Sermon on the Mount(ain) and Building a Fence (and Chastity Belt) Around the See's Candy: "Ever Committed Adultery, John?"

 

Here, the Waffly Wedded Wife, The Renaissance Radio Rabbi and I talk about all this good stuff:

Paul McCartney's best album... and you have never even heard of it, let alone heard it

Paul McCartney's best album... and you have never even heard of it, let alone heard it..,

partly because it was recorded under the name of his alias/alter ego The Fireman.

The album? "Electric Arguments".

It even includes a worship song...hear it, and the rest of the album here

P:S I bet you have never even heard of The Monkees' best song either. Late to the party? It's  here.

Their second best that you have also never heard of includes Neil Young on guitar It's here, and I hear it as a prayer.

Both  cowritten by Carole King, and both from the same album.

--

On to reviews of  Electric Arguments by Paul McCartney AKA The Fireman:

--

"a staggering collection of timeless adventures that touch on the best aspects of today's more left-field sounds". Clash, link

--------------------------------

Electric Arguments is the best Paul Album he's released in the last twenty years, and no one has listened to it:

Electric Arguments by The Fireman (Paul McCartney and Youth working together) is a top tier album for me. I think The Fireman have a bad wrap because of their first two albums which were not Paul's standard kind of thing.

The songs near the end are a little more abstract (it is still "the fireman") but the first ten songs are as good as his seventies material for me!

Paul played all the instruments and vocals, similarly to how he did on Chaos and Creation. It's basically what I thought of as "McCartney III" before MIII actually came out. link

-----------

Electric Arguments will go down as one of the most eclectic and exhilarating albums in Macca’s whole extraordinary canon. link

-----------------

 The proof is in the listening: this is Paul McCartney finally “getting back,” serving notice that he’s back, with all of the adventurousness he had with those other Liverpool lads – and reminding us that “Lonely Hearts Club Band” stuff was his idea, after all. link

Though he may never acquire the same ‘cool’ credentials of John, the existence of The Fireman indicates that he may have conceded there is nothing left for him to prove. link

--

I'll be brief in this, my first Debaserian time, by saying right away that McCartney has rarely recorded and released such a "modern", immediate work, rich with the most diverse sounds and musical cues.

If it has always been said, and partly rightly so, that McCartney's music needs careful production to give its best (which often, unfortunately, had to make up for a lack of ideas), this time we can enjoy the former Beatle without frills and in the midst of a very happy, instinctive, creative moment, finally far from market demands, which Paul too, too often, has let himself be influenced by.

The album consists of 13 tracks which almost perfectly, in my very personal opinion, fulfill the main task of music, which is to live better, forgetting reality as much as possible during those minutes.

The sounds, instruments, and atmospheres you hear are numerous (violins, flutes, mandolins, synthesizers, and percussion of all kinds, etc.) but well-blended in this work, truly "multiethnic" without ever becoming an incoherent jumble. Rather, it is the coherence of the whole that leaves an impression of "slow-release" compactness at the end, truly rare for McCartney. link

----

MCCARTNEY'S ON FIRE!

John would have been proud, for it sounds more like a john-esque project then one you would expect to hear from McCartney. Not to say that I was not an immense fan of Paul's melodic, hard driving pop songs. For I was. Just that he hasn't seemed to be able to pull those out in several years (decades?). Just as early critics of the Beatles marked Paul as a great R & B singer, this recording shows that "the Blues" is his forte..Sometimes it's just the right person and just the right combination. And this is it. No, this is not a happy super pop album, it is eery night music, sometimes dark. But it is music at it's best. The way McCartney needs to be, more relaxed and natural. Superb.

Listening to these songs I hear influences from other bands; U2, Peter Gabriel, CCR, Beck, Ozark Mtn. Daredevils, the Mars Volta, , Enigma, Jon Anderson. And yet, all of these artists were influenced by the Beatles. So, in essensce he is only influencing himself!

,,"Sing the Changes" is immediately my favorite and could easily be a top 40 song (if the verses were cut a bit). Compelling sermon like delivery with a nice guitar riff bringing everything together.

In "Traveling Light" McCartney puts on his Peter Gabriel impression, playing flute and singing with a low Peteresque vocal.

