More like Dad

Hosea 11+12/ Matthew 15+16

            Everything that is not Christ or giving glory to Christ has the potential to replace Christ in my life. Love, job, sex, identity, relationships—they all need to point to Christ or just go away.

            This is hard for me. Deep down I want peace but I also want war. I love to agree and antagonize. I love to be helpful and humble and the Alpha Dog. I love to love people. I love to encourage. I love to watch people get saved. I love to pray over people and I hate to let people down.

            Christ. I need more Jesus Christ. I need more Holy Spirit. Jesus had the same bipolar in His ministry too. He loved everybody and showed compassion when needed but He also kicked butt when He needed. He did it perfectly. God enacts perfect wrath, judgment, and love all at the same time.

            Me, not so much.

            Lord, please teach me to be more like You. Let me love peace and justice. Let me show Grace, mercy, and strength in You all day to everyone.

                                                                                                -Amen

Confession

Hosea 9+10/Romans 2+3

            Why is it that I so badly want to put my faith in other people? God has never let me down and I argue with Him, while people (myself included) are constantly pissing me off and letting me down and I beg for their approval. There, I admit it. I want people to like me. I say, “I don’t care what you think,” because I like the respect I get for it. AM I FOR REAL? Nope. I’m a total fake. Well, not totally I guess. I am, thankfully, totally redeemed. Even though I know this. Even though I know God loves me and Jesus took care of my penalty, I still seek God and man’s approval. I hate letting people down and I hate failure. 

Warning

Hosea 3-8/Acts 27+28/Romans 1

            As Christians we have a tendency to read the warnings in the Bible as warnings to non-Christians. While there are some warnings to non-Christians the majority are for the church. We love to forget that we are still sinners who are forgiven. We get more warnings and more consequences because we know God.

            Hosea is really opening up my eyes to our faulty ideas of worship and repentance. Often times we feel sorrow because the crap is hitting the fan not because we've offended God. Then we try to please God the way we want to be pleased. We give God more stuff. We give God more money. We give God more time. What’s the problem with that? God doesn't need more stuff, money, or time. It’s all His anyway. Our blessing and honoring God with our lives, souls, hearts, and minds is not because He needs it. He delights in it because that’s how he originally made the world. Again He doesn't need it. God doesn't need us to obey. God gains nothing from us doing His will. He warns us, loves us, and tells us what to do for our gain and His glory.

            End of story. 

The O.C. Supertones- For the Glory Review

The O.C. Supertones- For The Glory

            When you buy an O.C. Supertones CD you don’t need to look much past the case to know what you’re getting yourself into. A quick look at the pictures of the band let you know that you’re buying a fun ska album and a cursory look at the track list let’s you know the O.C. Supertones love Jesus. The band has been on hiatus since 2005 and this record is the product of a 2010 reunion tour that showed that people are still picking up what they are putting down.

            With For the Glory the Supertones bring their fun flavor of West Coast Ska/surf/punk that they've been rocking since the mid 1990s. I know, most of you are probably thinking, “Ska? Really?” And the answer is yes, really! This is a great follow up to 2004’s Revenge of the O.C. Supertones, which was their last record of all new/original music.

            The album starts out with the fun, upstroke and horn heavy “All the Way Alive.” This first song leaves no question that this album is a fun dance party for Sunday School rejects. They even poke fun at themselves with the opening line “…I’m so old school that I’m fresh again…”

            They keep the tempo up with the title track “For the Glory” and “Hey, hey, hey” before they dip into the little acoustic reggae number, “Far More Beautiful.” “Down to the River,” “Warmth of the Sun” and the closing “The Wise and the Fool” are all fairly low key and acoustic which makes the album drag a little in places, but it shows a nice maturity for these old Rude Boys.

            I have to say my favorite track is “It’s a Good Day to Be from California.” It’s a bit of a biographical song and it really has the West Coast feel that makes you just want to cruise around town with the top down and the music blaring.

            The focus stays on Jesus throughout all the songs but it doesn't feel super heavy. The Supertones are well known for their love of God and people. They are unabashed about their faith but it doesn't feel pushy. It’s just honest, fun, ska, about what they care most about which is God, family, and friends.

            I know a lot of people that are sensitive about religion would say that this record is for Christian’s only. I disagree. If you’re looking for a fun ska record that will have you dancing around your kitchen then here you go.  

           

            Over all I give this album a 7 out of 10. On another note, if the band shows up in your town, go see them. Their live show is always a solid 10 out of 10!

Say that again?

Hosea 1+2/Acts 25+26

            God told Hosea to marry a whore.

            God told Paul to stay in jail.

            Wow.

            Since the Bible is the story of God and He is the main character, we don’t see a lot of the internal monologues or details of the secondary characters.

How did Paul feel when he found out if God hadn't called him to go to Rome he could have been set free?

What did Hosea say when God told him to marry a hooker and love the kids that came out of her?

Since this is the story of God what matters most isn't the secondary character’s turmoil but their actions. What they did was obey. What they did was trust God even when they knew it wasn't going to work out well. Beyond what they knew was their God who was bigger. Beyond what they were feeling, which was totally real and painful, there was the Creator’s redemptive plan.

That’s what is important. We can speculate on the human emotions. We can figure it out. What we could never come up with on our own is the benefits and importance of obeying God. 

Free to Choose Poorly

Daniel 9-12/Matthew 13+14

            The very essence of free will is that we can choose wisely or choose poorly. If whatever we choose is correct then free will is a myth. I’m unsure if anyone believes that they have never done wrong or sinned. I know plenty who believe in varying degrees of sin, and I know even more who think they decide what is right and wrong for their own personal morality. So no matter what people must be allowed to make bad choices. People must be allowed to sin.

            If this works here, now, and on a small scale, is it hard to make the jump to the eternal? I could make choices today that would forever alter the lives of millions. That’s just off the cuff and in a moment. I’m just one, insignificant man. We choose. Some will choose poorly. Some will choose wisely. But if this idea of free will is to exist along side this idea of right and wrong and justice then all poor choices are forced to have negative consequences. 

MDiv.

Daniel 5-8/Matthew 13+14/Acts 27+28 

            Following Jesus and the Bible is as counter cultural as Beatniks,  Hippies, and Punks. The conservative, conformist, clean-cut Christianity offered to us by the church, not the Bible, doesn't mirror the life of Christ or the Old Testament Prophets. Jesus was a well-respected weirdo. The Prophets were crazy. Nobody outside of the prompting of the Holy Spirit would look at them and want to emulate them.

            Exile, imprisonment, embarrassment, shipwrecks, lion’s dens, death by sword, robbers, ambushes, mud-filled cisterns, days without food, no friends, betrayal, snake bites, riots, floggings, beatings, baskets over city walls, marrying hookers, buying them back, burying spouses, unresponsive kings, indignant crowds, shitty reputations—There is no seminary class for this. 

