201. Rock Goes the Gospel - Bob Dylan - Precious Angel

"Precious Angel" is a song written by Bob Dylan that first appeared on his 1979 album Slow Train Coming. It was also released as a single in the Netherlands. It was covered by World Wide Message Tribe on the 1998 album Heatseeker.  "Precious Angel'" is a love song. At a concert in Seattle on January 14, 1980, Dylan claimed that the song is addressed to the woman who brought him to Christianity. This is consistent with the lyrics, particularly in the final verse where Dylan refers to his delivering angel as the torch that led him to the greater light of Jesus. The chorus might be addressed to either the precious angel or to Jesus: Shine your light, shine your light on me "Ya know I couldn't make it by myself I'm a little too blind to see"

Precious angel, under the sun
How was I to know you'd be the one
To show me I was blinded, to show me I was gone
How weak was the foundation I was standing upon ?

Now there's spiritual warfare and flesh and blood breaking down
Ya either got faith or ya got unbelief and there ain't neutral ground
The enemy is subtle, how be it we are so deceived
When the truth's in our hearts and we still don't believe ?

Shine you light, shine your light on me
Shine you light, shine your light on me
Shine you light, shine your light on me
Ya know I just couldn't make it by myself
I'm a little too blind to see.

My so called friends have fallen under a spell
They look me squarely in the eye and they say, "Well all is well'"
Can they imagine the darkness that will fall from on high
When men will beg God to kill them and they won't be able to die.

Sister, lemme tell you about a vision that I saw
You were drawing water for your husband, you were suffering under the law
You were telling him about Buddha, you were telling him about Mohammed in the same breath
You never mentioned one time the Man who came and died a criminal's death.

Shine you light, shine your light on me
Shine you light, shine your light on me
Shine you light, shine your light on me
Ya know I just couldn't make it by myself
I'm a little too blind to see.

Precious angel, you believe me when I say
What God has given to us no man can take away
We are covered in blood girl, you know our forefathers were slaves
Let us hope they've found mercy in their bone-filled graves.

You're the queen of my flesh, girl, you're my woman, you're my delight
You're the lamb of my soul, girl, and you touch up the night
But there's violence in the eyes, girl, so let us not be enticed
On the way out of Egypt, through Ethiopia, to the judgement hall of Christ.

Shine you light, shine your light on me
Shine you light, shine your light on me
Shine you light, shine your light on me
Ya know I just couldn't make it by myself
I'm a little too blind to see. 

The lyrics of "Precious Angel" contain many biblical references. The theme of the song seems to be taken from 2 Corinthians 4:4 to 4:6, in which the light of Christ is contrasted with the darkness faced by those deluded by the devil. The line "Now there's spiritual warfare, flesh and blood breaking down" appears to be a reflection of another verse from 2 Corinthians (10:3) which states "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh." The line in the chorus about blindness appears to be influenced by a passage from the Gospel of John in which the blind man healed by Jesus proclaims that "Whereas I was blind, now I can see." It is to this passage in John's Gospel chapter 9 that we turn to this morning in our devotions.

The disciples see the blind beggar as an occasion for discussing a theological problem. If affliction is caused by sin—as was widely believed at the time—whose sin is it? They don’t see the man himself. They don’t see his suffering and his isolation. All of us have known the feeling of being in misery, but what is even worse is to be alone in misery, to have no one notice you, to have no one care. Jesus notices. Jesus cares. Jesus sees. He sees the blind man as no one else does, even though the man has not done anything to attract his attention. He silences his disciples with a sharp rebuke: Stop worrying about why he was born blind! That’s completely irrelevant! You are about to see the power of God at work! The Lord bends down and takes earth, and makes clay, and puts it on the man’s eyes. Some of the old commentators say that we see here the Creator himself, the One “by whom all things were made, stooping again to the dust from which Adam was created, performing now an act of new creation. Jesus tells the man to go and wash his eyes in the pool of Siloam. This is a strange command, but the man obeys; “he went, and washed and came back seeing.” Now you might think that this is the climax of the story. But it’s only just beginning. The healing takes only two verses out of a forty-four-verse chapter. The heart of the story lies ahead.

