The Sidewalk Cries Out


Thursday night, I headed to downtown Lancaster to catch the band Kingsfoil, a Central Pa. band who are really good. One of their claims to fame is that they used to have a drummer formerly from some TV show. Really not worth looking up. I think it was Malcolm In The Middle. I have been listening to Kingsfoil for the last couple of months on Spotify. Time will tell if Spotify's model will work. Americans like to mooch without paying up. Although, I have been amused by people complaining on  Facebook, who should know better, about the ads directed at us freeloaders. As the old saying goes, "Beggars can't be choosers." My conscience was bothering me because I don't have any intention of paying up on Spotify. Just like iPhone apps. If I have to pay for them, I am not downloading them. So, I accept the AutoZone guys screaming and even the occasional condom ad on Spotify.

Yet, I think artists deserve support. So, there to the Lancaster Convention Center I went. Convention Centers and Casinos are cities' grand plans for economic development. Tourism rather than industry and manufacturing being the backbone of a region. So, Lancaster has wagered a lot on this strategy and the results are mixed."Doing Well But Deep In Debt" reads the title of a recent report. The line in this photo was for the show. Many of the line-waiters were Millersville University students gearing up for the headliner, Panic in the Disco.  Originally, Kingsfoil was listed as playing at 6:00. Since it was already close to six, I was going to bag it. and I started walking back to my car. Turns out that they were not coming on to 8:00. I thought to myself how many of the 1,000 or so college kids knew Jesus, or was this just one more line to nowhere.

But, before I saw the revised time on my iPhone Launch Festival app, as I walked around the block, some middle-aged man was speaking loudly to a young boy and girl about how the existence of God made no sense. He used an analogy of him wanting the Philadelphia Eagles to win the Superbowl, stating that just because he wanted it to happen, did not mean it was going to. Kind of a street-level Freudian argument for wish fulfillment of the Father projected onto an imaginary Deity. The kids, about 4 or 5 years of age, looked confused and discouraged. I was going to say something but wasn't sure I could do so gracefully. Inside, I was angry. A fool pretending to be wise, and dragging kids, presumably his own, down with him into the abyss of meaninglessness. The Bible states in Psalm 14:1 that 'The Fool Says in His Heart That There is No God."  The Hebrew word for fool used her, Nabal, means stupid; wicked (especially impious):-- fool(-ish, -ish man, -ish woman), vile person. Harsh words, a very serious warning, not to be dismissed casually.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem and His Disciples cried "Hosanna" the Pharisees tried to have Jesus shush them. Jesus replied that if He did so, the rocks would cry out. It was not a compliment, He was essentially calling the Pharisees dumber than rocks by implication. I am ashamed that I said nothing to the man and the children. I let them pass by. I could have responded like Jesus did when seeing Jerusalem, and made the prophesy of her destruction, with tears and cries. For if I do not do so, the sidewalk will....



 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shake the Dust: Anis Mojgani

Pslam 90:2 "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." I am not real certain where Anis Mojgani comes from belief-wise. Cats like him tend to be synchrestic spiritually rather than Christ-centered. Yet, this poem captures the spirit of Jesus. What this poem also needs is grace....we shake off sin and mortality and take on Christ and immortality. This is for the fat girls This is for the little brothers For the former prom queen And for the milk crate ball players This is for the school yard wimps And the childhood bullies that tormented them Shake the dust. This is for the benches and the people sitting upon them. This is for the bus drivers driving a million broken hymns And for the men who have to hold down 3 jobs, Simply to hold up their children. For the nighttime schoolers And for the midnight bike riders trying to fly Shake the dust. For the two year olds who cann...
Read more

Thomas Jefferson & Jesus

Image
I was reminded today, by a friend's post on Facebook, that it is Thomas Jefferson's birthday. So, I had a little party on my own of watching two documentaries on him through Netflix Instant. There is much I admire about Jefferson, there is much I dislike. He is polarizing figure. Besides the owning of slaves, the second most odious character flaw was his castration of the New Testament . See my slice of his slicing. Live by the razor, die by the razor. I did learn a cool new word call Amphiboligism which means ambiguity. The arrogance of Jefferson is astounding as if he had a more accurate vantage point of Jesus after 17 centuries than Jesus's own contemporaries and colleagues. In an empirical and scientific sense, he is at a considerable disadvantage in his postulations. When my wife and I visited Monticello on our Honeymoon, the most memorable moment there --besides my downing a can of Pringles all at once (in my own version of the "Pursuit of Happiness" w...
Read more