Finally!!!
You can download the new EP right now AND help me launch it into the world at the same time! This kickstarter campaign will run for only 60 days from April 15th to June 14th. It’s all or nothing which means either I raise the total funds needed by the end of the campaign or we’re back to 0. You can do it!
Go HERE to get involved- and if you want to get some Weight of Glory swag, or to book a show, just up your reward tier.
Your support is essential. Thanks for believing in me!
-Josh
Hope is a hard thing. It’s hard because we all need it but we all lose it.
So, when did you first lose it?
“Yeah, I used to hope,” you might say, “back when I was a child. But that was before the abuse.” Or, “I used to hope before corporate used me for 20 years, chewed me up and spit me out...before the divorce...before the cancer...before...”
And so most of us hate hope. It makes us angry. It feels like a farce, like a lie. Without realizing it, we’ve inherited the worldview of philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche or Albert Camus for whom hope is absurd. Nietzsche wrote in Human, All Too Human that hope is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of humanity. And Camus saw religious hope as no different than Sisyphus pushing his boulder up that hill every day.
Not many years after Nietzsche died, one of his fans, Adolph Hitler, put this same hopeless worldview into practice, killing millions in the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel, a
holocaust survivor, wrote about his experience in the concentration camp in his book, Night:
Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.
Literary students would have us note the way Wiesel uses a rhetorical device, called an anaphora, a sequence of words repeated again and again, “Never shall I forget! Never shall I forget.” What is it Wiesel won’t forget? Night. Hitler’s Night. Evil’s Night.
In the Easter Vigil, the opening liturgy of Easter, Christians also encounter an anaphora in the text of the Exsultet. Again and again, we proclaim “This is the night!” But it’s a very different night.
This is the night! When God rescued Israel from bondage to Egypt through the Red Sea.
This is the night! “When all who believe in Christ are delivered form the gloom of sin, and are restored to grace and holiness of life.”
This is the night! “When Christ broke the bonds of death and hell, and rose victorious from the grave...how holy is this night...how blessed is this night.”
To be clear, none of us have experienced a night like the holocaust. But in our own profound ways we each know something of Wiesel’s night in our own sufferings.
Easter is when Christ’s Night conquers Evil’s Night. In his death and resurrection Jesus reaches into our nights and pulls us out of our hells. Jesus kills our hopelessness. He takes the worst nights of our lives (even the night of our death) and redeems them.
THIS IS THE NIGHT! When our Lord is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
When the COVID-19 pandemic began to shut things down this past Spring, many of my scheduled events were canceled or moved online and, as a result, I recorded a lot of videos of songs I would have performed in person. I’ve been meaning to add them all here, at the website, and finally got around to doing it!
[This article was originally published for BreakPoint and you can find it here.]
O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, Who art everywhere and fillest all things; Treasury of Blessings, and Giver of Life – come and abide in us, and cleanse us from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One. – Eastern Orthodox Prayer
This past Sunday was the Feast of Pentecost for many Christians around the world. It’s the day we celebrate the Holy Spirit’s descent. At my church there were assigned prayers and readings that reflect upon the meaning of Pentecost. Usually, (outside of a global pandemic) everyone wears clothes of red, the liturgical color that symbolizes the Holy Spirit, as in red tongues of fire. It’s also one of the five feast days when, ordinarily, the sacrament of Baptism is celebrated. This fact invites us to reflect on the role of the Holy Spirit in salvation.
Looking over the prayers and readings for Sunday, one Pentecost theme stands out above all others: The Holy Spirit reunifies a divided humanity. This theme is clear in the fundamental story of Pentecost found in Acts 2. When the Holy Spirit comes, the division of humanity that occurred at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 is reversed. From chaotic division to gospel unity. That’s what the Holy Spirit does.
On Pentecost Sunday, our worship reflects this theme explicitly, over and over again. We begin our service with these words:
Celebrant: There is one Body and one Spirit;
People: There is one hope in God’s call to us;
Celebrant: One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism;
People: One God and Father of all.
– The Book of Common Prayer (BCP), 299.
Then the Priest prays the prayer of the day:
Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever, Amen. – BCP, 227.
Then we have the Acts 2 reading, followed later by the renewal of baptismal vows when we are asked:
Celebrant: Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
People: I will, with God’s help. – BCP, 417.