When the blind man comes back from the pool, he discovers that people behave strangely toward him. Instead of rejoicing, they seem offended. They seem almost hostile. Jesus’ deeds always attracted hostility from some onlookers. Now at this point the blind man knows nothing whatever about Jesus. He doesn’t even know that he has a reputation for healing. So when people question him suspiciously, all he can say is, “A man called Jesus put clay on my eyes.” At this interesting juncture the blind man is hauled off to be interrogated by the Pharisees, and the real drama begins.  Now it’s very important to know something about the Pharisees. We’re used to thinking of them simply as arrogant hypocrites, but that’s a mistake. The Pharisees were the truly respected men of their community. Imagine assembling a few top professors from the university world  and a couple of judges maybe, and definitely some church leaders. The Pharisees were the most respected men in the Judaism of Jesus’ time. They were scholarly, able, godly, and committed. So when the illiterate blind beggar is suddenly thrust before this learned council, it’s an intimidating situation, to say the least. The interrogation begins in a reasonably neutral fashion with the Pharisees saying, “How did you get your sight?” But as soon as the blind man gives his straightforward testimony—“he put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see”—a vehement dispute arose among the Pharisees. Some said, “This man Jesus cannot be from God,” and others said, “If he is not from God, then how can he do such wonderful signs?”

The blind man, observing this dispute among the powerful men, must have felt himself being drawn into a controversy of dangerous proportions. How easy it would have been for him to say, “Look, I don’t know anything about this. I never saw this man Jesus before in my life and I don’t expect to see him again. I don’t want any trouble.” But he does not say that. When the Pharisees turn to him again and ask him, “What do you say about this man?” the blind man steps up the pace and declares, “He is a prophet.” Now to say that Jesus was a prophet was to make a very strong claim. There hadn’t been very many true prophets. In view of the fact that the only thing the blind man really knows about Jesus is his name, this is a remarkable affirmation.  The Pharisees’ reaction to all this is one of increasing opposition. They want to discredit the man’s witness. They call in his parents and say, “Come, now, this isn’t your son who was born blind, is it?” The man’s parents make a curious response. First they blow the Pharisees’ cover by saying “This is our son all right, and he was born blind,” but then they wimp out: “We don’t know how he got his sight. He can speak for himself; ask him.” The evangelist explains this evasiveness by telling us that the parents were afraid of being thrown out of the synagogue. What a familiar story! Fear of ostracism, fear of the loss of status, fear of offending community standards. This is a measure of how dangerous Jesus can be.

In the meantime the Pharisees are faced once more with the irritating fact of the man’s cure. Jesus seems to be making more and more trouble for them, operating out of bounds, encroaching on their territory. Who does this man think he is? They summon the blind man back again, and this time they make no show of courtesy. They are no longer divided; those who seemed willing to entertain the idea that Jesus might be a man of God have now gone over to the other side. Imagine the man who cleans the floors of the office building being called up for questioning before the board of the corporation. If the blind man’s situation was uncomfortable before, it is downright untenable now. The chairman of the board of the Pharisees leans forward. We have come to a conclusion, he says. “You should give God the glory for what has happened to you. We know that this man (Jesus) is a sinner.” This is the point of no return for the blind man. We need to try to understand how unequal this contest is. The Pharisees are the God experts. If they have made a pronouncement, it must be the real thing. The blind man has no reason whatever to think that these godly men, these pillars of the faith, might be wrong. All he has is a tiny fragment of knowledge about Jesus. In the face of utter condemnation he doggedly clings to what he knows: “Whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know; one thing I know: I was blind, and now I see.”

