244. Rock Goes The Gospel - Higher Ground - Franky Perez The Forest Rangers

"Higher Ground" is a funk song written by Stevie Wonder which first appeared on his 1973 album Innervisions. The song reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the US Hot R&B Singles chart. Wonder wrote and recorded the song in a three-hour burst of creativity in May 1973. The album version of the song contains an extra verse and runs 30 seconds longer than the single version. The unique wah-clavinet sound in the song was achieved with a Mu-tron III envelope filter pedal. The bass line is provided by a Moog synthesizer. Using overdubs, Wonder played all instruments on the track, including drums. The song was also released in the UK "Higher Ground" but achieved only modest success, reaching only #29 in the UK Singles Chart. Higher Ground was covered by Franky Perez and the Forest Rangers for the "Sons Of Anarchy" TV Series and appeared on "Songs Of Anarchy" Music CD Volume 2 which was released November 19th 2012. This soundtrack album featured music from the FX television program Sons of Anarchy, and is a follow-up to the 2011 release Songs of Anarchy: Music from Sons of Anarchy Seasons 1–4 and several earlier EPs from the popular show. Songs include covers of "Sympathy for the Devil," "Higher Ground," and "Travelin' Band," as well as several original tracks. Performers include Jane's Addiction, with most tracks performed by longtime SOA contributors The Forest Rangers.

People keep on learnin'
Soldiers keep on warrin'
World keep on turnin'
Cause it won't be too long

Powers keep on lyin'
While your people keep on dyin'
World keep on turnin'
Cause it won't be too long

I'm so darn glad he let me try it again
Cause my last time on earth I lived a whole world of sin
I'm so glad that I know more than I knew then
Gonna keep on tryin'
Till I reach my highest ground

Teachers keep on teachin'
Preachers keep on preachin'
World keep on turnin'
Cause it won't be too long
Oh no

Lovers keep on lovin'
Believers keep on believin'
Sleepers just stop sleepin'
Cause it won't be too long
Oh no

I'm so glad that he let me try it again
Cause my last time on earth I lived a whole world of sin
I'm so glad that I know more than I knew then
Gonna keep on tryin'
Till I reach my highest ground...Whew!

Till I reach my highest ground
No one's gonna bring me down
Oh no
Till I reach my highest ground
Don't let nobody bring you down (they'll sho 'nuff try)
God is gonna show you higher ground
He's the only friend you have around 

This track is about the inevitability of the direction of the world. The feeling that the world is heading for anarchy, destruction, chaos and is on a track that cannot be altered. The naractor in the song is giving thanks for "Higher Ground", thanks for the ability to rise above the inevatibility of the world. It's about hope and being in charge of your own destiny. There is aloso thought here about a longing to rise above the world, to somehow head in a direction to higher ground that means saftey, security and protection. In all the devotions this week we will be exploring thoughts of setting aside time, or taking time out. A retreat if you like and how important it is to find ways in which to disengage with our surroundings and engage more full with God. This mornings reading sets that theme firmly in place. 

Have you ever given any thought to the fact that in order to understand and appreciate someone or something, you must take time to know them? People, works of art, literature, music, and even the glories of creation, seldom yield themselves to the casual observer. We must purposely slow our pace, narrow our focus, and become attentive in order to experience the joy of appreciation and understanding.

This is certainly true of our relationship with God. Unless we purpose to seek him, we will miss the marrow of life. David understood this truth. Listen as he speaks in Psalm 63.

David explains that his soul earnestly desired to know the living God. His desire was as a thirst, which his world could not satisfy. So he tells us that the only thing which could relieve his deep quenching was to seek God because His lovingkindness was better than life itself. He goes on to proclaim that in knowing God and His lovingkindness, his soul would be satisfied with marrow and fatness. this is the "Higher Ground" that David is searching for.

Taking time to focus on God and our relationship to Him, in the midst of the “hurry” of life, is called personal retreat. The dictionary defines “retreat” as a drawing back, a withdrawal to a safe or private place; a period of seclusion, especially one devoted to religious contemplation away from the pressures of ordinary life.” Some in our modern religious communities would rather use the word, “advance.” Whatever your terminology, getting away with God  to "Higher Ground"is truly necessary. The horticulturist prepares geraniums by first exposing them to their ultimate harsh outdoor environment in pots. As the wind dries them out, they are brought indoors and sprayed with water to give them a chance to recover before putting them outside again. Eventually they will ready to be planted permanently outdoors.

In personal retreat, a more favourable climate for spiritual growth and health exists. We temporarily withdraw from the drying winds, baking sun, and freezing nights of a world that by nature is hostile to spiritual life. There are those who seem uncomfortable with the idea of personal retreat, especially in light of the great needs and opportunities for service around them. But it is precisely because of these needs and opportunities that a personal retreat is needed. Jesus himself showed us that before and after he met the people and their enormous needs, he was compelled to take time to seek His Father, not only for guidance but also to be revived and strengthened. His life illustrates the perfect life: one of retreat followed by intense involvement in the world.

