Matt Redman lyrics:

"Dying you destroyed our death. Rising you restored our soul."

I've been singing that a lot lately. Jesus was something "other" than all humanity. He is & was totally unique. It is important to understand WHO Jesus is/was, but it is also important to understand WHAT Jesus is & was. What was Jesus? In part, & a huge part: The Passover Lamb of God. Without this key it's easy describe Jesus as just another "good teacher;" a description of WHO he was. The WHAT in many ways defines the WHO. We should do a better job of telling the story of WHAT Jesus is & was.

"Dying you destroyed our death. Rising you restored our soul."

Every Wed. Jacob & I go & give away coffee, Chai, lemonade, & Jesus to our friends at the drum circle, who by chance congregate next to the weird people at Farmer's Market.

First: This last week I was introduced in what has to be the best introduction ever. As I rolled up & got out of the car one of the guys we talk to on a regular basis shouts, "Check it out everybody Juan Valdez is here!" Doesn't get much better.

Second: A young lady who is hosting youth groups approached Ronee & I to talk to us about how she might be able to bring some youth groups to the circle this summer. We told her that would be great & gave her some easy ways to participate: Bring water, socks, or they could help us make coffee & we could pray together. We mentioned that, "just 'witnessing' to the people in the circle is kinda weird," after she mentioned one of the youth pastor's desire to "witness downtown to people." I'm not sure she understood what a unique group of people we are working with until one of the young hippie chicks took off all of her clothing & started dancing around. I said to her, "kinda crazy here 'cuz just last week somebody died & now this girl (who was in a tree by now) is totally naked." If only someone were willing to tell her she needed Jesus.

This last Wednesday I watched a man die.

Each week a friend & I go to the Farmer’s Market because next door a group of: Hippies, Street Kids, & Homeless people get together to drum &, well, do what they do. However, this week the drum circle stopped for no apparent reason. When I finally noticed the silence I looked over to see the normally noisy group transfixed on the ground. I then walked over to see 3 “street people,” doing CPR on an unconscious man & my friend Jacob praying for him to live. After some time the Firemen arrived & took over; that said, the man was without life.

As I spend each Wednesday afternoon with this group I have been challenged on so many levels. On Wednesdays, within a small patch of land, two groups exist: One, the “normal” Santa Cruz people who go to shop for quality produce; & Two, the “street people,” who, well, do what they do. (We do get the expired Food not Bombs food.) As I’ve spent more time with the “street people,” I have been challenged; there really are some great people in this group. Sadly, I have lumped them all together, but like any group: Christians, Muslims, Gay, Straight, Rich, or poor…there are really honest people & some really funky people. I say all this because when I saw the dead man 3 people, whom our society sees as bad scenery to their otherwise utopian coastal village, were doing CPR on a dead man.

When the police arrived they asked, “Who was this guy?” None of the people in the circle knew; he was a stranger that day. I was stunned because I realized I had watched a man give the dead man mouth to mouth CPR. Moreover, as they were giving the man mouth to mouth he threw up; & after this, as his face was lined with vomit, these “street people,” went right back to work. A person that our society deems a loser put his mouth around the mouth of a stranger; a mouth of a dead man that had just vomited. What kind of man would do such a thing for a stranger? These people, who most of the normal people will never get to know, are incredible people…created in the image of God.