The power and truth of this statement is not lost on the Pharisees. They back away from it, shifting their tactics, seeking distractions, changing the subject, evading the true issue of Jesus’ identity. “What did he do to you?” they demand to know. “How did he open your eyes?” Now listen to the blind man’s reply. Something—or some One—is making him strong. With sudden audacity and resourcefulness he snaps back at his inquisitors: “I’ve already told you! Weren’t you listening? Why do you want to hear it all over again?” and then suddenly—we can imagine him tilting his head impudently—he says “Do you want to become his disciples too?” At this, they turned on him furiously. “You’re the one who is his disciple! We are disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this man [Jesus], we don’t even know where he comes from.” This is the last word in pharisaical clout. Choosing blindness the learned men of the faith reach back into the arsenal of the tradition and upon the head of this apparently defenseless beggar they hurl the thunder and lightning and fire and smoke of Mount Sinai itself.

But it is not the Pharisees who control the fires of the Spirit of God. The blind man is the one who is becoming an inspired witness. “What an extraordinary thing!” he exclaims! “You are the leaders of our faith, yet you can’t figure out where this man comes from. No one has opened the eyes of a man born blind since the world began. If this man Jesus were not from God, he could do nothing.” And with that, the Pharisees rise up and throw him out of the temple, out of the company of decent people, out of the circle of the godly, out of the dwelling place of mercy and forgiveness and sanctuary. But now, to him who is thrown out of the temple comes the Lord of the Temple. Upon him who has been cast into outer darkness comes the Light of the World. Jesus, “hearing that they had thrown him out,” went forth and looked for him, combed the streets for him, and found him. Finding him, the one who has been sentenced to spiritual death, Jesus of Nazareth comes intimately, personally close and gently says to him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” (“Son of Man” meant “the Messiah who is to come”) and the formerly blind man who was so stubborn and assertive before the Pharisees instantly and humbly yields himself to the leading of Jesus, saying, “Who is he, sir? Tell me, that I may believe in him.” “You have seen him,” said Jesus. “Indeed, it is he who is speaking to you now.” “Lord, I believe,” said the man, and he bowed down and worshipped him.

It is for this purpose that the blind man was given his sight—that he should believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The story is not about physical blindness and physical sight. It’s about spiritual blindness and spiritual sight. John’s Gospel was written with a particular purpose, and if we know what that is, we will understand this story as we are meant to understand it. At the end of the 20^th chapter, the evangelist states his purpose: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” That’s the purpose of everything John writes in his Gospel and it’s the purpose of this sermon. The story of the man born blind is the story of a struggle between the Pharisees and a blind beggar, but it’s also the story of each of us. Each of us is part Pharisee. The Pharisee is sure of his place in society. He is so certain of his faith and his standing in the community that he has no room for an encounter with this disconcerting man, Jesus of Nazareth. The Pharisee has shut the door on the Lord of life. We can so easily be like that. Our devotion to our chosen way of being religious blinds us to the very presence of God in the person and work of his Son. You see, the blind man represents all of us in our fallen humanity, imprisoned in our own small selves, without hope of being freed from the oncoming darkness, unable to see ourselves as God sees us. This very much the feeling in Dylan's song "Precious Angel"

200. Rock Goes The Gospel - Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Tuesday's Gone"

"Tuesday's Gone" is the second track on Skynyrd's first album. One of the band's most popular songs, its relaxing pace and serenading guitars have made it a fan staple. The lyrics are band frontman Ronnie Van Zant's realization that his normal life is finished forever with the band's new MCA/Sounds of the South record deal. "Tuesday," representing life as it was, is gone with the wind. The song is similar in mood to the band's signature tune "Free Bird". Once in an 1975 radio interview a caller asked Allen Collins, the song's co writer what his favorite Lynyrd Skynyrd song was and Allen answered "Tuesday's Gone". Al Kooper adds upfront Mellotron string sounds to the chorus of the song. It is one of a few Lynyrd Skynyrd songs that Bob Burns the original founding member and drummer did not play on. Atlanta Rhythm Section's drummer Robert Nix played on the studio version. Bob Burns however can be heard playing on the demo version from the same session.

Train roll on, on down the line,
Won't you please take me far away?
Now I feel the wind blow outside my door,
Means I'm, I'm leaving my woman at home.

Tuesday's gone with the wind.
My baby's gone with the wind again.

And I don't know where I'm going.
I just want to be left alone.
Well, when this train ends I'll try again,
But I'm leaving my woman at home.

