Peace, all. Not sure how I feel about this sermon's structure (TBH). Nonetheless, it was super fun to talk about music and lyrics today in church.
Every year when I visualize Thomas reaching for Jesus' side, this is the soundtrack that involuntarily enters my mind. Nonetheless, it was certainly my first time ever singing it in a church. Also: super fun.
Extra special thanks to L. Boss who did the singing to my guitar rendition of the Johnny Cash rendition of the original song.
Have a good week, all.
If you can, please come to my final service at Gethsemane next week (Sunday, April 23, 10:30, 1937 S. 50th Ave. in Cicero, Illinois).
Though we know our move will be good for our family, our hearts are quite heavy saying farewell to this incredible community, and, as you are able, we'd love to make this transition with you in proximity.
Again, peace all.
Have a good week.
~ Tom
Personal Jesus by Martin Gore (Depeche Mode), Mute Records, 1989
1 Your own, personal, Jesus | Someone to hear your prayers | Someone who cares | Your own, personal, Jesus | Someone to hear your prayers | Someone who's there | Feeling unknown | And you're all alone |Flesh and bone | by the telephone | Lift up the receiver | I'll make you a believer
Take second best | Put me to the test | Things on your chest | You need to confess | I will deliver | You know I'm a forgiver
Bridge: Reach out and touch faith (x2)
2 Your own, personal, Jesus | Someone to hear your prayers | Someone who cares | Your own, personal, Jesus | Someone to hear your prayers | Someone to care | Feeling unknown | And you're all alone |
Flesh and bone | By the telephone | Lift up the receiver | I'll make you a believer | I will deliver | You know I'm a forgiver.
Bridge: Reach out and touch faith (x4)
+++
When he covered this song in 2004,
complete with a music video release,
Marilyn Manson claimed
in a season of self-doubt,
when he was ready to give up on music,
that this song
popped through the radio,
and into his ears.
And as he received it anew
at just the right moment in his life
he was convinced that the song was perfect
for him
and for his band to cover
as it said what he had been trying to say
all along
but couldn’t/
+++
You see when he heard it,
he heard the song as being sarcastic
written especially to criticize
the hyper-individualization of faith and specifically of the Christian faith in America
to the point where it had become
(for many)
only
about:
me and Jesus
or only about a personal relationship
or only about a private belief
or only about a sort of secret trust or connection between me and God and nobody else.
None of these things are bad things.
Indeed, personal faith (alone), as an ideal
could be experienced as quite liberating,
especially for folks who (for example) come from a religious context in which religion is used to control or to contain believers.
And yet, the overemphasis
or the overuse of this “side” of the coin,
(maybe we can call it “love” for God)
runs this critique
meant an underemphasis or no emphasis at all
on the other side of the coin:
the part of the Gospel that calls us to love our neighbors and to care for the poor.
In other words,
faith had become so “personal”
that public life and social responsibility were ignored.
Meaning, the community was ignored.
It didn’t seem to matter how you acted.
Or whether your heart was filled with hate or love.
Or whether you shared with your neighbors or stole from them.
Or whether you united with your fellow workers or oppressed them with a whip.
What mattered, instead, was some invisible thing that nobody could see except (maybe) for you.
Of course, it’s not just Marilyn Manson who offered this critique.
Countless theologians have spoken about personal faith as related to public silence for centuries,
even in the face of slavery, lynching, segregation, child labor, spousal abuse, and so many, many forms of pain and oppression.
Manson himself received the song in this way
(it is thought)
because, this is the kind of religious space that he grew up in.
He’d say in interviews that
he got beat up much more at
the Christian school (that he got kicked out of)
than he ever did at the public school where they sent him after his expulsion.
After which, as you know, he made a career out of highlighting religious hypocrisy.
+++
Though we know that later, Marilyn Manson became a hypocrite and an abuser of power in his own right,
nonetheless, this point, I assume, is well taken.
Most of us agree: If love of God is not attached to loving our neighbors,
then we might be loving in the wrong direction.
As, if we wish to see and serve God, we should do it right now.
This message, after all, is what so many of the 95 Theses were all about–and indeed, what lay at the heart of so many of the reforms sought by the “protestations” or the Reformers.
God is here, hungry in each unfed stomach,
suffering in each body that does not receive proper care
longing in each outstretched had looking for change.
And so on/
+++
And yet,
though this translation of the song is a helpful reminder,
it turns out that,
for the author of the song,
this particular (and very legit and cool and helpful interpretation)
was not actually the intended point.
+++
In a 1990 interview in Spin Magazine,
Martin Gore, recounted that he wrote this song
after reading the autobiography of (of all people) Priscilla Presley.
In it, she describes the ways we can receive love and love one another dearly
(perhaps in communities like this with what we call agape or filial love)
But also in “romantic” or “love” or “commitment-bonded” relationships,
as friends, or as partners, or as families.
Martin Gore was especially touched by the idea
that we, humans, everyday people, sinners/saints,
could in one way or another
be Jesus or be God to each other–
by being “someone who’s there”
and “someone who cares (Jesus).”
In fact, Martin Gore was so impressed by this idea that
he picked up his pen and he wrote a song about it.
A song that reached number THREE
in the alternative music charts at its height
in 1989 and 1990.
And that has been recurringly
stuck in the heads
of millions of people
for weeks-on-end
after hearing it
for nearly 35 years now.
+++
The beauty of this song, of course
(as it relates to the Gospel text this morning)
and as it relates to Martin Gore’s explanation (I think)
is that, even though it’s sung
as a sort-of first-person monologue,
or even as an imperative or a commandment:
“Pick up the receiver.”
“I’ll make you a believer.”
And so on–
words that could easily sound sort of
self-aggrandizing or presumptuous
(AKA: I’m Jesus coming to you,
so pick up your darn phone),
Even so, the intended “point” is not
“Look at me! I’m being Jesus.”
At least that’s not how Gore tells it,
even as it’s not a scathing critique
as Marilyn Manson interpreted it.
That is, it’s neither bragging nor critiquing
nor complaining in this particular instance–
and it’s not sarcastic either.
Rather, it seems, the song is written
as an expression
of gratitude.
Gratitude that God is not an ancient being
lost out in outer space,
but rather God is here, accessible, with us,
in the flesh,
appearing to everybody here today
in each one of us who approaches another in love.
+++
In a similar way,
Terrell and Lanisha,
we are so grateful that both of you
have appeared in our midst so recently.
Learning of Jesus on TikTok,
you’ve shown up here to pray and to meditate
and to learn,
you now, you’ve shown up to be baptized.
We celebrate your arrival–
not only as people who have been found by Jesus,
but as people who are Jesus’ body here,
to us,
as well as to so many out there in the rest of the world.
People (as one interpreter would remind us)
who are called to exchange hypocrisy for Love.
And to set both sword and shield
down by the riverside.
And people (as another would remind)
who are called to be grateful
as they see Jesus, in the flesh, all around,
loving,
empowering,
and walking with us,
as we seek to create communities and relationships
and societies
that are grounded
in justice,
in peace
and in love.
+++
Again, we're so grateful for today. And for you!
And for God in you.
Let's sing a song and then have some baptisms!
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