Jimmy Buffett visits NASA
Sen. Bill Nelson, left, and former Vice President Al Gore greet singer Jimmy Buffett, right, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida prior to the planned liftoff of NOAA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory mission, or DSCOVR. DSCOVR will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The mission is a partnership between NOAA, NASA and the U.S. Air Force. DSCOVR will maintain the nation's real-time solar wind monitoring capabilities which are critical to the accuracy and lead time of NOAA's space weather alerts and forecasts. To learn more about DSCOVR, visit www.nesdis.noaa.gov/DSCOVR. (Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett. KSC-2015-1314 by NASAKennedy is licensed under CC-BY-NC 2.0)
Last week was tough; my church voted to disaffiliate, the Atlantic Coast Conference expanded to the West Coast, and Jimmy Buffett died. I never thought Jimmy would die. For some reason, he fell into the same category I placed Queen Elizabeth II, “person from my youth who I assumed would live forever.” Now, Jimmy’s dead, and I’m even more aware of my mortality. If Jimmy can die, so can I and so can my dad. The reaper is a coming and he’s coming faster than any of us want to admit. None of us are getting any younger.
Here’s the thing, and I think we all get this: Jimmy isn’t dead. He lives on in his music. Somebody somewhere is playing “Come Monday,” “Fins”, “Margaritaville,” and “Cheeseburger in Paradise.” It could be on an album, eight-track, cassette, or CD of Jimmy singing or the worst guitar player in the world strumming out chords on a broken-down old six-string; wherever (on whatever) it is, Jimmy is still alive.
It’s the same way with Jesus. Jesus is alive wherever we’re singing his songs, whether it’s the live acoustic versions recorded in Capernaum in 31 CE, in a karaoke bar in Key West, on ill-tuned guitars with mediocre praise teams at churches everywhere, or by fancy choirs in even fancier robes. You can’t kill Jesus because you can’t kill his greatest hits. It’s always 5 o’clock somewhere; I think I once heard that. As long as it’s 5 o’clock in Capernaum, people will always be singing Jesus’ greatest hit, “Preaching Away In Capernaum-ville.” You don’t know that one? You didn’t know Jesus was the original Jimmy Buffett? Oh, yeah, it’s the real thing; check out this scroll they found at Qumran, down at the Dead Sea, where JC and Johnny B used to hang out. This is old-school Jesus fishing boat yacht rock. You’ll see what I mean:
Preaching away again in Capernaum-ville
Searchin’ for my long lost shaker of salt
Salt, salt, salt (Matthew 5:13-16- 13: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Some people claim that there’s a woman to blame (Luke 7:36-39 36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and poured perfume on them.39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”
And I know this is somebody’s fault. (King Herod)
I blew out my flip-flop, stepped on a pop-top
Cut my heel, had to cruise on back home (Mark 6:8-9 8 These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9 Wear sandals but not an extra shirt.)
There you have it, a fragment of the lost scroll from cave four at Qumran, “Preaching Away Again in Capernaum-Ville,” the origins of Jimmy Buffett’s hit song “Wasting Away in Margaritaville,” hiding in plain sight, right there in the Bible all this time. Who knew Jesus was the original Parrothead? All we had to do was follow the clues. Wasn’t there something in the Sermon on the Mount about changing our latitudes and changing our attitudes? Blessed are the laid back, for they shall inherit the Kingdom!
Rest in peace, Jimmy.