"Sun Is Shining" just has that orb like feeling you get with some U2 songs. Very U2-ish.

"Dance 'Til We're High" is another one of my favorites. For some reason, this one reminds me of early / mid 80's college/Indi radio. It also has tinges of Genesis...

And, finally, the coda "Don't Stop Running". I have been a Beatles fan for over 40 years. I have listened to McCartney for....ages... and yet, I have never heard him sing like this. He sounds like Jon Anderson (of Yes). And... it works! And with an interesting harpsichord like sound... just everything on this album is a hodge podge of sounds and instruments... and it is never boring.

All in all, I love this album. This is the best thing McCartney has done since the mid 70's. But don't expect it to sound like the mid 70's. It sounds like 2008. It's great!

To quote McCartney "The Fireman takes your hand and leads you through the blaze to places you didn't know you wanted to go."

link

---

Electric Arguments will go down as one of the most eclectic and exhilarating albums in Macca’s whole extraordinary canon. link

--

. The results are still experimental in nature and despite the hooks it is still very much an avant-garde experience. It has a Radiohead feel to it but only in mood and atmosphere.More proof that some of Paul’s best recorded work was in the last 20 years of his career. link

.  Creative gem! certainly  a true gem and perhaps will be remembered as one of Paul’s best works, at his most creative and instinctive. link

==

Bono's renewal of baptismal vows , officiated by an unlikely pastor; Part 1 (thanks to Angela Pancella)

image credit

Having been a  fervent follower of U2 since 1980, upon hearing "I Will Follow" on the amazing WPLR New Haven  (Thanks to St Stoneman) I did (follow)...

And  having been a fervent follower of Jesus since Spring 1983..

..when I  had the chance, just days after signing on to that second followership, to see/hear/experience  U2 at the New Haven Coliseum--a concert that was so historic and Holy Spirited that the leitourgia had no name, and inevitably they later had to literally blow up the arena (watch it here!), as no act  could possibly top U2 (or even their alarming opening act)...

           I decided to follow both Jesus and the band (the worship band formerly known as the Hype) even more heartily..

As one with wholly/holy obsession with said band , and an unrepentant bibliophile, these three books are among my favorites...and I own a few...

                                                                            thousand.

Scot Calhoun, who directs the U2 Conference, has edited and curated these three voluminous (and luminous) volumes.  Academic books about U2, including one on religious impulse?  Order them yesterday.

• Exploring U2: Is This Rock and Roll? (Rowman & Littlefield, 2011)
• U2 Above, Across, and Beyond: Interdisciplinary Assessments (Lexington Press, 2014)
• U2 and the Religious Impulse: Take Me Higher (Bloomsbury, 2018)

Today the spotlight is on Angelia Pancella's chapter in the third volume, "U2 and the Religious Impulse.".  

Part of an AI-created collage about me

Here's what hit me on a recent re-read of this loaded chapter (which  helpfully interacts with my friend Tim Neufeld's seminal  "Crystal Ballroom" Periscope community/communitas  of U2 followers, see pp. 166-168). The chapter is titled  “Like Faith Needs a Doubt”: U2 and the Theist/Nontheist Dialogue.

Oh,  before you go any further, soundtrack this coming conversation  about Angela's observations with  an opening act/prelude: the classic interview  excerpt of Bono on Gay Byrne's  "The Meaning of Life"; you can watch it below. See you after the break. You might even sense the religious impulse to be baptized/renew your baptismal vows after viewing this short clip...which may be precisely the the point.

Part of an AI-created collage about me

The  short section I have in mind  starts at 1:55 (though do watch the first section as well, as Bono masterfully adopts/adapts the classic C.S. Lewis trilemma apologetic  ( popularly called the "Liar, Lunatic, or Lord" apologetic).

Wow.. I hear that hushed silence from you after the video ended.

When I show this clip in class, it inevitably happens, even from non U2 fans!

 

That short section has moved me for years, not  just because it is a  humble, diplomatic but direct confession of Christian faith from the singer, but this particular exchange  has often given me the chills and holy hush; it  always felt deeply mystical...even liturgical..in a way I could never quite put my finger on..

