My Sunday School lessons

Anyone who's been paying attention to this blog since around March will notice that I haven't been posting as often as all that. (Not that I posted that much to start with). The main reason being that I've been teaching Adult Sunday School at my church (Covenant Presbyterian Church, Waynesville, NC) since Sunday March 4 of this year. Not satisfied with a traditional "quarterly" I opted to write my own notes for the class, thereby guaranteeing that I'd have a lot more work to do each week.

For months now I have been considering simply posting some of the lesson notes that I have written. For various reasons I have put this off, but now I'm going to do it. Today's post will begin my class notes from the epistle of James. If anyone cares to read these notes, fine. I hope you get a great deal of information from them.

I don't offer them lightly, but I'm also hoping that this doesn't open a can of worms in which everyone wanting to discuss comparative religion begins posting comments and e-mailing me day and night.

I'm not going to pretend that these notes are all encompassing. I'm writing simply from a Christian perspective, and even within Christian circles there are often disagreements on some of the finer points.

I also realize that I am departing somewhat from the stated purpose of this blog, wherein I proposed to ramble about my life as an artist and musician. Then again, since this Sunday School class has become something very important to my life, and as it affects my creative output as well, it is relevant to my "day job".

With that said, here are the notes:

Sunday March 4, 2007

James chapter 1: 1-18

•James 1:1 “A Strong First Impression”

I was tempted to say the meat of this first passage was in verses 2-18 but then was caught short by my own familiarity with this sort of salutation. It occurred to me that I was jumping ahead.

James is making a radical statement here:

“James, a servant of God…”

Familiarity has dulled our response to these words. Here a man is claiming to be a slave of God Himself! It is unlikely that many Hebrews living at this time would have thought in these terms; i.e. “I am proud of my slavery!”

Recall that the Pharisees claimed they were “slaves to no one”(John 8:33), in spite of the occupation of Palestine by Rome. So for any Hebrew to announce proudly his slavery would be a radical idea at the time.

If that’s not outrageous enough, he equates God and Jesus Christ (recall that you can’t be a slave to two masters, so this statement can only be taken as affirming the Deity of Christ).

This statement to a Jew during this time would be analogous to a British citizen coming to the US now and calling us “colonists”. It would rub us the wrong way. We might laugh it off, but we’d want to make sure that this Briton would know that we were no mere colony of the United Kingdom by the time we parted, right?

Historical context: The Nation of Israel had existed in various forms for nearly 1500 years at this point. The remnant of Israel had returned from Babylon 400 years before-and in spite of occupation by Alexander’s army and then the Romans, the Jews still considered themselves a free nation.

So James makes two outrageous claims here. (1)He’s a slave to God, and (2) God and Jesus are one in the same. I’m not sure of the construction in Greek but I suspect that these are actually reversed: “God and Jesus are the same, and I am a slave to God.”

Considering the political climate of the time James had signed his own death warrant with this salutation. He had offended both the Jewish rulers and the Roman government with this statement.

•Who is this James?

Probably NOT the Apostle James. Apostle died in A.D. 44, or about 11 years after Christ’s resurrection. The James here is writing to the “tribes scattered among the nations”, a reference to the first persecution (Acts 8:1).

The other two James mentioned in the NT did not have the standing in the early Church or the authority that seems apparent from this letter. In other words, they’d have likely identified themselves more clearly in the salutation.

Most likely this James was the eldest of the brothers of Jesus. He doesn’t actually say this, but the evidence is pretty good. (Seven qualifications found in NIV intro to James).
So if we assume that this is that same brother, what do we know about him from the Gospels?
(Matthew 13:55) He is listed first among Jesus’ brothers. So if he wasn’t the second son he was the most prominent.
(John 7:2-5) He and his brothers doubted Jesus initially. Typical of brothers, and reminds me of how Joseph’s brothers treated him.
(Jude 1)You’ll recall that Jude was a younger brother of Jesus, and in his epistle identifies himself as “brother of James”.

•James 1: 2-7 “Happy Trials”

vs.2 “Consider it pure joy…” How often do we do this? I know I don’t. When I face “trials of many kinds” I pout, grumble, mope, complain, rant, etc. But James says I should consider it a joy--PURE JOY! Delight in it.

But James is a practical man and doesn’t simply leave us with an empty platitude. He goes on to tell us why.

vs.3 “Because…” Very important word, “because”. He gives us the reason for the trials: To develop perseverance. But what good is perseverance?

vs.4 James really anticipates these questions well! What good is perseverance? It’s making us, “finished, mature, complete, not lacking anything.”

We all know what it’s like to be younger than we are now. And we should have some idea by now that wisdom is a result of experience, and time is required for us to have experienced things: When we were infants we didn’t know not to touch a hot stove. By the time we reached 5 we only touched one by accident, and then thought it was the end of the world. Now as adults we avoid hot stoves when we can and cope with a burn if one happens.

