WEBVTT 00:00:05.840 --> 00:00:08.800 Well, howdy there, fellow spiritual hitchhikers. 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:12.119 You're back on the semi -seminary where we tip 00:00:12.119 --> 00:00:16.160 our hat to big ideas, savor scripture, and laugh 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:19.260 a little while we learn. I'm your buddy, Pastor 00:00:19.260 --> 00:00:22.019 Jim, your guide on this theological road trip 00:00:22.019 --> 00:00:25.300 today. We're roaring down Bob Dylan's Highway 00:00:25.300 --> 00:00:28.780 61, revisited that legendary blues highway that 00:00:28.780 --> 00:00:34.280 soaked in sweat. sorrow, and sacred songs. Before 00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:37.460 we hit the blacktop, though, let me paint the 00:00:37.460 --> 00:00:40.659 picture. Highway 61 stretches from Dillon's Minnesota 00:00:40.659 --> 00:00:44.880 backyard all the way down to the steamy juke 00:00:44.880 --> 00:00:48.159 joints of New Orleans. It runs parallel right 00:00:48.159 --> 00:00:52.340 along the Mississippi River. It's the corridor 00:00:52.340 --> 00:00:55.719 of the Great Migration driven by dreams of a 00:00:55.719 --> 00:01:02.270 better life, haunted. by Jim Crow's Shadow. On 00:01:02.270 --> 00:01:06.430 this road, this highway, sharecroppers sang sorrow 00:01:06.430 --> 00:01:10.549 into the night, blues legends made magic in dim, 00:01:10.650 --> 00:01:14.329 cotton -filled hollers, and civil rights foot 00:01:14.329 --> 00:01:17.549 soldiers marched for dignity. Dylan pens each 00:01:17.549 --> 00:01:22.469 verse right here for a reason. It's not just 00:01:22.469 --> 00:01:25.689 telling stories. He's holding up a mirror to 00:01:25.689 --> 00:01:31.629 our souls to... America's soul. Using an all 00:01:31.629 --> 00:01:34.609 -powerful authoritarian God to shine a spotlight 00:01:34.609 --> 00:01:40.769 on the way we use power. So, grab your coffee, 00:01:40.810 --> 00:01:43.109 settle in, and let's cruise right into verse 00:01:43.109 --> 00:01:46.650 one where Abraham meets the divine drill sergeant 00:01:46.650 --> 00:01:51.810 right out there on that blues highway. Hey, I'll 00:01:51.810 --> 00:02:03.269 see you at the end of the road. So, after a raucous 00:02:03.269 --> 00:02:08.349 instrumental intro, Dylan enters with, God said 00:02:08.349 --> 00:02:13.050 to Abraham, kill me a son. Abe says, man, you 00:02:13.050 --> 00:02:16.870 must be putting me on. They have a back and forth 00:02:16.870 --> 00:02:21.229 there. Eventually, God tells Abraham where he 00:02:21.229 --> 00:02:26.449 wants this killing done, out on Highway 61. Dylan's 00:02:26.449 --> 00:02:29.090 first verse isn't about warm, fuzzy comfort. 00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:33.560 It's about raw authority. He crafts a God who 00:02:33.560 --> 00:02:36.919 demands unquestioning obedience, then points 00:02:36.919 --> 00:02:42.219 Abraham to carry it out on Highway 61. In Genesis 00:02:42.219 --> 00:02:47.340 22 and 2, we read, take your son, sacrifice him 00:02:47.340 --> 00:02:50.599 there as a burnt offering. But here, God doesn't 00:02:50.599 --> 00:02:55.639 offer mercy. In Dylan's version, God only offers 00:02:55.639 --> 00:02:58.719 commands, the back and forth. Abe says, what? 