So I received my copy of Petra: Farewell over the weekend, which (I think) actually completes my Petra collection.

256 Songs, 16.2 hours, albums stretching from 1972 to 2005, including a couple of songs that are only available through the web now.

Or as Joy so kindly put it, "33 years of cheese."

I don't really find Petra cheesy. Musically, they're not really original - for the vast majority of their albums, they just sound like whatever was cool for "rock n' roll" in that era. Which is kind of funny when you listen to a sampling over the decades - old school rock, almost country-ish on Petra (e.g. "Wake up"), to very synthesizer heavy in the early 80's (e.g. Beat the System), to flat-out metal on This Means War! and On Fire!, to some attempts to be "alternative" on No Doubt and later albums. Fortunately, they got back to metal by the end.

Without a doubt, their low point for me was Double Take in 2000, where they took most of their classic old songs and redid them in some kind of acoustic alternative style that just weren't as good as the originals. I found it very humorous that almost all the old songs they performed on the Farewell tour were ones they had adapted on Double Take - and they played the original versions of them, not the new styles, as if they were saying "We repent!" :)

But musical ups and downs/cheesiness/rock n' roll aside, the real reason that I fell in love with Petra back when I got my first Petra album in '92 is the reason I'm still listening to a 33-year Petra collection now. It's the lyrics. Virtually every Petra song has a scripture reference under the title, and many times it seems like half of the lyrics are straight out of the Bible. A lot of these songs are musical sermons, and several of them have been instrumental in signficant points of decision in my life.

And this is precisely the way the band wanted it. See this quote from their website about their perspective on what they've been doing for the past 30 years: "It has been a privilege and honor to represent our Savior and participate in His Great Commission. We have nothing but thanks to God for all He has done," says PETRA founder, guitarist and primary songwriter Bob Hartman. (from www.petraband.com)

On that note, I have to conclude that although I enjoyed the Farewell CD, it felt more like a curtain call than the real end of their ministry. It was neat to Greg X. Volz singing with the band again and John Lawry playing keyboard and reprising the "Jesus Loves You" solo (which still sounded very 80s...)

But to me, Petra's closing words - very appropriately - are the lyrics to the last song on Jekyll & Hyde (2003), "Sacred Trust":


Sacred Trust
by Bob Hartman
Based on Mark 16:15

You never tried to win more secular appeal
And water down Your message with a slightly different feel
You never tried to be politically correct
Or skirt around the issue attempting to connect

You spoke the truth in love so faithfully
You expect no less from me

(Chorus)
It's a sacred trust that You gave to us
To take Your Word into all the world
It's a sacred trust that You gave to us
The message of salvation and Your love

You never shied away from critical debate
Or beat around the bushes when discussing human fate
You weren't ashamed to tell them who Your Father was
Never ran from persecution like human nature does

You prayed for all believers on Your knees
Then you handed us the keys

(Chorus)

You're trusting us to be bold
The story has to be told
To every nation and tongue
Young and old
I'm gonna shout from the hill
How could I ever be still?
I'm gonna let the chips fall
Where they will

You spoke the truth in love so faithfully
You expect no less from me

(Chorus)

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The following selection of readings from Celtic Daily Prayer really caught my attention a week or so ago:

Psalm 133
1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!
2 It is like the precious oil upon the head,
Coming down upon the beard,
Even Aaron's beard,
Coming down upon the edge of his robes.
3 It is like the dew of Hermon
Coming down upon the mountains of Zion;
For there the LORD commanded the blessing--life forever.

Ruth 1:14-18
14 And they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
15 Then she said, "Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; return after your sister-in-law."
16 But Ruth said, "Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.
17 "Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the LORD do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me."
18 When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.

Acts 2:1-2, 42-47
1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

...

42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.
44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common;
45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.
46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,
47 praising God and having favor with all the people And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

---

I'm not sure I'm going to be able to fully express my thoughts that gathered around these verses, but let me summarize it by saying - how much do we value community in the church? What are we willing to sacrifice to be a part of a covenant community? Ruth left her family and her people and her land and everything that was familiar to her in order to stay with Naomi. The first believers in the early church sold lands and possessions and basically camped out in Jerusalem in order to be a part of what God was doing and to be together.

There are still examples today. Here's a quote from the introduction to Celtic Daily Prayer about how their community got started:

"Each year around Easter-time a 'Workshop' would be held and friends would gather, both from the local area and from much further afield, seeking answers to the question, 'How then shall we live?' and exploring the ancient paths of Desert and Celtic spirituality. Years of struggle followed as the families and individuals journeying together locally struggled to discover what it meant to live as contemplatives with growing children, financial pressures and a constant stream of visitors. They would take any work that came along (window cleaning, gardening, anything) to survive in the land they felt they had been called to pray for and to live in."

