Where the Music Starts

 "Hush. Be still. Feel the beating of my heart.
Hush. Be still. This is where the music starts"

- Billy Jonas
"Sleeeeeeeeeping" from the CD - Life So Far
(My favorite album)

By no means do I expect you guys to hush. As a matter of fact, I hope you'll be honest and open with me about what you find here.
The music, the words.
Please do tell me what you think.

Please know, too, that these ideas and these songs are as near to me as the beating of my heart.
That's why I want to share them with you.

Repent (This is Good News)

Those of you who know me know that I was raised in the Baptist church. I made a transition to what could only be called a sect when I was 19. A few years later, I left that group with only a minor fear for my immortal soul :) For the last decade, I've been content with the fact that I had no idea what anything meant or what it was about.

In the last few months, though, my agnostic mind has come crashing into my old theology. These two are melding well with insights from other traditions to stir up a clarity and purpose that I think (hope) are worth sharing.

-

So, Jesus said, "Repent. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."
 (Matthew 3:2)

According to the Book, this is the first thing JC said after he'd come down out of the mountain on his vision quest.

Can't you just see them all staring at him, mouths gaping and bewildered? What is this dude talking about? The thing is, people probably wouldn't understand him any better if he were teaching today. The guy was a radical, revolutionary thinker.  I only wish more of his contemporaries (including enemies) had written about him. We'd have a much more vivid portrait.

Ah, well. Can't have everything.

What we do have is the opportunity to hear the words with fresh ears.

I should add that I've excused myself from 2000 years of preconceived ideas that are meant to serve institutions instead of inspire us to a better humanity.

Here's what I think JC was saying:

Repent - what you're doing and the way you're thinking is cause for great remorse. It's not working!
The good news is that the kingdom of heaven is as close to you as your hands. And it is, in no small way, a matter of your own making. (After all, what do we do with our minds and our hands, but make our world)

It seems to me that the message is:

This place (earth) is a paradise. That's what it would be if we just live like it.

 Check out Promised Land by Peter Mayer. It's the first tune on his Uncrowded Sky CD.
People apparently have known about this for a while. I'm just now catching on.  :)