Tuesday's gone with the wind.
Tuesday's gone with the wind.
Tuesday's gone with the wind.
My baby's gone with the wind.

Train roll on
Tuesday's gone

Train roll on many miles from my home,
See, I'm riding my blues away.
Tuesday, you see, she had to be free
But somehow I've got to carry on.

Tuesday's gone with the wind.
Tuesday's gone with the wind.
Tuesday's gone with the wind.
My baby's gone with the wind. 

"Tuesday's Gone" is a song about giving up the life you have had and moving on. In keeping with Ronnie Van Zant's thoughts -That your normal life is finished forever. Giving up the normal life in the lyrics comes with a break up of a relationship. There are many situations in which we all give up our normal ways and take on something different. The song "Tuesday's Gone" is reminiscent of the other Skynyrd song "Freebird" which are both from the same first album and are classics. In the devotional passage from the bible today we find Jesus calling his disciples to leave their normal life and to embrace the life of a pilgrim on the road with him. We find the reading in Matthews gospel and chapter 

In 1914 Ernest Shackleton, looking for crewmen for his upcoming Antarctic Expedition,  placed the following ad in London newspapers

"Men wanted for Hazardous Journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success"

Would you have volunteered? Amazingly, many men did and thus began a 634 day adventure that
led them across the Atlantic and nearly cost all of them their lives.

If you were living in first century Palestine, would you have answered this ad to follow Jesus?

"Disciple of Jesus Christ. Low wages, possibility of imprisonment or even death, probable alienation from friends and family, loss of status and former income, but retirement plan is out of this world"

The expression “follow me” would be readily understood by Jews of Jesus’ day as implying a call to become the permanent disciple of a teacher. When he spoke those words initially, they did not misunderstand His call. As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers; Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately, they left their nets and followed him.

The command Jesus gave them that day still rings true for us today. “Follow me.” He did not begin with things we might have expected, like find yourself, or "pray more", or "be tuned into spirituality", or "help the poor", or "give to charity", or "listen to your heart". He said simply, “Follow me.” On twenty different occasions Jesus said, “Follow me.” Whether you have been a seeker of Jesus for 50 years or 50 minutes, the command is the same. It sounds so basic, so simplistic, but make no mistake—simple doesn’t mean easy. Belief is easy; following requires discipline. the same kind of discipline and hard working people that Shackleton was looking for. Jesus Christ sacrificed everything so that we could be forgiven, become His followers, and spend eternity in His presence. As Oswald Chambers said, “One step forward in obedience is worth years of study about it.”

Discipleship has never been a popular product. We live in a materialistic, consumer-driven world. People expect freedom to choose. People want satisfaction guaranteed. Jesus replies, “Follow me”. He isn’t looking for customers. Jesus desires disciples. Disciples on the biggest adventure of their lives. Salvation is free, but discipleship costs everything we have. It's the call to leave our normal lives to follow after him who gives life.  Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross (daily) and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24) God wants each one of us to grow and develop. This cannot be compartmentalized into tidy sections of my life. Every facet of my life must be surrendered to God’s call. Each day is another step deeper into the waters of His call. Each step should draw me closer to Him, worshiping more deeply and serving more selflessly. The end goal of discipleship can be nothing less that being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Truly this is the end of my normal life. In a sense "Tuesday's Gone" and life and adventure has come.

May we be willing to place our lives in the hands of the Master and follow His calling daily. May we give wings to our faith, to obediently venture into uncharted waters. May the Lord fill us with a passion for His things, and may we thirst for His voice as we journey along the path of becoming a disciple.

