SOUL SURMISE

Lyric For The Day is Child Of The Wind by Bruce Cockburn

“Little round planet
In a big universe
Sometimes it looks blessed
Sometimes it looks cursed
Depends on what you look at obviously
But even more it depends on the way that you see

Hear the wind moan
In the bright diamond sky
These mountains are waiting
Brown-green and dry
I'm too old for the term
But I'll use it anyway
I'll be a child of the wind
Till the end of my days”

-      From Child Of The Wind by Bruce Cockburn 

Eric Angus Whyte played a cover of this song my his fellow Canadian last night in our Manse at a small intimate house gig. It came alive for me again, not only because Sunday is Pentecost Sunday when the Church remembers the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and I as a result am preaching about that on Sunday, but because of this verse about how to see the world. As a child of the wind Cockburn is referring to his Christian faith. The Bible refers to God’s Holy Spirit as ruah or wind at various junctures. As a child of the Spirit, which God tells us is a Counsellor, among other things, Cockburn will look at the blessings and curses of our little planet through different eyes.

Lyric For The Day 23.5.12 from O Spirit Animate Us by Damon Albarn

“Oh Father, oh Father
Let us not be tied
Keep my spirit strong,
My heart devotion to you
Oh my day is in you, oh my day
Leave me gently
Give us something of a righteous revival
It's all ..kingdom, revival”

-       From O Spirit Animate Us by Damon Albarn

My first Damon Albarn Lyric For The Day but his new record Dr Dee, where all the songs are from the writings of an Elizabethan mathematician John Dee who studied alchemy, divination and Hermetic philosophy, has many Lyric For The Day possibilities. This is not the only prayer on Dr Dee and it seems to me to be a good spiritual prayer to begin the day... Committing our day to righteousness and the Kingdom; bring it on! Amen Damon! Amen!

Lyric For The Day 18.5.12 (our wedding anniversary) from Have I Told You Lately That I Love You by Van Morrison

“And it's yours and it's mine
Like the sun
At the end of the day
We should give thanks and pray to the One

Have I told you lately that I love you
Have I told you there's no one above you
Fill my heart with gladness
Take away my sadness
Ease my troubles, that's what you do”

-      From Have I Told You Lately That I Love You by Van Morrison

This is a rare and wonderful love song. Rare because of its acknowledgement of and thanks to God in a love song. The recommitment to the lover is enveloped in prayer and the realisation that the love between lovers is a gift from a God who is love. The Scriptures tell us that we can only love because God first loved us. Van Morrison at his most romantic and spiritual in the same classic song.

Avalon Sunset, the album where this song resides, was released just a month before Janice and I fell in love. One of my most romantic moments was phoning Janice when she was in London and then just playing this song down the line. It has been one of our songs ever since!

Lyric For The Day 17.5.12 from Condition by Duke Special

I am perfect, I am broken

I am adored, I’m unspoken

I am lonely, I am contented

I am sane, I’m half demented

I’m belief, I am science

I’m peace, I am defiance

I’m the cause, I am effect

I am sober, I am wrecked...

 

When all these fragments start to roar

Playing like an orchestra

Sometimes it’s hard to hear yourself think

It’s like the words are crawling back inside the ink.

-      From Condition by Duke Special

As I listened to Duke Special with the Ulster Orchestra last Saturday night this song from his brand new record Oh Pioneer was one of the lyrics that stood out. This would seem, and no doubt is, a subjective introspective song; it is Duke wrestling with his contradictions. On an objective level though it is a Biblical theology of humankind; created in God’s image, but fallen. St. Paul spoke of doing what he didn’t want to and not doing what he did want to. That was the apostles version of Condition. My history teacher once told me that any great person in history knew what his weakness was, as a boxer would protect the eye that was vulnerable to being cut. Duke’s song is great wisdom to living.

Lyric For The Day 5.5.12 from Death Came and Got Me by Rosie Thomas

“And who am I supposed to be?
Everybody seems to see except for me
Who cares anyway....
Cause when it's over,
It's all over, and what you gain you throw away

When will love ever find me?
All my life all I've craved is to be seen
Who cares anyway...
Cause when it's over,
All that matters is the love you gave away”

-      From Death Came And Got Me by Rosie Thomas

Another of Rosie Thomas’s deep souled songs of pastoral empathy and subtle secrets to redemption. Here Rosie is seeking her identity and the belonging of love and is asking if any of the striving and seeking will be any good in the end. When she speaks of death and the end though Rosie is not concluding a nihilistic pointlessness to it all. Instead she is pertaining to the secret of it all. Rosie’s insight here is Jesus words about gaining the world and yet losing one’s self (Matthew 16:26) and Paul words in 1 Corinthians 13 where the apostle writes that in the end faith, hope and love remain but the most important of these is love. All that matters in this life will be discovered at the end of our lives and that will be the love we gave away.

