Word of Life Church Podcast

<p>Wherever people hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and begin to love God with all their hearts, love their neighbor as themselves, embrace the way of peace and reject war, refuse to be an agent of accusation, choosing advocacy instead, there Satan falls like lightning.</p>

<p>The "Sons of Thunder," James and John, wanted to call fire down from heaven on a Samaritan village who refused to welcome Jesus. In their petition they were able to cite Scripture because Elijah had done this. But Jesus rebuked them, saying, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of." The question isn't can we find it in the Bible, but can we find it in Jesus. If we weaponize the Bible to hurt other people, we do not have the Spirit of the Lord.</p>

<p>Don't surrender your faith in Jesus to an ideological ism. Nationalism, Socialism, Capitalism, Marxism, Conservatism, Progressivism, Fundamentalism, Liberalism, etc. Isms can easily become possessed, turn into a herd, and rush off a cliff. Sit with Jesus instead. Jesus will put you in your right mind. Following Jesus may sometimes look conservative or sometimes look progressive. But it’s Jesus we are following, not an ideological ism.</p>

<p>This sermon is about the long, gradual, Spirit-guided journey into the dazzling light of all truth.<br><br>Tell all the truth but tell it slant —<br>Success in Circuit lies<br>Too bright for our infirm Delight<br>The Truth’s superb surprise<br>As Lightning to the Children eased<br>With explanation kind<br>The Truth must dazzle gradually<br>Or every man be blind —<br>–Emily Dickinson</p>

<p>The Holy Spirit is the experience of God. Thinking about God is theology. And theology matters. Theology is the Queen of the Sciences. It’s important that we think as accurately as possible about the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—just like it’s important that we think as accurately as possible about physics, chemistry, and mathematics. But relatively few people are called to do the actual hard work of creating and writing theology. Not everyone is called to be a theologian. But the message of Pentecost is that everyone can experience God!</p>

<p>On the seventh Sunday of Eastertide we look at the culmination of great story of redemption. At the end of the Bible we discover that the gospel story does not end with the lucky elect whisked off to heaven—it ends with heaven coming to earth. And the story does not end with the demise of the nations—it ends with the healing of the nations.</p>

<p>"I do not know what is happening. The reason of my waking mind tells me that great evil has befallen and we stand at the end of days. But my heart says nay; and all my limbs are light, and a hope and joy are come to me that no reason can deny. In this hour I do not believe that any darkness will endure!”<br><br>–The Return of the King, The Steward and the King</p>

<p>Sermon by Jonathan Martin.<br><br>In this sermon, Jonathan Martin reimagines Luke's story of two<br>disillusioned disciples walking the Emmas road away from the holy city, where they had watched their hope die a gruesome death right before their eyes. With compassion born from his own experience, Martin reveals that the resurrected Christ is profoundly present with us-even as we walk away. This is a sermon to help you feel seen in your spiritual journey and all its complexities ... and to find home where you least expect it.</p>

<p>With the resurrection of Jesus Christ the darkness is fading and the true light is already shining. But how do we know if we are shining in the light or drifting into the darkness?</p>

<p>The greatest revelations of divine love come from showings of the risen Christ. But these showings are not just for first century disciples or medieval mystics; Jesus wants to show himself to all of us, and in ways that are unique to our experience.</p>

<p>"What inclines even me to believe in Christ’s resurrection? It is though I play with the thought of it – If he did not rise from the dead, then he decomposed in the grave like any other man. He Is Dead and Decomposed. In that case he is a teacher like any other and can no longer HELP; and once more we are orphaned and alone. So we have to content ourselves with wisdom and speculation. But if I am to be REALLY saved – what I need is…faith. And faith is faith in what is really needed by my heart, my soul, and not my speculative intelligence. For it is my soul with its passions, as it were with its flesh and blood, that has to be saved, and not my abstract mind. Perhaps we can say: Only LOVE can believe the Resurrection." -Ludwig Wittgenstein</p>

<p>Jesus preaches his own Easter sermon, when in the book of Revelation he says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty (Pantocrator). Fear not! I am the First and the Last. I am he that lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Death and Hades." Because it is Jesus Christ, the Almighty Pantocrator, who has the keys of Death and Hades, we can fear not!</p>

