Sometimes . . . .

 . . . I have two Nutrageouses after lunch.

 . . . I wonder if anyone will show up for church on Sunday.

 . . . I wish I could still have Frosted Mini-Wheats for breakfast.

 . . . when I'm driving alone and I see yet another of those ubiquitous church window decals, I exhale just a little bit of profanity.

 . . . I give people fist bumps instead of hugs if they happen to wear a cologne or perfume to which I know I am allergic.

. . . I miss the simplicity of a small country church.

. . .  I wonder what it's like to be 90.  My dad lived to be 95 and my mom still plays tennis at 97, so it looks like I may indeed find out.

. . . I get curious about why Methodists tolerate so much diversity when it comes to how we understand human sexuality, the authority of Scripture, and the nature of the resurrection, but tolerate no diversity in our thoughts about infant baptism.

. . . I finish mowing my lawn and am grateful that I can do at least that one thing when it comes to working with my hands.

. . . I ask myself what kind of ministry work I should do after I turn 55.

This past Sunday we took the unusual step of distributing and completing a survey during our worship gathering.

At all four services, we took ten minutes and worshipped by completing a snapshot questionnaire that helps us gauge where we are most (and least) effective at inviting all people into a living relationship with Jesus Christ.

But during the 11:30 gathering, something happened that far transcends any information we can glean from the surveys we took.

At that service, one of our Good Shepherd regulars who is a paraplegic was seated in his motorized chair near the front row of seats. As a paraplegic, he has no movement from his neck down.  The survey method involved completing a questionnaire using paper and pen.

Uh oh.

Yet as the 10 minutes began, a woman sitting one row behind our friend who is paraplegic came to life.  Quietly, subtly, yet unmistakably, she moved from her seat to crouch beside his chair.  She and he read each question together, and she marked down his answers.  His age, his zip code, his level of involvement, even his desire for deeper connection.

No one asked the woman to do this ministry.  She saw a need and met it without acclaim or fanfare.

And now his voice will be heard as we navigate our future.

That's what it means to see a living relationship with Jesus Christ right before your eyes.

 

Having grown up in Texas and lived most of my adult life in North Carolina, I've had no small amount of exposure to Southern Rock.

It's not my favorite genre of music by a long shot.  It's also not very easy to define.

I mean, who exactly qualifies as a Southern Rocker?

Does Tom Petty, since he grew up in northern Florida (as Deep South as you got back in that day)?  No, he started out as New Wave and is now one of the few classic rockers who has the respect of younger audiences.

Does ZZ Top since they hail from Texas?  Well, not really.  They fall into more of a rock-based blues category.  Actually, they create their own category:  Rock Bands Who Look Like Hasidic Jews.

Does REM since they gained a cult following in Athens, Georgia before going national?  Um, no.  Michael Stipe and Ronnie Van Zant in the same music club?  I doubt it.

No, Southern Rock is pretty limited in scope as well as time.  Aside from occasional incursions by more modern bands like the Black Crowes, Southern Rock is a product of long-haired white guys who loved equally long guitar solos in the 70s.   If you ever develop a hankering to hear some, just tune in Charlotte's WRFX (99.7): they rarely go more than 15 minutes without playing something of that style and from that era.

So here are my five favorites:

5.  Highway Song, by Blackfoot.  The main reason this song makes the list is not the song itself.  It's that I had to have a Blackfoot song here because its former bass player, Lenny Stadler, became a Christian, got ordained as a Methodist pastor, and for nearly two decades led Weddington United Methodist Church to then-unheard of levels of church growth. I offered some thoughts on his death here. 


4.  Can't You See? by The Marshall Tucker Band.  The woodwind at the beginning make it one of the most distinctive Southern Rock songs of them all.


3.  Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd.  Thanks to Neil Young for inspiring this one!


2.  Green Grass & High Tides by The Outlaws.  In terms of style, feel, and yes, even excess, this tune from the Outlaws is in my view the most representative of Southern Rock.  Settle in for a good ten minutes.



1.  Gimme Three Steps by Lynyrd Skynyrd.  Tremendous story hilariously told.  Makes me want to know just what Linda Lou looked like even though there's no way in the world I could cut a rug with her.

 

As many of you know the bible's division into chapters and verses is a much later addition to the Scriptural texts.  You can read the story of how the medieval church gradually implemented these reader aids here.

Because that work came at least 1,000 years after the manuscripts were originally written, we don't old the chapter/verse distinctions to be inspired, anointed, infallible, or whatever other term people apply to the bible itself.  Sometimes, in fact, chapter divisions are so arbitrary they interrupt the flow of the story (check John 7:59 - 8:11 for example).

However, the chapter divisions in Jonah are perfect.  I have come to see during this series that Jonah -- remember, it's not about a guy in a fish; it's a bout a man on the run! -- is in fact a drama made up of four distinct acts.  And each act corresponds exactly to its chapter.

The fourth and final act is the most confusing and ambiguous of them all:


⁴ But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

⁵ Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. ⁶ Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant^[a] and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. ⁷ But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. ⁸ When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

⁹ But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

¹⁰ But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. ¹¹ And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”