No parentheses

I first posted this awhile ago. Felt stupid about it and stashed it in the draft bin. Here is a revision.

At the beginning of the dvd that comes with Wilco's Sky Blue Sky Jeff Tweedy says:

I wanted a lot of the songs on the record to be... really kind of direct. I think that the world is so mysterious and so scary, and kind of terrifying right now. It just felt really weird to try and write puzzles and kind of disjointed and non-sequiter type imagist kinda lyrics. So I think right now is a pretty good time to just sit down and sing people some mother f-ing songs. I know that's what I want. Just somebody to sing me a song.

For some reason I like that. I'm not exactly sure why, but every time I hear it it's like... yeah.

Reminds me of the Bible where it says "let your yes be yes, and your no be no." Like... just be real.

But, I know, it's complicated by the fact that so many people have so much anger, and chips on shoulders, and axes to grind, and grudges to hold.

I was thinking about a non-parenthetical church too. What if we could have a time where we got together... sang some songs of praise to God; prayed; read Scripture - just read it, and didn't really have to have a sermon; and took communion together. Sometimes I think we try too hard. We need less of 'us'; less of the 'add-on'.

One definition of "parentheses" is: "departure from topic: a piece of speech or writing that wanders off from the main topic." How much of life - of church - has become that? We've totally gotten off track.

Non-parenthetical church: real people; real God.

Hmm. I dunno...