<p>The cross is the true center of history—everything leads up to it and everything flows from it. The death of God upon a tree is not just some event within history, it is the event that defines and explains, reveals and redeems all of history. However we understand the origin of sin within the human story, its trajectory moves inevitably toward Good Friday. This is the moment when the Spirit of Love that flows between the Father and Son erupted to engulf and forgive the sin of the world.</p>

<p>During his final days in Jerusalem, Jesus prophesied the end of the old temple and the emergence of a new temple -- a new temple known as the Body of Christ. This new temple is not made of limestone, but of living stones. One of the chief characteristics of this new temple is its radical inclusivity -- it is to be a temple for all people.</p>

<p>The thing that was initially the most obvious about Jesus was that he was a healer. Everyone knew that Jesus was a healer, even his enemies, who sought to use this against him. In the story of Jesus healing the man with a withered hand in the synagogue on the sabbath, we look at Jesus—who is the perfect revelation of God—and ask this theological question: Is the character of God revealed in the power to harm or heal?</p>

<p>What happens when the carriers of hope and healing become the cause of harm and hurt? The wounds cut deeper, the pain becomes unbearable, and the harassed and helpless feel like sheep without a shepherd. Despite the failure of the church at times, there remains a good shepherd who walks with us through every valley. Jesus is the healer of every disease and every affliction including the afflictions suffered because of his church.</p>

<p>Ultimate Healing<br>The healing of Lazarus brought the dead back to life. Much like the other events of healing in the ministry of Jesus, this miracle demonstrated God’s glory, majesty, and magnificence. People saw Jesus' authority as he raised the dead and many believed in him. This miracle was a sign for those present at the tomb of Lazarus and a sign for us. The raising of Lazarus is a sign that our ultimate healing will take place in the resurrection at the end of the age.</p>

<p>Jesus carried our sins in his own body on the cross so that he might take away our sins, our brokenness, our sickness. This is the good news buried in the sorrow of Lent. He was wounded so that we could be healed, both body and soul, healed both on the outside and the inside, and so we bring sick people to Jesus with our prayers whether their brokenness is in their bodies, minds, or emotions.</p>

<p>We tend to make a hard theological distinction between sin and sickness, between iniquity and illness, between guilt and death; but Jesus doesn’t seem to make that kind of hard distinction. In his great compassion Jesus looks upon all of us as soul-sick sinners broken by a terrible fall, and he comes to help us, to heal us, to forgive us, and to restore us. The salvation we find in Jesus Christ is holistic.</p>

<p>You have heard it said, God helps those who help themselves. But I say unto you, God helps the helpless and leaves the rest to help themselves. We are saved when we call upon the name of the Lord—and we call upon the Lord when we know we can't save ourselves. When we go into the ashes and wait in the place of loss, we admit that we need God.</p>

<p>Scripture references are NRSV.<br><br>Transfiguration Sunday, February 27, 2022<br>Mystics on the Mountains<br><br>One of the most remarkable aspects of the Transfiguration is the appearance of Moses and Elijah—Moses who lived twelve centuries before Christ and Elijah who lived nine centuries before Christ. Moses and Elijah were mystics who had had their own encounters with God on a holy mountain. They were Mystics on the Mountains.</p>

<p>During the season of Epiphany leading up to Lent, the Gospel readings in the lectionary are focused on the early ministry of Jesus—that is, from his baptism to his transfiguration. What we find in the first half of the Gospels is the healing and teaching ministry of Jesus as he travels throughout Galilee. This sermon will look at the core of Jesus’ kingdom message—The Politics of Heaven.</p>

<p>When Jesus began his public ministry in Galilee around the age of thirty, the thing that drew the crowds and spread his fame was that he was a healer. John the Baptist was famous as a preacher and baptizer, but Jesus was first of all famous as a healer and miracle worker. From curing Peter’s mother-in-law of her fever in Capernaum at the beginning of his ministry to resorting Malchus’ severed ear in the Garden of Gethsemane at the end of his ministry, Jesus was a healer. When we look at the ministry of Jesus we can say…Hence Comes the Healer.</p>

<p>"Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self. This is the man that I want myself to be but who cannot exist, because God does not know anything about him. And to be unknown by God is altogether too much privacy. My false and private self is the one who wants to exist outside the reach of God’s will and God’s love—outside of reality and outside of life. And such a self cannot help but be an illusion. … The secret of my [true] identity is hidden in the love and mercy of God."<br>—Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation</p>