Friends, this is not only the providence of God on display, it is the counter-cultural nature of Christian worship at its best. This Sunday we were invited to reenact God’s story in such a way that we remember His vision for a redeemed humanity, one where “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).”
We are called to grieve how far from this vision our sinful divisions have taken us. And we will sing, pray, and long for the fulfillment of that vision once again.
In other words, in this Feast of Pentecost, Christians around the world can grieve a world in which George Floyd has died, yearn for a world where racism and all other human divisions are no more, and expect the comfort and assistance toward this end that only God, the Holy Spirit, can bring.
This is the world that awaits, where “the songs of peaceful Zion thunder like a mighty flood” because “Jesus out of ev’ry nation has redeemed us by His blood.” (William Dix, Alleluia Sing to Jesus).
And I am so excited. You can preview and download it at numerous online retailers but the most popular are:
1. Share, share, share. Spread the word. Tell your friends. Gift the album to folks who might enjoy it but aren't familiar with my music.
2. Leave a review... whether you pick up the album from Amazon, iTunes, or Bandcamp, tell us what you think! This helps others know whether or not they'd be interested in downloading the music.
Thanks for supporting my music, and this new project. (I'm already thinking about the next project). If you didn't listen to this music- I would still make music but- it would be no fun. So, your engagement, kind words, support, feedback, makes this part of my vocation so fulfilling. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
When I recorded "Joy To The World," and made this video, I wanted to find a way to highlight the profound dissonance (for me, at least) of singing this carol in a broken world... JB
Listen to the rest of the album here:
A photo posted by @joshbalesmusic on
Mindy and I have had such a full summer and fall, and I wanted to catch you up on the highlights.
Mindy! A photo posted by @joshbalesmusic on
We are expecting a baby girl in January! Mindy suspects good songs will come from me rocking our new daughter to sleep this January, in the middle of the night...We are so excited.
And we had a wonderful summer of music and counseling.
In Tennessee this week and next playing for a great group of folks at the Summit Conference; and Mindy and Buechner are with me! A photo posted by @joshbalesmusic on
In July, for the 10th year in a row, I played the Summit Ministries conference in Tennessee- joining a few hundred folks in ten nights of 35 minute liturgy and hymn sessions! It was a blast and is an event I look forward to each year.
New hymns album July 14th. And you can hear "Be Thou My Vision" and preorder the project at www.joshbales.com now. A photo posted by @joshbalesmusic on
July was also the month we released The Birds Their Carols Raise, a new album of hymns. The process of making this album on my own was so challenging and exhilarating that I have already begun to dream about a second hymns album. I'll keep you posted on that.
Singing God's story at Orangewood Christian School this morning. Played CountTheStars and Isn'tThatAmazingGrace as well! A photo posted by @joshbalesmusic on
The months of September- November are always full of opportunities to share music and this year has been no different. Over the past few weeks I've played the songs of The Birds Their Carols Raise and Count The Stars for audiences at Christ Church Intown in Jacksonville, FL, Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Saint Gabriel's Episcopal Church in Titusville, FL, Wycliffe Bible Translators in Franklin, NC, Orangewood Christian School in Maitland, FL, Clergy Conference for the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida in Oviedo, FL. I never grow tired of the excitement and energy that comes from playing live music in a room full of people!
"Signs amid the rubble..." Beauty in the midst of business today at the office. @ccslorlando
A photo posted by @joshbalesmusic on
Also in September I accepted a full time position as Canon Missioner at the Cathedral Church of Saint Luke in downtown Orlando.
My role at Saint Luke's involves heading up our weekly 6pm Eucharist (pictured above) along with other pastoral duties. It's also a role that encourages me to continue writing, recording, and touring, for which I am very grateful. If you're ever in Orlando for the weekend please come see us. More information about the service can be found here.
In addition to music and pastoral ministry, Mindy and I have continued to see clients at Journeys Counseling Center in Orlando. This remains a treasured part of our lives and vocations.
Just a few days away... Can't wait for you to hear it. #christmasmusic
A photo posted by @joshbalesmusic on
It's that time of year (almost!). As we round the corner of November we will celebrate the first anniversary of The Holly & The Ivy, my Christmas album! You can stream this album online or download it at iTunes/Bandcamp.
Y'all, thanks so much for supporting my music! I hope to see you at an event this Winter or Spring. And please continue to write and say hello. I love hearing from you and do my best to respond to each note. JB