This is a simple material example of perseverance growing wisdom, and James wastes no time in connecting wisdom to perseverance:

vs. 5 “If any of you lack wisdom…”

This is often pointed to as one of God’s sure promises in the Bible. “…he should ask God…and it will be given to him.” But people often say that’s all you have to do, ask and BOOM! You’ve got it. But why then does James go on?

vs.6 cautions us “…when he asks, he must believe and not doubt…”

What is meant here by “believe”? Is it scrunching up our faces trying to force ourselves to believe something that defies our senses? Is it like clapping our hands in hopes of making Tinkerbell get well?

Of course not--People who truly believe in something don’t go around saying “I believe, I believe, I believe” in some sort of self-hypnotic mantra.

How do believing people behave?

They’re quietly confident--they can face any trial that comes their way with Joy and Perseverance!

vs. 9-11 James goes on to give us some specific examples.

Notice particularly the voice of belief in vs. 11 “…for the sun rises with scorching heat…” James speaks with complete confidence that as certain as the sun rises and flowers wilt, so our destinies are sure.

vs. 12 James sums up the principle. The result of blessing with the crown of life has resulted not from one instance of faithfulness, but a lifetime of smaller cycles of Trial-Perseverance-Blessing arriving at this ultimate blessing.

vs.13 “Tempted” here is the same root word in Greek as the word for “Trial” in vs.2-3. The distinction is that “Trials” are defined as external difficulties (like getting burned by a hot stove) and “Temptations” are our inner moral struggles, as in vs. 13-15.

“…no one should say God is tempting me…” Why? I actually hear this sort of thing a lot, from the unsaved and the Christian too.

First off we should recognize that God is Holy. Temptation doesn’t work on God because it has nothing to offer to God, no way to appeal to Him. (We attempt to drag God down to our level when we think that He could be tempted). God doesn’t hunger or thirst, he doesn’t need a house, or a bigger car. He has all the power, knows everything, etc. God doesn’t have these sorts of desires. (Admittedly, Jesus did face temptation in the desert, but this was his Human nature, not his God nature).

But we have desires aplenty. And they affect us.

vs. 14 “…each one is tempted when his selfish desires drag him away…”

Selfish desires drag us away -- away from what? The confidence that God has provided, and is providing, and will provide what we actually need.

That’s why James tells us in

vs. 16-17 “…every good and perfect gift is from above”. Everything else comes from selfish desires.

And finally James shows us the ultimate perfect gift:

vs. 18 “He chose to give us birth through the word of truth…”

Would I be digressing here into Calvinism to point out that I often tell friends that to be “born again” is nothing that we ourselves do? We had little or nothing to do with our first birth, how can we have anything to do with our second?

We have to look at all these words through fresh eyes.

We could look at life in the darkest of terms. Every single one of us is going to face difficulties in the near future, if we aren’t facing them right now; but as Christians we know that beyond those problems we have “the crown of life” waiting.

Can't imagine what's keeping that artwork from showing.

Maybe now it will display? Hmmm?

Things we do for art, again.

Artwork by James E. Lyle (Based on a publicity photo, presumably copyright by Ms. Eden, but used here only to demonstrate the technical ability of the artist).

Why do I do the things that I do? Good question…darned good question. Wish I had a good answer, but I don’t.

Above you will see (at least if the image hosting worked out as it has mostly in the past) a picture of Barbara Eden, rendered by me in “bing salad” colors. If you don’t know what a bing salad is, then you simply need to get down to the south sometime and experience one. (Hint: It’s not named after Bing Crosby).

Anyway, I did this piece last week. I had some other stuff I should have been working on, but I didn’t get to it.

I told myself that I was doing this piece for money. And that is, at least in part, true. I’m hoping it will sell on eBay at as high a price as the Lynda Carter piece did at Heroes Convention back in June. Barring that I hope that it will at least impress someone enough to convince them to commission a similar piece.

But there are some differences:

First off, Barbara Eden is not known for playing a comic book character. True, there have been “I Dream of Jeannie” comic books, but they were spin-offs of the TV show, not the other way around.

Secondly, this piece has no “hook” aside from the weird color interpretation. The Lynda Carter piece, besides showing her in the Wonder Woman costume she’s known for, had also the pop-art addition of a Che beret. That seemed to sell a lot of people on the piece. Whether they saw the intended satire or not I cannot say. But it seemed to work.

Third, the bidding at Heroes Convention was for charity and there were a lot of high spirits involved therein. I was pleased to know that my piece there went for $1700, but was also embarrassed a bit by all the adulation.

