Life in Austin, Texas Was Like...Nicky the Stranger

(I never want to forget what it was like to live in the weirdest city in America. Austin will always be a home to me. This was in 2014.)

After an evening at Kerby Lane for a late night pancake gathering with friends, Traci and I pondered what else to do. Just up South Lamar was an English style pub that had late hours and the word 'grill' in the title, so we assumed they might serve food. Screens scattered around the faux old English decor were showing shark week, so we were hooked. Did you catch that? And that... I digress.

Being that is was open mic night we ordered fish and chips and settled in for some random amateur entertainment.  After a few jangly guitar tunes were plinked out by a variety of nervous bearded hipsters, a guy got up who was never gonna be famous but looked like he might die trying. He was a glorious train wreck of Pat Boone, Cirque du Soleil, a slam poet, and a game show host. He started out like Leonard Cohen or Barry White singing to a track and suddenly shed the white suit coat for a blue sequin coat underneath.  A couple of spins and a backflip later this guy (who goes by the name Nicky the Stranger) is leading the pub in a singalong of a song that was entirely made up of words impossible to decipher. It was so oddly mesmerizing that I didn't even think to snap a pic.

When he finished to a chorus of cheers the MC said with a hint of semi sarcasm, "Thanks, Nicky. Always a nice change of pace from the usual." Shark week, a fake British Pub, and Nicky the Stranger in his sparkly blue glory. What a wonderful, weird Sunday night in Austin, Texas.

A New Covenant Clarity

Everything from the Old Covenant needs to be interpreted through the New Covenant. In the New Covenant we have 1 Corinthians 13 (Love keeps no record of wrongs, never fails, etc), 1 John 4:7-8 “…Love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” And the words of Jesus leading up to the cross, “Love your enemies” Luke 6:31.

The New Covenant didn’t change the nature of God, but it did shift how He deals with mankind. "Now, in Christ, we who were afar off have been brought near by His blood” Eph 2:13. The blood of the New Covenant abolished the old covenant (detailed in Ephesians 2) and brought us into adoption as heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ.

We now revisit the old covenant simply to celebrate what the cross and resurrection accomplished. We don’t throw away that glorious New to re-embrace the blind fearful foreboding of the old. I don't view Old Testament verses on hate as elevated above the New Covenant verses on love. Ephesians 2. The Old Covenant was nailed to the cross. Romans 8. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ has set us free from the law of sin and death. I don't know what was happening back then to cause them to interpret what they were getting as the hatred of God towards man, but in Christ we get a different picture. If He commands us to love our enemies, what do you think He does with His?

Hebrews 1:3 says Jesus is the exact representation of the Father's nature. So anything I find in the old covenant that I can't substantiate in the life of Jesus Christ, we have reason to question. The Old Covenant was one big question to which Jesus is the answer. John 5:35. So I'll never exalt an old covenant perspective of God over the clear representation of Christ. When you have a contrast between the old and the new you don't have to try to reinterpret the old, rather simply align with the new covenant and thank Him for it.