonish eschatology mirrors the craziness of much YEC creationist teaching. The end is like the beginning. And you will note that evangelists use both to promote the agenda of the religious right.

To think that the Bible was written to talk about modern nations and specific historical events in our day or in the future is a big stretch. Most of the prophecies in the First Testament find their fulfillment in the return from exile and the coming of Messiah. Most of the prophecies in the New Testament look forward to the fall of the Jerusalem and the subsequent extension of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. There is a final eschatology, but its details are difficult to envision or describe with specificity. Many of us are loathe to go too far beyond our creedal commitments when speaking of the future:

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
…We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

One would hope that contemporary scholars and theologians like N.T. Wright, Scot McKnight, Andrew Perriman, and others will have a wider hearing in the church and we can leave these remnants of dispensational theology and its heirs behind.

Left behind. One can only hope.

* * *

Note: For more on my journey from dispensationalism, see the post, “Time to Leave Behind the Rapture.”

For a saner and more biblically grounded message, check out “The Road to New Creation,” a sermon by N.T. Wright.

On Charles Williams

O Champion General, we your City ascribe to you the victory in gratitude for being rescued from calamity, O Theotokos. But since you have invincible power, free us from all kinds of perils so that we may cry out to you: Rejoice, O Bride unwedded!

When he perceived what had secretly been ordered, to the abode of Joseph urgently reported the bodiless one and said unto the Unwedded: The Lord who has bowed the heavens in His descent, in you is contained completely and without change; and beholding Him in your womb taking the form of a slave, astounded I cry out to you: Rejoice, O Bride unwedded!

(Troparion and Apolytikon of the Great Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos)

JRR Tolkien, the author of The Lord Of The Rings, never cared much for Charles Williams. In one occasion, he referred to him as “that witch-doctor”, and lamented his growing influence over this friend and CS Lewis. By all accounts, Charles Williams never was as central a participant in the Oxford literary circle that included both Tolkien and Lewis, and witnessed the birth of both Middle Earth and Narnia as they emerged from the crania of their creators. Williams was not an academic. He attended, but never graduated from University. In another, more primordial sense, Williams was as different from Tolkien as anybody could be. Tolkien was the voice of Deep England, and Deep England was aways a rural, almost Arcadian vision. I think the American version of this, the mythology of the Plain Man with his Plain Speech speaking the Plain Truth is invariably Red State-rural, or at least small-town. Throughout all of Tolkien’s works, there is a mistrust of the Machine, an abhorrence of the Algorithm, a wistful desire for a simpler more straightforward relationship between men and the natural world as well as between men and other men.

Williams, on the other hand, was a life-long Londoner and an urbanite through and through. Unlike the romances of Tolkien and Lewis, Williams’ novels are set either in cities or in a countryside to which urban denizens have retired, but which is to them what rural spaces are to the majority of us; a restful and aesthetically superior extension of the city, economically dependent on it, to which a favored few who can afford it are allowed too escape from time to time. It is telling that the one Lewis romance set in an urban environment, That Hideous Strength, is considered the one book of his that is most influenced by Charles Williams. In Tolkien, the City was seen as either a a necessary evil (Minas Tirith) or as the embodiment of the diabolical (“lovely Lugbürz”). Even though the first glance of Peter Jackson’s Edoras provoked the comment from my son – ‘he’s king of that?’ – there is never any doubt where Tolkien’s sympathies lay. The Companions of the Ring, even the restored King himself, spend as little narrative time in Minas Tirith as possible.

In contrast, Williams both saw and expanded upon one of the central visions of the Scriptures; we began our career in a Garden, but we are not to return to it. Whether or not the cherub with the double-edged sword will still be keeping guard or not, it will be unnecessary. The Tree of Life has been uprooted and replanted in a City, which City is our final destiny. It is not for nothing that the City gives the name to that most desirable state of man; civilization, apart from which there is only savagery and barbarism. For Williams, the Image of the City was the Image of what he calls the vicarious life. Christians are always being exhorted to “live for others”. Williams says that the City makes it known that we not only live for others, but because of others. Others have labored and you have entered upon their labors. You only have to spend a day in a major city where there is a sanitary strike to understand just how little of an abstraction this is. Cities are the places par excellence, where human energies are collected, weighed and measured, and submitted to the process of Exchange. For Exchange, to Williams, is not primarily a Christian doctrine explaining how the virtues of Christ are applied to the accounts of sinful men. Exchange is, because of Christ’s sacrifice, the very Life of the Universe. A sodium atom may live unto itself and remain as it is, volatile and intolerant of light, and a chlorine atom may remain as it is, corrosive and poisonous, or one may surrender an electron to the other and they may become the Power That Preserves.

Continue reading “On Charles Williams”

How Not To Be A Disciple

A couple of weeks ago, I read a post on my nephew’s blog that made me rear up and do my best Church Lady impression. It wasn’t what my nephew said, it was the post he linked to that stoked my ire. And boy, did my ire get stoked, to the point where my nephew asked to delete the comment I had left because he didn’t want a flame war to break out on his blog.

