So I was up last night with the new boy, round about the time that Michael Jackson's memorial was finishing.
I found it curious that people kept slipping into religious type language in describing what this man had done, and what he meant. Comments like (in paraphrase - it was early in the morning!):
'He wanted to heal the world, and to some extent, he did.' What?
and
"Michael paved the way for racial harmony with his music.' Huh?
and
"Michael challenged us all to be better people, so as we leave here, lets take his message to heart and change." What th'?
The clincher was the final message put up on the screen. A picture of Michael with his hand in the air, and the caption, in big, shining letters:
'I am alive. I will live forever.'
It is this last one that drove me to blog! It is a bold, outrageous claim. It is a claim to have negotiated the greatest challenge that faces all of mankind and beaten it (Just Beat It!). To have shunned the final curtain for a perpetual encore. I am not sure I am a believer.
There is another who made such an outrageous claim. I'm not sure how much music he wrote (apart from a few pslams before his time, but that's another story...). A carpenter. He faced the nails and beat them: "I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!" (Revelation 1:18)
The thing with this second guy? There was some proof. He appeared again, to many, even to over 500 at one time.
C'mon, Michael, I want some proof. Its not enough for you to 'live on in my heart' if you are going to deliver the healing of the world that you promised in your songs, and that others are raving about on this day. Lets have you and Elvis show yourselves, once and for all.
Now that really would be a Thriller.
I found it curious that people kept slipping into religious type language in describing what this man had done, and what he meant. Comments like (in paraphrase - it was early in the morning!):
'He wanted to heal the world, and to some extent, he did.' What?
and
"Michael paved the way for racial harmony with his music.' Huh?
and
"Michael challenged us all to be better people, so as we leave here, lets take his message to heart and change." What th'?
The clincher was the final message put up on the screen. A picture of Michael with his hand in the air, and the caption, in big, shining letters:
'I am alive. I will live forever.'
It is this last one that drove me to blog! It is a bold, outrageous claim. It is a claim to have negotiated the greatest challenge that faces all of mankind and beaten it (Just Beat It!). To have shunned the final curtain for a perpetual encore. I am not sure I am a believer.
There is another who made such an outrageous claim. I'm not sure how much music he wrote (apart from a few pslams before his time, but that's another story...). A carpenter. He faced the nails and beat them: "I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!" (Revelation 1:18)
The thing with this second guy? There was some proof. He appeared again, to many, even to over 500 at one time.
C'mon, Michael, I want some proof. Its not enough for you to 'live on in my heart' if you are going to deliver the healing of the world that you promised in your songs, and that others are raving about on this day. Lets have you and Elvis show yourselves, once and for all.
Now that really would be a Thriller.
Postscript: The pastor who prayed slipped in a line amongst the guff: 'But even the King of Pop will now have to bow to the King of Kings'. Hmm, maybe that guy had the inside running...