God's Christmas Gift: Equality.

     I've written a bunch of rough drafts of this Christmas post that were focused on what Christmas is not. I wrote one on why Christmas isn't working. But as I scroll through Facebook I realize that people don't need to be reminded of that. Hell, some one in my own family posted that she wished the Mayan's were right so she didn't have to go through another Christmas.
     With hopes and dreams like that I think its safe to say that the "warm holiday feeling" alone gives the same long term affect as a "warm I just shat my pants feeling."
     At Christmas time our ability to have that warm and fuzzy feeling is directly related to the size of our billfolds. Apart from Jesus the "Holiday's" are really all about money and buying a certain feeling. If we don't have the money then you can't buy the feeling. Worse yet, if we don't have the money then somebody uses us to buy that feeling for themselves.
     Think about it, if all we are celebrating is good feelings, merriment, and giving then there has to be a receiver and a giver. There is a lot of pressure on both sides but if you are just the receiver then you feel really low really quickly. You might be excited that that stranger filled up your gas tank for you with their American Express Black card, but soon that excitement is replaced by shame that you can't seem to hold down a job or make ends meet. Our belief in the power of the human spirit and all the crap is quickly turned into "I'm nobody's charity case" or "How dare they think of me that way!"
    The other side of the coin is just as obnoxious. When we have tons of cash and can buy whatever we want we worry that what we buy won't be loved like we want it to be. We desire to show our love to people by filling their pockets and storage units with the latest, greatest stuff that will be obsolete by New Years. Then when one of the millions of people on our list doesn't like what we've given them we get all defensive because it's not an attack on the iPhone 50000G superior series, it's an attack on us. The feeling we want to get through giving is now gone and everybody else are ungrateful bastards.
    Christmas without Jesus is a great divider. It exploits the differences between the haves and the have nots. There is no equality. There is no real goodwill. There is only the exploitation of somebody else in order for us to get a certain feeling. Apart from Jesus we may try to de-commercialize Christmas, but we can't. If God isn't involved Christmas has to be about people and feelings. We use people and money to get a feeling. It's still all about being a consumer.
   The irony is quite simple. People fight to get rid of God and fight for equality of everybody. But only in Christ are we all equal. We are all equal in our sinfulness. We are all equal in our need of help. The average person doesn't want equality. They want people to understand where everybody fits into society and to just deal with it. Jesus flies in the face of that. Jesus let's us know that the status-quo is no longer that. The Emmanuel (God with us) is proof that God plays fair and isn't afraid to get in the mix. God, the Creator, the only person who has the right to say, "I'm better than you and I know it" said the exact opposite. He didn't go for a feeling or a warm fuzzy, He went for pain. He went for equality. He went for Love.
    Thanks to Jesus all are equal.
Merry Christmas.
   

Playing with a Little Poetry

Lamentations 3-5/Acts 23+24

This time of year is so damn exhausting. It’s like a constant battle where no one is dying and when one of us gains a little ground the other one brings reinforcements from over the top to defend and then push back.

Praise the Lord for being my right hand!

            Praise the Lord for going

            before and behind.

Praises to the King for being both

            a mighty ruler and Mighty Warrior.

Two years Paul spent in prison before Felix.

Seventy-five years the Israelites spent

in exile before the Babylonians.

Thirty-three years Jesus spent in exile from Heaven,

imprisoned in flesh.

            There is nothing new,

            There are no surprises,

            Nothing shocks

            The Spirit of God.

Hey everybody!

Sorry it's been a while, but my wife and I just had a new baby boy and even now I hear him fussing in the next room. Hopefully I'll be able to keep this thang updated as we get into our routine. If you want to get a better look into our sick and twisted, Jesus loving, people loving, brains follow us on Facebook and Twitter. We update that stuff often. 

Oh, and if you were wondering, we are intentionally not writing about the Newton, Connecticut tragedy because everything we come up with seems so violently inappropriate and self promoting that we don't want to exploit other people's pain for our gain. All way can say is that we are praying for all the victim's families. We live only by the Grace of God and even though we are sad, confused, and holding our kids a little tighter, we trust in Jesus. 

Here's some thoughts on my Bible reading!

Enjoy,

-Danny Exyle

Daniel 1-4/Titus

            The older I get the harder time I’ve been having with authority. It gets harder and harder for me to trust the suits and ties because they have showed me the way to attack is from the back. My boys in the fiery furnace speak truth to me: “Our God has the ability to save us, but even if He doesn’t, we won’t do what you say, Oh, king.” I jive with that even though I’m not often put into the position to use it. Normally, I need to drop a

Titus 3, “follow all authority” which is awfully tough. It’s hard because I know how God has gifted me. I know when I’m going to get screwed, and I’ve been screwed plenty.

            So, to exercise my faith and trust in God I have to obey authorities. I’d rather go to Africa. 

Keep the Change.

Song of Songs 7+8/ Acts 21+22

            I’m feeling a shift in my thinking. A “renewing of the mind” that I haven’t quite had before. It’s not a change of my point of view, but it feels like the way my mind processes, the way it functions, all of it, is changing. I’m not coming to new opinions but developing a new system of reasoning. I don’t feel like it’s me “growing up” but it’s me seeing how God sees. It’s the Holy Spirit changing me. It’s not manufactured for my benefit, but it’s stripping all the old and replacing it because all that stuff needs to go.

            I’m starting to see Jesus. I’m starting to want to feel like God feels. I’m not pushing it down. I’m letting whatever feelings, commands, visions, words, actions, etc. that God grants me just happen.

            This is freedom. I can’t explain what it feels like to not have to explain myself anymore. It’s amazing.

            Oh, there are plenty of sins, trials, and temptations. Things are far from perfect in the world around me and I respond poorly sometimes. Yet, this “peace that passes all understanding” is exactly that. When we feel peace in peacetime that’s a no-brainer. When we feel peace in chaos that’s either ignorance or supernatural.

            I know it’s not ignorance because I know I should be tweaking. I understand why people around me are worried, yelling, sinning, and putting hope in false idols. I’m just growing a supernatural inability to do that. That change is the Holy Spirit. That is the peace that passes. 

Whiner

Song of Songs 5+6/Matthew 9-12

I'm amazed at how big a prick I am. I complain about which of my water bottles is clean or bitch that I left my favorite Bible in the car and now I have to put my coffee down to go get it.

I should kick my own ass.

I'm starting to see how while Jesus could be critical about culture He wasn't a whiner. He came from infinite riches to total squaller. He never complained.

Here I am, in the richest country in the world in a comparatively wealthy time and I whine about my luxuries and novelties being infringed upon while all my needs get met.

Lord, help me to be grateful.

Organ Donor

Song of Songs 3+4/Acts 17+18

A change is in the air. It’s on the wind. Yah, I stole that from Tolkien but I can feel it in Earth as much as in Middle Earth.

