“WONDERING AND WANDERING”
by Rick Jones, Husband of the Minister's Wife
I sat down intending to share the story about the state trooper who . . . but then I realized that I still haven't shared the joke I told to open my first sermon as pastor of Goodold Baptist Church. I keep mentioning it, but some other topic will distract me. The title for my column, “Incessant Divagation”, is justified by the way my brain works. “Divagation” means “wandering” and “incessant” means “without ceasing”. That describes my thought process pretty well. It can be a hindrance when I'm working on a project: for example, while preparing a sermon on Peter's miraculous release from prison [Acts 12] I'll start thinking about Paul and Silas in prison [Acts 16]. That reminds me of the joke about the events in Acts 16 shared by Johnny Cash in his novel, Man in White. Now, I'm pretty sure Johnny sang “In the Jailhouse Now”, but wasn't it a duet? Time to hit the internet and find out. Next stop, Wikipedia.
No. “In the Jailhouse Now” was a hit for Johnny, but it's not the song I was thinking of; nor is “I Got Stripes.” I was looking for “There Ain't No Good Chain Gang”, a duet with Waylon Jennings.
Wow, I just realized that I haven't heard any Waylon for a while. Since I did actually get something done, it should be okay to take enough time to listen to one of Waylon's best songs, “Rose in Paradise”. And when's the last time when's the last time I saw the marvelous Muppets cover of “Bohemian Rhapsody”? That reminds me of “Bethlehemian Rhapsody” by ApologetiX. They're a Christian group which puts new lyrics to old and new hits, and have an amazing range of styles, covering anyone from Elvis and the Beach Boys to Eminem, Hoobastank and the Go-Gos.
Makes you wonder how I ever get back on track, doesn't it?
Fortunately, ApologetiX did a parody of “Jailhouse Rock” by Elvis, which tells the story from Acts 16, which nudged me back pretty close to Acts 12. Unfortunately, they also parodied Deep Purple's “Smoke on the Water” with “Walk on the Water”, relating to another event in Peter's life, and now I'm headed down another track . . .
Which reminds me of a story. Unfortunately, that story doesn't concern a state trooper, a sermon joke, or anything else I had been planning to write about. Instead, it's about the time I met Stan Lee, who co-created Spider-Man. You see, he autographed the cover of my copy of Amazing Spider-Man #65, which featured a jailbreak scene . . .