<p>Jesus was rejected in his hometown. What are we to think of the people of Nazareth? Were they just more dull-witted or hard-hearted than the people of Capernaum? No. They had simply stumbled at the offence of familiarity. And today in Western society, we're all from Jesus hometown.</p>

<p>My life has become so intertwined with the story of the Wedding Feast at Cana that it has become the primary way that I tell my born again again story. Every time I read about how Jesus turned the water to wine, I feel a deep personal connection with the story. It’s become my story—or at least some of my story. And when the Gospel stories become our stories, this is when Scripture is doing its most profound work in our lives. I love the whole Bible, but I have a particular love for the story of Jesus’ first miracle. My love for this story is such that whenever I just hear the word Cana, it makes me happy. When I hear the baffled steward say, “But you have kept the best wine until now!”, I think, “That’s my story too!” The story of how in midlife Jesus turned the water to wine and I discovered the vintage I’d been looking for all my life.</p>

<p>The spiritual genius of the lectionary is on display when the water and flame poem of Isaiah 43 in the Old Testament is connected with Luke’s account of Jesus’ baptism in the New Testament. By making this connection, we are shown that God’s promise to be with us as we pass through rivers and waters, through fire and flame, is fulfilled, as all the promises of God are, in Jesus. For Christ Jesus is the one who joins us in the waters of baptism and the one who purifies us in the baptism of fire.</p>

<p>The star of Bethlehem is not to be found in a re-creation of ancient astronomy. The star of Bethlehem is the "more sure word of prophecy" that rises in our hearts in response to the proclamation of the gospel.</p>

<p>Christ is not just born in the beautiful places of our lives, as if we live in the idyllic bubble of a snow globe. Christ is also born in the war-torn places of our lives, littered with rubber bullets and teargas canisters. Jesus was not born into a fairytale but into the world as it is.</p>

<p>Our secular age doesn’t make much room for a world filled with blessings. Our age is one that wants to reduce everything down to cold sterile mechanisms, where everything is predictable, provable, and explainable. We are given the choice to live in a world of blessings or curses. What kind of world do you want to live in? God who blesses all humanity has made a way for us to live in a world full of blessings because Jesus rescued us from the curse. If we want to live in a world full of blessings then we have to do our part and impart blessings to others including those who curse us. When we bless those who curse us, we neutralize cursing. When we curse those who curse us, we normalize cursing. Choose to bless.</p>

<p>I have climbed highest mountains<br>I have run through the fields<br>Only to be with you<br>Only to be with you<br>I have run<br>I have crawled<br>I have scaled these city walls<br>These city walls<br>Only to be with you<br>But I still haven't found what I'm looking for<br>But I still haven't found what I'm looking for<br>I have kissed honey lips<br>Felt the healing in her fingertips<br>It burned like fire<br>This burning desire<br>I have spoke with the tongue of angels<br>I have held the hand of a devil<br>It was warm in the night<br>I was cold as a stone<br>But I still haven't found what I'm looking for<br>But I still haven't found what I'm looking for<br>I believe in the kingdom come<br>Then all the colors will bleed into one<br>Bleed into one<br>But yes I'm still running<br>You broke the bonds<br>And you loosed the chains<br>Carried the cross<br>Of my shame<br>Oh my shame<br>You know I believe it<br>But I still haven't found what I'm looking for<br>But I still haven't found what I'm looking for<br>But I still haven't found what I'm looking for<br>But I still haven't found what I'm looking for</p>

<p>Think about it, there must be higher love<br>Down in the heart or hidden in the stars above<br>Without it, life is wasted time<br>Look inside your heart, I'll look inside mine<br><br>Things look so bad everywhere<br>In this whole world, what is fair?<br>We walk blind and we try to see<br>Falling behind in what could be<br><br>Bring me a higher love<br>Bring me a higher love<br>Bring me a higher love<br>Where's that higher love I keep thinking of?<br><br>Worlds are turning and we're just hanging on<br>Facing our fear and standing out there alone<br>A yearning, and it's real to me<br>There must be someone who's feeling for me<br><br>Things look so bad everywhere<br>In this whole world, what is fair?<br>We walk blind and we try to see<br>Falling behind in what could be<br><br>Bring me a higher love<br>Bring me a higher love <br>Bring me a higher love<br>Where's that higher love I keep thinking of?<br><br>Bring me a higher love<br>Bring me a higher love <br>Bring be a higher love<br>I could rise above on a higher love<br><br>I will wait for it<br>I'm not too late for it<br>Until then, I'll sing my song<br>To cheer the night along (bring it)<br><br>I could light the night up with my soul on fire<br>I could make the sun shine from pure desire<br>Let me feel that love come over me<br>Let me feel how strong it could be<br><br>Bring me a higher love<br>Bring me a higher love<br>Bring me a higher love<br>Where's that higher love I keep thinking of?</p>