Lyric For The Day 2.5.12 from Way Down In The Hole by Tom Waits

“All the angels sing about Jesus' mighty sword
And they'll shield you with their wings
And keep you close to the Lord
Don't pay heed to temptation
For his hands are so cold
You gotta help me keep the devil
Way down in the hole”

-          From Way Down In The Hole by Tom Waits

My good friend Gary Burnett Facebooked a version of this song today and I thought, “What a good Lyric For The Day.” Waits has great ability to write Gospel songs and The Blind Boys Of Alabama do great versions of this one and Jesus Gonna Be Here Soon. This lyric from Way Down In The Hole deals with temptation and the two pronged way of dealing with it. There is for sure a dependence on God as Jesus asked in the Lord’s Prayer that God would lead us away from temptation. However, we shouldn’t leave it to God and become complacent. We need to pay it no heed. We need to not give it a foothold. We need to with God’s help give the devil down in the hole.

Lyric For The Day 28.4.12 from Walk On by U2

“You're packin' a suitcase for a place, none of us has been
A place that has to be believed, to be seen
You could have flown away, a singin' bird in an open cage
Who will only fly, only fly for freedom

Walk on
Leave it behind
You've got to leave it behind

All that you fashion, all that you make
All that you build, all that you break
All that you measure, all that you feel
All this you can leave behind”

-      From Walk On by U2

U2’s song about heaven and the Kingdom coming in all its fullness. Faith is the key to the door of such a place hence “to be believed to be seen.” What is in the suitcase if the question. Tomorrow on the BBC Radio Ulster Radio Service I will look at living for those things that will last when God brings in this new heaven and new earth. U2 give us the clues here. The momentary things will go, the eternal things will last. There will be much we will leave behind so why bother with that stuff or invest in it. Jesus spoke of treasure in heaven. That’s what we pack the suitcase with. The heart inside the U2 suitcase graphic on the Elevation Tour agrees with St. Paul’s secret in 1 Corinthians 13 – love is the most important thing that we will take with us.

Lyric For The Day 27.4.12 from Freedom Now by Tracy Chapman

“Soon must come the day

 

When the righteous have their way

Unjustly tried are free

And people live in peace I say

Give the man release

Go on and set your conscience free

Right the wrongs you made

Even a fool can have his day

 

Free your bodies

Free your minds

Free your hearts

Freedom for everyone

And freedom now

Freedom now

Freedom now”

-          From Freedom Now by Tracy Chapman

 

Today is Freedom Day in South Africa and this lyric seemed an appropriate Lyric For The Day. On the day we celebrate the first democratic elections in that country in 1994 here is a song released just six years before that dreams of such a day. It is actually about freedom for Nelson Mandela who of course won that first election but it is about freedom from apartheid for all and continues to be a freedom song for whoever is oppressed. Last Sunday I mentioned South Africa’s freedom a lot in my sermon on Revelation. –

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The title of the of the sermon came from a Jim Wallis phrase based on what he experienced at Mandela’s inauguration. Wallis says, “Hope is believing in spite of the evidence and watching the evidence change.” That is exactly what this song is doing. A real song of hope in the midst of hopelessness. Today we celebrate the faith... the hope... the fulfilment. Happy Freedom Day South Africa!   

Lyric For The Day 21.4.12 from Blessed To Be A Witness by Ben Harper

“So much sorrow and pain
Still I will not live in vain
Like good questions never asked
Is wisdom wasted on the past
Only by the grace of God go I
Go I

I am blessed
I am blessed
I am blessed
I am blessed
I am blessed
I am blessed
I am blessed to be a witness”

-      From Blessed To Be A Witness by Ben Harper

I got tipped off to this one by my former colleague Rev Whitney Wilkinson who Facebooked that she was going to preach this song in conversation with Luke 24 where Jesus sneaks up on two disciples on the Emmaus road after his resurrection.

Spirituality is all over Harper’s work and this is as blatant as he gets. There is sense of committing to that which is bigger, a life that knowing that it is blessed is going to sacrifice itself to something of meaning.

Lyric For The Day 19.4.12 - from Hope by Emeli Sande

"I hope that the world stops raining

Stops turning it's back on the young

See nobody here is blameless

I hope that we can fix all that we've done

I really hope Martin can see this

I hope that we still have a dream

I'm hoping that change isn't hopeless

I'm hoping to start it with me"

-      From Hope by Emeli Sande

 

There are a few Emeli Sande lyrics catching my attention just now. She is beginning to have the radio waves omnipresence of Adele with added Lyric For The Day value. Something spiritual seems to be going down and I love this. Yes, I was drawn because I am preaching on Hope this Sunday and here’s the hopes and dreams of MLK back on the radio. That she wants the hope and change to start with her is the crux. “Be the change you want to see” is how Ghandi put it. Now that is a hope!