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:05.060 God says run, paints a deity whose power crushes 00:03:05.060 --> 00:03:09.060 human agency. Placing this exchange out on Highway 00:03:09.060 --> 00:03:12.719 61, a road stamped with the weight of Jim Crow, 00:03:12.900 --> 00:03:16.259 where black families risked everything for freedom, 00:03:16.479 --> 00:03:22.719 dramatizes the imbalance of power. Highway 61 00:03:22.719 --> 00:03:25.560 carried sharecroppers, blues musicians, and civil 00:03:25.560 --> 00:03:28.460 rights marchers who lived under laws. They didn't 00:03:28.460 --> 00:03:33.539 make. Dylan in the song satirizes a God of absolute 00:03:33.539 --> 00:03:39.180 compliance, reflecting upon us, showing us how 00:03:39.180 --> 00:03:42.319 our authority figures, whether divine or governmental, 00:03:42.860 --> 00:03:47.879 use blind obedience to subjugate the marginalized 00:03:47.879 --> 00:03:52.189 and the oppressed of our society. Just as laws 00:03:52.189 --> 00:03:55.150 on the highway once controlled bodies and opportunities, 00:03:55.509 --> 00:03:59.189 Dylan's God wields divine fiat to illustrate 00:03:59.189 --> 00:04:04.150 how unchecked power often leads directly to society's 00:04:04.150 --> 00:04:11.990 sins, oppression, fear, dehumanization. This 00:04:11.990 --> 00:04:15.270 is no call to mercy. It's a flashing siren of 00:04:15.270 --> 00:04:18.430 authoritarianism. And the theological sting? 00:04:20.110 --> 00:04:23.449 When we lean on a God who demands obedience over 00:04:23.449 --> 00:04:27.290 compassion, we echo the very systems that crush 00:04:27.290 --> 00:04:31.930 the oppressed. True faith isn't about submitting 00:04:31.930 --> 00:04:35.350 to power. It's about standing with the powerless, 00:04:35.610 --> 00:04:40.290 reflecting Jesus, who pleaded, I will give you 00:04:40.290 --> 00:04:47.319 rest, so don't fear. Now enters Georgia Sam. 00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:51.019 Well, Georgia Sam, he had a bloody nose. Welfare 00:04:51.019 --> 00:04:53.720 Department, they wouldn't give him no clothes. 00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:57.540 He asked poor Howard, where can I go? Howard 00:04:57.540 --> 00:05:01.300 said, there's only one place I know. Oh, Howard 00:05:01.300 --> 00:05:04.420 pointed with his gun and said, that way down 00:05:04.420 --> 00:05:09.040 Highway 61. Poor Howard here is Sheriff Howard. 00:05:09.879 --> 00:05:13.379 Now let's meet Georgia Sam, a hardworking, soul 00:05:13.379 --> 00:05:16.620 -beaten, down -by -the -very -system -sworn -to 00:05:16.620 --> 00:05:19.019 -lift -him -up kind of guy, his bloody nose isn't 00:05:19.019 --> 00:05:21.579 just from a street fight, it's the marks of poverty 00:05:21.579 --> 00:05:25.819 and neglect. And when the welfare office turns 00:05:25.819 --> 00:05:30.699 him away, Dillon shines a spotlight on how bureaucracies 00:05:30.699 --> 00:05:34.019 will wield authority like a cudgel against the 00:05:34.019 --> 00:05:37.680 vulnerable. In many parts of the Jim Crow South, 00:05:37.980 --> 00:05:40.759 sheriffs often would routinely round up vagrants. 00:05:41.709 --> 00:05:44.689 Often black sharecroppers or itinerant workers 00:05:44.689 --> 00:05:48.829 put them in the back of the squad car and drove 00:05:48.829 --> 00:05:52.310 them to the county line and warning them to never 00:05:52.310 --> 00:05:56.970 return. His practices memorably depicted the 00:05:56.970 --> 00:05:59.810 film Crossroads, where these traveling bluesmen 00:05:59.810 --> 00:06:02.449 are branded vagrants and expelled without mercy. 