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Well, it has officially started. We mentioned it last week (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "(Just Like) Starting Over" (John Lennon)) and have begun to see the full force of the Presidential election of 2024 come to the forefront. I can hear your eyes rolling...mine are too! But, before you decide to click over to Facebook, let me make this point. The 2024 Presidential election will be tedious, annoying, and frustrating in many ways. But, as Americans, it is incumbent on us to listen very closely to what the candidates are saying. Not what the media spin on both sides of the political spectrum might be, but what the actual candidates are actually and factually saying.
Words matter. What folks say matters. I want to encourage you to listen to as many of the candidates (there are more than 20 if you look at the minor parties and independents) that are running for President. Listen to what resonates with your ideological belief and worldview. Then make sure you vote (including in the primaries) at every opportunity that you can for the candidate that best fits that worldview and belief.
Tuesday's Musical Notes is not a forum for one candidate over another. While I do have a direction in which I am leaning, I am doing the same exercise that I just asked you to do. We have to be very careful as we disseminate the myriad of information that exists about the candidates as that information is more readily available than at any other point in history. Pace yourself. It can be overwhelming...the surgeon general warns that consuming too much political information could cause...
Seriously, has anyone heard Donna Summer's "MacArthur Park" on the radio or streaming in the last 20 years? I only mention it because unbelievably, that is the song that kept Foreigner's "Double Vision" out of the top spot on Billboard's Hot 100 when it parked at #2 for 2 weeks in 1978. Don't get me wrong, "MacArthur Park" is a goodish song, but it hasn't had the staying power of its #2 counterpart. Coming from Foreigner's 2nd studio album, I suspect part of the reason "Double Vision" does have staying power is its continued airplay and that Foreigner continues to use it as a staple in its live events and many times opens with the song.
"Double Vision" is one of those songs that came about by happenstance. Many have eluded to its title and suggested that it is about alcohol or other substance use. However, Lou Gramm has explained that the title originated while he was at a New York Rangers hockey game. It seems that one of the Rangers hockey players got knocked cold and had to be taken off of the ice. I guess that would make him..."Cold As Ice"? Sorry, but I just couldn't help it. As the game progressed the announcers wanted to keep fans updated on his status and eventually confirmed that while he had not suffered a concussion he would not be returning to play due to continual double vision. For some reason, the announcers continued to repeat the phrase and thus a song was born.
The certified gold hit (sales over 1,000,000) seems to relate to the physiological impact that frustration and even sorrow about a relationship can take. There seems to be an escapism into the "double vision" that the writer takes as he navigates what the next possible move could be. After having been from one to the other extreme, his double vision takes him out of his head and causes his focus to be on seeing double almost to the point of distraction from his situation.
Redirecting focus from bad scenario to good is a theme often explored in history.
After his encounter with Jesus, Paul began a series of journeys throughout what we know of as the Asian continent. After completing his third of these Gospel-spreading, church-planting endeavors, he took the time to correspond with several of the churches that had sprung up as a result of his telling the Good News about Jesus. One such letter was to the reformed church in Rome.
Paul is writing the book of Romans for a recently reorganized church in Rome. The Emperor Claudius had expelled all Jews from the region during the beginning of his reign. This caused the church in Rome to be left with only a Gentile population in it. 5 years later these Jewish exiles were allowed back into the city. What they found in their church was a much less Jewish-oriented church than what they had left. They immediately shifted from one to the other extreme and attempted to bring the church back towards Torah teaching and the Law. This quickly caused unrest and a church that was the definition of an organization with a double vision.
The letter of Romans goes to address the division and double vision the church was experiencing. Paul goes back to the very basic tenets of faith, righteousness, and justification. He leaves very little doubt about the fact that the church should have a single vision going forward and how best to get back to that unified body of believers that could continue its mission in Rome.
Paul begins by explaining that while the Torah and the Law are foundational, it is the Gospel of Jesus that should be the example of their lives now. He boldly proclaims this thought by saying: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." - Romans 1:16 NASB The tenets of Abraham and the patriarchs were good to get Israel started as a set apart, chosen nation, but the nation had drifted so far from these beginnings that there was very little difference between them and the Gentiles to which they directed their complaints. Paul points out that it is only the righteousness, the just and right works of God, as well as His faithfulness to His promises that they can put their faith and trust.
Paul doesn't hold back in describing the wrath of God for those who don't believe. He begins discussing a litany of infractions against God and the natural order of things that he has heard have been perpetrated in society. Paul doesn't drift in his disgust at these sins, yet he brings things back around by saying that even those who commit these sins can repent, turn away from the wrongdoing, and turn to God through Jesus. Friend, there is nothing you have done that can keep you from God. He is calling out to you right now. The next move is yours. There's no double vision in His presence.
Paul follows this indictment of sin by calling out the Jews of the region who were sitting in judgment on those caught in the web of this sin. Their double vision kept them from seeing their pharisaical ways. He tells them that their judgment and disdain are equally abominable to the righteous God and that they should be the first to forgive those who wish to be forgiven and exhibit the turning away from their sin. We must be careful in the modern-day church to meter our calling out of sin, with the love and mercy of God's forgiveness. I fear too many times all folks want to hear is the condemnation of someone else's sin, without the healing and forgiveness that is God's love.
Paul then reminds them from Scripture (Psalm 14 NASB/AMP/ESV/KJV, Psalms 53 NASB/AMP/ESV/KJV) that there is no one righteous. That should serve as a good reminder for us. This thought bears repeating. Just because someone else is struggling with a sin that you don't have a problem with, doesn't give you the right, with your background of sinfulness, to judge them. Paul says that God's wrath will be poured out equally on those who judge as those who sin. And let's face it, nowhere in Scripture do you find judgment as a spiritual gift or fruit of the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12 NASB/AMP/ESV/KJV, Galatians 5:22-23 NASB/AMP/ESV/KJV)
Paul then turns to the topic of justification, or to declare one righteous. Well, how can this be possible if there is no one righteous? Paul immediately unpacks how through Jesus' sacrifice at Calvary every person can be considered righteous through Having faith in what Jesus did. Romans 3:21-26 NASB/AMP/ESV/KJV Paul takes it even further by detailing, again through Scripture (Genesis 15:6 NASB/AMP/ESV/KJV), how Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness. This went a long way to eliminate the double vision of the Jewish portion of the church as they saw that even Abraham, whom they revered, needed faith for his righteousness as God called him to be the figurative father of all those who believe.
If God would impute His righteousness onto Abraham, He would certainly give it to those who serve as witnesses to the risen Jesus including those who are believers in 2024. The church in Rome could be united in the fact that Jesus provides freedom from the Law (as well as the 600+ rabbinical regulations). The church, both Jew and Gentile, were seen as equally righteous because of what Jesus had already done. This justified them to be able to do the works that Jesus was calling them to do without any double, double, double vision.
How do we accomplish this in the modern-day church when we want to be disjointed about small things? Our unity must permeate from what Jesus has done and is doing in our lives. We must eliminate the double vision of wanting to maximize the minute and minimize the urgently important. The message of Jesus should be the driving force to help us see straight. If we do that no longer will our eyes be filled by that double vision...
'Til Tuesday
Loving HIM by Loving You,
randy
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