<p>Welcome to your life<br>There's no turning back<br>Even while we sleep<br>We will find you<br>Acting on your best behavior<br>Turn your back on mother nature<br>Everybody wants to rule the world<br>It's my own design<br>It's my own remorse<br>Help me to decide<br>Help me make the<br>Most of freedom and of pleasure<br>Nothing ever lasts forever<br>Everybody wants to rule the world<br>There's a room where the light won't find you<br>Holding hands while the walls come tumbling down<br>When they do, I'll be right behind you<br>So glad we've almost made it<br>So sad they had to fade it<br>Everybody wants to rule the world<br>I can't stand this indecision<br>Married with a lack of vision<br>Everybody wants to rule the world<br>Say that you'll never, never, never, never need it<br>One headline, why believe it?<br>Everybody wants to rule the world<br>All for freedom and for pleasure<br>Nothing ever lasts forever<br>Everybody wants to rule the world</p>

<p>The sixth century BC was a very difficult time for the Jewish people. Their holy city and their holy temple had been destroyed, and most of the survivors had been deported into forced exile in Babylon. The difficult challenge they faced was how to survive as exiles in Babylon and maintain their monotheistic faithfulness to Yahweh. How do you integrate into Babylonian society so that you can have a life but at the same time retain your Jewish identity? How do you live in a pagan world without becoming a pagan yourself? This is what the book of Daniel is about.</p>

<p>The Crucifixion is not a defeat to be overturned by Resurrection; the Crucifixion is a victory revealed by Resurrection. The cross was made by Christ to become the portal by which he invaded death to liberate the dead ones.</p>

<p>In Cain the world was organized around an axis of power enforced by violence. Violent power became the organizing principle for human civilization. This is the story of Cain of Abel, the story of Romulus and Remus, the story Sméagol and Déagol. These archetypal stories remind us of dark truths we would rather keep hidden. But Jesus came into the world to shine the light, tell the truth, and re-found the world. In Christ crucified the world is re-founded around an axis of love expressed in forgiveness.</p>

<p>On Good Friday the sin of the world coalesced into a hideous singularity that upon the cross it might be forgiven en masse.</p>

<p>John's poetic prologue to his Gospel is one of the loftiest presentations of Christology in all the New Testament—it's also one of them of the most beautiful passages of Scripture. John's theopoetics reaches its crescendo when proclaims that until we see Jesus, we've never seen God.</p>

<p>When Jesus was dedicated in the Temple, two old prophets -- Simeon and Anna -- spoke of the infant Jesus as Salvation and Redemption. Indeed, Jesus will save both Simeon and Anna, but neither of them knows how.</p>

<p>We look for Jesus in the story of Isaac, because as Christians that is how we read the Bible. Issac is the son of promise. Jesus is the fulfillment of all the promises of God. Isaac is the son of laughter. Jesus is the bringer of joy. Isaac is the son of sacrifice. Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Isaac serves as a signpost pointing to the hope, joy, and new life we find in Jesus.</p>

<p>In his many adventures Abraham constantly encountered Christ in some way. Abraham encountered Christ in the Voice that called him out Ur of the Chaldees and into the land of Canaan. In the foreshadowing of Melchizedek king of Salem who gave him bread and wine. In the trinity of strangers he entertained at his tent under the oaks of Mamre. In the smoking oven and burning torch that appeared when the covenant was cut. In the ram caught in the thicket on Mount Moriah on the day Isaac was offered up. Truly Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I AM.”</p>

<p>Jesus is the Ark that carries the Cosmos away from corruption and into God’s new creation. Just as there was a door placed in the side of the Ark for access to salvation, so the side of Jesus was pierced that creation might enter the heart of Christ and be carried through the flood of destruction and arrive safely in a redeemed world where all things are made new.</p>

<p>Where do we find Jesus in Genesis in relation to Adam? We find Jesus as a new Adam who gives humanity a new original ancestor. We find Jesus in the Seed of the Woman who crushes the head of the serpent. We find Jesus in the One who comes in search of lost Adam.</p>

