A talented musician wrote a song about my hometown.
Okay. More than one musician wrote a song about Paducah, Kentucky. Benny Goodman and Carmen Miranda sang the praises of Paducah in their film “The Gang’s All Here.” The song was crafted by Leo Robin and Harry Warren, and they established for all time: “If you wanna, you can rhyme it with bazooka. But you can’t poo poo Paducah. It’s another name for Paradise.” (1)
As strange as it may seem, several people wrote songs about Paducah. (2) George Coryell, a hometown contemporary of mine, wrote and performed “Paddlewheels.” It’s a fine little song about Paducah that includes many of the town’s hallmarks. Chief among those is Paducah’s two rivers and the paddlewheel-driven riverboats that sail them.
“We played down by the river,
where the Ohio and Tennessee meet.
We were always there to see
the Belle of Louisville and the Delta Queen.” (3)
When two waters flow into the same space, it is called a confluence. Such a confluence frames two sides of my hometown: The Ohio River and the Tennessee River blend together there. It's a very picturesque image—when described in words.
In truth, it is two very different energy flows slamming into each other. From the moment they meet, these distinct entities are trying to overpower each other, neither giving way. You can actually see the two rivers fighting to remain distinct. They even look different. One is smoother, darker, richer in color. The other is choppier, roiling almost, and much lighter hued.
In my hometown, we are also aware of a particular truth that changes how we view that river battle: there is something much larger just over the horizon. Only about an hour farther on, these two battling waters smack into the Mississippi River.
We say things like, "They join up with the Mississippi." But, in truth, those two rivers don't so much join as they completely disappear. There is no more talk of which river. The Mississippi is the river. On the north, its headwaters are just shy of the Canadian border and it knifes through the U.S. all the way south to the Gulf of Mexico. The "Mighty Mississippi," is so big it absorbs all other waters. It takes them—and all they represent—down to the sea.
A more perfect metaphor cannot be found for the two main Jewish groups at the time of Jesus and his early followers. The Pharisees believed in an afterlife and believed each person must scrupulously keep the laws and the Commandments of God to ensure actually getting to that afterlife. The Sadducees rejected the idea of an afterlife, believing each person must do good in this life, because this life is all there is. The two groups were always in conflict, always battling over which was right, which would transcend the other.
We see it in this week's Romans passage. The two factions were like my two hometown rivers: They were using the laws and the Commandments in their battle to control people's lives. Then Jesus came and taught a much larger, all-consuming truth: Love is the fulfillment of all those commandments and laws.
Suddenly, just like my hometown rivers encountering the Mississippi, all those laws and commandments—and all the conflicts based on them—were swallowed up in something larger, so much larger it's almost too much to grasp. That something is the love taught and modeled by Jesus. We can use the metaphor of a mighty river to grasp that enormity.
The battles that raged among us before we became followers of Jesus are as meaningless as the fighting of my two hometown rivers. And like the Mississippi, God’s love is the mighty flow that will take us all in and carry us to the sea—a sea of living water.
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PHOTO: the Lower Mississippi River and it’s southernmost delta as seen from outer space
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/144701/flooding-on-the-lower-mississippi-continues
BONUS MATERIAL
(1) Watch a clip from “The Gang’s All Here” and enjoy their version of “Paducah:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGNoH4bjHmo
(2) Article about Paducah-related music:
(3) Listen to “Paddlewheels”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDqdcWe4A80
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Join us Friday morning for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We meet at 8:00 on Zoom** and in person at Our Breakfast Place. We share scripture, fellowship, good food—and even some laughs.
Blessings,
Steve
**Contact me for the Zoom link
NOTE: Zoom allows you to mute the camera and the microphone if you don’t wish to be seen or heard.
SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK
Find them here:
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=158
Print them from here:
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/pdf//Ax_Proper18.pdf
Exodus 12:1-14
Psalm 149
Ezekiel 33:7-11
Psalm 119:33-40
Romans 13:8-14
Matthew 18:15-20
Proper 18 (23) (September 10, 2023)
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