Driving the kids to school on Wednesday, we were listening to “Hometown” by twenty one pilots. Having recently read Amos and Ezekiel the following lyrics were particularly engrossing:

Put away, put away
All the gods your father served today
Put away, put away
Your traditions, believe me when I say
We don’t know, we don’t know
How to put back the power in our soul
We don’t know, we don’t know
Where to find what once was in our bones

“Hometown” by twenty one pilots

The gods/traditions of our fathers are CONSUMERISM/MATERIALISM, and STATUS-ISM. Our consumerism & status-ism are directly execrated by King Jesus in His emphatic confrontation of our elite class of venerated plutocratic theologians, “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! …Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” [Mark 7:6-9; 12:38-40]

God deploys the bucolic bumpkin prophet Amos with the following message, “I will strike your beach houses, along with your mountain houses; and your houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall come to an end. …I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.” [Amos 3:15; 5:21-23]

A shadow tilts its head at me
Spirits in the dark are waiting
I will let the wind go quietly
I will let the wind go quietly

Be the one, be the one
To take my soul and make it undone
Be the one, be the one
To take me home and show me the sun
I know, I know
You can bring the fire, I can bring the bones [EZEKIEL 37]
I know, I know
You make the fire, and my bones will make it grow

Where we’re from, there’s no sun
Our hometown’s in the dark
Where we’re from, we’re no one
Our hometown’s in the dark
Our hometown’s in the dark

A shadow tilts its head at me
Spirits in the dark are waiting
I will let the wind go quietly
I will let the wind go quietly

Put away, put away
All the gods your father served today
Put away, put away
Your traditions, believe me when I say
We don’t know, we don’t know
How to put back the power in our soul
We don’t know, we don’t know
Where to find what once was in our bones

Where we’re from, there’s no sun
Our hometown’s in the dark
Where we’re from, we’re no one
Our hometown’s in the dark
Our hometown’s in the dark

A shadow tilts its head at me
Spirits in the dark are waiting
I will let the wind go quietly
I will let the wind go quietly

Where we’re from, there’s no sun
Our hometown’s in the dark
Where we’re from, we’re no one
Our hometown’s in the dark

“Hometown” by twenty one pilots