Until now, thanks to Angela, who says on p. 162:

A video of an interview of Bono with veteran Irish broadcaster Gay Byrne, from his program "The Meaning of Life," includes an exchange oddly echoing the renewal of baptismal vows that take place in some Christian churches at the Easter:

Bono: I find it hard to accept that all the millions and millions of lives, half the earth, for two thousand years, have been touched, have felt their lives touched and inspired by some nutter. I just —I don't believe it.

Byrne: So therefore it follows that you believe (Jesus] was divine.

Bono: Yes.

Byrne: And therefore it follows that you believe that he rose physically from

Bono: Yes. I've no problem with miracles. (Laughs] I'm livingaround them. I am one.

Byrne: So when you pray, then, you pray to Jesus.

Bono: The risen Jesus.

Byrne: And you believe that he made promises which will come true.

Bono: Yes . I do.

-U2 and the Religious Impulse: Take Me Higher (Bloomsbury Studies in Religion and Popular Music), Scott Calhoun (Editor)

Ah, of course, As the aforementioned Tim once said about me, " Dave, you know what I like about you? You always push toward the unobvious! You are gifted at seeing what others miss."; I now pay that compliment foward to Angela, for helping/empowering me to put language to what I felt. It was so obvious/unobvious . What a gift.

The simple call and response. The rhythmic cadence. The simple but heartfelt "Yes" of Bono's answers the the questions of the host/inquisitive inquisitor/pastor Byrne. And even though the interviewer has been characterized as an agnostic/atheist, Byrne didn't see himself that way. He was more of a struggling Catholic. Someone 

called him "a loyal if questioning Catholic  later in life."

 His genuine interest in Bono's responses are based on decades of friendship . I felt he was even rooting/praying for Bono to confess in a very Christ-honoring and orthodox way.

At the funeral Mass for the late Gay Byrne on Friday, the principal celebrant, Fr Leonard Maloney SJ said those who knew the broadcaster well knew him as “a man of faith”.

In his homily at St Mary’s Pro Cathedral in Dublin, the Jesuit provincial said Byrne’s faith was not the kind of faith that has all the answers. “It was the kind that asks all the questions. link

Bono's "yes" answers called to mind the many riffs and improvisations on the word I have heard over the years as a pastor officiating baptisms/ renewals. Sometimes it is said tearfully and barely audibly ; sometimes shouted as if from a rooftop. A student of mine's recent response was (video here)

But something about Bono's quiet, confident "yes' resonates with me...and I know it spoke to Gay Byrne like no armtwisting evangelistic sermon could.

"All the promises are yes," as St Paul asserted . . A confession of faith in summative one-word microcosm.

"Let your yes be yes," as Jesus preached.

'Oddly echoing the renewal of baptismal vows," Angela so articulately commented.

Yes, that's what I had felt but had no language for.

Echoes are important.

Here is one version of the renewal of baptism vows:

V. Do you reject Satan?

R. I do.

V. And all his works?

R. I do.

V. And all his empty promises?

R. I do.

V. Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth?

R. I do.

V. Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary was crucified, died, and was buried, rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father?

R. I do.

V. Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting?

R. I do.

V. God, the all-powerful Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has given us a new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and forgiven all our sins. May he also keep us faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ for ever and ever.

R. Amen.

link

YES? One can say more; but cannot say less.

Also, don't get me started on the two words in the sample ceremony above; and Bono's last and final answer, where it felt right to "say more" and add only two words: "Yes..I do"

Wedding language. Covenant echoes.

When I heard my parents say to each other "Yes..I do" upon my asking them if they renews their wedding vows on their 50th? Sacramental. Priceless. Spiritual.

They are still going strong as they near their seventieth.

May it be with all who we baptize, marry and speak to.

And interview about the meaning of life.

Amen,

"For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the 'Amen' is spoken by us to the glory of God. (2 Corinthians 1:20)

"In  his interview in ‘The Meaning of Life’  Gay said this to Martin Sheen: ‘Suppose it’s all true, and suppose you get to meet God at the pearly gates. What will you say to Him?’After hardly a pause, the seasoned actor said: ‘Deo gratias. Thanks be to God.’”

“Say no more,” Gay responded. 

“That’s a perfect ending.” link

Bonus :Here is the entire episode with complete Bono interview:

Set Theory: Bounded, Centered and Fuzzy

Eulogy for my Uncle Arden Hughes

 

FAITH!

