A Funny Thing Happened at the Jonny Lang Concert

Tonight was an unexpected experience. Perhaps it should not have been unexpected. After all, I find many concerts to be spiritually uplifting experiences. But tonight was different. I went with some friends to see Jonny Lang at the House of Blues. At the House of Blues, I always buy general admission tickets so that I can get up close. I was about eight feet from Jonny tonight. Standing on the floor with hundreds of other people crammed in front of stage is always interesting. You make friends with a lot of interesting people when they have had a little too much to drink. And it's amazing what they will do and say. And there I was with my new friends at the Jonny Lang concert. 

For those who do not know, Jonny Lang is a blues guitar player who has been playing professionally for almost 20 years, and he is only 32 years old! He is a phenomenal player with a unique singing voice and music that blends rock, blues, and gospel. In 2006, he wrote and recorded  a song called, "On That Great Day." This brings me to the point of this blog. He started singing "On That Great Day" and a strange thing happened at the Jonny Lang concert. The B-3 was playing. The singers were singing harmonies. And then the audience starting singing along. I closed my eyes in praise of God. I found myself raising my hands to worship. Yes, we had church! I did not expect to have church at a Jonny Lang concert, but we did. My eyes teared up as I, and a couple of thousand new friends, sang the last chorus to the song. Here are the lyrics to "On That Great Day":

"That Great Day"

We'll meet at the river

We'll be delivered of every chain

Down into the water, children

Mothers and fathers in His sweet name

To drown all our sins

And come up again forever changed

Never to return to the people we were

Before that great day

We'll patiently wait 'til we see His face

And when He appears to wipe all our tears forever away

Then we'll be together in Heaven forever

On that great day, on that great day

We'll patiently wait 'til we see His face

And when He appears to wipe all our tears forever away

Then we'll be together in Heaven forever

On that great day, on that great day

We sang that last chorus together several times until it faded to almost acapella. There Jonny was, leading the church--uh, I mean audience--in worship of his Savior Jesus. True, Jesus is not named in the song. But  who else will we see face-to-face? Who else will wipe all our tears forever away? What amazing to me was that most likely none of these people came to the concert to worship God, or to express faith in God for their futures. 

What really struck me as I worshiped God tonight was that here was a truly missional moment. At Houston Graduate School of Theology and Cypress Oaks Church, two places that I love and at which I spend a good deal of waking hours, we talk about being missional, about being incarnational in the unsuspecting world. Here was a group of people--many drunk, boisterous, and vulgar just moments before--singing praise to God. Jesus was there in our midst. I could feel God's presence. (OK, I can't prove that, but I did experience it.) Jesus was there in that unsuspecting crowd. How often to we have services of worship and struggle to find God's presence. Yet, here it was at the Jonny Lang concert. 

I felt like I was being reminded that almost everyone knows that it is a good thing for sins to be forgiven, binding chains to be removed, and lives to be turned around for better. I think that's why everyone joined it and sang. They were expressing their faith that God will wipe away tears forever. There is a great day awaiting. And all these people are waiting for us to say, "Jesus loves you." People are waiting for us to care for them as much as Jesus does. People are looking for hope, for faith, and for peace. There was a little piece of it tonight at the Jonny Lang concert. 

We'll be together in Heaven forever on that great day. Yes, we will! 

Finally, check out this video of the song. I think you'll like it! 

Living Friday

In two days, I will lead our church in a "Good" Friday service. It's the day that we remember the death of Jesus. We remember the suffering of Jesus. We remember the love that led Jesus to die that death--and the Father to allow that death. It's a dark day. The cloth on the cross is black. The sanctuary is normally dark--or almost dark. "Good" is an interesting adjective for the day. It's the Friday of death that precedes the Sunday of resurrection. 

For the first time in my life, I feel like I am living that Friday--three funerals in 10 days, with the first being my father, the second a sweet woman from the church, and the third a close friend and ministry partner who died at 51 years old, not to mention my "second mama" losing her brother three weeks ago, my cousin losing her husband of 46 years in February, and a best friend whose father is dying of cancer. 

