Looe Festival.

Let the celebrations begin:

I am sitting here in the flat waiting for the new day to begin in earnest. The gulls are making their aquaintance known to each other. All it seems are shouting good morning to our little town and all at the same time.

The deliveries for the day are arriving, not only for the "old Rusty" but Mawgans and the Boscarn and the other local places of refreshment; the "sounds of silence" are being invaded by the bustle of yet another morning. I praise God for another day of His grace extended to mankind and especially for my new found community here in Cornwall.


Let the day begin:

We are all about to fly off to our daily duties but there is something different about today:

It all began yesterday when workmen appeared on the beach. Flattening the sand, digging deep holes that put the holiday makers to shame. Their little buckets and spades pale into insignificance against the mechanically dug holes and structures appearing before our very eyes.

What is happenning?

Preparations for the Looe festival are being made. The Looe music festival is upon us. We are being invaded with music fans of varying shades. Interesting???? clothes are the order of the day that we of the older generation can only wonder at. "What on earth they are wearing?" seems to be a popular question amongst my generation. It has always been the question aimed towards our younger people! But then we go back into our memory banks and remember the "beards, hair, kaftans and sandals" that we wore whist putting flowers in our hair, that seems to give us the licence to wax lyrical about how much better things were the 60's or to that fact whatever era we come from! We love to fantasize that the music and clothes and of course the festivals were so much better in our day. I would never have believed you if you had told me that I would one day be guilty of saying exactly the same things that my father did to me.

Oh well; as a famous man once said "there is nothing new under the sun!"


Let the festival begin:

What is it all about? Fans are readying themselves to descend on the fishing town of Looe. They have eager expectations of seeing and adoring their heroes. Sham 69, the Darkness, the Damned and Disraeli and his small gods are about to come and offer great blessing to their band of followers. They will I am sure thrill them to bits. Their followers are already singing their praises to me as I meet them in the cafe. I am being regularly witnessed to as to the great virtues of these rock gods. Fans go to great length in oredr that they might convert me from my old dead Pink Floyd following to the new 21st century rock gods.

They are asking "why do we not all go the way of the Damned?" "Why are we not in the Darkness' club?" "Disraeli has his own little band of gods that will give us all we need!" All that I can say in reply is that it is a "Sham" and even "69" seems to have some significance:

In the bible 7 is a symbol of perfection. For eaxample, 7 days makes one perfect week etc. 7o is often the number of days that God gave for certain things to happen. 69 falls short of perfection that is simply what the 666 of Revelation is all about: not quite reaching the standard that God requires. Sham 69 might well thrill many with their music; it is not not be my cup of tea but that does not make it all bad. Their is nothing really wrong with festvals and certainly not the Looe festival (after all it is organised by a charity who like our very own wish to demonstrate LOve to the people of Looe) but music will never fully satisfy the needs of the heart of mankind.

I am sure that most visitors will leave having been blessed by the experience. There will be much to talk about but when the music fades what will we be left with?

I am guessing that the litter pickers will be busy, the eating and drinking establihments will be making great profits, the rock gods will be resting and accounting. Managers will be gloating, construction workers will be deconstructing and eventually Looe will be restored to normality.

The sad thing about all of this to me is that there is another celebration that takes place over every weekend that goes largely missed by most people. This celebration sees Christians preparing themselves and going to the place Of LIGHT, we having once been Damned due to personal sin but are now forgiven and are Justified. We once followed our own little god's and worshipped their very being but now we are in relationship with the LIVING GOD. We lived a SHAM where we missed the mark or standard that God had set but now we have instead of a "could do better" mark we have a mark of perfect from God Almighty.

As Christians we go to our churches silently in expectation of the great blessing God makes available to us and we hardly tell a soul about it. We would do well to be like the seagulls this morning; they anashamedly have told us all that today has begun and they are now enjoying God's kind provision of another day. We would do well also to learn from our friends who are about to enjoy the music festival and sing its praises loud and long. I wonder why we are so silent about the blessings of being in relationship with God through our faith in Jesus?? Does His sacrifice on our behalf thrill us as much as a David Gilmore (sorry that I do not know who plays for the afore-mentioned bands) guitar solo does??? Are we thrilled to go to the festival of worship in the church as are the rock fans as they go to their particular venue?

I suggest that we are probably not and so we keep silent.

Rock on Looe this weekend, I am sorry that I will not be with you, next year if possible I will stay but I will ceratinly be in a festival this Sunday. It will be a harvest festival in Upper Colwall in Worcestershire where we will be thankful for the harvest of food but more importantly the harvest of souls who have been saved by God's good grace.

I hope that the festival in Looe is a good time but that maybe somebody will find complete satisfaction in Christ alone.