I Will Ease Your Mind

In June of 2004 I spent 5 days in downtown Pittsburgh at our yearly denominational meeting (known as General Assembly), which I always enjoy. On the second morning of the trip I was walking from my hotel to the Convention Center where that day's meetings were soon to begin. As I crossed a busy street bustling with taxi cabs and cell phone occupied business people dressed in ways that didn't make sense in the humid sizzle of a Pittsburgh Summer, I saw something in front of the famous Melon Arena that widened my sweat-stinging eyes: a flashing sign which read "Simon and Garfunkel in concert tonight".

Could this be happening? One of my all-time favorite music duos actually giving a concert across the street from my hotel?

In 2004? The same guys who reached their height of fame and parted ways before I was even born?

I walked up to the ticket booth of the Melon Arena, bought one of the few remaining tickets, and returned that night feeling only a slight twinge of guilt that I was missing the evening worship service back at the Convention Center. The concert began at 8 p.m. Words will never do justice in describing what took place in the arena that night. It was two and a half hours of sheer beauty, celebration, and euphoria. The high point of the evening came with the dramatic performance of Bridge Over Troubled Water, as I and 20,000 others were powerless at holding back the tears.

When I arrived back at the hotel I asked a pastor friend of mine how the worship service went. He rolled his eyes and responded, "The sermon message was essentially 'Sin is bad, so don't do it. If you keep doing it, God will find out and you'll be sorry.'" I responded, "I see. How was the music?" He answered, "We sang dirges with archaic vocabulary and minimal instrumentation." He was clearly troubled and uneasy about the evening. I took the elevator up to my room, plopped on the bed and thought to myself, "I listened to two old Jewish guys passionately sing lines such as 'Jesus loves you more than you will know', and 'When tears are in your eyes I will dry them all... Like a bridge over troubled water, I will ease your mind, I will lay me down'. Now you may say that's unfair, and that communicating God's love is not what Paul and Art had in mind when they wrote these songs. And you're probably right. But I tell you this: it eased my mind. It reminded me that though sin IS bad and we SHOULD be sorry for it, God provided a better remedy than simply telling us not to do it. He sent a substitute, One who actually did say "I will lay down my life for you". I will lay me down. I love you more than will know. Believing this is not only the wheel that turns us from our sin, but the bridge that continues to hold us when we do sin, promising to bring us past the troubled, murky water in our hearts.

Yes, seeing Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel eased my mind. Perhaps this is the ease of mind that another Jewish writer (also named Paul), who became a Christian in mid-life, was referring to when he wrote to a church in Philippi, "And the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."