199. Rock Goes the Gospel - The Who "I Can't Explain"

The Who guitarist Pete Townshend wrote this song when he was 18 years old. He described it as being about a guy who "can't tell his girlfriend he loves her. This was the first single from The Who, which had recently changed their name from The High Numbers. It was one of the first original songs The Who performed; they played mostly covers of American R&B songs to that point.  This song is about what it is like to be young and unable to express your feelings. The guy in the song can't find a way to tell his girlfriend he loves her. Roger Daltrey told Uncut magazine: "Well, it's that thing – 'I got a feeling inside, I can't explain' – it's rock'n'roll. The more we try to explain it, the more we crawl up ourselves  and disappear! I was very proud of that record. That was us, y'know – it was an original song by Pete and it captured that energy and that testosterone that we had in those days." The Who performed this on the popular British TV show Ready, Steady, Go! Their manager, Kit Lambert, invited all of their friends to the performance, ensuring a hip, young audience for the cameras. This was the song that introduced audiences to the powerful drumming of Keith Moon. He became one of the first high-profile drummers in rock, and quickly earned a reputation as a wild man.This was on the set list for their 2.00am performance at the isle of white festival in 1970.

Got a feeling inside (Can't explain)
It's a certain kind (Can't explain)
I feel hot and cold (Can't explain)
Yeah, down in my soul, yeah (Can't explain)

I said (Can't explain)
I'm feeling good now, yeah, but (Can't explain)

Dizzy in the head and I'm feeling blue
The things you've said, well, maybe they're true
I'm gettin' funny dreams again and again
I know what it means, but

Can't explain
I think it's love
Try to say it to you
When I feel blue

But I can't explain (Can't explain)
Yeah, hear what I'm saying, girl (Can't explain)

Dizzy in the head and I'm feeling bad
The things you've said have got me real mad
I'm gettin' funny dreams again and again
I know what it means but

Can't explain
I think it's love
Try to say it to you
When I feel blue

But I can't explain (Can't explain)
Forgive me one more time, now (Can't explain)

I said I can't explain, yeah
You drive me out of my mind
Yeah, I'm the worrying kind, babe
I said I can't explain 

"I Can't Explain" is about a the difficulties a teenage boy has in telling someone that they love them. It's an adolescent rock anthem. It's a song that conveys for thousands how they feel and what they would like to say to their collective girl friends is they had the courage. The song is about love that cannot be explained. We find Paul the apostle talking about a love that cannot be explained in his letter to the church in Ephesus. In chapter 3 of his letter Paul writes about a prayer that he has for the church. In Vs 18 we hear Paul speak of this deep love.

"God is Love", but how do we explain it? The Oxford Dictionary defines love as "an intense affection for another person based on familial or personal ties". Often this "intense affection" stems from a sexual attraction for that other person. We love other people, or we say we love other people, when we are attracted to them and when they make us feel good. A key phrase in the dictionary definition of love is the phrase "based on." This phrase implies that we love conditionally; in other words, we love someone because they fulfill a condition that we require before we can love them. How many times have you heard or said, "I love you because you are cute;" or "I love you because you take good care of me;" or "I love you because you are fun to be with"?

Our love is not only conditional, it is also based on feelings and emotions that can change from one moment to the next. The divorce rate is extremely high in today's society because husbands and wives supposedly stop loving one another-or they "fall out of love". They may go through a rough patch in their marriage, and they no longer "feel" love for their spouse, so they call it quits. Evidently, their marriage vow of "till death do us part" means they can part at the death of their love for their spouse rather than at their physical death.

Can anyone really comprehend "unconditional" love? It seems the love that parents have for their children is as close to unconditional love as we can get without the help of God's love in our lives. We continue to love our children through good times and bad, and we don't stop loving them if they don't meet the expectations we may have for them. We make a choice to love our children even when we consider them unlovable; our love doesn't stop when we don't "feel" love for them. This is similar to God's love for us, God's love transcends the human definition of love to a point that is hard for us to comprehend or explain.

The Bible tells us that "God is Love" (1 John 4:8). But how can we even begin to understand that truth? There are many passages in the Bible that give us God's definition of love. The most well known verse is John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." So one way God defines love is in the act of giving. However, what God gave (or should we say, "who" God gave) was not a mere gift-wrapped present; God sacrificed His only Son so that we, who put our faith in His Son, will not spend eternity separated from Him. This is an amazing love, because we are the ones who choose to reject God, yet it's God who mends the separation through His intense personal sacrifice, and all we have to do is accept His gift.