Just recently, a doctor was giving my Uncle Arden a cognitive assessment, and asked him to name a word that started with "F."

The letter "F".

I hear my Aunt Karen was slightly  nervous about what Arden might say (:

I  confess I was a bit nervous too when I first heard this story.  (:

But of course, in that test, my good and godly uncle's soul and heart were revealed to be totally in tact and gloriously in tune, even  if there had been "cognitive decline"..

He immediately blurted out his only possible answer, likely with that characteristic grin that you all would recognize, and are missing today:

"Faith!"

On Monday morning, just before 9 am,  44 miles from here,  at the Good Samaritan Society Hospice  in Ottumwa, Iowa, my good and godly uncle passed into eternity, as Jesus asked him the all-important question: "What is the password?"


"Faith!"  he immediately and intuitively  exclaimed. "Faith in You. Lord Jesus."

"Enter into the joy prepared for you; Well-done, my good and faithful servant," I dare to believe Jesus said  to my good and godly Uncle Arden Hughes,

Servant indeed. How he loved to serve:

In church.

        His neighbors.

                         On mission trips to disaster zones, as you heard my cousin Scot recall..

                            Student athletes on his Indian Hills Community College bus

                                      His family and friends.

                                            You who are here.

                                   

                                                           Even me.

Even me when I didn't deserve it.

Among the stories that were told last night at our family dinner table was this one I  myself told.

Even though it was  told at The Fairfield Diner, it was like a family campfire as the memories and stories  of Arden's long and loyal flowed.

Even the silence spoke well of him.

The story? I still have a cassette somewhere, that when I find it, I will cherish , and transfer to modern technology, as I think it may be the only recording  I have of his voice.

It said, and I quote..

,,And in an appropriately authoritative voice

Circa 1970..

"Upstairs, now. All of you!"

What occasioned this reprimand from my good and godly uncle?

Arden's three young boys...plus my brother and me ..were

in our common grandparents' basement, and apparently there was a rowdy ruckus. We became too loud and the youngest of us (look at Todd) was crying for some reason.

With me being the oldest of us, and I confess,  ringleader, instigator and author of much mischief in this cohort of five... along with my dear late cousin Mark, of course ..

I may or may not have raised  up enough of a ruckus to make very young Todd cry for help..

.,,from the only one who could save him.

And  that one; his dad, my uncle's , voice was captured forever, as for some reason, I had  the foresight to record all this on a tape reorder   for posterity as we all dutifully headed up the stairs.

What I remember is how diplomatic and gracious he was, was his command to us, as the "all of us" meant "Even you...especially you, David!" He treated me as one of his own. (:

On Monday morning March 3, 2026 , just before 9 am,  44 miles from here,  at the Good Samaritan Society  Hospice in Ottumwa, Iowa,=, my good and godly uncle passed into eternity, as Jesus spoke to him..in a   voice not stern and reprimanding at all, but one as inviting, infused with grace and radical forgiveness...and more joy than you can you can imagine .. spoken to Arden ...and any other people of faith who transitioned  into eternity at that time ..the all-important request: 

"Upstairs!
 

Now. 

All of you!..

And enter into the joy prepared for you; Well-done, my good and faithful servant," I dare to believe Jesus said  something like that  to my good and godly Uncle Arden Hughes Monday morning

But I did grow up and turn out alright. I even ..despite  the odds, became a Christian and later , even a pastor.

And I am longer ornery...much.

Arden's mother Frances, as many of you know was a prayer warrior, and often sensed things from the Lord. She said he always knew that one of her five grandsons..,the same lively lot  from the aforementioned basement would be called to ministry.

As you might guess , I was the long shot.

But as some of you might also  know, she had heart problems ,and in the natural scheme of things, should have passed long before she did.

But she held on. Surely for many reasons. And many of those reasons are  surely in the room.

But one reason was,...she knew .. And she knew I was the long shot

But the week she received news that  I would starting seminary, and preparing for the ministry, she had the peace to let go and transition into the presence of Jesus.

And Arden and Karen  continued to take up the torch and pray for me.

Lord knows I needed it.

And I stand here in this place today, with  cold chills and warm  peace as I remember as  if it were yesterday what my good and godly Uncle Arden , the servant,  said as his rascally nephew from California  preached at his Iowa family's  church, the Selma United Methodist  Church not long after .'

