For This Reason 31 Part 3

[HKHaugan]

“On the Road again -
Just can't wait to get on the road again.
The life I love is making music with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again.

On the road again
Goin' places that I've never been.
Seein' things that I may never see again
And I can't wait to get on the road again.

On the road again -
Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We're the best of friends.
Insisting that the world keep turning our way

And our way
is on the road again.
Just can't wait to get on the road again.”

The theme of Part 1 was ‘making music with my friends’ which meant worship, being together, learning from the Word and just plain exulting among the Lord’s people. Part 2 took us a bit further in that ‘the places I’ve never been and things I’ve never seen’ are the people we meet along the way. They are the opportunities we have to share the music we make as a family in the Body of Christ.

Here in Part 3 we are ‘Like a band of gypsies, the best of friends, goin’ down the highway, insistin’ that the world keep turnin’ our way.’ The operative word here is ‘gypsies.’ As I was growing up I heard the stories about gypsies. They were not citizens of any country, they rode in wagons from town to town and they were kind of a secret society. They that dressed in colorful clothes, danced and sang every night around a fire. The women were all darkly beautiful and seductive. The men looked fierce, wore big earrings, bandanas and daggers. Unfortunately their reputation was one of scheming and thievery so when you heard they were in town you avoided them. My mother said that when they would come to her town in Norway every one locked their doors.

But it’s what the word ‘gypsy’ generally means. It’s a wandering word. It implies they don’t have any national identity. They live off the land and maintain a separate identity from wherever they are in the world. This is the nature of the Hebrew people. From Abel through Abraham God’s people were wanderers. See how the writer of Hebrews describes them, “13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them (Heb.13).”

In essence that’s what we’re called to do. As Jesus said of the Apostles we too are “not of the world any more than I am not of the world (Jn.17:14)…As you have sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world (vs.18).” Paul carries that theme forward when he says, “Our citizenship is in Heaven (Php.3:20).” The Body of Christ is like a band of gypsies following Him, the Way. By the blood of Christ we have been made more than friends. We are spiritual brothers and sisters bonded by His blood and empowered by His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and we want the world to turn our way as Willy sings. Why? “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself…we are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us (2Cor.5:19, 20).” We are Christ’s gypsies wandering from place to place, person to person, sharing our hearts and minds in the Spirit. The shape that takes will vary from moment to moment, person to person, because both each person and each moment are unique and will never happen again. When we see ourselves as the pivotal moment in that it has never happened before nor will it ever happen again, then we know that this is the eternal God at our side beckoning us on to every next person and moment.

So from our personal relationship with Jesus to our being, growing and making music with brothers and sisters in the Body we move into the world offering and sharing all we have been given.

“And our way
is on the road again.
Just can't wait to get on the road again.”

Now maybe we can sing this song together having seen its meaning for us as we move from person to person in the wilderness of this world bringing our particular part of it to Him. From mind to mind, heart to heart and spirit to spirit. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you to the very end of the age (Mt.28:18-20).”

“And our way
is on the road again.
Just can't wait to get on the road again.”