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2/5/2012 - by Chuck Monan, Preaching Minister
We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God. The world is crowded with him. He walks everywhere incognito. And the incognito is not always hard to penetrate. The real labor is to remember, to attend. In fact, to come awake. Still more, to remain awake.
— C.S. Lewis
While most of the world grows more religious, Europe and the United States grow less religious. And as the tide of unbelief rises, we must be prepared to meet it. Part of this preparation involves the life of the mind, the intellectual work of being able to give an answer for the reason for the hope within us. The other part requires a kind, collegial spirit willing to love people and interact with them no matter where they are.
A wonderful example of this is found in an unlikely encounter between musical legend Paul Simon and the late British theologian John Stott.
Simon comes from a Jewish background but does not consider himself religious. Still, “God comes up a lot in my songs… It’s something I recognize in myself and that I enjoy, and I don’t quite understand it.” After reading a 2004 New York Times article by David Brooks about Stott’s approach to faith, Simon wanted to meet him. A friend set it up, and soon Simon found himself in Stott’s London flat sharing tea, biscuits and conversation. Simon told interviewer Kim Lawton:
We spent two or three hours there. I talked about everything that was on my mind about things that seemed illogical, and he talked about why he had come to his conclusions. I liked him immensely. I left there feeling that I had a greater understanding of where belief comes from when it doesn’t have an agenda. It didn’t change my way of thinking, but what I liked about it was that we were able to talk and have a dialogue.
Sometimes we forget that merely planting the seed can trigger a process that yields an incredible transformation. Stott’s conversation with Simon could well be such an example. Simon muses, “Quite often, people read or hear things in my songs that I think are more true than what I wrote. I feel I’m like a vessel, and it passed through me, and I’m glad.” An interesting thought, especially considering a song from his 2011 album So Beautiful or So What titled “The Afterlife.”
After I died and the makeup had dried
I went back to my place
No moon that night, but a heavenly light
Shown on my face
Still I thought it was odd there was no sign of God
Just to usher me in
Then a voice from above sugarcoated with love
Said, “Let us begin”
You got to fill out a form first
And then you wait in the line
You got to fill out a form first
And then you wait in the line
Buddha and Moses and all the noses
From narrow to flat
Had to stand in the line
Just to glimpse the divine
What’cha think about that?
Well, it seems like our fate
To suffer and wait for the knowledge we seek
It’s all His design
No one cuts in the line
No one here likes a sneak
After you climb up the ladder of time
The Lord God is near
Face-to-face in the vastness of space
Your words disappear
And you feel like you’re swimming in an ocean of love
And the current is strong
But all that remains when you try to explain
Is a fragment of song
Lord, is it Be Bop a Lula? Or ooh Papa Doo?
Lord, Be Bop a Lula? Or ooh Papa Doo?
Be Bop a Lula
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