They were trying to re-establish a spiritual community in and around the island of Lindisfarne in Northumbria, and they felt that it was worth sacrificing to do that.

A friend of mine from the Navigators was involved in a campus ministry in the 70's at WPI, but when the leader of their ministry was to be reassigned to a Naval base in Virginia, he asked their whole team - 4 men and their wives - to go with him. They did - they all left their jobs and the ministry on that campus and moved together to the new place.

I think there's a lot of power in that kind of commitment to each other. Especially if you are willing to take it to the level of making a covenant together - like Ruth and Naomi.

Every spring in the Navigators campus ministry, we talked about how students would make decisions for plans after college. One of the key pieces of advice we gave is - don't just ask "What do I want to do?" or "Where do I want to live?"; you should be asking "Who do I want to be with?" The fact of the matter is it's a very simple equation:

1. What you decide to do for work will have some influence on your life; not as much as you think. You hear statistics these days about people having an average of 3-4 careers in their lives, let alone jobs.
2. Where you decide to live can have a significant impact on your life; but the things that people tend to look at when they decide where to live (weather, activities, schools for kids, social life, etc.) are things that are of relatively short duration. Will you still care about the school system when you're 80?
3. Who you decide to be with - especially if you make a commitment to them - has an eternal impact on you. People are eternal. Relationships are eternal.

Here's a quote from good old Jack to back me up (which I've run into in several places in the past few weeks...):

"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. ... Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses."
-- C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

One of many ways that the American church is guilty of syncretism with our indvidualist, consumerist, materialist culture is that we coddle an idolatry of "career" and "acheivement" in the church. We passively accept the idea that so-and-so obviously has to go away to college in a different city, maintain a very tenuous and temporary connection with a local church, and then move away to another city - possibly repeatedly, over the next 10 years - and eventually "settle down" with a family and a house and a local church, by which time there is very little hope of cultivating an intense and radical community that has a Biblical commitment to prayer, missions, holiness, and devotion to Christ.

(Not to mention the assumption that taking on huge debts are ok... but that's another topic for another day.)

SO... What is the application of this?

I'm repenting of the assumption that I have to "move on" from the job and town where I'm now planted (and by extension, from my current church and relationships). This doesn't mean that I may not go away temporarily to get some extended time of training and discipleship. But there's going to have to be a call from the Lord to "move me on to the next thing." I'm not looking for it on my own.

And by extension (this is the tough part), I'm going to start looking for some covenant friends who will join me. I want to find some people to whom I can commit for the long haul - people with whom I would have the kind of relationship where if the Lord calls one of us to move (or go overseas), we all pray about it, and we do it together.

Maybe it's crazy - maybe it's completely unrealistic in the modern world. But the modern world is falling apart, and its days are numbered. I'd rather make choices that invest in eternity.

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From this morning's readings in Celtic Daily Prayer:

Jeremiah 6:16

Thus says the LORD,
"Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths,
Where the good way is, and walk in it;
And you will find rest for your souls.
But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'


This was one of the verses that the Northumbria Community was claiming when they got started. Based on this, they sought out the "ancient paths" of the Desert Fathers and the Celtic monastics.

There's a lot of value in that I think. It doesn't mean that you can slavishly imitate something that worked in the past - as Allen Hood said, you have to listen to "what the Spirit is saying to the churches" in your own generation, not somebody else's. Isaiah and Jeremiah made opposite prophecies about the same issue - Jerusalem was surrounded by enemy armies and under seige. Isaiah prophesied, about Sennacherib and the army of the Assyrians, that Israel should not surrender to them, but should stay in the city and trust in the LORD, and He would deliver them - which of course, He did; 185,000 Assyrians destroyed by the angel of death in one night. Jeremiah prophesied, about Nebuchadnezzar and the army of the Babylonians, that the LORD had abandoned Israel, and that Jerusalem would be overthrown. Jeremiah said that the LORD was calling Israel to surrender to the Babylonians. If you had tried to follow the word of Isaiah in Jeremiah's generation, you would have died. And vice versa.

With that said, however, there's still value in going back to the ancient paths and seeing what our spiritual forefathers have learned and recorded for us about our Lord Jesus who is "the same, yesterday, today, and forever." C.S. Lewis said that we should always make a point of reading old books, because one generation's characteristic sin can be corrected by the characteristic strength of the next generation. One of his famous quotes is about us looking back at the people of the Middle Ages and calling them cruel, while if they could look at us, they would call us unchaste and cowardly.

Anyway, no particular application for me this this morning other than thinking about the "ancient paths" of the Moravians, the early Church, as well as the various contemplative streams, and of course, the actual teachings of Jesus. We must be very careful if the theology and practice we rely on is all less than 50 years old.

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