Jesus summed it up when He said, “(he) shall go in and out, and find pasture.” (John 10:9b) Note the two distinct calls: Go and Come. He sends us to a needy world in His name, and He calls us to draw near that He might reveal Himself to us and through us.

It has been suggested that a fast-paced life is an opiate. The activity and pressure provides the adrenaline that causes us to believe all is well because we think we are thriving on the frenzy. It is not until our motor stalls that we face the sobering reality that all that busyness has sapped us of spiritual vitality. We are commanded in the book of Hebrews, to enter into His rest, the rest prepared for us. Rest in scripture actually signifies a state of spiritual health and well being, not an escape from nothingness. Taking time out is needed to break the intensity of activity, to slow down, to replenish, to regroup, to revitalise, to meet with the living God and delight in Him.

What A search for "Higher Ground" Will Do For You

1. EXTEND your fellowship with God: As with any personal relationship, fellowship is nurtured by spending time together. God announces he is always ready to meet with you. He takes special note of times when His people reverence Him and think upon His Name. " Then they that feared the LORD spoke often one to another: and the LORD listened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.” (Mal 3:16)

2. ENLARGE your perspective: Spending time with God, hearing His Word, worshipping in spirit & truth, praying for deeper understanding, will allow you to see circumstances, people and things from God’s perspective. He will allow us vision to see the unseen, and the tangible things of life will fall into their proper place. He will even strengthen our spiritual defenses. All of this is only possible when “we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18)

3. ENGAGE in intercessory prayer: How often in the “hurry” of life do we forget to pray. So often opportunities are lost to see the hand of God move. There are unbelieving friends and relatives, missionaries, neighbours, government leaders, pastors who need your prayers. Followers of Jesus can see God influence people and change events as they pray.

Taking time out to get to higher ground will do wonders for you won life as a disciple of Jesus. It will help you engage more fully with your working life, It will help you klisten more  attentivly to things that are going on around you. It says in the scripture that Jesus often was found in lonely places and if it was a important part of life and ministry for his then it should be with us.

243. Rock Goes The Gospel - The Jam "Down The Tube Station at Midnight"

We began the week with the Jam and the song "In the City" here we end thwe week with another Jam track "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight" This was the second single taken from the album All Mod Cons by The Jam. Released on 21 October 1978, it charted at number 15 and was backed by a cover of the Who song "So Sad About Us", and "The Night", written by Bruce Foxton. The back of the record jacket displayed a photo of Keith Moon, former drummer of The Who, who had died the month prior to the single's release. The song starts with the sounds of an Underground station then a tense, syncopated beat carried by the bass guitar. The lyrics are sentimental, contrasting the warmth of home and domestic life with the horror of urban decay and violence. The tension is heightened by a heartbeat being heard in the left stereo channel in certain sections of the song. 

The distant echo -
of faraway voices boarding faraway trains
To take them home to
the ones that they love and who love them forever
The glazed, dirty steps - repeat my own and reflect my thoughts
Cold and uninviting, partially naked
Except for toffee wrapers and this morning's papers
Mr. Jones got run down
Headlines of death and sorrow - they tell of tomorrow
Madmen on the rampage
And I'm down in the tube station at midnight

I fumble for change - and pull out the Queen
Smiling, beguiling
I put in the money and pull out a plum
Behind me
Whispers in the shadows - gruff blazing voices
Hating, waiting
"Hey boy" they shout "have you got any money?"
And I said "I've a little money and a take away curry,
I'm on my way home to my wife.
She'll be lining up the cutlery,
You know she's expecting me
Polishing the glasses and pulling out the cork"
And I'm down in the tube station at midnight

I first felt a fist, and then a kick
I could now smell their breath
They smelt of pubs and Wormwood Scrubs
And too many right wing meetings
My life swam around me
It took a look and drowned me in its own existence
The smell of brown leather
It blended in with the weather
It filled my eyes, ears, nose and mouth
It blocked all my senses
Couldn't see, hear, speak any longer
And I'm down in the tube station at midnight
I said I was down in the tube station at midnight

The last thing that I saw
As I lay there on the floor
Was "Jesus Saves" painted by an atheist nutter
And a British Rail poster read "Have an Awayday - a cheap holiday -
Do it today!"
I glanced back on my life
And thought about my wife
'Cause they took the keys - and she'll think it's me
And I'm down in the tube station at midnight
The wine will be flat and the curry's gone cold
I'm down in the tube station at midnight
Don't want to go down in a tube station at midnight