Another great verse about God's love is found in Romans 5:8, "But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." In this verse and in John 3:16, we find no conditions placed on God's love for us. God doesn't say, "as soon as you clean up your act, I'll love you; " nor does He say, "I'll sacrifice my Son if you promise to love Me." In fact, in Romans 5:8, we find just the opposite. God wants us to know that His love is unconditional, so He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us while we were still unlovable rebels. We didn't have to get clean, and we didn't have to make any promises to God before we could experience His love. His love for us has always existed, and because of that, He did all the giving and sacrificing long before we were even aware that we needed His love.

In our Devotional scripture passage Paul the apostle stresses Christ's love in his letter to the church in Ephesus. In chapter 3 and vs 18 Paul speaks of the dimension of the love of Christ. Paul uses words like "Grasp" - As if God's love is just out of reach "Know" - As if God's love can be known but the people who he is writing to cannot understand it fully. In other translations of the bible Paul substitutes the word "Know" for "Comprehend" or "Explain"  God's love is so vast and immeasurable that you cannot explain it. God's love is without bounds- It is unconditional, it knows no barriers. God is Love is very different from human love. God's love is unconditional, and it's not based on feelings or emotions. He doesn't love us because we're lovable or because we make Him feel good; He loves us because He is love. He created us to have a loving relationship with Him, and He sacrificed His own Son (who also willingly died for us) to restore that relationship.

Paul holds out hope for the church in Ephesus that the depth, height, breadth and width of the love of God can be comprehended and known. We may feel that it cannot be explained, but Paul prays that we will be able to fully know that love of God.

198. Rock Goes The Gospel - Bryan Adams "When You're gone"

"When You're Gone" is a song by Canadian musician Bryan Adams, from his album On a Day Like Today (1998). The song features Melanie C of the Spice Girls. The song was written by Adams and Eliot Kennedy. The song peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart and spent 15 weeks in the UK Top 40, with nine of these in the Top 10. With sales of 676,947, "When You're Gone" was the 82nd-best selling single of the 1990s. It has sold 730,000 copies in the UK as of March 2015. The CD single of "When You're Gone" also included a solo version by Adams. The song is frequently featured at Adams' concerts. He usually picks a female out of the audience to sing the song with him. As such, it appears on several CD and DVD releases. In recent years, he also performed it entirely solo, both fully acoustic and with his full band. (Wikipedia)

I've been wandering 

around the house all night
wondering what the hell to do
i'm trying to concentrate 

but all i can think of is you
well the phone don't ring 

cuz my friends ain't home
i'm tired of being all alone
got the tv on cuz the radio's

 playing songs that 

remind me of you

baby when you're gone 

i realize i'm in love
the days go on and on

and the nights just seem so long
even food don't taste that good

drink ain't doing what it should
things just feel so wrong

baby when you're gone

i've been driving up and down these streets
trying to find somewhere to go
ya i'm lookin' for a familiar face but there's no one i know

this is torture - this is pain 

it feels like i'm gonna go insane
i hope you're coming back real soon

cuz i don't know what to do 

This song is a classic love and breakup song. Even if you don't like Mel C it's still a good song by Adams. The lyrics are about realising what you have had in a person now that they have gone. Familiar lyrics that share a lot in common with other great rock songs. The video that goes with this song reinforces the fact of looking for someone that you once shared life with.

In the scripture passage this morning we have the same feel. Jesus is going away from his disciples and is at the point of telling them. they are fearful of the future and are discussing with Jesus the news that he is going. We turn to John 14:1-14 for the full story.

This passage from the gospel according to John is the beginning of Jesus' ‘Farewell Discourse’, which will go on for several chapters. Now before your eyes glaze over and you begin to make a mental grocery list because ‘farewell discourse’ sounds a bit churchy and very possibly boring, I want to suggest that most of us give farewell discourses fairly often. In fact, nearly every time I leave, on a road trip or a weekend away, I give a farewell discourse to my family. I seem to forget that my wife and children have lived with me all their lives and that they actually know how to care very well for the home, they think to turn off lights, recycle, take out the bins, dont talk to strangers, keep the music down, dont have wild parties….well, the list is often endless. These things I believe they absolutely need to remember and for the most part they do.

