Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Roxanne" (The Police)

Welcome to Tuesday!  It's time for your weekly visit to the land where words are accompanied by notes of all shapes and pitches.  As you enter this realm, you quickly realize that the aforementioned partnership of word and note results in a plethora of ideas.  Some of these ideas are very worthwhile, some of them are nonsensical fun, and others are deeply disturbing.  Our song of the day is one, that upon further reflection of the lyrical content, must be considered thought provoking, heart breaking and disturbing all at once.   Today's Musical Notes must come with a disclaimer.  As you might guess by today's featured song, we will be dealing with subject matter that may not be suitable for those under certain ages.  Your discretion as to who you share today's Notes is totally up to you.  We will certainly attempt to be as delicate as possible tackling a very indelicate subject as we progress today.  Strap on your seat belts...let's get started.

Many new bands have experienced the anguish when their debut single tanks.  Such was the case in 1978 when The Police released their debut single in the UK, "Roxanne" from the 1978 album Outlandos d'Amour.  Upon initial release "Roxanne", a song about the redemption of a prostitute,  would receive very little airplay and be heavily criticized by the few music reviewers who took the time to listen to it.  The Police would continue in their efforts to get their album into the mainstream and would release a second single, "Can't Stand Losing You", which was received warmly enough to justify the reissue of "Roxanne"  as a world wide release.  It would be the first single released by The Police in the US and would chart on Billboard's Hot 100 peaking at #32.  With Tuesday's Musical Notes feature song, here are The Police:

"Roxanne" from the 1978 album Outlandos d'Amour by The Police

If you read the lyrics to the #388 song on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of all times list, you quickly discover that it is a song of redemption.  "Roxanne" has found someone who loves her without condition and is willing to forgive her past lifestyle.  She is shown that there is an alternative to the lifestyle that she had been part of for most of her life.  She is also shown the fact that there is someone who is willing to fight to save her from that lifestyle.  

Sting has said that he wrote "Roxanne"  while The Police were on tour in the band's infancy and were staying where they could afford a room.  The band saw a poster for an upcoming performance of Cyrano De Bergerac and took the name from the female protagonist.  Their accommodations for the night was a hotel in the red light district of Paris.  It was an area that was notorious for promiscuity and deviancy.  It was an area not frequented by the "elite" of society.  These "elect" were quick to indite the residents of the area and their profession as being lower class.  This predilection to judge has not changed.   We have come to a point however, that we must realize that sexual sin is prevalent in every kind of "lighted" district in the world.  We have heard the stories from the White House to the pulpit of how "credible", "integrity-filled" individuals have succumbed to the temptation of sexual sin.  

The Bible is not devoid of story after story of those who have fallen to the devices of the evil one in this manner.   Sexual sin in the form of homosexuality was so rampant in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, that it is one of the reasons those cities were destroyed by God.  (begin in Genesis 18 NKJV)   King David was so enamored with another man's wife that he had an adulterous affair with her and then had her husband killed in an attempt to cover up the affair.  (2 Samuel 11 NKJV)  One of David's sons, Amnon, raped one of David's daughters, Tamar.  2 Samuel 13 NKJV  Exodus 22:19 New King James Version, Leviticus 18:23 NKJV, and Deuteronomy 27:21 NKJV  are all admonitions of having "relations" with animals.  Why would there need to be a warning against this deviant act if it were not occurring?  Based on these particular incidents, one could surmise that sexual sin has been around since sin itself reared its head.

The acceptance of sexual sin into the mainstream has been slowly etching its way onto the landscape of America.  We have come from a Puritanical mindset, to the "scandal" of Ricky and Lucy Ricardo going to sleep in separate beds,  to the credence of "friends with benefits".   I am not convinced that any of these tenets are exactly what God had in mind when He told Adam and Eve to "be fruitful and multiply" in Genesis 1.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” ²⁷ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. ²⁸ Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”


For many, believers included, it is very difficult to separate the act from the person, or in other words, the sin from the sinner.  When did the church begin to lack compassion for those who frequent the "red light" districts or are employed by strip clubs.  How long has it been since we looked at the "practicing homosexual" as someone whom the blood of Jesus can redeem?  When will we realize and admit that adultery and pornography are sexual sins which even church members/Christians are susceptible and actively fall prey? 
 

While the Bible is replete with example after example of sexual sin, it is also filled with spectacular hope.  Jesus.  He died so that God would no longer look on us and see our sin, sexual or otherwise.  He only sees the blood of Jesus that washes us white as snow.   (Isaiah 1:18 NKJV)  Jesus lived a life without sin and provided the paradigm of how to treat those entrapped by sexual sin when He first revealed His deity to the adulterous woman at the well.  (John 4 New International Version) Jesus demonstrated forgiveness as He showed compassion on the "sinful" woman who washed His feet with her hair. (Luke 7:36-50 NKJV)   Jesus showed incredible love as He cried out to God, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." (Luke 23:32-34 NKJV)  Christian friend, why should we do any less for those we encounter that are involved in sexual sin?  God has gloriously forgiven sin...not just your sins, but the sins that do not happen to be temptations to you right now as well.  


One word of caution.  While the Bible does reveal that God is just and willing to forgive us from our sins, 1 John 1:9, there is something we must do.  We must strive every day of our lives to put on the mind of Christ and turn away from that sin.  This is called being repentant.  Asking God to forgive you of a sin, sexual or otherwise, and then returning back to the habit, lifestyle, or practice of that sin is not repentance and does not result in forgiveness.  ( I Corinthians 6:9-20 NKJV/Holman Christian Standard Bible parallel)  But those who are truly repentant, truly sorry for their sin and daily strive to turn away from it, those are the folks whom Jesus forgives.  In their book, Experiencing God At Home, Tom and Richard Blackaby put the idea this way:  "Without repentance from sin, faith in Christ, and surrender to Christ's will, people will not experience conversion." 



So what should be our attitudes toward those trapped in sexual sin, if we are Christ followers?  Admonish the sin, love the sinner.   Never be condoning or accepting of sin, but always be accepting of the individual.  Pray for those trapped in sexual sins, that God would provide an organization or individual who can show them the way out.   We recently heard one mission effort that was comprised of a pastor's wife hanging out in the lobby of a strip club.  (Nashville Stripper Ministry Is An Answer To Pastor's Wife's Prayer - The Tennessean, May 30, 2014)   Think of tangible ways of showing God's love to your friends who are engaged in the homosexual lifestyle.  Refer them to Exodus International   XXX Church is a church that is engaged in seeing the deliverance from the trap of pornography.  Encourage those involved in adultery to seek out guidance and acceptance from a men or women's ministry.  Be a listening ear and provide Biblical information, not emotional opinions, on a person's sexual sin.  

Today's feature song could easily have been called "Rahab".  She was a prostitute who aided in the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites.  She is also named in the "Faith Hall Of Fame" as well as being listed in the genealogy of Jesus. You can read her story here:  Joshua 2 NKJV, Hebrews 11 NKJV, and Matthew 1 NKJV.  From Rahab's story we can draw great hope that regardless of our sin, it has no power when surrendered to the power of God.


God is the creator who loves.  He is the redeemer who sent His son to die so we can be with Him forever.  Regardless of your sin, He calls out to you and lets you know that ..."You don't have to put on the red light".


"Redeemed" by Big Daddy Weave from the 2012 album Love Come To Life


'Til Tuesday


Serving HIM by serving you,
Randy