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It’s Been A Long Time Coming
Guy Carawan died earlier this month at the Highlander Center in Tennessee. He had been the director there for many years. While an accomplished musician, folklorist and collector of traditional hymns and songs, his most lasting contribution is probably one he launched almost accidentally. “O Sanctissima” is a Roman Catholic hymn composed in 1792. Beethoven arranged the hymn as “No. 4” in his “Verschiedene Volkslieder” and the tune made its way to the United States. Eventually it was rewritten and published by a black preacher in Philadelphia, which led to its use by workers in a 1945 strike against the American Tobacco Company cigar factory. Zilphia Horton, a musician and…
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It's Been A Long Time Coming
Guy Carawan died earlier this month at the Highlander Center in Tennessee. He had been the director there for many years. While an accomplished musician, folklorist and collector of traditional hymns and songs, his most lasting contribution is probably one he launched almost accidentally. “O Sanctissima” is a Roman Catholic hymn composed in 1792. Beethoven arranged the hymn as “No. 4” in his “Verschiedene Volkslieder” and the tune made its way to the United States. Eventually it was rewritten and published by a black preacher in Philadelphia, which led to its use by workers in a 1945 strike against the American Tobacco Company cigar factory. Zilphia Horton, a musician and…
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The Council at Jerusalem
As Luke tells us, after Paul’s conversion he spends two years in Arabia and then a year in Damascus and Tarsus before Barnabas is sent to look for him and bring him to Antioch where they spend a year teaching until they are commissioned as missionaries. Together, they spend the next ten years traveling and planting churches. They periodically return to Antioch to give reports of their hardships and their success. Throughout those ten years Paul has run-ins and struggles with Jewish believers (the Judaizers) who insist that new believers be circumcised and follow the dietary laws. So, at the end of ten years or fourteen years after his conversion,…
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Thou Foolish Philanthropist
These six assumptions kept returning to our conversations about how tech people think—and what they will hopefully bring to the practice of philanthropy.
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Paul and Barnabas in Lystra
After Paul’s conversion, he spent three years in Arabia, Damascus and Tarsus until Barnabas went to look for him and brought him to Antioch where together they taught great numbers of people for a whole year. Afterwards, they were set apart and sent off on their first journey. The audiences were mixed, Jewish and Gentile, until we come to the passage this morning where Paul speaks to his first completely Gentile audience. They are not sophisticated like the Athenians but no doubt Paul begins as he usually does. He begins with where they are and their frame of reference. But this time he is totally surprised by the results. Acts…
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What Lies Beneath
A few minutes before noon on April 25 two tectonic plates nine miles beneath the surface of the earth shifted after 81 years of grinding and pushing against each other. The force of 20 thermonuclear bombs was released in a moment, and the entire city of Katmandhu was lifted permanently by more than two feet. The destruction is the worst in the 21st century and while 5,000 people have been accounted for as having died, we still do not know and will not know for years the full scope of the damage. All of this happened because the tension of two opposing masses of rock had been suddenly released. A…
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The Conversion of Saul
Without a doubt, this is the most important conversion in the New Testament. We don’t really think about the disciples converting, do we? There are other dramatic conversions like Cornelius and his family, the Philippian jailer and his family as well as Lydia, a magician and others. However, this conversion is so central to the history of the church that it is told 4 times – 3 in Acts and once in Galatians. In a sense, it has become the model that is first in our minds when we talk about conversion. It is a radical reversal of a life. But, it is only one story and should not be…
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