I'm really looking forward to Friday night. The church where I work (West End Collegiate) is hosting a weekend-long seminar with NOBS, the Network of Biblical Storytellers. I am honored (I'm not a member) to have been asked to perform at the opening event.
In addition to my pop ballad "Miracle Time", I'll be singing a number from Our Story Too called "Heal My Heart". OST is a piece I wrote ten years ago (!) that tells several Bible stories from a gay point of view, with "Heal My Heart" as the eleven-o-clock number. It celebrates Matthew 8:5-13, the tale of the Centurion begging Jesus to heal his servant. The story is 'ere long controversial because of the specific type of servant in question. The word in the ancient Greek text is "pice", which was a young, favored slave boy used for sex by the upper classes and particularly the military. For centuries bibles have whitewashed it as simply "servant", in reality a much more authentic translation, at least in modern terms, would be "lover". That Jesus endorses and blesses the union between two men is a fact that, at least in years recent, is starting to be acknowledged and understood and embraced.
Anyway, "Heal My Heart", performed as a trio in OST, is a number I have never performed. Revisiting and rehearsing it over the weekend was like lunch with a dear friend. I will be so happy to do it Friday for a group of people dedicated to telling and interpreting gospel.
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