Last week, in an email to a friend, I quoted Theoden, from "Lord of the Rings," who felt despair deep in Helm's Deep and moaned painfully, "So       much         death!" Then I remembered Aragorn, who encouraged Theoden, "Ride out with me." We all need Aragorns in times like this--friends to encourage us to keep putting one foot in front of another! 

I also happen to be teaching Psalms right now, and the subject of the past three weeks has been the lament psalms. These psalms contain statements like these (all from The Voice):

• My soul is drowning in darkness. How long can You, the Eternal, let things go on like this? (Ps. 6:3)
• How long must I agonize, grieving Your absence in my heart every day? How long will You let my enemies win? (Ps. 13:2)
• My God, my God, why have You turned Your back on me? Your ears are deaf to my groans. O my God, I cry all day and You are silent; my tears in the night bring no relief. (Ps. 22:1-2)
• Do not allow my enemies to boast over me. Do not allow them to gloat over me, “Aha, we have won! We got what we wanted!” Do not allow them to brag, “We chewed him up and spit him out.” (Ps. 35:24-25)
• The waters have risen to my neck; I am going down! My feet are swallowed in this murky bog; I am sinking—there is no sturdy ground. I am in the deep; the floods are crashing in! I am weary of howling; my throat is scratched dry. (Ps. 69:1-3)

And, yet, if you read these psalms in their entirety, you will find in them also statements of faith in God--statements of trust that God has heard in the past and will hear in the future. These psalms talk of God as "My Lord" and "My God," speaking of a relationship between psalmist and God. There is hope, even in deep darkness. However, there is one exception. Psalm 88 offers no word of hope, no word of trust, no word of faithfulness. The psalmist is forsaken and forgotten, "in the lowest pits of the earth, in the darkest canyons of the ocean" (v. 6). 



This brings me back to Friday. There is no suggestion in the gospel texts that the friends and followers of Jesus were hoping for a miracle. They had watched Jesus die--and he was dead! Friday, and Psalm 88, should remind us that there are times when we feel hopeless. There are times when the darkness overwhelms us and we see no glimmer of light. Death does this to us. And Friday is a day to think of death. Yes, we know that Sunday is coming, but I do not think that the disciples on Saturday were looking forward to Sunday. So, I suggest that on "Good" Friday, we consider the darkness of that night, and the darkness of some of our own days. 

I do have one word of hope here, however. I am so glad that Jesus wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. Jesus understood grief. He understood Friday. I have listened to a song by the artist Eli several times in the past few weeks. The song is entitled, "God Weeps, Too." It give me comfort and hope. It includes this line, "This is for the widow, who now must sleep alone, when the memory of a kiss will have to do. Every night when she lay down, you can almost hear, when God weeps, too." (You can hear the song here.) I believe that God wept on Friday. I think I will, too, as I long for Sunday! 

Why did God become man?

I have been reading N. T. Wright's Surprised by Hope. In this Advent season, Wright suggests that we have tended to emphasize some of the reasons that Jesus came to earth, but have neglected an important gospel message on the topic. I think he is right. See this post from College of Biblical Studies (CBS) to make my point: http://cbshouston.edu/blog/2011/12/19/why-did-god-become-man/. Now, I am not insulting CBS. I appreciate their work in Houston. Their Christmas post just happened to come on the day that I was thinking about this. Now, none of what is in that article is incorrect (Jesus did come to pay the penalty sin, reveal God, reconcile, redeem, and be an example.).

However, the gospels present Jesus' entry into this world as the inbreaking of God's kingdom (or Kingdom of Heaven). This world was completely transformed because Jesus was born, lived, died, and rose from the dead. Jesus came to reconcile the world to God. And, that reconciling was accomplished by his resurrection power. Now, we are involved in the reconciling of this world to God. That daunting task was given to us by none other than Jesus himself. Fortunately, Jesus did not leave us alone. He has risen to be with us forever, and the Holy Spirit is present to empower and embolden us!

God became man to transform the kingdom of this world into the kingdom of heaven. This has been our advent theme at Cypress Oaks Church. I'm glad to be a part of that. Gungor's "Heaven" has become something of a theme song. That's all for now.