            Church as we know it is dying. It is dying out of necessity. It’s dying in order to donate its organs. Community, Gospel, worship, praying for each other; that's the stuff we'll keep. Fan fair, hoopla, lights, fog machines, fliers; consumer Christianity—there is no nice what to say it—FTS. This generation is growing a desire for Acts church. My generation is shaking off the rituals of non-ritualistic mainstream religion and delving into the authority of God’s Word and His plan for His body.

            It’s not stemming from Driscoll, Chan, Cole, and Chandler. It’s stemming from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It’s the Bible. It’s God, Jesus, the Spirit.

            The line is in the sand and we can’t go on much longer. One side will grow while one side will be swept away. Which side will I be on?

Proper order.

Song of Songs 1+2/Acts 19+20

The Bible is not unclear it is inconvenient. There is a lot less subtlety then we want to admit. The Bible goes nearly 100% what our sinful, broken bodies and psyches want to do. This is why we have a world and church full of people who are desperately trying to disregard the Bible and/or make it say what it doesn't say.

            Job. Church. god. That was Dimitrius’ argument against the Christians in Acts 20. That shows the religious person’s heart. god serves a purpose, gets us paid, makes us “better people” and if that gets threatened we fight.

            God. God. God. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Spirit. Spirit. Spirit. There is the focus of a Christian’s life. Okay, there should be the focus of the Christian life. All other stuff is a gift from God. The question that arises again is do we love God or do we just want His stuff?

Spreading the Word Spirit Style

Ecclesiastes 11+12/Acts 18

As a church we need the Holy Spirit so we know when to say what. He gives us that discerning power and what words to use. Paul wanted to go preach at some places and the Spirit shot him down. God wanted Paul elsewhere. Not every encounter with somebody needs to be a raucous attempt to convert. Everything we do needs to point to Jesus. Every time we go into a situation we should be prepared to give a testimony about what Jesus has done, is doing, and will do.

But first and foremost we need to obey God and His promptings. If we just wantonly try to convince people without the Spirit then we are salesmen trying to fill a quota. When we are so enamored with God’s love for us, we must share it and become His witnesses. There is a subtle, yet stark difference. 

Change in the Wind

Hey folks. It's been a while.

Life has been getting in the way of me blogging. This blows since I know God wanted me to do this blog and it's been neglected. After much praying God should me what to do. I read my Bible nearly every morning and I write about what I read, what's going on in my head, and what God's doing through all of it.

This is now what Sinner's Circle Blog is going to be. Instead of having polished, carefully written essays, I will be putting up the quick snapshots of what God is doing in my morning times with him. This will be raw, honest, and a little scattered. In each post I will cite what I read so if you want to read what inspired my little rant then you can.

Don't worry, sometimes I'll throw up something that's been edited and polished, but that will be when I have the time and when God really presses on me.

This is still a place for open, honest, discussion about God, Life, etc and I hope that this new format will inspire more of that. I hope you enjoy it and pass it along!

Another Sinner in Grace,
Danny Exyle.

God's Grace, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Getting Beaten to Death

For it is by grace you have been saved,through faith —and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast. -Ephesians 2:8-9

“The beauty of Grace is that it makes life not fair.” -Relient K


We are very quick to make sure everybody gets theirs. We love truth and justice as long as it doesn’t apply to us. Well, of course what we do may be bad but we have reasons. It’s not that we are bad it’s that situations are bad or times were tough or our moms didn’t hug us enough. We never deserve what’s coming to us because we have reasons. However, that other person, well, He deserves to get screwed.
Jeffrey Dahmer was a nasty, nasty serial killer. I won’t go into details about sodomy, necrophilia, and cannibalism just in case you’re eating, but just know that Jeff had a penchant for all that and participated in it roughly seventeen times in a thirteen year period. The dude was totally tweaked and if you are a little off like me, I’d say read the file.
So after he got arrested and sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences (just in case he reincarnated he couldn’t skip a life) he found Jesus. People didn’t care. They assumed that since he was such a horrid person Jesus wouldn’t do shit for the guy  and his conversion certainly didn’t nullify his crimes. In 1994 Dahmer was beaten to death with a broom handle. The majority of the country was satisfied.
For years afterwards Christians were touting his conversion as the ultimate showing of God’s grace on a human soul while non Christians were using it to show how God is obviously a psycho and couldn’t be trusted if somebody like Dahmer was not rotting in eternal Hell fire. That made sense. Hitler, Stalin, Dahmer, all should have smoldering embers with their names on them.
They should. So should we.
This is where the Gospel gets hairy and people think there is no justice. So all somebody has to do after a life of cannibalism, sodomy rape, and serial killing is say a quick little prayer and then they get access to the Pearly Gates? That doesn’t sound like justice. It’s not justice. It’s Grace. If we ran the show we’d send certain people to Hell and certain people to Heaven. We’d pick the people who aren’t that bad and bring them to Heaven and we’d put all the Dahmers, Hitlers, Bin Ladens, and Stalins into Hell.
That’s not justice either. That’s revenge.
See, God never says in the Bible “Be good enough. Don’t be a serial killer/rapist guy and you can get into Heaven. Go to church, give me money, don’t swear and don’t masturbate and you can get into Heaven”. Nowhere does He say this.
Nowhere.
The standard for God is perfection not “good enough”. Our standard for people is good enough not perfection. Because of this God seems like a huge jerk. Nobody’s perfect and God should know that. Nobody’s perfect so God is not being fair. Well, when God made the world it was perfect and we messed it up. That wasn’t nice. God could’ve just let us wallow in our own crap and then when we finally killed ourselves off He could start over. But He didn’t. He made a way.
I don’t like God’s way. It’s not fair to me. It’s not justice like I see it so God’s horrible.
We aren’t God. We don’t have the last word on justice and truth. He does. The Bible shows us God’s perfect standard not so we look at it and say, “Eff it, I can’t, I’ll just do what I want” but rather, “Crap, I can’t do this, I need a way out of this mess.”
Heaven is not the default. We all want it to be but since we’re in a fallen world it isn’t “We all die and go to a better place,” it’s now, “We die and stand before God and either try to convince Him you were perfect or rely on Jesus’ righteousness.”
But why does Dahmer get off scott free? Why do people like him, Ted Bundy, and Son of Sam get to go to Heaven? They killed people all I ever did was lust, lie, cheat, steal, cuss, fight, fornicate, and hate? Why do they get off without any consequences?
If you call 15 consecutive life terms and getting beaten to death with a broom handle “getting off with no consequences” I’d have to say you’re a raging fundamentalist. .  
Nowhere in the Bible does it say that we don’t answer for our sins both big and small. The dad who ignores his family to work, work, work pays for it by having a crappy relationship with his kids and wife. The guy who steals usually gets caught or at the very least is never happy with the stuff he has. He always has to get more. You cheat you get hosed later when you don’t have somebody to cheat off and you have to try to do it on your own. You fight you’ll get beat eventually. You fornicate you’ll get crabs. You hate you’ll go gray early and die miserable.
Does this sound like “no consequences” to you? If it does then you are a bigger dick than you think God is. And don’t look at these as punishments from God. He isn’t a sadist. The reason God tells us not to sin is twofold: One, He knows the ramifications and two He can’t be around it so it separates us from Him and He hates that. God didn’t create the consequences for our bad living it’s our bad living that creates consequences.

