Called to a Place: Living as Blues Singers, Resident Aliens, & the Creative Minority

Called to a Place: Living as Blues Singers, Resident Aliens, & the Creative Minority

9/25/2016

Chris Breslin

Jeremiah 29:4-14

 

“This is kind of how blues began — out of feeling misused, mistreated. Feeling like they had nobody to turn to. Blues don’t necessarily have to be sung by a person that came from Mississippi as I did, because there are people having problems all over the world.” (B.B. King)

 

“To be a resident but alien as a formula for loneliness that few of us can sustain. Indeed, it is almost impossible to minister alone because our loneliness can too quickly turn into self-righteousness or self-hate. Christians can survive only by supporting one another through the countless small acts through which we tell one another we are not alone, that God is with us.” (Stanley Hauerwas & Will Willimon, Resident Aliens)

 

“What Jeremiah was saying was that it is possible to survive in exile with your identity intact, your appetite for life undiminished, while contributing to the wider society and praying to God on its behalf… “ (Jonathan Sacks, On Creative Minorities)

 

“Every time you try to be like your neighbors, they said, you will be defeated by your neighbors. Every time you worship power, you will be defeated by power. Every time you seek to dominate, you will be dominated. For you, says God, are my witnesses to the world that there is nothing sacred about power or holy about empires and imperialism.” (Jonathan Sacks)

 

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” (Frederick Buechner)

 

Scripture

Psalm 137

1 Peter 1:1

Philippians 3:20

Romans 12:2

Slides from Sunday

 

This Sunday’s Songs

Wayfaring Stranger

All Creatures of Our God and King by St. Francis

Blessed Be Your Name by Redman

Steadfast by McCracken

10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) by Redman

Jesus, You’re Leading Us Home by JnV

 

Further Reading on Work & Vocation

A Woman’s Place by Katelyn Beaty

A Theology of Work by Darrell Cosden

Culture Making by Andy Crouch

Culture Care by Makoto Fujimura

Visions of Vocation by Steve Garber

Creating with God by Sarah Jobe

Every Good Endeavor by Tim Keller & Katherine Leary Alsdorf

Called by Mark Labberton

Forgetting Ourselves on Purpose by Brian Mahan

When the Kings Come Marching In by Richard Mouw

Work Matters by Tom Nelson

Laborem Exercens (Through Work) by Pope John Paul II

                                         Kingdom Calling by Amy Sherman

Consider Your Calling by Gordon T. Smith

Work in the Spirit by Miroslav Volf

Work: A Kingdom Perspective by Ben Witherington III

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