He greeted me at the door;

no, before I reached the door::

"I couldn't be prouder of you if you were my own so,"

And he smiled that  characteristic smile that you would  instantly recognize; the smile that brought you here today,

On Monday morning,  just before 9 A.M,  44 miles from here,  at the Good Samaritan Society Hospice in Ottumwa, Iowa,  my good and godly uncle passed into eternity, as Jesus looked at him in love and said something like "I couldn't be prouder of you if you were my own son, ,In fact, you are my son. Enter into the joy prepared for you; Well-done, my good and faithful servant," I dare to believe Jesus said  this  to my good and godly Uncle Arden Hughes.

So these three quotes from my Uncle  Arden--

• "Faith"
• "Upstairs , now all of you!:
• "I couldn't be prouder of you if you were my own son":

--are three random and simple. and simply profound reminders to  remember and celebreate his servant heart and always timely words.

Maybe some of you know Arden lived to play "The Farming Game" on Christmas Day.

This is board game, created by a farmer, to simulate  ..and I quote the creator "the challenges and  difficulties  inherent in running a farm."

 As I said, he loved to play  this on Christmas Day..

...until , as Todd recounted yesterday, "one year the tornadoes destroyed his apple orchard."

Arden  had the gift of holy tenacity,  ruthless persisiteverance , patience and grace...and that word again, FAITH.

He knew "the challenges and difficulties of running a farm.," And a family. And a life on this imperfect earth.

Some of you farmers have had tornadoes destroy your crops.

But as Arden would argue, that does not ruin your life..

Or your Christmas .

I hear echoes here of the  encouraging   words  of St Paul, in Arden's favorite  Book:

 "Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this calling ,we do not lose heart.,,'

But we have this treasure in fragile  jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. " (2 Corinthians 4)

This is the man we honor, who did that, and encourages us to do the same,

This is also the good and godly man and servant who once insisted  on driving the family  back through the fast food drive-through , as the cashier had undercharged him...

..wait for it..

..By ten cents!!

Upright, honest, good and godly servant..

He would encourage you to do and be  the same.

Some of you do know, or won't be surprised to know, that Arden was of course one of the key people at The Selma Church who insisted that the $25,000 in cash  found buried on church property be given away in mission and charity. That's another story for another day; but a story all of you who knew Arden can easily believe.

Ten cents or \twenty five thousand dollars...it all belongs to the Lord.

This is the good and godly man who also did the following, which you may not know,

In  the 60s, Arden decided his family would adopt for a summer a young child in an exchange program  from of all places.., a place very different from the one you see outside the window here... inner city Chicago.

Imagine a kid from inner city Chicago being immersed in rural southeastern Iowa in the 60s .. shepherded by  a farmer   who knew "the challenges and  difficulties  inherent in running a farm. A farmer named Arden Hughes . 

And a kid named Mitchell  who in a way fit right

in with the other five boys you have heard about.

He didn't usually get mistaken  for Arden and Karen's natural son...he was a 

bouncy

 bouyant 

beautiful

black kid.

But Arden and Karen  of course took Mitchell in as one of their own,

 Wherever Mitchell is to this day, I am guessing he remembers with a gleam in his eye my good and godly Uncle Arden Hughes.

FAITH.

That was one of the last words he said on earth, as you remember.

And it was likely the first word he said in heaven, as I suggested

And what I really and heartfully suggest at this moment, is that if you desire  to honor my good and godly uncle l and his long and loyal legacy

I commend faith..

Faith in Jesus that leads to a life of service,'

Return that ten cents, or $25,000.

And remember to  remember  when we get to the graveside  at Iowaville Cemetery, where many of my family have

headstones...as will  many of you, by the way. .

Remember:

He is not really there.

 Upstairs...all of you,

Those with faith in Jesus, those who have already heard the words that Arden heard on a Monday morning that began 44 miles from here, and ended in a place we can only imagine; words that we find spoken by Jesus in Matthew 25:23; words that I pray resonate and reverberate in your soul as they did so deeply   in my good and godly uncle: 

=

"Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into  the joy prepared....

                   The joy prepared..

.                                   ...for you,"