In the lyrics of the Jam's song "Down The Tubestation At Midnight" are about violence in the city. The lyrics tell the story of an unnamed narrator, travelling home, who enters a London Underground station at midnight. He is carrying a take-away meal for himself and his wife. As he attempts to buy a ticket for his train, he is accosted by thugs (who smell 'of pubs, Wormwood Scrubs' and 'too many right-wing meetings'), asking him whether he is carrying any money. When he replies that he has 'a little money', the thugs attack him, stealing everything, including his keys. The song ends with the narrator lying wounded and either dying or losing consciousness ("And the last thing that I saw as I lay there on the floor") on the Tube Station floor, looking at graffiti and wall posters, reflecting on his life in contrast with the travel posters promising an enjoyable getaway, as he realises that the attackers now have the keys to his house and his wife may be in danger too ("I glanced back on my life and thought about my wife, 'cause they took the keys and she'll think it's me").  This song is about a violent encounter. So what about violence?  It seems to me that most people have come round and accepted the inevitability of violence. They hope that the police can do a better job, they keep their fingers crossed that the next crazed shooter won’t be in their school or movie theater, they hope that more thorough background checks will keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of criminals. But all that deals with violence at its tipping point, not at its source. So what does the Bible say? We find in our ready today a violent dispute between Cain and Abel in Genesis 4.

When reading the bible you do not get too far in the biblical narrative to find the first act of violence. In the second generation of the bible one brother spills the blood of another. Cain murders Abel, for a reason that comes right from the heart—jealousy. The pattern is set. Something simple like jealousy left unchecked, left to grow and deepen and intensify, leads to acting out in violence. God had warned Cain: “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” This is really an amazing statement. Jealously leads to anger, and that sin is predatory, crouching at the door, looking to possess Cain. Violence, in other words, is often the tipping point after resentment turns to rage. What can be done about violence? God told Cain he had better “master” the pathology of his soul. He did not, and blood was spilled.

God’s responds to Cain: “your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground.” And so does the blood of many today. Lesson number one: violence is the result of a pathology of the soul. Violence does not begin with standing armies, generational ethnic hatred, longstanding social inequities. Violence is as close to us as our own hearts. A bit later in Genesis a profound principle is laid down regarding the moral wrongness of of violence: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.” (Genesis 9:6). This is early in the biblical account. It is foundational. Most importantly, it links to the fundamental reality that violence against human beings is wrong because human beings were made in the image and likeness of God. There is a worth, a value, a dignity, to every human life, in other words, that makes selfish or wanton violence a moral offense.

Now one question that immediately comes up is whether the Bible itself promotes violence. Isn’t the Old Testament a very bloody account of history, and doesn’t God himself condone violence? This is a large and important question. We can arrive at a few reflection here.... 1) not everything that happened in Old Testament times was condoned by God; 2) some of the violence in the Old Testament was protection against hostile powers, and the judgement of God; 3) the nation of Israel in the Old Testament was a theocracy, and all that changed by the time we get to the New Testament; and 4) it is obvious from reading the New Testament that from that point on an entirely different set of ethics applies with the coming of the kingdom of God with Jesus. So let’s consider what the New Testament has to say about violence, particularly in the teaching of Jesus. 

First, Jesus models the power of non-violence. On the very night of his arrest, when violent men made their move on Jesus, he told Peter who was ready to fight: “Put your sword back in its place… for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” This was a statement of principle, consistent with all of Jesus’ teaching. At his trial Jesus said to Pontius Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place” (John 18:36). Some Christians, like the Mennonites and others in the Anabaptist tradition see in Jesus’ teaching nothing less than pacifism, while others would say that Jesus’ teaching does not preclude violence in defense, or, as Romans 13 describes, an intentional, punitive use of force in human governing: “rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer” (Rom. 13:4). In either case, however, it is clear that Jesus’ teaching elevates non-violence as the preferred response to violence, and the reason is the important part: Jesus introduced a different kind of kingdom, with it a different set of ethical standards. “Might makes right” is is the way most of human history has unfolded, but Jesus introduced an entirely different way of viewing life.

Second, Jesus speaks about the source of violence. One of the most revolutionary of Jesus’ teachings is that human violence begins in a deeper place. The sin of violence has already begun before blood is spilled or words wound. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said: “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.” (Matt. 5.21-22). We cannot talk about murder without talking about rage. We cannot talk about shootings in schools and movie theaters without talking about the infections of hatred, malice, and anger in our culture. And then there is this important teaching, again from the Sermon on the Mount: “Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, ‘Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them…. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person’ (Mk. 7.14-23). Here is the bad news of the human condition: violence—like all sin—comes out of the human heart. Adultery is not caused externally by someone else’s good looks, greed is not caused externally by money, envy is not caused externally by Mercedes dealerships, and violence is not caused externally by video games or movies. External stimuli certainly affect people, and deep psychological wounding certainly conditions people, and a culture of violence gives permission to be violent, or to be desensitised, but the instinct and choice to act out in violence comes out of the heart. I’m not saying that this statement of Jesus offers a complete psychology of violence. But there is a kernel of truth here that may serve us well as we look at the mystery of violence in our cities. The Pharisees wanted to believe that sin was a matter of what people put in, like the food they ate. That’s a convenient way to look at life. Far more troubling, but true nonetheless, is that all people have within them the potential for violence.