00:06:02.850 --> 00:06:06.439 That's exactly what... Sheriff Howard does here. 00:06:06.519 --> 00:06:10.220 He uses his gun as a symbol of power, escorting 00:06:10.220 --> 00:06:13.819 Sam to Highway 61 and effectively exiling him 00:06:13.819 --> 00:06:17.660 from any means of support. Placing Sam's desperation 00:06:17.660 --> 00:06:23.060 out on Highway 61 underscores the brutal imbalance 00:06:23.060 --> 00:06:27.139 of power. The same road that offers a path to 00:06:27.139 --> 00:06:30.459 opportunity and freedom now becomes a boundary 00:06:30.459 --> 00:06:36.040 of exclusion. Theologically, this echoes Isaiah 00:06:36.040 --> 00:06:39.699 10, the first two verses, where unjust laws and 00:06:39.699 --> 00:06:57.500 oppressive decrees are condemned. Dylan's God 00:06:57.500 --> 00:07:00.420 may not be in view here, but the song reveals 00:07:00.420 --> 00:07:05.529 how earthly powers often masquerading as benevolent 00:07:05.529 --> 00:07:08.889 and good institutions, actually become instruments 00:07:08.889 --> 00:07:17.250 of divine neglect when they silence mercy. This 00:07:17.250 --> 00:07:20.110 oppressive bureaucracy parallels the authoritarian 00:07:20.110 --> 00:07:25.129 deity that we found in verse 1. Both demand compliance. 00:07:26.670 --> 00:07:30.029 be it God's fiat or government red tape, leaving 00:07:30.029 --> 00:07:34.069 the marginalized to fend for themselves. The 00:07:34.069 --> 00:07:37.290 gospel calls us to be different, to break down 00:07:37.290 --> 00:07:42.350 barriers. We're to break down barriers, like 00:07:42.350 --> 00:07:45.509 Paul says in Ephesians, not erect them, and to 00:07:45.509 --> 00:07:48.350 embody a higher authority, Christ's authority 00:07:48.350 --> 00:07:57.939 of service, not subjugation. Now we turn to Mac's 00:07:57.939 --> 00:08:02.639 junkyard of patriotism. Dylan says, Mac the Finger 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:05.899 said to Louis the King, I've got 40 red, white, 00:08:05.939 --> 00:08:09.600 and blue shoestrings and a thousand of telephones 00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:14.160 that don't ring. Do you know where I can get 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:19.000 rid of these things? Louis the King said, let 00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:27.240 me think. Take it down to Highway 61. Here, Mac, 00:08:27.500 --> 00:08:29.899 our characters hauling around symbols of hollow 00:08:29.899 --> 00:08:33.000 nationalism, red, white, and blue, yet none of 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:38.960 it fits nor rings true. Dylan skewers empty patriotism 00:08:38.960 --> 00:08:42.759 and shallow communication. These items are trinkets 00:08:42.759 --> 00:08:45.299 that fail to connect people or foster solidarity. 00:08:46.169 --> 00:08:49.570 And by dumping them out on Highway 61, Dylan 00:08:49.570 --> 00:08:53.309 again ties authority to abandonment, like a commanding 00:08:53.309 --> 00:08:56.009 voice telling you to march to your own demise. 00:08:57.009 --> 00:09:01.509 The promise of patriotic unity becomes a tool 00:09:01.509 --> 00:09:07.669 for subjugation, funneling disenfranchised masses 00:09:07.669 --> 00:09:12.870 of people down a road of sorrow and disillusionment. 00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:18.419 Scripturally, this echoes Amos chapter 5, 21 00:09:18.419 --> 00:09:22.460 through 24, where God rejects hollow ritual. 00:09:22.600 --> 00:09:27.360 I hate, I despise, God says, I despise your religious 00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:31.740 festivals. But let justice roll on like a river 00:09:31.740 --> 00:09:34.340 of righteousness, like a never failing stream. 