Jubilation

When we were on the staff retreat a couple of weeks ago, Lavanda and I got into a conversation about religion in front of an audience. This was not a particularly good idea as I have often gotten in trouble because of my religion.

As my old friend John Ferguson used to say to me and about me, “You know Mike would be a pretty good minister if he ever got saved.”

Regina Smith on the staff now keeps his message alive and well. John has gone on to be with God and I am certain uses every opportunity to convince God to make special efforts on my behalf.

And there are a great many others who advance my salvation too. When I wrote “Playing Hide and Seek: A non-Church Goers Guide”, the Tybee Island Methodist Church put my name at the top of their prayer list for the better part of a year. I think that the Church is in the Guinness Book of World Records for most consecutive weeks of prayer on behalf of one individual, though I am not mentioned by name.

So, I’ve been spending a lot of time alone these days so that naturally leads me to You Tube where I search for all kinds of things. Last night I found an excerpt from “The Cotton Patch Gospel” by Tom Keys and Harry Chapin. Based on Clarence Jordon’s magnificent translations of the New Testament by the same name, it depicts Jesus being born in Gainesville, Georgia and being crucified in Atlanta (though let’s be honest, Atlanta can crucify most anybody).

Country music does the New Testament. When it came out, it was one of the funniest things that I’ve ever seen, poking fun at all of the things about religion that deserve to be made fun of. I’ve probably seen it five times and it is finally on DVD so I immediately ordered it.

In addition to the wicked humor, the music is touching (it was the last songs that Harry Chapin wrote before he was killed in a car crash). But there is this one song. “Jubilation” It covers the Last Supper scene which takes place in a barn with biscuits instead of bread and God knows what kind of wine. Muscatine?

“Everybody wants to touch his dream just one time.”
“I’ll never ever get this close again.”
“Everybody wants to feel this feeling sometime.”
“That’s why I don’t want this day to come to an end.”

So goes the lines and Jesus and his followers are all having that special moment where holy love is personified. They hug as they sing and smile and feel that the Kingdome has come on earth as it is in heaven.

Then Jesus stands and sings over the above words, “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul and mind. Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

It is a powerful image. And it reminds me of my core beliefs. Many years ago when professional Christianity threw me out, the Jefferson Street Baptist Chapel where I had been the minister, presented me with a plaque that hangs on the wall in my office today. It has my favorite verse from the New Testament in 1 John. “Beloved, if God so loved us, then we should love one another.”

It is a variation of what Jesus said and what is sang in the Cotton Patch Gospel. We profess our love for God by loving others. Locking one’s self in a prayer closet and praying to God while others go hungry is an unpardonable sin as far as I am concerned.

Anyway, all of these years at Union Mission, the song made me remember that when you boil it all down, this is what I have tried to do. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. It can be a bitch and cost you a lot! But it can also make you touch your dream some times. It can make you feel that feeling sometime. And that feeling is God. And I don’t want it to come to an end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwUdb3sxYa4