Third, Jesus encourages us to live bravely in the face of violence. Jesus clearly taught that the world is a sinful and violent place. But he challenged his followers not to live in fear and trepidation: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Matt. 10.28). He also said: “I have told you all this so that you may find peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but be brave: I have conquered the world” (Jn. 16.33). I think we must all ask ourselves: what is this bravery of which Jesus spoke? The kind of bravery that Christians working in dangerous parts of the world exercise every day. How can we take this to heart so that we do not live our lives cowering?

Fourth, Jesus mandates a response to violence. So where would we turn in the Scriptures for ways to deal with violence? What does Jesus want us to do about violence? What ought to leap to our minds is the beatitudes, which includes this real-life challenge: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” What can we do about violence? It must begin with a serious commitment to the principle: “blessed are the peacemakers.” But that won’t happen unless we go beyond wishful thinking. Peacemaking is active work, hard work, frustrating work. It is not the convenient thing. “Blessed are the blessed,” is what we’d like to believe, not “blessed are those who expend their lives in the interest of reconciliation and shalom.” This challenge is daunting—but it is Jesus’ clear call for his followers in all times. Our entertainment industry fills our minds with violent images and lyrics. The formidable technology of war today takes on a life of its own. Many people are living a hair-trigger life. And every time a school shooting occurs, and we have 24/7 media coverage, a thousand potential copy-cats—people living in the shadows of society, people who are disconnected or outcast—have their pulse quicken at the idea of having their names in the headlines.

Somehow the work of peacemakers needs to begin long, long before the bullets are loaded in the magazines. In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer says: “The followers of Jesus have been called to peace. When he called them they found their peace, for he is their peace…. they are told that they must not only have peace but make it. And to that end they renounce all violence and tumult.” John Stott, in his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount says, “Now peacemaking is a divine work. For peace means reconciliation, and God is the author of peace and of reconciliation.” What does peacemaking look like in practical terms? What can be done about violence? Another key New Testament passage that speaks about peacemaking is in the epistle of James: “Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness…. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.”

What can be done about violence? There are many professionals whose work is peacemaking, and we need to pray for them and support them. Law enforcement, criminal justice, educators, mental health professionals, and many others. Safety and security in a community comes from a network of collaborators. We will never eliminate violence, but we can lessen it. We don’t need vigilantes, we need vigilance. Followers of Jesus are called to do more than passively waiting for the next person to draw his gun. Our Lord and Savior commands us to close the gap with people rejected by others. To connect with the wounded before they lash out and wound others. To bring down the level of tension and stress around us by living in shalom. It was said of Jesus: “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out “(Matt. 12:20). The next person in our community who may act out in violence is right now, today, somewhere, a bruised reed. A smoldering wick. Will we notice that person? Will we help that person back away from the edge of the cliff? The police cannot and should not supervise everybody’s lives. Our laws define civil behaviour, but they cannot tame human personalities. Shooting back is always worse than stopping the shooting before it ever begins. Abel lay dead. Cain knew it—because he did it. “Then the LORD said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ ‘I don’t know,’ he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?’” (Genesis 4:9).

That’s the question for us. Are we our brother’s keeper? Will we watch out for potential victims? And will we have the courage to watch out for the potential aggressors? Violence in the city is escalating and it takes all of us to transform our urban centres into places of peace.

242. Rock Goes The Gospel - Kings of Leon "Rock City"

Mechanical Bull is the sixth studio album by Kings of Leon, released in Ireland, Germany, Sweden and Australia on September 20, 2013, in the United Kingdom on September 23, 2013, and in North America on September 24, 2013 by RCA Records. In late 2013 the album received a nomination at the 56th Grammy Awards for Best Rock Album. Rock City is from this album and  finds Caleb Followill letting rip as he sings about desperately searching for something. The vocalist is possibly alluding to his burnout after years of constant recording and gigging, which climaxed with him walking offstage halfway through a Dallas show in 2011 and Kings of Leon subsequently having to cancel the rest of the tour. Caleb croons:

"I've been several miles and plenty more
And I found myself face first on the floor
Searching for something, and never finding something
And I don't know where I belong
I'm just trying to get myself back home."

