Today’s find: Pete & Peter

It’s been a few years, but I still vividly recall the setting when Pete Townshend’s confession of faith came to me like a whisper…like a still, small voice.

Now, it’s rather out of character for Pete to speak softly: He’s better known for bodacious guitar licks, electric sonic booms that have rattled the rafters of arenas all around the world as a member of The Who.

But Pete hadn’t even begun playing when he caught my attention that day. He was speaking…providing the backstory to one of his most famous anthems…before performing it during an “unplugged” concert Down Under.

I wasn’t at the concert. I was out on my deck, laying down a fresh coat of waterproofing stain…and listening to tunes (just to help pass the time) on a CD I’d borrowed from one of my sons.

Here’s what Pete said about his song:

“I’d like to start with a song that’s about how the God-Man’s love, the master’s love, is the most precious thing that you can find. But somehow, although it takes you a lifetime, or a number of lifetimes, to find, it’s still strangely enough the easiest thing…the cheapest thing…the simplest thing to find, to get. And I call it ‘The Bargain.’”

I certainly wasn’t expecting to be evangelized by Pete Townsend that day. But it wasn’t long before my productivity ground to a halt…as I began to contemplate the lyrics in a whole new light: Jesus, speaking to Pete. Jesus speaking to me about the deal he’s willing to offer each of us:

I’d gladly lose me to find you…gladly give up all I have.

To find you, I’d suffer anything and be glad.

I’d pay any price just to get you.

I’d work all my life and I will.

To win you, I’d stand naked, stoned and stabbed.

I call that a bargain…the best I ever had.

In recent days, I’ve had the opportunity to play this acoustic recording for some fellow greybeards in a faith-sharing group. It had much the same effect on them that it had on me, out on the deck, all those years ago. We can’t quite believe what we’re hearing today in Townshend’s still, small voice. We can’t fathom what we’ve been missing during each of the dozens (if not hundreds) of times we’ve listened to The Who’s electric version through the years.

Which makes us not unlike another Pete, I suppose: Saint Peter…who in this week’s gospel passage has a bit of trouble recognizing the God-Man in his midst.

Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”
[Jesus] said, “Come.”

Of course, once he sees…he hesitates no longer. Peter goes all-in. On some level, he seems to get that his faith won’t be strong enough to weather every storm. Even so, he steps out of the boat. He professes his faith: “Lord, save me!” Why? Perhaps because Peter fully expects to cash in on the deal Jesus offers. He knows it’s a bargain – the best he’s ever had.

Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.

IHS