Tuesday's Musical Notes - "We Just Disagree" (Dave Mason)

Welcome to Tuesday!!!

It's time, it's time, did he just say it's time?  Yup!  It's time for another edition of your favorite blog about music and ministry, songs and scripture, chords and culture...it's Tuesday Musical Notes!!!  Thanks for being here!  Strap on the seat belts, it could be a bumpy ride!

Here at The Notes, we are fast realizing the HUGE impact that the decade of music from the 70s has had.  We were recently listening to Sirius 70s on 7 and caught Casey Kasem's American Top 40 countdown for this past week from 1976.  As we got closer to the top, we realized how much we loved all of that music.  (Yes, we even like "Disco Duck", the top 20 hit by later Countdown host, Rick Dees)  As music, so many times does, fond memories of events and friends flowed as the countdown went to the eventual #1, "A Fifth Of Beethoven" by Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band.  

The music of the 70's tends to get lumped into the "Decade of Disco" stereotype.  But there is so much of the music of the 70s that wasn't anywhere close to KC and the Sunshine Band or Donna Summer.  A case in point is our feature song of the day, "We Just Disagree".  Take a listen....this ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no foolin' around...:

"We Just Disagree" from the 1977 album Let It Flow by Dave Mason

"We Just Disagree" was a #12 hit in 1977 for English singer-guitarist Dave Mason.  While you may not recognize the name, Dave Mason, perhaps you know some of his friends.  Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and even Michael Jackson have been the beneficiaries of Mason's guitar playing.  He began gaining notoriety in 1967 with the supergroup Traffic (Mason, Steve Winwood (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "While You See A Chance", Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Higher Love"), Jim Capaldi, and Chris Wood).  He would write the song "Feelin' Alright" that Traffic would record, but later became a smash hit for Joe Cocker in 1969.  He played guitar on Jimi Hendrix's chart-topping "Along The Watchtower" and for a brief time in the 90's was a member of Fleetwood Mac, recording with them on their 1995 album Time.    He was inducted into the Rock-N-Roll Hall Of Fame in 2004 as a founding member of Traffic and since 2005 sits as an honorary board member and official supporter of the group Little Kids Rock, a foundation that provides free musical instruments to children in public schools in the United States.  Little Kids Rock! - promo video  Dave Mason also joins Rock-N-Roll acts that find their origins in the 60s, as he is on the road continuing to promote his music in limited concert dates each year.  

Proving that good music never has a statute of limitations, "We Just Disagree" peaked again in 1993 at #9, this time however on the Country Music charts by Billy Dean.  At the height of Country Music Video storytelling, here's Billy Dean's rendition of today's featured song:

"We Just Disagree" by Billy Dean from the 1993 album Fire In The Dark

 

Disagreement is going to occur in our world.  People will have differing opinions regarding a myriad of things.  Some of these things are important, while others...not so much.  In fact, many of the things that are the source of disagreement are, if given context, very minor in the scope of all that is going on around us.  One has to wonder if the time and energy spent on trying to prove our side of the argument is worth it.  Reality would dictate that in any disagreement, ultimately someone is right and someone is wrong.  There ain't no good guy, there ain't no bad guy...  Followers of Jesus should be among the leaders in holding themselves to a higher standard by being humble enough to admit when we are wrong.  1 Peter 3:8-22 Holman Christian Standard Bible/ The Message paraphrase - parallel

 

Throughout interacting with humankind, perhaps you have had the opportunity to "agree to disagree" with someone.  While this may sound nice at the time, the truth of the matter is that you still have a disagreement with someone.  "Agreeing to disagree", even agreeably is at its very core a deception and distortion of unity.  Dictionary.com defines "unity" this way:  


Unity (noun)

1.  the state of being one; oneness.

2.  a whole or totality as combining all its parts into one.

This sounds very similar to an urgent wake-up call that the apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the church at Ephesus: Ephesians 4 - English Standard Version Bible/The Message paraphrase - parallel  Over a dozen times in both the ESV and The Message paraphrase, the word "one" or "One" is used.  Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus (Modern day map of Ephesus) to encourage them to be unified.  To work together as one body so The One will be glorified.  Perhaps this is a letter that applies to the church today.  Have you ever heard of disagreements in the church?  Ever been to a contentious "business meeting"?  If I may be so bold, disunity in the church has been a leading cause for folks not embracing the Gospel.  I am ashamed to admit there have been times that I have been guilty of it myself.  Again, let me boldly say that being a patron of disunity is to be living in disobedience to God.   If one is practicing disunity, their relationship with God is broken and must be repaired by repentance.  Our life should be an attraction to the Gospel.  But because of our selfishness and opinionated plans, there have been far too many seasons in the church of disunity.   The church was not designed to be a place of derision and confusion.  It was designed to be a magnet to attract others to The Gospel of Jesus (The Gospel Of Matthew 5:13-16 New King James Version Bible/The Message paraphrase - parallel, Ephesians 2 HCSB/The Message - parallel).  What would happen in your community if the churches that follow Jesus joined together on the tenants of which they have agreement and then served their communities.  What if they worried less about the "doctrinal" ideologies in which they have disagreement or growth in individual church membership and worried more about people coming to a saving relationship with Jesus and growth in the Kingdom of God?    

In recent days, the church has begun receiving much criticism.  Christians are continually being called upon to defend their convictions.  Gone are the days when followers of Jesus can capitulate to the demands of the world.  As believers, we must disagree with the sin of this world, for if we do not, we will become the world in which we live and will have lost our saltiness and effectiveness in reaching our circle of influence. We must realize that the Christ-following churches that are in our town have commonalities that we can embrace and do the good works we were destined to do.  We can no longer leave it alone when we don't see eye to eye.  There IS a Good Guy.  There Is a bad guy.  If we are followers of Jesus, we cannot disagree...

"Go Light Your World" by Kathy Troccoli from the 1995 album Sounds Of Heaven

 

'Til Tuesday

Serving HIM by serving you,

Randy