So it would be easy to say that I simply did the piece hoping to cash in, personally, by doing so. But I’ve got no guarantees that anyone will even care. I’ve had auctions crash and burn more often than I’d like to admit.

I will admit that when they crash and burn, I often accompany them emotionally.

Every time I put a piece up for auction on eBay I get the same feeling that I did in elementary school when I got up to bat in softball. I was usually picked last and calls of “easy out” still ring in my ears (Charlie Brown and I were obviously separated at birth).

So why do I do it? Why put myself through all that, again and again?

Because of the occasion of adulation. I may be embarrassed by it, but I also love it. In fact I very often would prefer to impress someone with my art than make a lot of money. Fortunately for my finances I’ve been doing both a lot more lately.

But I’ve also been experiencing a lot more clients walking away. I suppose it’s part of the percentages. That is; if I’m doing more work, making more money at it, then it stands to reason that I’ll have a larger number of clients that will walk away not completely satisfied.

The last client to drop out, did so a couple of weeks ago and it brought me down. It was affecting my work, and so I tried a couple of pieces. I thought I’d take another stab at a 60s Black Widow (before her hair turned red), and posed out a couple of figures that I thought worked. But I got halfway through both and was completely disappointed with the results.
I even tried to use Barbara Eden as the face for that Black Widow piece. I figured it was a natural.

But it stunk.

Okay, so I had all this research on Barbara Eden and an itch to draw her face. This is the result.

So far my wife, Karin, is impressed…and also my student Cierra. They both liked the art, so I figure I’ve got a chance. I sent the scan to my agent on Friday, but I’d forgotten that he was away at Dragon*Con this weekend, so I haven’t heard what he thinks yet. We’ll see.

After taking a couple of days away from the studio, I have to admit that it looks better than I thought it did originally (and I liked it before). So maybe it will sell.

When Steve Martin got the Mark Twain Award for American Comedy he said, “this award is our nation’s highest award for comedy…next to money.” (I laughed and laughed).

Putting a piece of art on eBay is sort of like that. I want people’s approval and adulation (this is a character flaw, I admit), but if that approval results in them giving me their money then I feel exonerated. If it ends in them giving me a lot of money then even better.

Not that life is about money, or adulation. But my experience says that being an artist means needing a certain amount of both.

The trick is not needing so much of either to get by. That I have to work on.

Gypsy Bandwagon Update!

Time to update on the Gypsy Bandwagon show!

As you may have read (if you didn’t check the last entry, below) my preparations for a GB show often seem to start off rather…leisurely. But things have picked up since then.

On Tuesday I practiced drums for around two hours. Then I restrung one of my mallets, that will be needed when we play “Theme from Gypsy Bandwagon” and “Full Rigged Ship” tomorrow night. Can’t risk an equipment failure.

I did other stuff, but that was art related and office related. Hardly relevant to the GB show.

On Wednesday I got the “official” play list from Lance via e-mail, and made my own based on it. My personal play list has to contain more than just the song name, because I am constantly switching instruments during the show. Most folks must figure, “well he plays drums, how hard is that?” But with GB there is always a tweak here and there. I don’t just play the trap set.

I’ve got the Djembe too, which was added to the set up when I joined the band. ( I’d never set eyes on one previously ). So I have to know if I’m playing the Djembe alone, or with the trap bass, or tambourine, or hi hat ( by foot pedal ). I have to know if I’m using light or heavy sticks, mallets, rain stick, jingle ring, etc. So my notes have to be pretty copious in that way.

Not to mention that the sets and arrangements are always changing. I’m not complaining, but Lance and Carissa keep Karin and me on our toes. I’m always being asked to back off here or there, or bring more energy to this part of a song. A lot of times this happens only in rehearsal, but more than once we’ve done it mid-show! So my playlist has to have everything as neatly notated as possible so that if a change does come midway I can adapt.

Anyway the set list took some time. Then I had to practice for an hour or so.

Then Karin had to go practice in Cashiers, NC for a performance on Sunday morning. While this isn’t directly related to GB, it is an issue, since we’ll be playing from 8-10 pm on Saturday at Purple Onion, then leaving out as quickly as possible so that we can drop all our equipment at the studio and get some sleep before getting up at 5:30 am Sunday to load Karin’s harp and hit the road for Cashiers. So the drive out there Wednesday evening was a “dry run” for that.

Thursday I came in to the studio and ( again ) beside my art duties I wrote down a new song I’d been working on for GB to perform at some future date.

Last evening was our first rehearsal proper for the show. Lance and Carissa showed up here at the studio around 6:40 pm and we worked on material, new and old, until around 9:30. I did get a chance to play my new song for them, and it looks like we might do it! Lance complemented it for being “melody-driven”. Not bad for a drummer.

