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I was buggin out to Audio Adrenaline yesterday while doing the dishes, and this totally cool song was playing called "Never
Gonna Be As big As Jesus". In fact, itll be playing here in a few moments. When you read this, it may be playing.
Then again, maybe not. Who knows? Anyway, this is a very cool song, with the chorus (and now the song is playing):
I could be anything I wanted to
I could be anything but one things true
Never gonna be as big as Jesus
Never
gonna hold the world in my hands
Never gonna be as big as Jesus
Never gonna build a promised land
But that, that's
all right,
Okay with me
At one point it says, "Maybe be just like the Beatles, melodic, rockin' heavyweights"
in a list of things the singer could do, but, of course, he'll never be as big as Jesus. And this all reminded me of a story.
Today's story is about four young men from Liverpool. Their names were John, Paul, George, and Ringo. They played
together in a little band called The Beatles. Well, were not getting into Beatle history, but by 1962, they were all together
in their little band. They put out a single. They put out an album. They were a big success. They took England by storm.
In 1964, these four young men crossed the Atlantic and stole the hearts of young people all over North America. They grew
in fame, gaining more and more popularity and selling more and more albums and doing more and more concerts. They were very
popular, and were met with screaming mobs wherever they met.
One day, John, one of the more outspoken members of
the group, said, "At the moment, the Beatles are bigger than Jesus Christ."
As can be guessed, this statement
was horribly misconstrued, and madly confused people, especially in the USA, destroyed Beatles albums and Beatles paraphernalia
(raising how much my dad's albums are worth today most certainly . . .). All most people knew that John had said was, "The
Beatles are bigger than Jesus."
What our good friend John actually said was, "Were more popular than Jesus
now; I dont know which will go first--rock'n'roll or Christianity."
Paul says, "Maureen Cleave's article
with John touched on religion, and he started to say something that wed all felt quite keenly: that the Anglican Church had
been going downhill for years. They themselves had been complaining about lack of congregations.
". . .So
we felt quite strongly that the church should get its act together. We were actually very pro-church; it wasn't any sort
of demonic, anti-religion point of view that John was trying to express. If you read the whole article, what he was trying
to say was something that we all believed in: I don't know what's wrong with the church. At the moment The Beatles are bigger
than Jesus Christ. They're not building Jesus enough; they ought to do more. . . . Was it a mistake? I don't know. In the
short term, yes. Maybe not in the long term."
I could go more into the story, about death threats, KKK members,
the Bible Belt--but I wont. But it's funny, because John was right. The Church has lost it. That incident is a prime example,
because people overreacted and ended up not showing love or grace or anything. Thats about all that happens. Something happens,
we blow up, overreact, and push away the non-Christians because we say things that are unloving. At gay-pride parades, Christians
chant, "Faggots go home! Faggots go home!" and repeatedly tell the homosexuals that they will burn in Hell. Thats
great, isnt it? I mean, we're really out there letting people know about the LOVE OF JESUS. This all ties in with what I've
been talking about recently. We need to get out there and show people Jesus' love and tell them about Him. People are convicted
about Jesus through love--after that, then they start to change their lives. Remember that. People don't care about not
sinning until they have a reason not to sin. Let's give them a reason, eh?
I dont know what's wrong with the church.
At the moment [almost anything you can think of in modern western culture] is bigger than Jesus Christ. We're not building
Jesus enough; we ought to do more.
You can quote me on that last one.
Peace,
Matthew
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