STRUTTIN' WITH JESUS

[Some folks have asked to receive Christ in Winter by email. If you’re not one of those, I don’t mean to be intruding in your IN box. I’m just sending to you this way because I think you may be interested in the subject or the places or people mentioned and I didn’t want you to miss it in case you don’t check the blog site today. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/ I especially apologize if you’re too young to think about winter.]
 
CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith from a place of winter For the Years of Winter…
 
STRUTTIN’ WITH SOME BREAD AND WINE
 
I wrote this with jazz worship services especially in mind.
 
To the tune of STRUTTIN’ WITH SOME BARBECUE, by Lil Hardin Armstrong [1898-1971], Louis Armstrong’s piano player and 2^nd wife.
 
Barbecue in hipster jive was a good looking woman, so when Louis was “struttin’ with some barbecue,” he was struttin’ with the song’s composer.
 
It may seem strange to think of Jesus struttin’, but the word barbeque comes from a Native American word meaning “sacred.”
 
Remember John 10:10, where Jesus says, “I’m here; let’s party,” which means that the point of life is to have a good time, to go struttin’, not to show off, but to show up, on the side of those whose life is not abundant. A truly good time is a time of joy, not just pleasure. Joy comes in wholeness, when everyone has a chance to march in the struttin’ parade. The point is not to get to heaven but that God’s kingdom might come on earth. [Matthew 6:10]
 
The “meek,” who shall “inherit the earth,” [Matthew 5:5] are not the weak, as that word has come to imply, but the humble, those who are not proud in the ways of the world, not those who are proud of worldly wealth and power and success, but the humble who know that “It is God who has made us, and not we ourselves.” [Psalm 100:3]

 

 
Struttin’ with some bread and wine
With Jesus and his friends we’ll dine
Feeding on the word divine
Struttin’ with some bread and wine
 
Struttin’ with the low and meek
It’s our inheritance we seek
Into heaven we’ll just peek
Struttin’ with the low and meek
 
Struttin’ with those left behind
Struttin’ with the man born blind [John 9:1-41]
It’s our inheritance we’ll find
Struttin’ with those left behind
 
Struttin’ toward those pearly gates
Hurry, friend, let’s don’t be late
Leave behind those earthly hates
Struttin’ toward those pearly gates
 
Struttin’ in my heavenly shoes
Singin’ loud the Jesus blues
‘cause I’ve paid earth’s union dues
Struttin’ in my heavenly shoes
 
Struttin’ with some bread and wine
With Jesus and his friends we’ll dine
Feeding on the word divine
Struttin’ with some bread and wine
 
© John Robert McFarland, 2012
 
The “place of winter” mentioned in the title line is Iron Mountain, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where life is defined by winter even in the summer!
 
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{I also write the fictional “Periwinkle Chronicles” blog. One needs a rather strange sense of humor to enjoy it, but occasionally it is slightly funny. It is at http://periwinklechronicles.blogspot.com/}