“They Baptized Jesse Taylor…”

I have been told I have a weird taste in music. For one thing I love the old Gospel tunes, especially the ones that speak of our eternal home. Stuff like “I’ll Fly Away,” Victory in Jesus,” Johnny Cash’s “Oh Come Angel Band” and “This World is Not My Home.” It is the messages I like as much as the upbeat music itself. This world really is not our home and if we can get our heads around that fact, it will give us a better attitude toward this life and everything in it.

And I like the love stories. Not the sleepy dreamy stuff that show up as background in the romance movies, but stories. More like “If I could walk 500 miles, then I would walk 500 more just to be the man who walks 1000 miles and falls down at your door.” And “Would you lay with me in a field of stone?” Or “I’ll bring you a daisy a day, dear.”

Some of the outlier stuff I enjoy is the Oak Ridge Boys, Mavis Staples, Cat Stevens. I don’t know where all that fits in the great scheme of things.

But one song that has gotten me some attention lately for its unusual theme is one I keep playing for people. I even played it for the two very distinguished older women who are now coming to a Bible class of sorts that we do every Sunday afternoon. It is “They Baptized Jesse Taylor in Cedar Creek Last Sunday.” 

The title tells the story. The first verse tells of the slack of business in all the local taverns “Cause Jesse’s drinking came before the groceries and the rent.” It speaks of a slack in cheating among the local women “‘Cause Jesse won’t be stepping out again,” and of the gamblers' pockets missing Jesse's money.

And the last verse talks of Nancy Taylor proudly speaking with neighbors and telling them how Jesse has “took up with” little Jim. It goes on “Now Jimmy’s got a daddy and Jesse’s got a family and 'Franklin County’s got a lot more man.'”

But it is the chorus that I can’t get out of my head.

“They baptized Jesse Taylor in Cedar Creek last Sunday!”

“Jesus gained a soul and Satan lost a good right arm.” And I love this part:

 “They all cried ‘Hallelujah!!’ when Jesse’s head went under.”

“’Cause this time he went under for the lord.”

What keeps that song in my mind is that it is about redemption. If Jesse can make it, then so can you and I and our friends and relatives that need salvation. And I really like the connection it makes between baptism and a changed life. Just like the 3000 new Christians on the day the church was established and like the Ethiopian on his way home from the celebration in Jerusalem and like Cornelius, the first Non-Jewish convert, all of whom were baptized when they were converted, and like the jailer in Philippi after Paul and Silas saved his life by staying in the prison after God opened it for them to walk out.

The church shouted “Hallelujah” when Jesse's head went under not because they had gained a convert to their way of thinking, but because Jesse had gained a relationship with Jesus – a relationship that would change his life and serve him forever.

Hallelujah!

"They Baptized Jesse Taylor..." 

Can These Dry Bones Live?

Sunday, Richard was making a presentation in Hibbing and asked me to preach at Roseville. I titled the lesson “Can These Dry Bones Live?”

You will recognize the reference as being from Ezekiel. It is 37:3-10. Ezekiel prophesied to the Israelis from Babylon at the same time Daniel was there. There is some non-Biblical evidence that Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego conferred with Ezekiel before the actions that landed them in the furnace. Jeremiah was prophesying from Israel at the same time.

God picked Ezekiel up in a vision and dropped him down in a field full of bones, asking him to walk around. Ezekiel’s observation was that “they were very dry.” God asked Ezekiel “Can these bones live?”

Ezekiel, of course, knew that God had the power to make them live, but had no idea what God was up to. He answered, “You know, Lord.” Then God told him to prophesy to the bones. Ezekiel must have felt pretty silly prophesying to a valley of dry bones, but God is God, so he did. The bones started rattling and then began to come together like the old song goes, “The foot bone connected to the ankle bone,” and so on. After one more prophesy they stood on their feet and became “an exceedingly great army.

But God doesn’t leave Ezekiel hanging there. In the next few verses He explains what the dry bones mean to the Israelite nation. He said that the bones represent the Israelis being held captive in Babylon and wishing they were home in Israel. And the bones coming to life is how God is showing them that this “dry bone” period in their history Is temporary. He is going to take them home.

