“American Pie” at the Farmers Market

Bible Text Proverbs 29:18 [paraphrased] Where people reject God’s revealed truth, the nation perishes.  But blessed are those who heed His instruction.

On July 9, 2016, I went to the farmers’ market in our town.  A guitarist entertaining us with oldies, was virtually ignored until he began a song that has 877 words.  Soon a group of ten or so gathered to enjoy Don McLean’s, 1971 Grammy Award winning epic, “American Pie”.  We looked like a happy crew, tapping our toes and softly voicing the lyrics, but by the third chorus, I felt a lump in my throat, and tears began welling up.  What was wrong with me?  

1. “American Pie” is an emotional paradox.  While the music is frolicking fun, the lyrics relate tragic events from 1959-1970.  Each calamity leads to the phrase “the day the music died,” before returning to the chorus, which concludes ominously: “This’ll be the day that I die.”  

2. The farmers’ market sing-along occurred only thirty-six hours after an assassin gunned down five police officers in Dallas, turning up the heat of racial tension in America.  Race riots — common in the 1960s — are plaguing our nation once again.  

3. “American Pie” testifies to the Baby Boomers’ confidence that we were going to change the world.  And “American Pie” displays the failure of that generation, and all later ones, to evade the decline of our nation.  

My heart always grows heaviest at the final event described in “American Pie.”  It goes like this:

I went down to the sacred store

Where I’d heard the music years before

But the man there said the music wouldn’t play

And in the streets the children screamed

The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed 

But not a word was spoken

The church bells all were broken

And the three men I admire most

The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost

They caught the last train for the coast

The day the music died

One could interpret these lines several ways, but here is my take.  Religion in America has become institutional, hollow, and ineffective.  We followers of Christ in America have failed to invite our neighbors to know God.  Therefore, the Triune God has every right to pull out and leave us to our own devices.  We can see this happening on several fronts.  The results aren’t pretty.

Prayer: Father God, awake US now.  While the US appears to be happy, we are hollow.  We confess we have often focused on ourselves, failing to demonstrate the love of Christ to others.  Pour out Your Holy Spirit upon US.  Teach US the music of Your holiness, love, and kindness, so that many hearts will turn to Your kind heart and accept Your reign over US.  Amen. 

By Pastor Phil Bickel