<p>If we read the Old Testament as only predating Christ instead of deeply anticipating and foreseeing Christ, we have failed to read it in a Christian manner. But when we see Christ as the Creator, as the New Adam, as Noah’s Ark, as Abraham’s sought-after city, as Isaac’s ram on Mount Moriah, as the ladder between heaven and earth that Jacob saw, as foretold in the life of Joseph, then are we reading the Old Testament in the way Jesus taught his disciples to read it following his resurrection.</p>

<p>John Brown went off to war to fight on a foreign shore<br>His mama sure was proud of him!<br>He stood so straight and tall in his uniform and all<br>His mama’s face broke out into a grin<br><br>“Oh son, you look so fine, I’m glad you’re a son of mine<br>Make me proud to know you’re wearing a gun<br>Do what the captain says, lots of medals you will get<br>We’ll put them on the wall when you come home”<br><br>That old train pulled out, John’s ma began to shout<br>Telling everybody in the neighborhood<br>“That’s my son that’s about to go, he’s a soldier now, you know”<br>She made well sure her neighbors understood<br><br>She got a letter once in a while and her face broke into a smile<br>She showed them to the people from next door<br>She bragged about her son with his uniform and gun<br>In this thing she called a good old-fashioned war<br><br>Then the letters ceased to come, for a long time they did not come<br>Ceased to come for about ten months or more<br>Then a letter finally came saying, “Go down and meet the train<br>Your son is coming back from the war”<br><br>She smiled and she went right down, she looked up and all around<br>But she did not see her soldier son in sight<br>When all the people passed, she saw her son at last<br>When she did she could not believe her eyes<br><br>Oh his face was all shot off and his hands were blown away<br>And he wore a metal brace around his waist<br>He whispered kind of slow, in a voice she didn’t know<br>And she couldn’t even recognize his face!<br><br>“Oh tell me, my darling son, tell me what they’vd done<br>How is it that you come to be this way?”<br>He tried his best to talk but his mouth could hardly move<br>And the mother had to turn her face away<br><br>“Don’t you remember, Ma, when I went off to war<br>You thought it was the best thing I could do?<br>I was on the battleground, you were home acting proud<br>You wasn’t there standing in my shoes”<br><br>“Well, I thought when I was there, Lord, what am I doing here?<br>Tryin’ to kill somebody or die tryin’<br>But the thing that scared me most was when my enemy came close<br><br>I could see that his face looked just like mine”<br><br>“And I couldn’t help but think, through the thunder rolling and stink<br>I was just a puppet in a play<br>And through the roar and smoke, the string it finally broke<br>And a cannonball blew my eyes away”<br><br>As he turned away to go, his mother was acting slow<br>Seeing the metal brace that helped him stand<br>But as he turned to leave, he called his mother close<br>And he dropped his medals down into her hands</p>

<p>My name was Richard Nixon only now I'm a girl<br>You wouldn't know it but I used to be the king of the world<br>Compared to last time I look like I've hit the skids<br>Living in the project with my two little kids<br>It's not what I would of chose<br>Now you have to call me Rose<br><br>I was boss of bosses the last time around<br>I lived by cunning and ambition unbound<br>The suckers said they'd stand behind me right or wrong<br>As if they thought that hubris was the mark of the strong<br>I was an arrogant man<br>But now I've got it in hand<br>It's not what I would have chose<br>Now you have to call me Rose<br><br><br>Call me Rose<br>Call me Rose<br><br>It's not what I would have chose<br>Now you have to call me Rose<br><br> <br><br>My name was Richard Nixon only now I'm a girl<br>You wouldn't know it but I used to be the king of the world<br>I'm back here learning what it is to be poor<br>To have no power but the strength to endure<br>I'll perform my penance well<br>Maybe the memoir will sell<br>It's not what I would of chose<br>Now you have to call me Rose</p>

