New Testament Reading–Acts 2:1-21
A play starring Lynn Degerstedt as the Announcer and Rev. Brooks Berndt as Peter, “The Rock.”
Announcer: Ladies and Gentleman, you knew them in the sixties for chart topping hits like Love is Nifty, Peace is Fab, and Jesus is Out of Sight. They went gold and platinum with every song. They were righteous, they were boss, they were sent from heaven. They were the Holy Molies. Today, we have one of them with us for a special guest appearance. He’s the one who put rock into rock and roll. That’s right, it’s Peter, “The Rock.”
Peter: Yeah, baby, yeah. Don’t freak out now, you dig. Yeah, baby. Keep it funky. Give me some skin, daddio.
Announcer: I know some of us are about to flip our wig out of excitement, but be groovy and stay cool. We have a rare opportunity today to ask Peter some questions we’ve always wanted to ask him.
Peter: Yeah, baby, yeah. Keep it funky.
Announcer: Peter, a lot of us our familiar with the early years of your band. You had a legendary lead singer, but then tragedy struck. Your lead singer was gone, and suddenly it seemed there would be nothing for your group to do but to end its career.
Peter: Yeah, baby, that was like the biggest bummer of our lives. Before, we had felt like we were on top of the world. Nothing could stop us, baby. Then—boom—that put the big kibosh on everything. All of the sudden we felt like we were left on our own. It zapped us, man. We didn’t know what we were going to do. It was a serious drag, man.
Announcer: Well, Peter, what happened that turned things around?
Peter: Yeah, baby, well, it all happened one morning when I said, “Hey, my brothers and sisters, we need to hang, we need to get ourselves back together. We need to feel some peace and love again.” So we all got together and just started playing our different instruments, and I don’t know how it happened, but all of the sudden, it was like a spirit took a hold of us, man. We were jamming out. Some of our biggest hits were written that day. “Tongues of Fire,” “Blood Red Moon,” “Holy Moly Lives On.” Hey, people say that’s when we went psychedelic. Some said we were doing drugs early in the morning to come up with those songs, but, baby, we weren’t on drugs, we were just caught up in the spirit.
Announcer: You said the spirit took a hold of you. What was that like?
Peter: It was funky, baby, real funky. It was like we realized we still had the music in us. Everything that made us excited and full of passion and purpose was still in us, but we needed to come together in order to find that out. We needed to jam together. Then, we knew we still had our mojo. We were funky, baby, real funky.
Announcer: What happened after that incredible jam session that you had?
Peter: We started to tour, baby. First, it was just a few cities and towns nearby, but soon it just caught fire, man. We went all over the place. We were part of the movement, baby. We were out to change the world. Everywhere we went people were excited. There was hope for the future, a sense of possibility. It was like a whole new world was just around the corner. It was funky, baby , real funky.
Announcer: What was that change like to go from how life was in the fifties to how it was in the sixties?
Peter: Yeah, baby, during the fifties, it was like we were all in a prison, man. We were all wearing our black and white striped clothes. We were all on the chain gang doing whatever the man told us to do. If the man said, hammer, we hammered. If the man said dig, we digged, and it wasn’t the groovy kind of dig, man. It was the sweaty, dirty, kind of dig. You dig. But then, about halfway through 60s, things began to change, baby. It was like a whole new music was in the air. It was liberating, man. Yeah, it was funky, real funky. You no longer had to be in the chain gang. It was like a big jailbreak. All of the sudden the young people just came running out of their jail cells. I wish I could say everything was cool and groovy after that, but some people didn’t know what to do with all that new freedom…but some of us did. We knew it was time to march. It was time for protest. The music from the 60s captures that, man. People felt like they could break free. They felt like they could stand up and speak out. Now, it wasn’t that everything was really new and different. It just felt that way, but those of us who were musicians knew that wasn’t really the case. The Holy Molies played a lot of folk rock. We played with people like Joan Baez, and we knew that our music had a history. Our music came out of all the folk music that had been around for years. It came out of the blues and gospel. Our music was the music of the people, and that music is always alive.
Announcer: Some people would say that music has died.
Peter: Yeah, baby, I know what they mean. A lot of music today has become commercialized. It’s become a product to be consumed by the people rather than an art that comes from the people, but you know I think things today are sort of like they were in the beginning of the 60s. The music back then was all about having fun on the beach and doing the twist, but then something happened. A movement happened. The mentality changed. Peace became fab, justice became hip. It was funky, baby, real funky.
Announcer: What has it been like for you? Has the music stayed alive for you?
Peter: You know when we had that jam experience it was like a mountaintop experience. All of us kept saying to each other, “Man, this is far out.” We all felt like we were experiencing something so powerful it had to come from God, you dig, and God doesn’t go away. It’s like Moses and the burning bush. Sometimes the revelation comes in a flash, but that doesn’t mean God is a flash. The key is to remember what one saw in the flash. That’s the lesson you carry with you. The Quakers call revelations openings. Once you’ve peered through one of those openings, I don’t think you’re ever the same, and when enough people look through one of those openings, I don’t think the world is ever the same. Before we had our revelation, we kept asking the question, “Can we do it? Can we keep the music alive?” After our revelation, we had our answer. “We can do it, baby, we can keep the music alive.” That lesson has never gone away. It’s still with us. It’s funky.
Announcer: Well, you know what everyone here is wondering. We want to know if you’re going to sing for us today?
Peter: Yeah, baby, yeah, but I am going to need everyone here to join with me as we sing some of groovy hymns. You’ve got them in your bulletin…