Eyes of Jesus

I was reminded last week of a concert by the band Aradhna, who are a syncrestic blend of Hindi musicality and Christian spirituality. The occasion for the remembrance was attending The Back Porch Fest brought to fruition by The Row House, run by my friend Tom Becker. I love the tagline of The Row House on its banner: Nothing Is Not Sacred.

The Back Porch Fest was a cool musical event with a diverse line-up of bands set in a barn and bucolic farmlands. A beautiful day, even the flies fit the vibe. What would a concert set in a country scene be without the flies buzzing by? Stepping back from the Fest a bit, I thought how remarkably cool the scene was and how I really appreciated Tom's and cohorts vision in putting it on. I will return to Aradhna in a bit.

Sometimes when we are too close to greatness we miss the glory. The Row House is doing cool and cutting edge stuff and Church-goers should pay it some mind. Evangelical subculture generally runs a parallel universe to contemporary culture...we have our own institutions, groups, films, music, radio stations, books, coffee mugs, and etc. It is like a Xerox copy of lesser quality in terms of skill but has passed the sanitary spiritual test. All the overt sin has been Lysoled out. We kill a lot of creativity in our zealousness and zero tolerance for staging in a Christian context. It is not that we Christians don't have a lot of sin laying underneath but we want the surface to shine. The events and forums The Rowhouse run are of a high quality, Christian or not.   

My book about the college transition, through a series of very painful events, was forced out of the serene and supervised waters of American Christendom (where safety is the overarching goal) into the wild seas of secularity. Like the Apostle Paul on the ship to Rome, the ship's book was tossed and torn to pieces by a storm. I washed up half-dead on Crete and have been bitten by my share of vipers that I have had to shake off into the fire. But God has plans in the perplexities.  

In my book, I quote Christian writers when they say something relevant but didn't want to corner the reader. My feeling about tomes like this is that the Christian kids have heard it all before and non-Christians kids will rarely read an overtly and overbeariung Christian book anyway. Time will tell if the rebuilt book is sea-worthy Apathy is tough to deal with....I wish more people would buy and read the book.  I don't want to weary of well-doing but I do get disconsolate. I hope God takes into account my intentions in the Talent Evaluation Usage in the final review at the end of time.      

So what does have Arandhna have to do with all of this off-course meandering with tattered sails? During the concert of Arandha, which was staged by The Row House a couple of years ago--while the band was playing one of its songs, a local Nepalese man was dancing with rapturous joy. The Nepalese, who have been resettled in Lancaster of all places, greatly embraced the songs. Not sure if they shared the theological convictions of the lyrics or not. Most of them are probably still Hindus. While the Nepalese man was doing his version of a whirling dervish, the lead singer and sitar player (pushing the bike in the photo above), looked upon him with joy. I saw the eyes of Jesus in his gaze when he saw the joy of the man. A deep love, compassion, charity. The music inspired his dancing heart and soul. The Nepalese was a stranger in a strange land yet heard the sounds of his homeland and it stirred him to ecstatic exaltation. Heaven looked on with pleasure. 

In such a troubled times that we live in, Christians must gaze upon a world that has lost its way with compassion. It is easy to fight the Jihadists, so hard to love them. Who are some of the worst offenders? The Religious Fundie Christians who co-sign the blank check of militarism. Think Sarah Palin with her quote from Hell itself about baptizing suspected terrorists with water-boarding. She should be banished to Alaska forever in her hockey mom she-bear winking smart-assness. 

A lot of Christians take their cues from Fox News rather than Christ. How about weeping about war rather than itching for a fight, another round of shock and awe? I am not a pacifist ultimately yet see the United States resorting to bombs, bullets, and drones, rather than repent of our role in creating the conflicts (due to our insatiable hunger for Petrol) that now threaten to engulf the world. War, should be a last resort if it all. A tragic undertaking regardless of the final body count, win or loss. Hate is a luxury we cannot afford. We can't out-hate our enemies. With God's help, we can out-love them.    

What do we see when we look upon the world? More importantly, what does the world see in our eyes?