<p>We're all born to broken people on their most honest day of living<br>And since that first breath we'll need grace that we've never given<br>I've been haunted by standard red devils and white ghosts<br>And it's not only when these eyes are closed<br>These lies are ropes that I tie down in my stomach,<br>But they hold this ship together tossed like leaves in this weather<br>And my dreams are sails that I point towards my true north,<br>Stretched thin over my rib bones, and pray that it gets better<br>But it won't, at least I don't believe it will<br>So I've built a wooden heart inside this iron ship,<br>To sail these blood red seas and find your coast<br>Don't let these waves wash away your hopes<br>This war-ship is sinking, and I still believe in anchors<br>Pulling fist-fulls of rotten wood from my heart, I still believe in saviors<br>But I know that we are all made out of shipwrecks, every single board<br>Washed and bound like crooked teeth on these rocky shores<br>So come on and let's wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief<br>And fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beach<br>Come on and sew us together, just tattered rags stained forever<br>We only have what we remember<br><br>I am the barely living son of a woman and man who barely made it<br>But we're making it taped together on borrowed crutches and new starts<br>We all have the same holes in our hearts<br>Everything falls apart at the exact same time<br>That it all comes together perfectly for the next step<br>But my fear is this prison, that I keep locked below the main deck<br>I keep a key under my pillow, it's quiet and it's hidden<br>And my hopes are weapons that I'm still learning how to use right<br>But they're heavy and I'm awkward, always running out of fight<br>So I've carved a wooden heart, put it in this sinking ship<br>Hoping it would help me float for just a few more weeks<br>Because I am made out of shipwrecks, every twisted beam<br>Lost and found like you and me scattered out on the sea<br>So come on let's wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief<br>And fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beach<br>Come on and sew us together, just some tattered rags stained forever<br>We only have what we remember<br><br>My throat it still tastes like house a-fire and salt water<br>I wear this tide like loose skin, c’mon, rock me to sea<br>If we hold on tight we'll hold each other together<br>And not just be some fools rushing to die in our sleep<br>While these machines will rust I promise, but we'll still be electric<br>Shocking each other back to life<br>Your hand in mine, my fingers in your veins connected<br>Our bones grown together in time<br>Our hands entwined, my fingers in your veins connected<br>Our spines grown stronger inside<br>Because I know that our church is all made out of shipwrecks<br>From every hull these rocks have claimed<br>But we pick ourselves up, and try and grow better through the change<br>So come on and let's wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief<br>And fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beach<br>Come on and sew us together, were just tattered rags stained forever<br>We only have what we remember</p>

<p>Well, I came upon a child of God<br>He was walking along the road<br>And I asked him, tell me, where are you going<br>This he told me<br>Said, I'm going down to Yasgur's Farm<br>Gonna join in a rock and roll band<br>Got to get back to the land and set my soul free<br><br>We are stardust, we are golden<br>We are billion year old carbon<br>And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden<br><br>Well, then can I roam beside you?<br>I have come to lose the smog,<br>And I feel myself a cog in something turning<br>And maybe it's the time of year<br>Yes and maybe it's the time of man<br>And I don't know who I am<br>But life is for learning<br><br>We are stardust, we are golden<br>We are billion year old carbon<br>And we got to get ourselves back to the garden<br><br>By the time we got to Woodstock<br>We were half a million strong<br>And everywhere was a song and a celebration<br>And I dreamed I saw the bomber death planes<br>Riding shotgun in the sky,<br>Turning into butterflies<br>Above our nation<br><br>We are stardust, we are golden<br>We are caught in the devil’s bargain<br>And we got to get ourselves back to the garden</p>

<p>Saw a man's home, a box made of cardboard<br>Frozen to the bone, can't take much more<br>He says Lord I need help here, send me a strong hand<br>To lift me from the street, help me to stand<br>I've been forgotten, been forsaken<br>Poisoned by a bottle I could not shake it<br>I've been passed over, been rejected<br>And I'm afraid I'll never feel<br>The warmth of summer come again<br>Man I am helpless, I'm freezing<br>You were there, you were there<br><br>I saw a sick man on a sick bed<br>Scorned by the world like he had two heads<br>He says I'm a man here dying a cruel death<br>I'm cut off from the world, man it was so sad<br>He was suffering, he was ailing<br>Tortured by his fate, his body was failing<br>He says I'm an outcast, left defenseless<br>And I'm afraid that I'll be dead<br>Before the summer comes again<br>I've been rejected, man I am dying<br>You were there, you were there<br><br>Saw a rich man alone in a dark house<br>A prison made of gold he could not break out<br>He says my life is aimless, it just seems pointless<br>Boredom truly kills, man I am hopeless<br>I got diamonds, I got houses<br>I got silver clouds and silver spoons to match it<br>I've come up empty, man I am desperate<br>And I never want to feel<br>The warmth of summer come again<br>I'll be forgotten, my life is over<br>You were there, you were there<br>You were there, Lord, you were there</p>