Well, he’s only sixteen and I’m supposed to be a responsible adult, so I cooled my jets and agreed it was for the best. I also realized that calling (or even thinking of) someone as a “smug git” is not the best way to open dialogue. But, by the sweetly even-tempered irenic discourse of St. Jerome, I was tempted to do so. I was all ready with CUTTING SARCASM to do a wholesale demolition of the post. I even looked up an essay online that I saw in a blog link because I was going to mine it for copious quotes and rhetorical questions about “So what is this progress, what is this better philosophy, you are going to raise your child with? Because there are serious modern thinkers who don’t believe in all that apple pie nonsense.” Oh, I would have been such a smart alec about the whole thing!

Luckily, better counsel (my nephew) prevailed. Then I got this in my daily email notifications for “Read the Catechism in a Year” and I figure if the Holy Spirit is whapping me round the back of the head, then going with my first impulses would be a bad idea.

Continue reading “How Not To Be A Disciple”

A “Good” Samaritan?

The Good Samaritan, van Gogh (after Delacroix) — The Good Samaritan (detail), van Gogh (after Delacroix)

What if I were to stand here this morning, after reading what may be Jesus’ most well known parable, and say, “Jesus does not really want us to be ‘good Samaritans’?” What if I were to tell you that is not exactly the point of his famous story? What if I were to say that he is not merely telling us to be kind to others in need, to show mercy and compassion to those who are hurting, to be gracious and generous and helpful toward the poor and suffering?

I think we all know those things already, don’t we? We talk about “common human decency” that recognizes when another is suffering and in need of attention. I think Jesus may have had more in mind than simply reinforcing common human decency, especially when the subject is, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Furthermore, I think the man to whom Jesus told this parable was a good, moral man who understood the need to have compassion on folks in need. He was an expert in the Jewish law. He knew that God’s law is filled with commands and instructions and exhortations to help the hurting. He also knew that kindness was to be extended not only to his fellow Israelites, but to the aliens and strangers, the foreigners who lived among them as well. Even in this encounter, when Jesus asked what he thought God wanted from him, he gave a good answer and Jesus commended him for it. He said one should love God with all one’s heart and love your neighbor as oneself. He knew that loving God must be lived out in our love for others.

The people of Israel were, by and large, a generous and caring people. They valued life and took care of the needy. They placed a high value on giving alms and other kinds of charitable giving. And I’m sure this man, a religious leader, went right along with the program. Works of charity and mercy were a given in the life of the devout in Israel. This man didn’t need a lesson in that.

Moreover, the text indicates that this teacher was “testing” Jesus and engaged in an effort to “justify himself.” I don’t think simply telling him to help the needy — like he already knew he should do — is much of an answer to that.

No, there is something else going on in this parable. It is not simply about being do-gooders to our neighbors, which is the meaning we usually assign to the term “Good Samaritan.”

Continue reading “A “Good” Samaritan?”

The Homily

Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to Your lovingkindness;
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions,
And my sin is always before me.
Against You, You only, have I sinned,
And done this evil in Your sight—
That You may be found just when You speak,
And blameless when You judge.

(Psalm 51:1-4, NKJV)

It happened that as he made his way toward Jerusalem, he crossed over the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten men, all lepers, met him. They kept their distance but raised their voices, calling out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

Taking a good look at them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”

They went, and while still on their way, became clean. One of them, when he realized that he was healed, turned around and came back, shouting his gratitude, glorifying God. He kneeled at Jesus’ feet, so grateful. He couldn’t thank him enough—and he was a Samaritan.

Jesus said, “Were not ten healed? Where are the nine? Can none be found to come back and give glory to God except this outsider?” Then he said to him, “Get up. On your way. Your faith has healed and saved you.”

(Luke 17: 11-19, The Message)

First of all, I stand here today most in need of the words I will share with you. I do not put myself above anyone within the hearing of my voice in the area of humility. Pride is a chronic disease afflicting and affecting each of us; we must face it daily and deal with it harshly or it will destroy us.

We see from our readings this morning two ways we can deal with pride: confessing our sins, and expressing gratitude for what Jesus does for us. You may say, “Sure, I can see how saying ‘I’m sorry’ expresses humility, but ‘thank you’? How does that keep pride at bay?”

First of all, saying mea culpa is not the same as saying I’m sorry. Sorrow comes with knowing that our words or actions hurt another. If hurting another does not hurt us, does not cause us to then confess our sin, then we can be sure pride has taken root. Please note my use of the unpopular and difficult-to-say word “sin.” Not mistake—sin. Mea culpa means “my mistake.” Taking the wrong exit from the freeway or giving your friend a Coke when she wanted Pepsi or forgetting to set the DVR to record a movie are all mistakes. Jesus did not die for our mistakes. Sin is deliberately putting myself above others. Sin is saying my way is more important than your way. Sin is saying to God, “Not thy will, but mine be done.” We confess sins, not mistakes. We ask forgiveness for sins. Unless and until we realize we are the chief of sinners we cannot experience forgiveness. And if we have not experienced forgiveness we cannot forgive.