"You could tell he was pouring his heart out," drummer Nathan Followill told The Daily Telegraph. "It was almost like he didn't feel comfortable enough telling us face to face how he felt but he would put it in the lyrics and get up and sing it all day long. We're as close as close can get, we're family. We know everything about each other, but this was a glimpse into his private world."

I was running through the desert
I was looking for drugs,
And I was searching for a woman
Who was willing to love,
So I could take her like a woman.
Yeah take her like a woman.

I was looking for a bad girl
Looking for a bad boy,
Someone who could take all the night away.
Oh baby I could shake it like a woman.
Yeah shake it like a woman.

I got the eyes on me of a jealous man,
And if you're looking to run
Well then you've already ran.
I break down like a woman.
I break down like a woman.

I go back to Rock City,
That's where she saw me,
Everybody's seen her,
Everyone believes me.

I've been several miles and plenty more,
And I found myself face-first on the floor,
Searching for something.
But never finding something.

And I don't know where I belong,
I'm just trying to get myself back home
And get a little work,
Yeah find my little woman.

I go back to Rock City,
That's where she saw me,
Everybody's seen her,
Everyone believes me.

Oh my my, oh my my, oh my my.
I need to find something.
I'm searching for something.

I go back to Rock City,
That's where she saw me,
Everybody's seen her,
Everyone believes me.

I go back to Rock City,
That's where she saw me,
Everybody's seen her,
Everyone believes me.

We find in the lyrics of "Rock City" Someone searching for belonging, for meaning, for identity, for work, for love which is all caught up in a coming again to the city. "And I don't know where I belong,, I'm just trying to get myself back home, And get a little work,, Yeah find my little woman. I go back to Rock City"  The search for identity and meaning in life is in built in each of us. The desire for value, for regular meaningful employment, for identity and for love are the hope and dreams of millions of people on the face of the globe. This sounds a lot like "Rock City" in the lyrics of this Kings of Leon song. This "Rock City" is being viewed as a place of sanctuary, a place where hopes can be nurtured, where new life can begin, where identity can be given, where love can be found and where meaningful employment can be gained. In the Old Testament there are cities like "Rock City" a city of sanctuary, a city in which to begin a new life.

The Bible talks about cities of hope and promise where people seeking sanctuary could realise the prospect of a completely new beginning, of the beginning a new life, of discovering new hope, of putting down roots and gaining meaningful employment and finding love. As London, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham among other cities have been to the thousands of refugees and asylum seekers that came to the United Kingdom in search of a better life, so were these cities to those wanting to start life over again. These biblical cities of refuge provide tremendous insight in to the way in which we are to view city dwellers in our own time as people who are looking for meaning, looking for occupation, looking love and for belonging and identity. Just like the song "Rock City" 

When God divided the Promised Land between the tribes of Israel, He apportioned to each tribe vast tracts of real estate. It was in this land that God's people would dwell, and it was from this land that they would derive their livelihood. A notable exception, however, was the tribe of Levi. The Levites were the priests for the 12 tribes, so rather than giving them a single territory, God instructed that they should disburse their holy influence among the possessions of the other 11 tribes. God also gave the tribe of Levi 48 cities in which to dwell, evenly spread throughout the Promised Land. They were not to simply earn their living from working the land because God had called them to ministry, to hold the office of the priesthood, and to conduct the services of the sanctuary. Out of these 48 cities, God instructed the Levites to set apart six cities that would be distinctly different from the other cities and would serve a unique function.

Three cities were strategically located on each side of the Jordan River. In the east were Bezer in the territory of the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead, and Golan in the area of Bashan. On the west side of the Jordan were Kedesh in Galilee, Shechem in Ephraim, and Kirjath-arba or Hebron in the hill country of Judah. In Joshua's day, it was the accepted practice that, if a family member should be killed, revenge should be gained by taking the life of the one responsible for the family member's death. For example, a man's brother is in the woods chopping down trees with a friend. The friend's axe head slips off his axe and fatally strikes the other man. The dead man's next of kin, even without an intimate knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the tragedy, would then be expected to take the life of the "slayer" in retribution. It was God's plan to improve this primitive system of justice. What if the death had been nothing but an accident? What could be done to protect those who were completely innocent of any premeditated misdeed? God had Joshua designate these six cities so they were never more than a day's journey from anywhere in Israel and ensuring they would be easy accessibility to all. When anyone, Israelite or alien among them, accidentally caused the death of another, that person was to immediately flee to the nearest city of refuge for sanctuary so that his or her life might be spared.

The city has always has been a place where people come who are too weak to live other places. In the earliest days, cities provided refuge from wild animals and marauding tribes and criminals. When Israel moved into the promised land, the first cities in the land as we have already said were built by God’s direction as “cities of refuge”, where the accused person could flee for safety and civil justice. And by its nature, the city is a place where minorities in any society can cluster together for support in the search to belong and find new identity.