We are broken and we can’t be fixed. God’s Grace comes in the person of Jesus who took our sin and death, died, rose, beat it all then said, “Follow me to Heaven!” We choose to follow or not. How does that make God a jerk?

I don’t totally get it but I know I need it. There are a lot of easier ways to go about life then Christianity. There are a lot of things more fun than living for Jesus. However, I have to say it makes sense when we look at how messed up we’ve made the world, usually while we’re trying to make it better, and how we can’t make it perfect. It’s not about how much we can do or realizing our potential it’s about knowing how much we can’t do and realizing God’s sovereignty.
That’s how you, me, and Jeff can make it.

I Hate Me.

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do and what I hate I do.

-Romans 7:15

When a London newspaper posed the question “What is wrong with the world?” writer, philosopher, and theologian G.K. Chesterton sent this simple letter:

“Dear Sirs,

I am.

Sincerely Yours,

G.K. Chesterton”

I hate me the way an author hates a rough draft. I hate me the way a painter hates his piece in a gallery. I hate me the way a musician hates hearing his song on the radio. I hate me the way a retired boxer can’t take a hit any more. I hate me the way a former Miss America hates her post pregnancy body.

Don’t worry friends, I’m not sitting here with a shotgun in my mouth waiting to post then splatter my attic. I’m not eating myself into an early grave or getting high and watching Sponge Bob. I’m not depressed.

I have found freedom in self loathing.
I think a lot of depression comes from being taught that we can do anything that we put our mind to, that we’re all special, and deep down we are really, truly, good. For years we never heard a teacher tell us “no.” We had parents that made our happiness top priority. We had a government that made sure we had all the food and medication we needed.

Now the dust has settled and we’re all a bunch of middle aged adolescents wondering why everybody was so wrong. If we’re all so special and all so perfect and if we can all do anything why is nothing getting done?

And the self loathing, self medicating, midlife-crisising, self destruction, begins.

I think Kurt Cobain splattered his attic because he proved he could do anything he put his mind to and felt unfulfilled. I think the reason we can have news stories dedicated to celebrity mugshots is for the same reason. Do your best. Try real hard. The world is yours. Then what?

I think we’re all hardwired the same. The operating system might be different but the hardware is similar. Deep, deep down we all know that no matter what we do, no matter how hard we work, no matter how much we accomplish we’re not built right. We have a ton of desire to succeed, do well, make a difference, but we don’t. We all know that somewhere a wire got crossed, a step was missed, a lightbulb went out, and we can’t fix it.

See I hate myself because I see all that I should be, all I was created for, and I get frustrated because I am me and that means I am inherently imperfect. Don’t believe me? When you mess up and you run out of excuses what do you fall back on?

“Well, I’m only human.”

“Nobody’s perfect.”

“We all screw up.”

Why do we say it? We say it because not only do we know that we’re not perfect but that nobody else is either. Here in lies the problem. If we aren’t perfect, which we know we’re not, then we will never know complete fulfillment.

I remember a kid in a college class going so far as to say that imperfection is perfection. As an English guy I couldn’t deal with that kind of oxymoron. That was just his way of dealing with the fact that he was messed up and since he couldn’t fix the problem then there was no problem.

But look at us. Look at the world. All the issues, all the crap, all the hate, violence, poverty, it all stems from people just doing what they think is the best thing. It all stems from people meeting their full potential. A dictator feels like he’s the best at what he does so he takes over. The people let him. Another politician feels as though his ideas are the best because he made it to the top, dammit, and then he sends his country down the crapper. The greatest villains are not the one who are unabashedly evil, but the ones who think they are doing good.

Once we see that we can’t be all that we want to be, once we hang up our desire to be that brain surgeon, we settle for good enough. The worst part about “good enough” is that it’s not an appreciating value. We know very well that we aren’t supposed to live this way but, who cares? We’re getting by. Let the good people be good, the bad people be bad, let the smart people be smart and me, I’ll crack open another Coors and call it a day.

Yah, we were made to be perfect. That’s how God made us. Then we messed it up with sin and the whole world has felt the pangs since. You’re right, you’re not perfect, you’re only human, and you’ll never be good enough. Now let’s take these excuses, burn them in a hole, and keep going. There is no picking yourself up by the bootstraps. There’s no fixing the problem.

There’s only healthy self loathing.

I don’t blame God for the world going to crap. I blame me. I blame the human race. We’ve tried Theocracies, Monarchies, Democracies, Anti-Theocracies, Republics, Dictatorships, Anarchy, and Communal living. It all turns out the same way: failure. What is the common factor when things go south? Is it God? Nope.

It’s me.

Album Review: Toil by Flatfoot 56

Flatfoot 56’s new record Toil is exactly what you’d want as the fourth record of a respectable Celtic punk band. If you’ve been following the band since day one, or at least the first album, I suspect you’ll be happy with the musical evolution and lyrical growth of our Windy City brothers.

What’s the first thing you want to hear when you put on a Celtic punk record? Yah, that’s right, bagpipes. “Brother, Brother” starts the record off in perfect Flatfoot style. It’s a bagpipe introed, hardcore tune that is about a drug addict friend and the path he’s chosen. It even has a little hardcore vocal visit from the younger Banwinkle brother. This is the first time since Knuckles Up that the boys started an anthem, call to arms type song and not a short intro song. While the intros on Jungle of the Midwest Sea and Black Thorn were good I’m glad they went back to their roots on this one.

The new single “I Believe it” is a strong song that reminds us what we like about the Flatfoot boys. It’s nice to see a bunch of fun loving, rough and tumble guys who are nice, thoughtful, and okay to bring around your grandmother.

The rest of the album will get you air drumming in your car or cubicle.

The songwriting maturity of Toil is showcased in the title track. “Toil” is a slow building, rebellious, passionate song that is written by and for those of us who work night and day and night to feed those people that go home early.
“6 10” is a fun little story about talking to somebody a lot bigger than you and squeaks out a fun little moral (“why are little people always so bold?”) and “Winter in Chicago” is so catchy you’ll hear it in your dreams. And for all you fans of the Flatfoot live show you’ll get your feet stompin’ on the last track with the crowd favorite “I’ll Fly Away” which has been on their set list for years.
Tobin and Co. are coming out with some great little tunes that strike a chord. If you’re a long time fan like me not only will this CD make you listen to it over and over again but it will remind you why you love their other stuff too.