Like David, we must realize that we have sinned against God. Sin brings about death. In a few minutes, we will all participate in that death—the death of God’s own Son. We will eat the body and drink the blood of Jesus who died a very real death for our very real sins. But we also sin against one another. Confessing those sins and asking forgiveness is a necessary part of the Christian’s life. Without this, pride takes hold and we begin to see ourselves as above others, as superior to those we hurt with our words and deeds. If we see ourselves as better than they, then we certainly don’t need to ask their forgiveness. If we wound others and then don’t say “I’m sorry,” we do not love. And Jesus gave us one command to follow: Love one another.

Continue reading “The Homily”

Saturday Ramblings 7.13.13

You need to read fast today, iMonks. Do not linger over your computer too long this morning. Why not? Well, because you only have four shopping days left until my birthday on Wednesday. I expect the trucks will start lining up by Monday to deliver all of my gifts. And if you are buying me clothing, don’t forget my size: mammoth petite. I can accept Traveler’s Checks, though cash is preferable. How old will I be? Well, one year older than last year, of course. Now, before you begin baking my cake, shall we ramble?

Chaplain Mike may want to select a new favorite beer. Seems his Samuel Adams brew referenced the Declaration of Independence in a recent TV ad. Oops. They didn’t reference the Creator as being the one who endows us with unalienable rights, and now some Christians are upset. Are these the same Christians who say beer drinkin’ is a ticket straight to hell? And WWSD? (What Would Sam Drink?) Who watches TV commercials anymore anyway?

Want an egg with your beer? Just don’t fry it on the ground at Death Valley National Park. Yes, it is hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk there. It seems like lots of people are doing just that, but not bothering to clean up the fried egg. Or shell. Or carton.

And while it is almost always warm in Africa, President Obama got a rather chilly reception while visiting there after he called for the decriminalization of homosexuality. Christian and Muslim leaders were quick to condemn Obama’s comments. I wonder when American politicians (and missionaries, for that matter) will realize that not everyone wants to be like us (U.S.)?

Continue reading “Saturday Ramblings 7.13.13”

Reconsider Jesus – The Forgiveness of Sins

The following is an small excerpt from Michael Spencer’s upcoming book: Reconsider Jesus – A fresh look at Jesus from the Gospel of Mark. Michael Spencer’s thoughts on Mark Chapter 2 are edited by Scott Lencke. If you would like to be contacted when Michael Spencer’s book is available for purchase, drop us a note at michaelspencersnewbook@gmail.com.

The Forgiveness of Sins

Mark 2:3-5

3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” – NIV

…Throughout the gospels, Jesus is impressed with anybody who’s desperate enough to get to him. A woman who comes out and touches the hem of his garment; a synagogue ruler who says, “Jesus, my daughter is dead.” Jesus recognizes the faith of the desperate. Faith is often born of desperation. Often we get to the place where we realize I have no other answer but God. And we shouldn’t despise that. We shouldn’t say, “Well you should have figured it out sooner.” Over and over again, people get to the place of desperation. This paralyzed man said, “I don’t care how, but get me to Jesus.” And his friends respond, “We’ll take you there.”

It is interesting that Jesus sees “their” faith. It is not only the paralyzed man’s faith, but the faith of the men that is commended. Evangelical Christianity is hyper-individualized and resists the idea of a “community of faith.” Covenant theology is more comfortable with the idea that faith is a corporate matter from first to last, even as we are personally accountable and must personally believe. I think it is biblically impossible to speak of faith outside of a community of faith that believes before we do, nurtures us as we learn to believe, supports us as we believe and believes when we stumble in belief. God’s covenant with his “people” is a community covenant that does not downplay individual faith, but places God’s covenant with the community at the center of his dealings with human beings. All this underlines why it is vitally important for every Christian to be part of a believing community and not just a “lone ranger.”…

———–

How do these thoughts of Michael Spencer’s resonate with you? Has desperation ever driven you to Jesus? Do your experiences of faith have a focus on the individual or on the community? What do you do about community when you are in the “Post-Evangelical Wilderness?”

Summer Sounds from CM: Pickin’ and Grinnin’

Bluegrass and acoustic music of all kinds is a big part of summer. There are many great classic bluegrass groups and artists, but I’ll focus on the current generation today.

My wife knows all about it, so it’s safe for me to confess: I’ve been in love with Alison Krauss for years. And though I enjoy all her music, it’s when she picks up the fiddle and joins with Union Station to perform an old-school bluegrass tune that they really shine, in my eyes. Here’s a video that gives a brief tribute to one of her main influences, the beloved bluegrass guitarist Tony Rice, and then shows them together in a rollicking studio session.