Jesus, it seems, feels much as we do when we are leaving. His words read almost as if he fears the disciples and followers will not be able to recall anything they have all done together. He wants to say it all again, but that would literally take years, so he tells them simply enough, “Keep my commandments, keep my words, do what I have done. Just remember to love each other, love your neighbour and, most difficult I know, love your enemy.” The question Jesus is asking without saying it is: “can my friends and followers love this much? Will they remember and have the courage to do this love thing?” When Jesus is no longer there in the flesh, will they be able to love this much?

The truth is it would be very natural for Jesus’ disciples to retreat to the upper room, behinds walls, to close themselves off from the rest of the world, to pull inward, behind a closed door and busy themselves with swapping stories of how it used to be. It would be safer in fact to keep a lid on the whole, rather sordid mess, by not including anyone who wasn’t part of this from the beginning. They could reassure each other that they were keeping his command by loving each other really, really well. Pulling together, closing ranks and taking care of just those they already know would be good enough – in fact, doing only this will be hard to do. Give a good pat on our collective backs and be done with it – “we kept his commandments well, didn’t we?”

Jesus is reminding them so that this very withdrawal will not happen. He encourages and challenges them to go out into their world and do the work of being in relationship, of sharing the good news of God’s very real love for all creation. He means for them to let go of their fear, to move boldly into life, to risk offering themselves in relationship with any and all others, he means for them to be in community with people who are like them and with people who are very unlike them. He means for them to continue to do what he has been doing, even though he will no longer be with them physically.

Living out the heart of the gospel message will mean offering ourselves in unconditional love to another. Offering unconditional love to people we don’t like, to people who don’t like us, to people who we would rather judge than love. Living out the gospel message will not mean loving when people do things our way, when they look and talk and dress and eat and pray and worship just like we do. Loving each other as Jesus loved will not be easy and we each may need to spend more than a little time taking stock of our prejudices, our fears, our angry responses, our secret places of unhealthy and painful unhappiness. Becoming and being a Christian will, in the end, be about what we do because being in relationship with Jesus does not depend on his physical presence, as his followers would soon discover, but on the presence of the love of God. And the love of God is made present when people, when we, keep Jesus’ commandments. "When You're Gone" is a song from Bryan Adams and Mel C. but more than that it's a statement and reaction from disciples that serious about following the way, the truth and the life - no matter what happens.

197. Rock Goes the Gospel - Dire Straits - Solid Rock

Making Movies is the third studio album by British rock band Dire Straits, released on 17 October 1980 by Vertigo Records internationally, and by Warner Bros. Records in the United States. The album produced the singles "Romeo and Juliet", and "Solid Rock" which reached the number 8 position on the UK Singles Chart. The album reached the number one position on album charts in Italy and Norway, the number 19 position in the United States, and the number four position in the United Kingdom. Making Movies was certified platinum in the United States, and double-platinum in the United Kingdom.

Well take a look at that
I made a castle in the sand
Saying this is where it's you know
Couldn't understand now
If I realised that the chances were slim
How come I'm so surprised when the tide rolled in

I wanna live on solid rock
I'm gonna live on solid rock
I wanna give I don't wanna be blocked
I'm gonna live on solid rock

Well I'm sick of potential
I'm sick of vanity now
I'm sticking to essential reality now
I don't know what's worse
Try to make a silk purse
Living an illusion living in confusion

Well a house of cards
Was never built for shock
You could blow it down in any kind of weather
Now two solid rocks two solid blocks
You know they're gonna stick
Yeah they're gonna stick together

Because the heart that you break
That's the one that you rely on
The bed that you make
That's the one you gotta lie on
When you point your finger cos your plan fell through
You got three more fingers pointing back at you

I wanna live on solid rock
I'm gonna live on solid rock
I wanna give I don't wanna be blocked
I'm gonna live on solid rock
I'm solid rock now 

Dire Straits "Solid Rock" lyrics contain the emotions of a breakdown in a relationship and the desire not to repeat the situation again. There are thoughts of hope here in this song combined with a desire to live in security and safety away from mistakes of the past and future pain. Whether this is achievable in this life is debatable, but the desire is there for it at least. The scripture passage in this mornings devotion is a passage from Jesus' parable of the wise and foolish builders in Luke's Gospel chapter 6 where jesus compares life with either building a house on the sand or building a house on a rock. It follows that the wise are those who build their house on the sand.