The rest of the album is solid and worth a listen then a relisten. The band passed around the mic for vocals, there is plenty of crunchy guitars, mandolin, and bagpipes. If you aren’t up and dancin’ then your feet are broken. If listening doesn’t make you want to start a circle pit in the breakroom at work then I suggest you check your pulse!
Start with an anthem and end with a hymn. There was nothing missing from this record except the sweat and comradery from one of their circle pits!

Keep it up boys!

Hey, hey! Follow us on Facebook or if you want Danny Exyle to review your band's album email him at sinnerscircleblog@gmail.com

Stealing From the Fish Tank

…Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” –Luke 5:10b


The church is the people in it. I’ve said that. I am the church (whether you like it or not) you are the church, all the cute pastors in their jeans and blazers are the church (whether I like it or not). The sad part is the people in charge and the people going have forgotten that the church is not a building, committee, system, or program. The people coming to church demand to be entertained and sedated. The people running their church demand to be relevant and earn their keep.
It’s relentless.
I’m not an outsider but I hang out with enough of them to realize that church is now an uncomfortable place. I know a lot people that have “church” faces. We all see it but as church folks we don’t want to be called on it so we don’t call others on it. This creates a very awkward atmosphere for the non-Christian who is seeking Christianity.
We’re not fooling anybody.
I would dare say that’s why most churches don’t have non-Christians in them. They see the church face, they see the perfect pastor, the cute youth pastor and the hipster worship team and say “Crap, I can’t do that,” and then they peace out.
Christians will jump from church to church in a fanciful desire to re-invent their church face. These are the types of people that hop from church to church, don’t get involved with people (but are probably heavily involved in ministry), don’t really read their Bibles, complain about the kids program, then bail as soon as they face a crisis then go bitch about how they had no friends in that church. Then they pack up their families, write passive aggressive Facebook statuses and go to the next church.
Then the next church celebrates that they are growing and getting new families.
This doesn’t sit well with me at all. This only perpetuates the cycle of non-Christians not going to church. Maybe a few will pop in now and again, raise their hand during the time at the end of the service when the pastor offers Jesus to be their band-aid for what ails them. Then they walk through all the people talking to their friends and go past some dude who they don’t know who is chasing them down with a Bible because when everybody else had their eyes closed he looked around like a Falcon at dinner time.

Maybe they come back for a few weeks. Maybe they even get involved. But unless they drink the Kool-Aid and have no issues with anything and as long as they don’t go do any “real” sinning they will have nobody. They aren’t conditioned for this. The average non church attender, non-Christian has no idea how to survive in the Christian culture.

But those of us who’ve lived in it are survivors.

We bounce from each denizen of worship and know exactly how to do it. We raise our hands, we clap, we read the right books, we do nursery, we take notes, we have the church’s app on our cell phone. We are members. We are committed. We can play the game.

One church grows while another fizzles. One pastor is the new wave while another is the old guard. We talk about cycles and keeping up with the times like one day there won’t be another young hot shot with new ideas that we find horrid. We act like we won’t ever be the “old guy.” We act like our church will dodge the 75% teens leave after graduation bullet.

After all, we know how to grow.

When Jesus first called his motley crew of miscreants He called them to a life of insanity. These uneducated, untrained Sunday School rejects were charged with the very mission of giving God to the entire world. “Fishers of men..” meant jumping into deep water with a hand net and scuba goggles. There was no church complex to tell people to go to. There was no radio station to put on in your cubical. There wasn’t even a cute little Christian section at the local book store.

It was twelve men, one Savior, and a soap box.

We’ve lost that. The church used to just be a bunch of people who loved Jesus hanging out, praying, reading the scriptures, and eating food. There was no compartmentalizing. It was all Jesus in every aspect of life. There was nothing flashy, there was nothing sane, there was nothing normal. Christianity was totally out there and uncomfortable. It was completely irrelevant to the culture and focused on our depravity and Jesus’ love. And people were coming in droves.

Every time I talk to a pastor about the “...3000 were added to their number that day...” I get a cop out answer. “Oh, that was the time and place,” or “God needed that to then and not now,” or my favorite, “You have to look at the church universal and then you’ll see God is doing the same thing.” I don’t buy all of this. We make up excuses so we can keep our comforts of church in North America.

We really don’t want 3000 non-Christians showing up to our church this Sunday. They will stink. They will swear. The pastor is going to have to preach a basic Gospel message not a deep theological expose. Worst of all they will sit in my seat and make me talk to them. Don’t think I’m right? Check yourself the next time you go to church and somebody is in “your seat.”

But churchy people know these rules. Churched people look right, act right, smell right, talk right, and live right. Church people are so much easier to live with, work with, deal with, and have on your ministry team. The only Biblical problem is that they only attract other church people.

I’ve been guilty of this. At one point my family started going to this new church and I knew a lot of my old Christian School buddies were unhappy with their churches so I told them to come to mine. They came and loved it. Then I invited some of my non Christian friends and they came a few times and then stopped. Now the relationship was awkward. It was uncomfortable. It wasn’t clean.

We have this idea that when we tell people about Jesus and share the Gospel with them that we’ll have the Full House music play in the background and then Kirk Cameron comes out of the kitchen and gives them a Bible while the credits come across the screen. That would be easy. Sometimes it is easy. Most of the time it’s not easy. We have to be ready to fail. We have to be ready to have people dismiss us.

Nobody likes to be rejected. That’s why most of our ministries are focused on churched or previously churched people. The problem with this focus is that it creates dead faith. Jesus and the Gospel no longer brings people from death to life but rather from good to better. The reason this eventually creates zombie faith is because it looks and feels like the Gospel of Jesus but it really is the gospel of moralism/humanism/deism which is really no Gospel at all.

Having people coming to your church who have no problem (yet) with the fact that they are horrible rotten sinners is distracting, expensive, awkward, and messy. I dare you to find anywhere in the Gospels where Jesus’ preaching is anything but messy. Even when Jesus was dealing with the religious it was messy.

What would Jesus say to you if He came into your church today?

This sentiment is not going unnoticed and I know a lot of people reading this will say that they got it down. Some people get it and nobody is perfect at it. My issue still lies with church leadership. While I do believe in higher standards for Church leaders, I do think it is sad we are snobby about who we give a title too.

I was working for a church as a youth pastor and I had two leaders in my group. Both were funny, weird, a little awkward, and great with the kids. One was an desk jockey who dressed in collars, clean jeans, and short hair. The other was a laborer with tattoos, dreadlocks and tattered clothes. The pastor told me I should invest my time and energy into the first guy because he didn’t like the image of the second guy.

That was the beginning of the end for me. If we are going to have everybody at our churches we have to understand that we will attract people that are nothing like us. We will have people coming through the door that we don’t like. We will have people sitting in our pews that we would cross a street to avoid if we were in town.

This goes both ways and we have to get over ourselves.

