Jeff Fox-Kline's Weekly Blog

I try not to recommend music. It's always so subjective and it stresses me out to make recommendations without being certain that they'll land. It's like watching your favorite movie with someone and you just keep looking over at them to see if they're enjoying it.  But I do like music (I feel like this is a pretty revelatory disclosure).  I was listening to a band named The Hold Steady  the other day while doing some yardwork. The Hold Steady  are a Minnesota based rock band with a lead singer who talks as much as he sings, often about matters of drugs, misspent youth, faith, and redemption. Don't hear this as a recommendation. I'm not making one of those. If you start listening to them and you hate them, that's your fault not mine. Their album Separation Sunday ends with a song entitled How A Resurrection Really Feels  and as I was listening yesterday I was struck by this line, about a woman named Holly (short for Hallelujah) a recovering addict bursting i

"Could you send us a short bio introducing yourself?" Yes. I can. But I don't really want to. I don't relish writing bios. Where to start? I could always use the 'twitter bio' format for this.  "Today's preacher is Jeff Fox-Kline: father, husband, pastor, child of God" That says almost nothing about me. Or I could list hobbies. "Jeff Fox-Kline likes to bake bread, knit, jog, ride his bike, and read" That says very little about who I am, plus if I list those as my top favorite things then there's some expectation that I'm good at those things. I'm ok at some of them, but really just kind of like to do them. To be clear, I actually am good at reading, but that isn't much of a brag. Or I could try to get clever while still be vague. "Jeff Fox-Kline comes from midwestern roots and passes his time doing what comes his way. He can be found with his family enjoying the spoils of what Madison has to offer" However I wr

 The image of the body of Christ (Yes, I'm still thinking about it. Yes, I'm still grossed out by a body made entirely of ears.) fills me with hope because of the ways in which it creates an organic vision of what it is that we are called to do for each other. As the body of Christ we suffer and celebrate alongside one another. We are the shoulder that is needed when our siblings are hurting. We are the voice that shouts of alleluia when our siblings are joyous.  It is a task that we need to undertake with seriousness. This kind of empathy cannot be forced or compelled, but needs to come from a place of genuine care. One of the things that I've had the honor of doing lately is preaching and sharing in worship with congregations around the Presbytery. Every time I enter a new sanctuary to preach, I'm reminded that this is the body of Christ. This past Sunday I preached on Trinity Sunday, with hymns and liturgy centered around the mystery of God that is beyond explanation

Depending on my mood, 1 Corinthians 12 is my favorite chapter in the entire Bible. I find the image of the Body of Christ to be so compelling. The interconnected nature of how we are to live, the the affirmation of how our baptismal identity forms us as one, the leveling of status found in the body. All of these things are amazing.   But I particularly love the ways in which it celebrates the different ways that we participate in the body.  Verse 15 says: If the foot says, “I’m not part of the body because I’m not a hand,” does that mean it’s not part of the body? Not pictured: hands  First of all, that makes me laugh. It's silly. But also, it gets to the heart of what can make the Church so special, or what can make it so flawed. The foot is part of the body, no matter what the hand may say. Every part of the body is a part of the body and on one can say otherwise. I wish we could understand that. Because too often we shut people out, leave people behind, or ignore people because