Thus today, people like the poor, or ethnic minorities in general, or new immigrants, or people with “deviant” lifestyles must live in the city. Even single adults, who are often disdained in the broader culture, need to cluster together in the city where they are not seen as “freaks”. Minorities cannot survive in the suburbs and small ,towns until they gain cultural power (which they often can do through the dynamics of the city--then they are free to go anywhere in the country). So the city is always a more merciful place, a shelter, for minorities of all kinds. The dominant majorities often dislike cities, but the weak and powerless need them. Thus too cities are places of diversity, unlike the suburbs or even most small towns. They reflect the Future City where there will be people of “every tongue, tribe, people, and nation”.

Many people hate cities because of the diversity of cultures, people “not like us”, but we see that God enjoys and wills the diversity of cultures as bringing forth the richness of his creation. In one city that sought to be homogeneous, God forcibly imposed diversity! Followers of Jesus should rejoice and enjoy diversity of cultures, recognising that they contain people who are searching for belonging, meaning and identity. The place of welcoming the stranger, there are many like the person sung about in the Kings of Leon "Rock City" the person in the song just wants to belong, just wants to work, just wants to know love and settle somewhere. This is the desire in many who come to our cities from difficult areas of the world. They come looking for sanctuary, a place to being a new life, many of these seekers of sanctuary are all around us and are seeking a place to belong. We are well disposed to provide a stable place for the building of a new life. This has it's challenges and pit falls but is worth the sacrifice of welcome and provision.

241. Rock Goes the Gospel - The Clash "London Calling"

"London Calling" is a song by The Clash. It was released as a single from the band's 1979 double album London Calling. This apocalyptic, politically charged rant features the band's famous combination of reggae basslines and punk electric guitar and vocals. The Album was released in the United Kingdom on 14 December 1979 by CBS Records, and in the United States in January 1980 by Epic Records.  The album's subject matter included social displacement, unemployment, racial conflict, drug use, and the responsibilities of adulthood. The album received widespread acclaim and was ranked at number eight on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003. London Calling was a top ten album in the UK and has sold over five million copies worldwide,

London is a shit hole. But it’s our shit hole. A chaotic worm farm that bears scant regard to the nation it holds at bay through a moat of gridlocked tarmac, London long ago ceased to be the beating heart of Britain and effectively became a citadel which happens to share a flag and media with those beyond its boundaries. A patchwork quilt of ethnicity, belief and values, London is a remarkable place that repels mass gentrification in favour of conflicting identities and a creative hunger which makes it one of the most exciting places on Earth. However, back in 1979 London was fucked - struggling to identify a means of becoming a tertiary society as the economy jack-knifed and a desperate populace lived under the Soviet Union’s nuclear cosh. Taking this unease and reducing it into a pithy rash of guitar and snarls, The Clash’s ‘London Calling’ is the spiritual forebearer of every song played on Rinse FM with Joe Strummer balancing the sickly reality of life in the capital against the siren song it omitted to those stranded in the sticks. Be standing please for our true National anthem.

London calling to the faraway towns
Now war is declared, and battle come down
London calling to the underworld
Come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls
London calling, now don't look to us
Phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust
London calling, see we ain't got no swing
'Cept for the ring of that truncheon thing

[Chorus 1:]
The ice age is coming, the sun's zooming in
Meltdown expected, the wheat is growing thin
Engines stop running, but I have no fear
'Cause London is drowning, and I live by the river

London calling to the imitation zone
Forget it, brother, you can go it alone
London calling to the zombies of death
Quit holding out, and draw another breath
London calling, and I don't wanna shout
But while we were talking, I saw you nodding out
London calling, see we ain't got no high
Except for that one with the yellowy eyes

[Chorus 2: x2]
The ice age is coming, the sun's zooming in
Engines stop running, the wheat is growing thin
A nuclear error, but I have no fear
'Cause London is drowning, and I live by the river

Now get this

London calling, yes, I was there, too
An' you know what they said? Well, some of it was true!
London calling at the top of the dial
After all this, won't you give me a smile?
London calling

I never felt so much alike [fading] alike alike alike

This morning we concentrate on the idea of a city "Drowning". Joe Strummer sings 'Cause London is drowning' this could be taken literally, but this morning we will explore it figurativly speaking. London the great city, a modern, and industrious city. This city is a place where cultures collide. Full of ethnic diversity. London whose streets who over centuaries have been filled with sailors, military men, businessmen, and thrill seekers from all corners of the earth and a place full of people who never stay very long, but only come to fulfill their base desires. It's in this place of drowning that we hear Paul the great apostle addresses in 1 corinthians 13, the ineffective and immorally weak church in the city of vice, with an anthem of love.

