The entire message is fantastic. The closing, however, is remarkable. Preach, Martin.

Take a listen:

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(Embedded audio. Transcript after the break.)

Every now and then I guess we all think realistically (Yes, sir) about that day when we will be victimized with what is life’s final common denominator—that something that we call death. We all think about it. And every now and then I think about my own death and I think about my own funeral. And I don’t think of it in a morbid sense. And every now and then I ask myself, “What is it that I would want said?” And I leave the word to you this morning.

If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. (Yes) And every now and then I wonder what I want them to say. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize—that isn’t important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards—that’s not important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school. (Yes)

I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. (Yes)

I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody.

I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. (Amen)

I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. (Yes)

And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. (Yes)

I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. (Lord)

I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity. (Yes)

Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. (Amen) Say that I was a drum major for peace. (Yes) I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. (Yes) I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. (Amen) And that’s all I want to say.

If I can help somebody as I pass along,

If I can cheer somebody with a word or song,

If I can show somebody he’s traveling wrong,

Then my living will not be in vain.

If I can do my duty as a Christian ought,

If I can bring salvation to a world once wrought,

If I can spread the message as the master taught,

Then my living will not be in vain.

Yes, Jesus, I want to be on your right or your left side, (Yes) not for any selfish reason. I want to be on your right or your left side, not in terms of some political kingdom or ambition. But I just want to be there in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world a new world.

From “The Drum Major Instinct”

Barbara Brown Taylor is wise.

As a rule, I don’t read stuff that gets bogged down in textual evidence, sources behind the text or speculation about whether the stuff in the text actually happened. I read people who have actual stuff to say about the stuff I’m reading.

I’d recommend each of these.

Luke by Justo Gonzalez

Just fantastic. Thoroughly readable and lucid. Gonzalez traces the concept of ‘reversal’ (last/first, hungry/filled, etc.) throughoug the story. It’s wonderful. Highly, highly recommended.

The Gospel of Luke by Joel Green

It’s big. It’s also comprehensive and thoroughly well written. Joel Green’s work is probably the standard bearer in the world of books talking about Luke.

The Theology of the Gospel of Luke by Joel Green

Just a great summary of the themes that show up in Luke’s story of Jesus.

The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in Matthew and Luke by Raymond Brown

Less concerned with the ‘was Jesus really born of a virgin’ stuff and more concerned with the theological intention of the stories of Jesus’ birth.

Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth Bailey

Bailey grew up in the Middle East. He is fluent in Arabic. He draws upon that background to read the life of Jesus while drawing out Middle Eastern culture in helpful ways. Helpful for perspective.

“I remember a conversation that I had in America thirteen years ago with a young French pastor. We were asking ourselves quite simply what we wanted to do with our lives. He said that he would like to become a saint (and I think it’s quite likely that he did become one). At the time I was very impressed, but I disagreed with him, and said, in effect, that I should like to learn to have faith. For a long time I didn’t realize the depth of the contrast. I thought I could acquire faith by trying to live a holy life, or something like it. I suppose I wrote *The Cost of Discipleship* as the end of that path. Today I can see the dangers of that book, though I still stand by what I wrote.

“I discovered later, and I am still discovering right up to this moment, that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. One must completely abandon any attempt to make something of oneself, whether it be a saint, or a converted sinner, or a churchman (a so-called priestly type!), a righteous man or an unrighteous one, a sick man or a healthy one. By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life’s duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world–watching with Christ in Gethsemane. That, I think, is faith: that is *metanoia*; and that is how one becomes a [human] and a Christian (cf. Jer. 45!). How can success make us arrogant, or failure lead us astray, when we share in God’s sufferings through a life of that kind?”

–D. Bonhoeffer, *Letters and Papers from Prison*

You can listen here:

Needless to say, yesterday’s news from Connecticut hit home. One of my greatest fears is that I can do everything possible but still not absolutely guarantee the safety of my children. Yesterday reaffirmed that fear.

The birth of Jesus reminds us these things aren’t new to us. Matthew 2 describes the story of Herod being furious upon realizing that the wise men – who were supposed to return to give him information regarding the location of Jesus – had outwitted him. So he ordered soldiers to kill innocent boys in Bethlehem. That horrible day mothers and fathers wept with great mourning.

Jesus was born into our world – a world where innocent children are killed by evil people.

Eventually evil would kill him too. Evil did the worst it could do to Jesus. Evil pierced the side of the innocent One who shared a perfect connection with his Father. His Father is the Father of slaughtered innocent children; He knows that depth of pain reserved for the loss of your innocent child.

As the sky grew dark, and the earth shook, and all of creation appeared to tremble, and the innocent one’s body was laid to rest in a tomb, the darkness of evil appeared victorious.

Evil is not foreign to God. He knows it all to well.

We now know that evil’s victory was its very death. We know now that days later, Jesus was resurrected. What we often forget, however, is that he still remains crucified. He appeared to his disciples wounded. They saw his open wounds. He was not healed; he was resurrected.

As one of my theology professors said it:

It is because the resurrected Jesus has not gotten better that he is the savior. Were his resurrection his healing, were he in his appearance before Thomas a human being without wounds, were the sin that he became blotted out, were his name that is now above every name no longer the debased name, then he would be the savior only of those healed, unscathed, and sinless, only of those who have gotten better; the debased, the sinner, the wounded would be left to rot. But this is not what happens.

He is the God who stands in solidarity with the suffering of the innocents.

Read the whole article at Christianity Today

“The former wasteland is now like the garden of Eden” – Ezekiel 36:25

by Edwin Freidman

The most influential leadership book I have read. Freidman recognizes that we live in a chronically anxious society where resistance to leadership has less to do with an ensuing issue than with the fact that the leader took initiative. Leadership in this environment necessitates becoming “self-differentiated.”

by Justo Gonzalez

Justo Gonzalez’s commentary on the biblical book of Luke is unlike any I’ve read. It’s not so much a commentary as much as it is a hope filled careful reflection on Luke’s story of Jesus. Gonzalez rightly recognizes Luke’s central message: reversal. The poor, the marginalized, the unclean, the unwanted, the unworthy, the sinners, the children, the women – those who would normally be discarded – find a new world in God’s Kingdom.

by Craig Keen

Craig is my teacher. The book “The Transgression Of The Integrity Of God” is a collection of various addresses and essays. Some are theologically dense others read more like a reflection or even a homily. What he has to say and how he has to say it is remarkable. I can’t remember ever reading a book of theology that caused me to pray without ceasing, weep, groan longingly or pump my fist in exaltation. His words – or maybe more appropriately to the God to whom his words testified – led me to those reactions.

by Rodney Stark

How does an obscure sect led by an executed convict go from 100 (or so) adherents to 6 million in 300 years? Rodney Stark attempts to create a set of testable hypotheses to probe the key issues. What results is a well researched, articulate, and insightful look at the first 300 years of Christianity.

by Eugene Peterson

His own words best describe this book:

“I want to insist that there is no blueprint on file for becoming a pastor. In becoming one, I have found that it is a most context-specific way of life: the pastor’s emotional life, family life, experience in the faith, and aptitudes worked out in an actual congregation in the neighborhood in which she or he lives – these people just as they are, in this place. No copying. No trying to be successful. The ways in which the vocation of pastor is conceived, develops and comes to birth is unique to each pastor.”