Palestine is naturally a land of hills and mountains, and as a result, it is subject to violent rains and sudden floods. The Jordan River annually swells to dangerous levels and becomes rapid and furious. The streams that run through the hills can suddenly swell with rain and spill tremendous amounts of water onto the plains below, sweeping everything before them. Houses erected within reach of these sudden deluges—especially those founded on sand or other unreliable foundation—cannot stand before them. The rising stream shakes a house to its foundation and erodes away its base until it falls. Rocks are common there, however, so it is not hard to find a solid foundation.

With this in mind, Jesus in this parable illustrates the benefit of obeying His words. It is not enough to hear them; they must be obeyed. He compares a person who hears and obeys Him to a man who builds his house on a rock. Introducing the Parable of the Two Builders (Matthew 7:21-28), He says, "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man" (verse 24). He then describes this wise man as building his house, that is, his whole life, on the rock of genuine subjection to God. Conversely, the disobedient use unfit material as the foundation of their lives.

Luke describes the wise builder as digging deep and laying the foundation on a rock. The Rock on which we build is Jesus Himself. In this parable, Jesus teaches us the importance of doing as well as hearing. In His description of the two builders, He judges them, not only by their care in building their houses, but also by the foundation on which they build. A rock foundation represents true understanding and right action—true conviction and commitment manifested in righteousness. Only in obedience and dedication to a personal relationship with Jesus the Rock can we find emotional and spiritual stability—without which even our most dedicated purposes rest on shifting sand.

Jesus knew that some coming to build would be attracted to a ready-prepared level surface of sand rather than to sites that must be excavated to reach the hard and rugged rock. Human nature often chooses what looks easy on the surface. But after the seasonal floods, representing trials and tests, such a builder would have nothing left but a heap of ruins. A sandy foundation represents empty preference and mere external religion based on false knowledge. The sand reflects the shifting, uncertain feelings some foolish people possess, the only ground upon which they act. The second house, even though most impressive, stands on a shifting foundation, and is therefore doomed to destruction. People whose resolves do not rest on God's help sought in prayer—people who have virtues without root—live in a dangerous position. The Pharisees built their hopes on external blessings and privileges, which alienated their minds from the Rock of their salvation. Jesus had to tell them that Satan, not Abraham, was their father.

In the wise and foolish builders, Jesus describes two categories in illustrating the building of a house. Both houses appear equally attractive and substantial, but their comparative stability differs greatly. In their construction, the materials and labour used were similar, and both houses appeared upright, solid, and sound. Many times, seemingly good people who are uncalled seem to build their lives well and wisely in terms of money, material possessions, and friends. All these things seem good to the human mind, but their end can be disastrous without a Rock foundation. The followers of Jesus build their houses differently, by daily obedience, service, overcoming, Bible study, and prayer.

Floods and hurricanes can damage seemingly strong houses and destroy those less strongly built. When Jesus says, "the rain descended," He compares the times of testing to the forces of a rainstorm threatening the roof of the house and the fears it creates. "The floods came" pictures turbulent torrents undermining walls. "The winds blew" depicts sweeping, hurricane-like winds threatening a house's walls. These combined natural forces remind us that spiritual elements try and test our spiritual houses just as God tested and punished Israel. Sometimes these forces come in the way of persecution, suffering, or temptations—all of which will erode a weak foundation, but not a solid one. Christ describes the disaster descending on the house built on the sand as "great [in] its fall." By doing so, He warns us to avoid a similar end. Foolish builders should heed His warning and build on a solid Rock foundation, that of Jesus Christ.