I’m done bitching so here’s the fix: Get out of your offices, get out of your Christian bubble, and invite your non Christian coworkers to your house for a BBQ. Live life with them. Show them Jesus through you. You don’t have to wait ‘til Sunday to share the Gospel with somebody.

Most people outside of the church have a good sense for bullshit (most people in the church have an appetite for it). If your faith is real they will know it. If you really love Jesus, they will know it. This isn’t saying they will like it, but they will respect it.

To end this I’ll steal an analogy from Neil Cole: What the church is doing now is like a farmer building a barn, standing in the doorway and yelling for the crops to come in. This won’t happen. We need to get our hands dirty.

Christianity is Dead

“Everyone will hate you because of Me.” -Luke 21:17

“Punk Rock died the day the first kid said, Punk ain’t dead.” -Bill Mallonee


There has been a raging debate as long as I can remember about the status of punk rock. Punk is dead. Punk isn’t dead. Both sides have great arguments. After the surging popularity of bands like the Ramones and Sex Pistols and after The Clash started selling out stadiums the edge may have started to wear off. Then we had bands like Green Day, Blink 182, MxPx coming onto the scene and making it marketable, the old timers said it was done. While bands like Rancid, Minor Threat, Pennywise, Dropkick Murphys, and Bad Religion would make even the most cynical of us believe that Punk will always survive it’s safe to say that it certainly loses it’s way from time to time.

I was talking to some of the Hipster kids I work with and I told them I was excited because Punk was becoming punk again. They didn’t get it. I told them it was simple. Listening to punk was no longer cool or how this generation was rebelling. Thus, it was subversive again. It was underground and could possibly stand for something once again. It was fantastic.

Much like punk Christianity is becoming a subversive subculture again and I am excited. I laugh at pastors and politicians who freak out that our country is not falling in line with the point of view of the Bible. They act as though it is some cosmic treason that non Christians aren’t living like Christians or upholding Christian values.

Uh, Duh?

Let’s face it. Thanks to the 1980s North American Christians have become fat and lazy. For a while we had “Christian” presidents and politicians who convinced us that we live in a Christian nation. We had pastors who, when they weren’t stealing money or doinking their secretaries, were letting us know that the morals in America were strong and Christian. Jesus got radio play. The Holy Spirit put out a top 40 record. Christianity became mainstream. People saw the money that could be made and the power to be had.

Thank Christ that is all changing. It took me awhile to get to this point but now whenever I hear somebody on Fox News or Focus on the Family talk about how the world’s going to hell in a handbasket and how Christian values no longer rule society I send up a quick prayer of thanks. People are ignoring the Bible all over the place and things are going bad. People are either egotistical or lazy. It’s all about feelings and the individual. I’m so freaking happy.

See here’s the bass-ackwards part. It is not the church that’s shunning the philosophy of the world (most churches happily embrace it but that’s another blog for another time) but rather that the world is shunning the church. It feels as though the gauntlet is being tossed down. “We don’t need your church” seems to be the cry from those on the outside. Dammit, they are right.

But now, for me anyways, it’s the best of both worlds.  Want to be like Christ? Go to a Bad Religion concert. Want to be punk rock? Go to a Bad Religion concert sporting a “Jesus Saves” t-shirt. Face it hippies and punkers, you’ve won the cultural battle and the oppressed have become the oppressors. Face it friends of Fallwell, the Left has won and is in charge. Secular humanism reigns supreme. Now we can really be like Jesus.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, there are some people that are fighting really, really, hard to keep the Christian Culture cool, hip, and popular. I’m not sure if it’s for religious, Biblical, or fiscal reasons, but, dammit, they are working like the Dickens to keep it “relevant.” And why not? Once Christianity loses its marketability it will be harder to follow.

Whoa, what a novel, frickin’, idea. Too bad God and Jesus came up with it first. Then Peter talked about it, and oh yah, Paul, James, John, and way before them we had Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel--yah, see the pattern. I triple dog dare you to find one passage in the Bible where God says, “Go, preach my word, and it’s all going to be chill.” The closest thing we have to that is Jonah and Jonah tweaked out when it happened. When was the last time you preached in Las Vegas and all the casino owners closed up shop and the hookers put sweatshirts on?

I know a lot of you who are coming to this realization that Christianity no longer reigns supreme in North America are about to cry all over your Joel Olsteen books and blow your nose on your Jeremy Camp t-shirts. Calm. Breathe. It’ll be okay. Christianity is dead but Christ is not. For some of you that might even be a scarier thought. This may not mean you have to give up all of Christian culture but you have to give up the idea that it is what saves you. When you get to heaven there isn’t a special house for the person who has the entire Kutless discography.

Christianity has never been based on what we do but on what is done for us. Yes, we show our love for Jesus through our life change like we show love to our spouses through fidelity. That living for Jesus, that love for Christ, that desire for Him and Him alone is what makes the world hate us. Culture is moving in a different direction. This direction is away from the Bible and the saving Grace of Jesus. This makes culture progressive and Christianity subversive. Why? Because obviously if culture is moving in a direction that direction is forward to all those who are leading the charge. The rest of us are dirty, stupid, street punks that don’t value education, science, or rules.
I love it! For thousands of years Christianity meant sacrifice. All over the world Christianity still means sacrifice. In those places Christianity grows like mad because it actually involves life change. It actually costs something. In developed nations Christianity is, “Okay God, you give me this, this,this, and a little bit of that and I will honor you with my Sunday mornings.” You go to places where Christianity kills you, makes you a pariah, or where they are lacking severely in material stuff, and it’s all, “Jesus, you did so much, how can I do more?” We are slowly getting back to that point.
Now check yourself. Does this excite you and piss you off? If you’re scared and pissed ask yourself if you’re a cultural Christian or a Christ follower. If we are cultural Christians we get scared when we see Facebook posts, presidential speeches, and blogs about how Christianity is stupid, science is God, faith in something is key, philosophy reigns, and Christian music is dumb. We get all up in arms and scared because it looks like our culture is getting dismantled. However, if you’re a committed follower of Christ these things are just a little annoying, kinda sad, and sometimes just adorable hissy fits.
Christian culture in the developed world needs to be dismantled. It’s hilarious. People need to make fun of the crap we worship instead of Christ. American Christianity has become to Jesus what Sum 41 became to the Clash: a cheap, laughable, rip off.  
No punkers and Christ followers here we go. It’s time to realize that we won’t ever fit in totally. The question is are you going to be okay with that? 

Danny Exyle is the chief writer for Sinners Circle Blog. Follow him on Twitter if you want his random rantings throughout the day and follow Sinners Circle Blog on Facebook.

Equal Opportunity Offender

            Welcome to America where you can be as offensive as you want to be about whatever point of view you have. As long as you aren’t punching people you are more then welcome to call them a pinko-commie-hippie-liberal-baby-killer and as long as you’re not sending them death threats you can call somebody a right-wing-fascist-woman-hating-fundamentalist-Neanderthal. Freedom of speech, baby! Oh yah! It’s a beautiful thing!