What I did for a practical application was to begin to talk about five areas that may appear to be “dry bones” to us today: the world, the United States, the universal church, The Roseville church, and then us as individuals. I illustrated each level with aspects of its existence that seemed hopeless. The Israelites had lost hope and Ezekiel was prophesying to restore their hope.

When God got ready to establish Israel, He told Abraham to pack up everything he had and go to “a place I will show you.” When He heard the cry of his people enslaved to the Egyptians, He “Came down to rescue them,” and did so by directing Moses to “Go tell Pharaoh to let my people go.” When He wanted to restore the hope of His people, he sent Ezekiel to prophesy. And when He wanted to spread good news to all the nations, he told His people to “Go into all the world and tell the good news to every creature.”

That is how He works. He works through his people. That is us. We are His people and He told us to spread the good news. That is the answer to today’s dry bones – tell everybody that Jesus has worked out our salvation and this world is not our home. “If My people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked way, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14

Our Dystopian Post-Apocalyptic World

Just thinking. It is like we were all picked up and dropped into some dystopian post-apocalyptic novel or movie. We have all the elements of an exciting film.

First there is the mysterious virus that came out of nowhere, isolating us from each other. It provides the great unknown for which the survivors need to find an answer. Did it really just suddenly appear out of nothing like some people think the universe did? Or did China invent it in a lab and intentionally transmit it to the rest of the world? Or was it inserted here by some of the undercover extra-terrestrials whom we all know are disguised and living among us? Perhaps we should designate some of the survivors to go to China to further investigate?

Then there is the sudden resurrection of White supremacy as an issue and the return of open hatred between Black people and White people. Maybe it was just time for all the turbulence of the 1960’s to come back into light. Or maybe the aliens are intentionally resurrecting old issues to drive wedges between us. They want us to kill each other off. Look again at that video of the George Floyd murder. Watch the officer’s face as he stares at the camera while casually holding his knee on Floyd’s neck with his hands in his pockets. Doesn’t he have an alien aura about him?

And there is climate change. Do we really want to believe that mortal man caused all these hurricanes and melting icebergs? Who on this earth is organized enough to pull off something that big? Certainly not one of the political parties.

We have some of the critical characters to make the movie. In the U.S. we have the psycho who thinks he has gained control of the government and is madly trying to look like he is in charge of something and to deny responsibility for anything at the same time. Even his niece is writing books about him.

Who would have prophesied that in 2020 we would all be hiding in our houses, wearing masks, staying away from each other, and hacking each other’s laboratories for the latest on vaccine development? What better way to kill the love for humankind that was our only hope for survival in the first place? We are splintering into smaller and smaller kinship groups, each vying for some modicum of control over some aspect of our being.

What do we need to finish making the movie? A small group of survivors who will cling together, watch each other’s backs, oppose the enemies, go wherever they need to go to find solutions, and persevere. And a hero that everyone can look to for hope.

Stay tuned for Season 2 when Texas and Scotland secede from their respective nations; a new virus appears, this time from Russia; and Kamala Harris becomes the U.S. president who just might have a solution to it all.

E Pluribus Unum

There are some very noisy people in our society right now trying to eliminate our diversity. They want us all to look like them, to talk like  them, and to think like them. But that is not really who we are, is it?

Look carefully at the back of a one dollar bill. The great seal of the United States is depicted there with the back of the seal on the left and the front of the seal on the right. In the right hand image the eagle is holding a banner in its beak that proclaims “E Pluribus Unum”. It is a Latin phrase meaning “from many, one.” It is of course a reference to one nation being formed from 13 colonies, but also represents to many of us that we are all different but we form one nation.

The book of Revelation speaks of heaven being formed from “every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9). Jeremiah warned his people “Do justice and righteousness and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place” (Jeremiah 22:3). The apostle Paul spent 15 verses writing of the church, comparing it to a body, saying each part is different, each has its own function and no one part should think it is more important than another. If that kind of thinking is good for the church then why not for the nation?

Neil Diamond remembering his grandmother put it like this”

“They’re Coming to America”

It is time we all stood up for the strangers among us and those longing to be among us.