Today I have to pack up all my drums as well as Karin’s equipment ( Bass, Mandolin, Fiddle, and all assorted accessories ) and get them ready to go to Lance and Carissa’s so that we can practice all the songs we didn’t do last night ( and any that didn’t come off last night ). Once we’re done with the second rehearsal I have to break down the drums again and pack the car for the show tomorrow.

We’re supposed to pick up our friend Courtney on the way there. I don’t know if Courtney counts as a “groupie” per se, but we’re picking her up and Lance and Carissa are driving her back home after the gig. It’s been a while since any of us has seen her, so it will be nice.

( I’m pretty sure that Lance is working on some groupie jokes even as I write this…so look out, Courtney! )

We thought we’d get a break on Monday. Only Karin got a last minute gig for Lake Junaluska Monday night. So it looks like we’re going on to Tuesday before the “tour” is over. We may not be a big name band, but between gigging and roadie-ing I’m devoting a lot of time to music.

This has nothing to do with GB, but my studio is crawling with tiny ants. I should probably do something about that.

I exercise in a most unusual way.

I exercise in a most unusual way.

Most reading that will not get the reference, so why did I use it? Just me being obscure.

The reference is to a song by “Wall of Voodoo”, an 80s band, famous for the tune “Mexican Radio”.

Speaking of obscure bands, Gypsy Bandwagon has a gig this Saturday night at The Purple Onion in Saluda, NC. And I’m getting ready for that gig.

Which brings me back to exercising in a most unusual way. I don’t have a clue how other bands get ready for a gig. I’m sure, like GB, they get together for at least a few rehearsals before the gig proper. But what the individual members do to prepare mentally is possibly, even probably, much different than what I do.

What I’ve done, at least enough to call it a routine, is pull out a bunch of “inspirational” videos by other bands. I’m a pretty visual sort of guy (recall that I’m an illustrator in my other identity), so this makes sense to me.

So on Friday and Saturday nights I reviewed “U2: Rattle and Hum”. Sunday at lunch Karin and I watched “The Partridge Family” pilot (all inspiration is not equal). Last night I looked at a batch of 80s videos from MTV (how much hair did we have back then?). As the week continues I’ll doubtless watch various other films and videos that may or may not include; “Oh, brother where art thou?”, “The Monkees”, “Newsboys: Down Under the Bigtop”, “That thing you do!”, etc.

I’m pretty eclectic.

Saturday night I also came over to the studio (where Karin was, working on her MySpace page) and plugged in the electric guitar (with effects) and jammed along with old records of Cheap Trick, 'Til Tuesday, The Clash, Thompson Twins, and (you guessed it) Wall of Voodoo. Those old 45s still sound pretty good to me.

Today I’ve been inking some more on the pirate novel illustrations. I’m very far behind on that project, so it’s a good thing I’ve gotten some more done. (Hi Tim!)

While I’ve been inking I put on GB’s album “Stole My Mule” and harmonized to the tracks where I was supposed to.

So far I’ve hardly touched the drum set. You have to work up to these things.

I just recalled that I did drum briefly on Saturday when I came into the studio to do something that was going to take a couple of minutes. I guess I sat down and drummed to “Voices Carry” while waiting for something to upload, download, or scan. I don’t recall what.

But other than that, I’ve not drummed in weeks. Not consciously anyway.

I do it unconsciously all the time. I suppose that’s how one becomes a drummer. Anytime a song is in the air, I find myself either drumming along or thinking of how it would be improved if done another way. I beat on the steering wheel in the car. I raise a cloud of dust from the floor mats doing bass beats. I have worn a spot of carpet away at my drawing table doing beats with my feet.

One reason I haven’t actually sat down to drum yet (it is, in fact, why I’m not drumming now) is that Karin’s got a student next door playing harp. She’s had students all day, and I hate to be bashing away at some piece and throwing them off their rhythm. So I have to wait until the students go away to get my proper practice in.

Of course today that will be impossible. Karin’s got students until 7pm, and seeing as it’s our 19th Anniversary today, I’m hoping to sweep her away to a fabulous (low-to-mid-priced) dinner and maybe a movie (we’d do more, but we’ve been in a budget crunch since mid-July).

Perhaps I can pull the Djembe over into a corner and do some hand work, now that I think of it.

Anyway, the point is, I do things to inspire me to do well as drummer for GB. The things that inspire me are usually listening to and watching bands that are stylistically pretty far away from the GB sound.

For the record, I do not listen to a bunch of gypsy music or celtic music. Playing it with Lance, Carissa, and Karin is a lot of fun, but it’s not my listening style. I’m sorry if that disappoints any GB fans. (There’s what? At least one of you looking at this, right?)

Of course I did just listen to “Stole My Mule” (the whole thing, start to finish), so that counts, doesn’t it?

So, now I’m going to take the next step and look at the artwork on the cover, and reread the liner notes!