            The best part is that no matter what you’re point of view you can find enough people and “facts” to back it up and make yourself feel superior over the other side. You can find enough statistics, reports, and scientific data, to prove your point of view all day long. And don’t worry, since you have all that, when somebody brings up an alternate point of view, opposite data, or a question you can’t answer, there are enough politicians out there to teach you how to sneer, laugh condescendingly, and let the other person know that the data you’ve collected is totally unbiased and that their data is wrong.

            It is so easy to get caught up into the political, and religious venom in this country (especially during election time) and forget that we’re dealing with real people. Every four years we are either Democrats or Republicans. Liberals or Conservatives. Red or Blue. Nobody has names only sides. That person at work who we used to chat with about Dancing With the Stars is now a buffoon because they won’t vote for our guy or see things our way. They don’t see the world they way we do therefore they must have some kind of mental disability. Okay, that’s harsh; they are just ignorant and uneducated.

            So yes, you can be as offensive as you want. You can Facebook, Tweet, blog, Tumblr, whatever you want. You can post as many ironic pictures with funny tag lines attacking whatever core values of whomever as much as you want. You can pride yourself for taking a stand and letting the world know how you feel.

            And you won’t be changing a damn thing.

            When you get into a fight and somebody pulls out a knife the rules change. If you have a knife you pull it. If you have a bigger knife you pull it. You react to what gets tossed at you and you have to go bigger. Ideological debates are no different.

            The Right has a news station so the Left needs one.

            The Christians have blogs so the Atheists need them.

            The Democrats have attack ads so the Republicans make them.

            Bigger. Better. Faster. Stronger. Louder. That’s what we have to do in order to “beat” the other guy. We don’t have to have all the facts just the money and the megaphone and people will believe it. We have to make the world a better place for all the people so we have to attack those who disagree with us.

            Do you want to change somebody’s mind? Go buy them a cup of coffee and ask them why they believe what they believe and then shut up. Nobody believes what he or she does by accident. Maybe that Democrat grew up on food stamps and WIC after their father died in battle. Maybe that Republican was nearly aborted as a baby and worked his ass off to make her company a success. We all have our reasons and they are not usually better then anybody else’s.

            I grew up in the 1980s Evangelical church (and yes, I still believe in Jesus). If you were a Christian you voted Republican and that was it. If you voted Democrat then your conversion to Christianity was obviously fake. Now I work in a very liberal environment where if you vote Republican you obviously didn’t go to college and you’re a knuckle dragging, religious nut. These sentiments have led me to neutrality for one major reason: both sides really feel like they are doing the best thing for the people at large. If you sit down and really listen to somebody from the opposite side that you’ve placed yourself on you’ll usually be surprised at how articulate, thought out, and honest they are. They are not your enemy they are human just like you. They don’t hate like you think they do they just see the world differently because of the life they have led.

            Social media has destroyed this. We now judge people by what they post on line. We feel as though we know their whole life story and what they believe because they “like” Mitt Romney on Facebook or #Obamarocks on Twitter. That’s narcissistic bullshit. It is impossible to know somebody through this. It’s impossible to make a perfect opinion on somebody when all you see is them ranting with impunity.  

            Of course there are the stereotypical nut jobs out there that make both sides look bad and it’s the media’s job to put them and their out of context sound bites all over the web in order to fuel a position. There are people out there that just love to hate. They are ignorant, they are loud, and they don’t represent real people. Experience tells me they are the minority.

            I really don’t care who you vote for or which side you lean. I probably disagree with you on a lot of issues and agree with you on some others. La-di-frickin-da. But as tensions rise what I want you to remember is as you rant, rave, get passionate, and freak out, people won’t be changed by how loud you are but how much you care about them.

           

            Oh, and when you take the gloves off, don’t bitch about getting a knuckle sandwich.

                                                                        -D.Ex

We are all Exiles

“For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” -Romans 8:20-21

“We all long for [Eden], and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most humane, is still soaked with the sense of ‘exile’.”
-J.R.R Tolkien
       
        Do you ever feel like you don’t belong? Do you ever feel like the more you buy into society, professionalism, religion, materialism, or the American Dream the less you have? I see a lot of band-aids on bullet wounds. I see a lot of smiling faces that cannot afford honest questions. I see a lot of people buying into things and not being satisfied. I see a lot of people creating strongholds to defend because, by god, they need something to pour their lives into.
        We all want success. We all want to be part of something big. We all strive for fulfillment. We pay a lot of money, spend a lot of time, sacrifice a lot of people just to get a head only to find that there are still people ahead of us and crap still rolls down hill. We don’t know where we belong. Nothing seems to fulfill long term. It’s almost like we’re living in a body that doesn’t like us, and a world that is just waiting to spit us out.
        This is exile.
        Read through Genesis 1. When God created the world He said it was good. Don’t believe in Creation? Okay, when things evolve they are supposed to get better. Everything is supposed to be on the up and up right? It was on the up and up until man came into the picture and started goofing things up. Let’s take it from the Biblical standpoint that we had a perfect planet with a perfect society, with perfect people and then we chose something else. We chose to disrupt that perfection for a “better way.”
        We now live in a world that is so far from Eden that the very thought of paradise is considered a myth. It’s such a myth that we look at the world around us and assume that this is all there is. We look at our broken relationships and assume this is as good as it gets. We know we were made for something better but, dammit, that is so hard to see and so far off that it must not exist.
This is all of our own choosing. Every good thing, every good feeling, every smile, comes from God and is just a poor reflection of Eden’s perfection. Every bad thing, every pain, every sorrow, comes from somebody going against God’s perfect plan and trying to re create Eden without that pesky God guy.
Now that you know you’re in exile you have a choice to make. Will you make a home here or will you look to your future home? Most people just pitch a tent and live in the confines of exile. This is easy. Its all there is. It’s not fully satisfying but nothing is. Nothing is perfect but if we try really hard we can create a good life for us here.
The other choice is to remember our father and that we don’t belong here. That feeling of emptiness is natural because we are broken.  That feeling like we don’t belong is because this world is not how it is supposed to be. You can doll it up, you can create a nice life but deep down we all know this place is not why we are here and it is not going to last.
Does that sound crazy? Read the tabloids. Check out how many celebrities are in rehab, are getting divorced, or killing themselves. You can have everything you want and still want more. Does that sound like freedom? Does that sound like paradise? That sounds like exile to me.
        It’s a hard choice to make. We all want to belong. We all want to know and be known. The fleeting success that comes from work, sex, religion, and everything else this world offers is like heroin; you never get back that feeling of the first time but you keep trying.
This is not our homeland. Do we fight to assimilate into this mouse wheel of an existence or do we rebel and fight for our homeland? Either way it’s a knock-down drag-out.

