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In 1903, W.C. Handy was waiting for a train in the town of Tutwiler, Mississippi. The train was late and so he fell asleep on the hard wooden bench of the station. He was awakened by an old raggedy man scratching the strings of an old guitar. He was singing about “goin’ to where the Southern cross the dog.” Handy asked him what the song meant and was told that it was about the tracks of the Yahoo and Mississippi Railroad (which the locals called the yellow dog) where it crossed the tracks of the Southern Railroad in Moorehead, Mississippi. Handy thought this was the weirdest song he had ever heard, but he put it to music and the blues was born. Handy has been called the “Father of the Blues” although he said that he didn’t invent them, but only presented them to the world. The blues, as a musical style, is the foundation for most 20th century music including rock and roll, jazz, and even hip-hop. In 1909, Handy moved his band to Memphis and settled on Beale Street, the area which today is known as W.C. Handy Park. It was there in Memphis where he composed his two most famous songs, “Memphis Blues” and “St. Louis Blues.” The Blues, as a musical style, come out of the hardship of everyday living. They express the honest feelings of those who experience lives of struggle and difficulty. We are in the midst of a Lenten sermon series on singing the Blues with God’s people, because depression and hardship are nothing new to his children.
In 1903, W.C. Handy was waiting for a train in the town of Tutwiler, Mississippi. The train was late and so he fell asleep on the hard wooden bench of the station. He was awakened by an old raggedy man scratching the strings of an old guitar. He was singing about “goin’ to where the Southern cross the dog.” Handy asked him what the song meant and was told that it was about the tracks of the Yahoo and Mississippi Railroad (which the locals called the yellow dog) where it crossed the tracks of the Southern Railroad in Moorehead, Mississippi. Handy thought this was the weirdest song he had ever heard, but he put it to music and the blues was born. Handy has been called the “Father of the Blues” although he said that he didn’t invent them, but only presented them to the world. The blues, as a musical style, is the foundation for most 20th century music including rock and roll, jazz, and even hip-hop. In 1909, Handy moved his band to Memphis and settled on Beale Street, the area which today is known as W.C. Handy Park. It was there in Memphis where he composed his two most famous songs, “Memphis Blues” and “St. Louis Blues.” The Blues, as a musical style, come out of the hardship of everyday living. They express the honest feelings of those who experience lives of struggle and difficulty. We are in the midst of a Lenten sermon series on singing the Blues with God’s people, because depression and hardship are nothing new to his children.
I want to start of today by asking some thought provoking questions. Why is it that doctors call what they do “A practice”? Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker? Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour? Why do they call apartments, apartments when they are all stuck together? Why can’t women put on mascara with their mouths closed? Why is the word abbreviation so long? Why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways? Why is it that when you transport something by car, it’s called a shipment, but when you transport something by ship, it’s called cargo?
One of my students inadvertantly, and tragically, gave me a sudden insight into Job. When Shannon drove through a stop sign she didn’t see and was killed, I was asked to offer some words at her funeral. I asked my students to write on a piece of paper things that Shannon had said or done that made their worlds a little better. I promised to read them at her funeral.
One of the stories touched me so powerfully that years later I cannot be free of it.
One day, according to a friend of Shannon, she had come to school late and very angry. Shannon was so angry that her friend walked her to her locker before asking what was wrong.
Shannon was angry to the point of tears. She told her friend that her parents had grounded her when they heard that one of the boys driving a car that Shannon had been a passenger in was drunk. Shannon felt that her punishment was impossibly unfair. She had done nothing wrong and was being punished without any good reason.
Her friend muttered, "That wasn’t right. Don’t ...
Language is a great gift from God that sets us apart from every other creature. But sometimes our words are misunderstood or mistranslated; for example, I found some commercial slogans that had been translation into other languages of course they didn’t translate the same: Kentucky Fried Chicken, "finger-lickin’ good" In China it came out as "eat your fingers off." The Pepsi slogan "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" came out in Taiwan as "Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead." When General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova in South America, they were unaware that "no va" means "it won’t go." They didn’t sell many cars in South America. Coors’ "Turn It Loose" slogan was mistranslated into Spanish as "Drink Coors and get diarrhea."
During the course of his sermon, a preacher wanted to emphasize the brevity of life. He took a long pause, then said, “Every member of this church is going to die.” But, to his surprise, a man in the back row responded to this statement with a big smile. Repeat twice, louder…After the sermon he went back and found the man and asked, “Why in the world did you smile so big when I said ‘Every member of this church is going to die?’” The man erupted with a huge smile and said, “Because I’m not a member of this church.”
A friend of mine told me about a time he was a youth counselor at church camp. During the week they had various types of activities. They had bible classes, and prayer groups, and hiking, and worship services, and of course some type of sporting competition every day. All the kids were having a great time but there was this one boy named Billy, who was overweight, that hated the sporting events because he just couldn’t compete. On the last day of camp, came the event that he dreaded most of all. It was the relay race. They had to run all the way around the track before passing the baton and he knew that he could run very fast and he would be out of breath before getting half way around. The others on the team decided to make him run first so the fastest kids could finish the race. The horn sounded and Billy started running. Within in a few seconds he was already way well behind the others. His team yelled at him, others laughed at him, and by the time Billy got half way around the track he started walking. He just couldn’t take being ridiculed anymore. One of the counselors saw what had happened and ran out to Billy, put his arm around him and said, “I know you can do it. I’ll run with you.” And I’m sure said some other encouraging words to him. With that Billy picked up the pace, the other counselors told the other kids to cheer for him and encourage him. Soon Billy stepped it up a little more. He never ran very fast but he finished the course with tears in his eyes and the others cheering for him and clapping their hands. Some of the other kids were also crying because they saw first hand the power of their words.
Humorus story: God was once approached by a scientist who said, "Listen God, we’ve decided we don’t need you anymore. These days we can clone people, transplant organs and do all sorts of things that used to be considered miraculous.
"God replied, "Don’t need me huh? How about we put your theory to the test. Why don’t we have a competition to see who can make a human being, say, a male human being."
The scientist agrees, so God declares they should do it like he did in the good old days when he creat...
ABOUT ESAU...
Bible commentator Henry Morris points out that hunting was unnecessary because with a large flock of sheep, there was plenty to eat. This may mean that Esau was always away hunting as opposed to being at home helping with the chores and the sheep. We might be able to say that Esau was irresponsible.
There was a little church located in a small town and there were few people attending. They didn’t want to close it down because there wouldn’t be any church for miles around. The church board decided to go to every house in the community and ask, “Would it matter to you if we closed the church doors?” Most of the people said, “No, we don’t attend anyway.” After everyone in the town was contacted, the doors were locked and eventually the building was torn down. The values of that town were evident.
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