00:09:34.820 --> 00:09:38.279 Max shoestrings and silent phones are festival 00:09:38.279 --> 00:09:42.500 trappings without justice. True faith. isn't 00:09:42.500 --> 00:09:46.299 waving the flag. It's living out God's justice 00:09:46.299 --> 00:09:53.259 and righteousness and community. Now, this is 00:09:53.259 --> 00:09:58.000 very quixotic, this section of the song, this 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:01.620 verse. Verse 4 takes a second, so I'm going to 00:10:01.620 --> 00:10:04.480 slow down a little bit so we can actually kind 00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:07.840 of vibe on what Dylan's trying to say here. In 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:12.840 verse 4, he says, Now the fifth daughter on the 00:10:12.840 --> 00:10:16.100 twelfth night told the first father that things 00:10:16.100 --> 00:10:20.820 weren't right. My complexion, she said, is much 00:10:20.820 --> 00:10:24.799 too white. He said step into the light, but the 00:10:24.799 --> 00:10:28.299 second mother was with the seventh son, and now 00:10:28.299 --> 00:10:32.779 they're both out on Highway 61. Dylan's now dropping 00:10:32.779 --> 00:10:36.759 race into the mix, plain and simple. The daughter's 00:10:36.759 --> 00:10:40.220 complaint about her too -white skin hints at 00:10:40.220 --> 00:10:44.080 social constructs of identity. When the father 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:47.759 instructs her to step into the light, he's demanding 00:10:47.759 --> 00:10:53.360 she face a reality shaped by prejudice. Highway 00:10:53.360 --> 00:10:56.539 61, once a migration route, becomes a boundary 00:10:56.539 --> 00:10:59.360 where identity is both contested and enforced. 00:11:00.539 --> 00:11:04.480 Those with power define who belongs and who is 00:11:04.480 --> 00:11:10.429 the other. using law and custom to keep people 00:11:10.429 --> 00:11:14.610 in their place. It mirrors the authoritarian 00:11:14.610 --> 00:11:20.710 theme using identity as a weapon. Galatians 3 00:11:20.710 --> 00:11:23.529 and 28, though, throws a theological wrench in 00:11:23.529 --> 00:11:26.230 all of this. There is now neither Jew nor Greek, 00:11:26.409 --> 00:11:31.500 for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Dylan's 00:11:31.500 --> 00:11:34.500 highway scene exposes how far we've strayed from 00:11:34.500 --> 00:11:38.039 that unity, how authorities, both divine and 00:11:38.039 --> 00:11:43.059 secular, use arbitrary lines to divide and dominate 00:11:43.059 --> 00:11:48.100 us. And our call as the church should be to tear 00:11:48.100 --> 00:11:51.080 down walls of hostility, not to bolster them 00:11:51.080 --> 00:11:55.659 up with continued laws and prejudice that oppress. 00:11:59.049 --> 00:12:01.470 He's rounding the corner now. He says, now the 00:12:01.470 --> 00:12:06.230 roving gambler, he was very bored. He was trying 00:12:06.230 --> 00:12:10.549 to create a next world war. He found a promoter 00:12:10.549 --> 00:12:13.710 who nearly fell off the floor. I've never engaged 00:12:13.710 --> 00:12:18.070 in this before. And then he comes up with a solution. 00:12:18.309 --> 00:12:20.970 We'll just put up some bleachers out in the sun 00:12:20.970 --> 00:12:26.009 and have it all out on Highway 61. Our gambler's 00:12:26.009 --> 00:12:30.320 not in it for love. He's bored. He wants chaos, 00:12:30.419 --> 00:12:36.759 then sells tickets to the spectacle. Dylan's 00:12:36.759 --> 00:12:42.279 critique here of us, of America, we've commodified 00:12:42.279 --> 00:12:47.659 violence. We've decided to put a profit margin 00:12:47.659 --> 00:12:51.360 on suffering like it's primetime entertainment. 