We will get to the anthem of love in a few moments but first a backdrop to the city of Corinth. Few cities have ever had or will ever have such a reputation as Corinth. A city filled with hundreds of thousands of people. We’re talking about one of the largest, most beautiful, modern, and industrious cities ever known at the time. This city has several characteristics. It was an inclusive place, full of ethnic diversity. This is a place where cultures collide. Corinth was a place with a revolving door whose streets are filled with sailors, military men, businessmen, and thrill seekers from all corners of the earth and a place full of people who never stay very long, but only come to fulfill their base desires. It was also a place of perpetual vanity, where every imaginable sin and vice is not only indulged, but celebrated openly. A place where people are robbed of purpose and where young women and teenagers are exploited for their sexuality.  A place where the well-to-do come to squander their prosperity. Where commercialised gambling, debauchery, drinking, and prostitution fails to raise a single eyebrow. A place where true faith is debased in the name of entertainment. Where sex is practically considered a religion in itself and sexuality is flaunted ad nauseum.  We are talking about a city without limits, where all inhibition is cast aside. A place unshackled by morality or God’s laws. A place where people feel free!

Corinth was so important and a key city. The city of Corinth had three harbours and was strategically located along a prominent north-south trade route. It was a place of commercial trade, where merchants from all over the world would come. Corinth was inhabited by over 400,000 people. Her population was mixed, including Greeks, Jews, Italians, and other foreigners. And get this—her transient population was ever-changing. Corinth was a city without foundations or moral roots. The city featured new shops, sprawling marketplaces, restored and greatly enlarged temples, fresh water supplies, numerous public buildings, governmental buildings, and an amphitheater that sat over 14,000 people. Recent excavations have uncovered over thirty-three wine shops, or bars, located in downtown Corinth. The wine shops featured lofted rooms. Travelers would get plied with wine and then enticed into these lofts for illicit activity with prostitutes and other partygoers. The Soho of it's day.

In the apostle Paul’s day, Corinth was known as Sin City. To "corinthianise" a person was to corrupt a person. It was to take them beyond their moral limits. People went to Corinth to be corinthianised. It was like a rite of passage. Come indulge here. There was no greater insult that could be given to someone than to be called a Corinthian.

Smack dab in the middle of Corinth / Sin City, with the help of missionaries Aquilla and Priscilla, the Lord Jesus Christ sent the apostle Paul to establish a church. (Acts 18) The apostle Paul established a church in one of the darkest, most morally corrupt cities in the Roman empire. He placed it in a stronghold of Satan’s kingdom. Paul began the church in a place without hope in a city without morals. Paul began his work in a metropolis that was drowning in broken dreams and fractured lives. The church in Corinth had it's many problems. "What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip, or in love and with a gentle spirit?" wrote Paul in his first letter to the church in Corinth. With their internal squabbles, disorderly worship, false apostles, and sexual immorality, the Corinthian followers of Jesus earned the dubious honour of having their shortcomings immortalised in two New Testament letters. How could a church started by the apostle Paul be fractured by divisions, filled with arrogance, seemingly supportive of immorality, involved in litigation, and struggling over whether sexual relations are appropriate within the husband-wife relationship? These are just a few of the problems facing Paul as he seeks to deal with the church he planted in the city of Corinth. Not to mention abuses of the Lord’s Supper, the abuse of Christian freedom, and doctrinal controversies over such issues as spiritual gifts and the future bodily resurrection of believers. The church was out of control in a city of freedom.

Having said all that it is with this city in mind and to this Corinthian church that Paul communicates perhaps the greatest and most telling essay on Love that is contained in the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 13. It is with the culture of this city seeping into the church that Paul writes with passion about what life looks like as a true follower of Jesus. It is in the mess and chaos of this fractured church that Paul speaks with power, authority and hope. It is in the "Drowning" of the city and the "Sinking" of the church in the immoral tide, that in Paul's love anthem there rests the hope of something different for the church and for the dark culture in Corinth.

I also wrote about this track in Rock Goes the Gospel - Song 111.

A different take on it.

