Name Your Price

May 30, 2011
My father only told me this story one time, and it was many years ago.  So there are some facts missing, but I believe the details I do recall and have shared below are basically accurate:


Early to Mid-1970s Orlando was a very different place from the sprawling metropolitan area that now blisters the skin of the state's entire mid-section.  Orlando was, at that time, simply the largest of a number of small towns that dotted the landscape.  Walt Disney's resort, which would change the face of Central Florida, was in its early life, and no one could yet predict the extraordinary developments that would bring skyscrapers, a tourist strip, multiple theme parks, an NBA franchise, and one of the nation's busiest airports.


During this pre-metropolitan era, Orlando had no significant venue for large scale events; yet the general area sometimes attracted the attention of concert and show promoters due to its central location within the Florida Peninsula.  For such events, the venue with the largest capacity was east of Orlando and was named the Eddie Graham Sports Stadium.  The Eddie Graham was a large, unairconditioned, tin roofed building with a muddy parking lot, a bare concrete floor, and a reputation for a rough crowd.


In spite of its crude construction, this stadium attracted some very big name performances including Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Starship, Three Dog Night, Black Sabbath, Grand Funk Railroad, Rod Steward, Jimi Hendrix to name a few.  The alcohol and drugs flowed freely and the police pretty much took a hands-off approach to the place, though on at least one occasion they did show up to teargas an unruly crowd.

Some of the concerts held at the Eddie Graham involved the use of a piano, and frankly, pianos do not well handle environments like that found within this stadium.  So it was that in the final hours before one concert, it was discovered that the piano to be used that evening was hopelessly out of tune, and a frantic search was made for a piano tuner who could come immediately.  Enter Stan Julin, the ultimate non-rocker, the unhippie, a Daniel in a den of lions.  The concert could not start until the piano was tuned, and so as my father worked, he found himself front and center in an environment he never would have chosen for himself, a packed house at the Eddie Graham!



A piano is not easy to tune if silence does not prevail, and I have no idea how he managed to do so.  But somehow, my dad managed to get the piano working well enough that the greatful band (or perhaps their manager) told him, "Name any price you want!"

My dad did not have much money, and in those pre-expressway days, the Eddie Graham was a difficult journey from his home.  He had been kept away from his family for the evening, and the experience of having to tune a piano inside an unairconditioned, tin building as it filled with rowdy rock-n-roll fans must have been a hellish task.  Furthermore, in his estimation, the rock bands of that era were among the worst transgressors in the destruction of America's moral fabric.

"Name any price you want!"  That was the invitation, and it was a chance to reimburse himself for his inconvenience and to simultaneously lighten the pockets of someone whose lifestyle he found offensive.  Name any price!  Wow!  What did he say?

My father's response to the extraordinary offer may surprise you, not only for what it reveals of his priorities but also for what it shows of his courage.  For him, the words 'name any price' did not call money to mind.  Instead, 'name any price' meant 'do something for the Savior', and so my father replied, "I want three minutes to speak to the people."

The surprised band granted the request, and my father took the microphone before a crowd of unruly rock fans whose show had already been delayed.  He had not come to the stadium with any expectation that he would be speaking to thousands of people.  He had no speech ready, no talking points scrawled on a scrap of paper or the palm of his hand.  He only knew that 'name any price' was an invitation to do something for the Savior who had been so willing to pay any price.  And so, as he took the microphone, he found himself very much in need of something to say.  He needed scripture, but having no Bible on his person, he would have to rely upon his memory.  He had just finished memorizing the first chapter of Hebrews, and as he arrived at the microphone, that was the only passage he could call to mind that he could quote without error under such stress.  Therefore, on the spur of the moment, Hebrews 1 was selected and he began to speak.

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power...  

The heckling began immediately and soon rose to a crescendo that my father's voice could not overcome; so he picked up his tools and left the stage.

I think my father always regretted having chosen Hebrews 1 in those panicked moments as he took the microphone.  To be sure, it is a great passage, but it is deep theology, seemingly not the best passage to have thrown at the crowd before him.  He probably would have been booed out of the Eddie Graham regardless of what he had said, and I think he was quite fine with the fact that this was the result of his attempt.  He was not trying to convince the crowd.  But he was trying to convince that one person in the crowd who might have had a soft heart toward God, and I think he always felt that, by his passage selection, he had failed that one person.

Yet, we know not the mind of God, and as I contemplate this story, it seems apparent to me that the passage selection was no accident.  So although I cannot guess what good Hebrews 1 would have accomplished in the heart of some seeker who heard my father's voice, I can understand that God may have had a purpose that I cannot imagine.  Was it not God himself who promised in Isaiah that His Word that goes forth out of His mouth shall not return to Him void but shall accomplish that which He pleases and prosper in the thing whereto He sent it?  Does not the same passage tell us that God's ways are not our ways but that his intent is that the wicked might forsake his unrighteous ways and thoughts so that God might extend mercy and pardon?  And does the passage not conclude with the statement that God, through his word, wishes to cultivate wonderful things where there were once thorns and thistles? 

So who am I, and who was my father, to conclude that the passage selection was wrong for the crowd in Eddie Graham?  One thing is for certain; even as I type this, my father is hours from being able to find out what God thought of those moments at the microphone.

And supposing that, as he took the microphone, he simply choked, stepped in front of the Holy Spirit, and selected the wrong Bible passage.  Is that really so bad?  I am reminded of the story of Peter, in a storm, walking to Jesus on the water.  It is easy to judge Peter for choking at the crucial moment.  Yet, it must be pointed out that there were a number of men in that boat.  Only Peter stepped out, and because of Peter's example to me, both in his faith and in his lack of faith, I am strengthened so that I think maybe, just maybe, if I found myself in his situation, I might succeed, not because I am greater than Peter but because Peter went first.

The Eddie Graham also reminds me of another instance from the life of Peter.  Peter, faced with a hostile crowd asking him if he was with Jesus, denied any connection three times even though he had had time to prepare for the occasion.  Stan Julin, unprepared and faced with a hostile crowd that did not ask if he was with Jesus, confessed the connection at the first opportunity he was given and paid for the opportunity to do so.  I make no claim whatsoever that my father was greater than Peter, but I do claim that my father was profoundly impacted by great men like Peter, so much so that the quiet, humble piano tuner once faced the wind and the waves at Eddie Graham Sports Stadium.

Psalm 1 will be recited at my father's memorial service a few days hence.  So think about this:  The counsel of the ungodly would have been to take the money and go home, those that stood in the way of sinners booed him out of the stadium, and those that sit in the seat of the scornful will sneer that he embarrassed himself and his son does not even recognize that he did so.  But he delighted in the law of the Lord and meditated thereon day and night, and I am so glad to have grown up in the shade of that Great Sycamore, planted by the river.

Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.  Matthew 10:32