00:12:53.240 --> 00:12:56.700 Theologically, this reminds me of Micah chapter 00:12:56.700 --> 00:13:01.289 6. Verse 8, what does the Lord require of you? 00:13:02.710 --> 00:13:08.529 To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly 00:13:08.529 --> 00:13:12.539 with your God. The gambler violates everyone. 00:13:12.799 --> 00:13:17.059 He acts unjustly. He revels in violence, and 00:13:17.059 --> 00:13:20.080 he elevates himself above mercy. Playing God 00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:23.980 with World War on a roadside stage, he embodies 00:13:23.980 --> 00:13:29.059 the extreme of authoritarian power unchecked. 00:13:30.159 --> 00:13:36.120 Highway 61, again, is the venue where marginalized 00:13:36.120 --> 00:13:42.250 people sought refuge. and now becomes the side 00:13:42.250 --> 00:13:46.889 of the world's worst gamble. Dylan's road trip 00:13:46.889 --> 00:13:51.789 ends on a warning. If we keep betting people's 00:13:51.789 --> 00:13:57.370 lives for sport, history will mark us harshly. 00:13:59.149 --> 00:14:04.090 And that, friends... This is how Dillon's Highway 00:14:04.090 --> 00:14:07.549 61 Revisited exposes the dark side of authority 00:14:07.549 --> 00:14:11.110 from divine mandates to government edicts and 00:14:11.110 --> 00:14:15.110 cultural idols. Each verse shows power wielded 00:14:15.110 --> 00:14:18.789 to oppress rather than to serve. Yet the gospel 00:14:18.789 --> 00:14:22.590 calls us to a different way. One where the greatest 00:14:22.590 --> 00:14:26.230 authority is love. The highest law is mercy. 00:14:26.909 --> 00:14:29.690 The truest road is the one that leads to justice. 00:14:32.130 --> 00:14:35.809 So, next time you're on your own Highway 61, 00:14:35.870 --> 00:14:39.389 whatever that highway may be, remember to always 00:14:39.389 --> 00:14:43.210 choose the route of compassion, not compliance. 00:14:43.950 --> 00:14:51.049 Justice, not judgment. And remember Jesus, who 00:14:51.049 --> 00:14:53.590 bent down to wash our feet instead of commanding 00:14:53.590 --> 00:14:58.649 us to march. Keep your hearts soft, your eyes 00:14:58.649 --> 00:15:02.039 open. and your tires aligned with the truth. 00:15:02.960 --> 00:15:06.519 And remember, the greatest authority we answer 00:15:06.519 --> 00:15:10.259 to is love. And the richest road that we could 00:15:10.259 --> 00:15:14.500 ever travel is one that's paved with both justice 00:15:14.500 --> 00:15:26.840 and mercy. Amen. Folks, I hope this trip down 00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:31.029 Highway 61 has you thinking. About God's power, 00:15:31.190 --> 00:15:35.049 our power, and how they collide on the roads 00:15:35.049 --> 00:15:39.429 of history and in our own lives. And next time 00:15:39.429 --> 00:15:42.789 you feel pressure to obey without question, ask 00:15:42.789 --> 00:15:47.529 yourself, does this bring life or crush it? Does 00:15:47.529 --> 00:15:50.730 it echo divine compassion or is it just another 00:15:50.730 --> 00:15:56.590 bully's command? Something to think about. Hey. 00:15:57.070 --> 00:15:59.149 Thanks for riding shotgun with me today. Keep 00:15:59.149 --> 00:16:02.289 the faith. Keep the coffee hot. Keep your soul 00:16:02.289 --> 00:16:05.370 tank full of grace. I'm your old buddy, Brother 00:16:05.370 --> 00:16:08.049 Jim. This has been the Semi Seminary. And until 00:16:08.049 --> 00:16:10.830 next time, y 'all take care and drive with love 00:16:10.830 --> 00:16:11.909 in your headlights.