240. Rock Goes The Gospel - Phil Collins "Another Day in Paradise"

"Another Day in Paradise" is a protest song recorded by Phil Collins. Produced by Collins along with Hugh Padgham, it was released as the first single from his number-one album ...But Seriously (1989). As with his song for Genesis, "Man on the Corner", the track has as its subject the problem of homelessness;  as such, the song was a substantial departure from the dance-pop music of his previous album, No Jacket Required (1985). Collins told The New York Times how the song came together: "It was begun at the piano. I started playing and put it down on a tape so I wouldn't forget it. Then I decided to see what would happen when I started singing. When I began, the words just came out, 'She calls out to the man on the street.' I didn't set out to write a song about the homeless. Those were just the words I happened to sing. It was only then that I decided that was what the song would be about." Many of the songs from ...But Seriously were written in attempt to offset what Collins called middle-of-the-road song choices that made his reputation "a little more trivialized than I wanted to be." He had just played the title thief in the 1988 adventure comedy Buster, for which he recorded a hit cover of the '60s pop song "A Groovy Kind Of Love."  He told Musician: "'Another Day in Paradise' was chosen because it was a bit different from what had gone on before. It would bring people back to the starting line of remembering what I'm about. I write 'In the Air.' I'm quite capable of writing a 'Two Hearts,' but let's not forget I'm also doing this kind of stuff."

She calls out to the man on the street
"Sir, can you help me?
It's cold and I've nowhere to sleep,
Is there somewhere you can tell me?"

He walks on, doesn't look back
He pretends he can't hear her
Starts to whistle as he crosses the street
Seems embarrassed to be there

Oh think twice, it's another day for
You and me in paradise
Oh think twice, it's just another day for you,
You and me in paradise

She calls out to the man on the street
He can see she's been crying
She's got blisters on the soles of her feet
Can't walk but she's trying

Oh think twice...

Oh lord, is there nothing more anybody can do
Oh lord, there must be something you can say

You can tell from the lines on her face
You can see that she's been there
Probably been moved on from every place
'Cos she didn't fit in there

Oh think twice...

Collins sings the song from a third-person perspective, observing as a man crosses the street to ignore a homeless woman, and he implores listeners not to turn a blind eye to homelessness because, by drawing a religious allusion, "it's just another day for you and me in paradise". This addresses the consequences of ignoring the needy and homeless. It's a rare Phil Collins hit with a socially conscious message. Collins also appeals directly to God by singing: "Oh Lord, is there nothing more anybody can do? Oh Lord, there must be something you can say?" In the bible passage today in Exodus 3:1-10 we hear the cry of the city builders and listen in  to the call of God on one mans life that will propel him into the places of sseeking Justice. 

The book of Exodus is the story of God rescuing the children of Israel from Egypt and making them His people. Exodus is the second book of the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses), and it’s where we find the stories of the Ten Plagues, the first Passover, the parting of the Red Sea, and the Ten Commandments. Exodus picks up where Genesis leaves off: the young nation of Israel is in Egypt (they were invited by Joseph, the one with the famous coat). A new Pharaoh notices the Israelites multiplying, and enslaves them and conscripts them to be city builders. Afraid of an uprising, he orders that all Hebrew sons should be cast into the Nile at birth. But one son escapes this decree. Moses is hidden in a basket and set afloat in the Nile—where Pharaoh’s daughter discovers him. Moses is grows up as her son. When an adult Moses sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, he kills the Egyptian and leaves the country to escape capital punishment.

Forty years later, God appears to Moses as a burning bush and sends him to deliver Israel from the hand of Pharaoh. Moses, with the help of his brother Aaron, confronts Pharaoh on God’s behalf: “Let My people go” (Ex 5:1). Pharaoh refuses, and so God sends 10 plagues upon the Egyptians:

The sons of Israel leave Egypt and make their way to Mount Sinai, where God gives His laws to Moses. God makes a covenant with the nation of Israel and the generations to come: because He rescued them from Egypt, Israel is to observe His rules. God speaks the Ten Commandments directly to the whole nation of Israel, and He relays specific ordinances to Moses on the mountain. God does not stop with a list of rules, however. He gives Moses instructions for a tabernacle, a special tent of worship. The book of Exodus ends with the glory of the LORD filling the tabernacle: God is now dwelling among His chosen people, Israel.

The complete focus of Exodus is found in Exodus 3:1-10 where moses hears the voice of God and recives the call to go and fight for justice with Pharaoh. God's plan is to free the israelistes who have been made captive and given the role of city builders. By the work of their hands thay have toiled in building Pharaoh's cities and palaces. The fundamental truth in the passage is that God hears their cry and sees their pain. The cry from the heart of the city and the pain from lives in captivity. Phil collins sings "Oh lord, is there nothing more anybody can do" "Oh lord, there must be something you can say" this is Collins response to homlessness in the city. We are not told what city but hear it is. Collins gives a contextual example of what it looks like and feels like to be homeless in the city. We are left with the question does any one hear and can anyone do something. This is exactly where the burning bush incident is equal. God choses Moses to be the instrument of freedom, peace, justice and comapassion.

Vs 7 says "The Lord said, ‘I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them"

Jesus still walks the streets of the city calling for people to join him in caring for the lost, the last, the least and the lonely. Let's be peole who hear the challenge to work for justice and compassion in the heart of the city.