Another sermon that was almost entirely political, gang.

You know, when I went to have my meeting with the new minister at the new church, we did talk about politics and its role in the church.

I felt it should be kept out of it. That Sunday mornings should be a break from all that, and focus on the teachings of the Bible. How things effected the people in the Bible, why things happened, and how it might resonate for us here, today.

And the new minister, in all fairness, disagreed. He felt politics in church was very important.

But I guess I wasn’t expecting to be hit over the head with politics. It makes for a really joyless atmosphere in the whole place.

And since the only thing I can genuinely look forward to is sitting next to that stained-glass window on Sundays…

I decided today, as I was leaving the church in a decidedly unjoyful state of mind… I won’t be going back.

It was really disappointing. But, no, I’m still not gonna start my own church…

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But all that aside —

I still have plenty to be joyful about!

For instance, here’s this:

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And this!

Wow, gang.

I don’t remember which post it was, but a few months back, I wrote about how the play written by Sam Shepard and Patti Smith, “Cowboy Mouth,” helped me survive being in the mental institution when I was 15.

I follow the Hotel Chelsea on Instagram, and yesterday they posted this absolute gem — Sam Shepard, smoking, in 1971:

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And, of course, in the JOY department–

There is this!!

Luckily, it seems like Australians are really great about taking photos at concerts and immediately posting them online! Yay! (Or, as is the case in the photo below taken by Carly Paradis, even members of the Bad Seeds are great at taking photos at concerts and immediately posting them online!)

From Nick Cave Official:

And you can buy tickets for the show in Adelaide, on January 20th, here!

And here’s the set list from the show in Perth:

There were actually quite a lot of photos from the show that I liked, but I was with my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man when all the photos started to appear on Instagram, and it would have been rude to start taking a bunch of screen shots right then, and then there got to be too many of them. So I leave it with the above for today.

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I have to start getting ready to head out and see the retired Minister and his lovely wife and cat, but tomorrow morning, if I remember, I’ll tell you about what happened when I called in sick on Friday.

Meanwhile, enjoy what’s left of your Sunday, wherever you are in the world.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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Let’s close with this today, in lieu of hearing a sermon that I actually enjoyed…

James Tabor:

“In this informal lecture I explore on a non-technical level some of the overarching themes of the Hebrew Bible, that surface in a composite way, here and there, in the Torah, the Prophets, and the Psalms. What are human beings? Do they have any purpose or destiny beyond this world? What about death? What of the human future?”

Outside the Gates of Eden: The Hebrew View of Life, Death, and the Future (51 mins.):