Gentlemen of the Road: Portland Stopover

When you have a band as lyrically deep and thoughtful as Mumford and Sons and you know the preparation that is going into the Gentlemen of the Road stopover tour it’s hard to not look at it as a serious event. When 12,000 tickets sell out in under twenty minutes it’s hard to not think about how this event could go down in history and you’d be part of it. It’s nearly impossible to look at the event without wide eyed wonder. Then they give you a free mustache when you enter.

I can honestly say that the Gentlemen of the Road Portland Stopover was one of the funnest days I’ve had in a long time. It wasn’t that I was constantly entertained but rather that I didn’t have to be. The whole feeling of the day, the mix of music, food, beer, nature, and the town left me happy and smiling most of the day. They created a mood and a vibe that would rival a religious experience.

Being fairly new to Portland, Maine I wasn’t sure what to expect about the Eastern Promenade but since I’m naturally an ocean lover finding out that the day’s backdrop would be the Casco Bay made me happy. As my wife and I walked from downtown up Munjoy Hill we were welcomed with a homemade donut from a local vendor (whoever thought of putting sea salt on a chocolate donut is a genius) and a gorgeous view of the bay.

The festival itself was set up very well. The Promenade was blocked off nicely, the volunteers and security were polite and helpful, and we entered rather quickly, all things considered. Having the two stages helped kill downtime between sets and having them close together also kept us who just wanted to sit and enjoy from having to get up and move every time the bands changed. My wife and I sat in the 21+ seating area which gave us a great view of both stages, the bay, and let us remember why we left the kid with my parents. The free water on a 90 degree day was a nice touch. I’ve been to many festivals where they don’t let you bring in food or water but don’t worry, they’ll happily sell you a 6 oz Dasani for $20.

My only complaint about the festival set up was the food. The food was good there just wasn’t enough of it. It was a bummer to have to stand in line for an hour to get a burger and miss a band or two. I’m sure it was no fun either for those sitting on the hill who had people waiting in line standing in front of them and around them.

But the music made it all worth it. The show started right around 2 o’clock and there wasn’t more than a 15 minute break between sets for the rest of the day. I have never seen a festival with that kind of turnaround time (well, except for old Warped Tour where the bands first song was their sound check). The sound was well done except for stage two had microphone issues at the beginning of two of the sets.

The bands picked for the tour were nearly perfect. The music was diverse but not much of it was out of place.  The first act of the day was Simon Felice. He started the day on stage two and fell victim to the microphone problem. I’m sure the lyrics to his first song were great, but nobody could hear them. Lyrically Simon didn’t wow me but he had no lack of talent or passion musically. I’ll admit to having a soft spot for fiddle and upright bass so he had me at hello. I met him in the water line by saying, “You’re wearing a Gentlemen of the Road badge. You must be important. Who are you?” He laughed, told me who he was and chatted with me for a bit. He was very grateful for being there and gushed about the show more like a fan then an artist. It was nice to see the human side of what’s on stage.

I’ll admit to not being into the next band of the day, but the sisters of Haim were well received by the crowd. They were musically eclectic and talented but their sound was a lot older then they looked with vocals and synth that made me think of 1987. I will admit that they were fun to watch. They had a serious energy and having three pretty girls jamming out and rocking a full band drum solo is always a good time.

The Apache Relay and The Maccabees were the first two bands that made me really sit back and go, “wow!” I found them to really get me into the festival mood. The Apache Relay reminded me of Against Me! on their meds while The Maccabees first couple of songs reminded me of Cool Hand Luke from back in my early festival days. I’ll admit that I only heard most of The Maccabees’ set because I was in a ridiculous food line, but I was tapping my feet and bobbing my head the whole time and that is always a good sign.

Okay, time for me to be a jerk. St. Vincent was the only band of the day that made me say, “Oh my gosh, are they still playing?” The vocals were solid and some of her lyrics were ironic and bordering on depth. Musically I felt like they had no idea where they were going but they were going there really slowly. They had a lot of sludgy industrial synth sound that made me feel like earlier in the week they bought the complete Joy Division and New Order discography and said, “We can do that” and tried. The crowd seemed to dig them and the people I was with said their sound live was not at all what is on their records so this is a band to at least give a good look at but they were by far the weakest link of the day.

Dawes was the best band that I had never heard of. I had seen them bopping around Noisetrade  but never really gave them a chance. Boy was I missing out! They had everything I like in a non-punk band: solid music with a great command of the stage, and honest, thoughtful lyrics that put everything you hold dear under the microscope. I saw a video of Mumford & Sons live and they said, “The biggest mistake we can make at a concert is playing right after Dawes.” I don’t know if I fully agree with that but I will tell you Dawes was the only opener besides Dropkick that I would run out and buy tickets for.

Oh yes, The Dropkick Murphys! When I found out that the DKM boys were added to this show I nearly messed my pants. I see DKM every St. Patty’s Day and they are one of my all time favorite bands. They played a show at the State Theater later that night (which I had to miss. I wasn’t bringing my pregnant wife in there! Are you nuts?) so this was just a teaser set. The original bill said “acoustic set” which was blown out of the water when they came out unintroduced, rocking “The State of Massachusetts. They played half the set plugged in and half the set unplugged. ! I will admit they were a little out of place with the hipster crowd, but for us punkers who were there, for whatever reason, it was a great warm up for Mumford.

Now understand Mumford & Sons is a family affair for us. The CD is constantly in the car, my wife and I actually agree on them (which would be like Obama and Romney agreeing on, well, anything) and my five year old boy can sing “The Cave” in its entirety. My wife worked her tail off to get us these tickets and she sat, pregnant, in the 90 degrees all day to hear them.

They were effing amazing.

I had heard their live show was great and I was not disappointed. Everything they did was very intentional but not scripted. The light show fit and wasn’t overbearing. Bits of it were cheesy but I even feel like that was intentional. Playing “Little Lion Man” second was a bold move. I was happy they got it out of the way early to shut up all the radio fans (which I’m assuming there weren’t many). All the songs from their upcoming Babel album were well received and it sounds like we’ll get at least one more magical Mumford album.

What did surprise me was how little Marcus talked. He strikes me as a true poet and seeker who is trying to figure stuff out through music. He is very talented musically, owning both guitar and drums, and lyrically he is amazing. Somehow he was able to run the whole show without being overbearing. A lot of bands I see with strong lead singers look like they are going to fist fight when they leave stage but not Mumford & Sons. The whole band just looked like they were having the time of their lives. I got the feeling they got off stage and said, “I don’t believe that just effing happened!”

I am not sure if this show will be remembered as historic as it felt. At the end of the night the bands were praising the city of Portland and thanking the fans and letting us know the day’s success was a joint effort. All I know is that if Portland is smart they will let more festivals play the Promenade and if Mumford is smart they will swing by again, and again.