The lyric video was terrible, so you can find the lyrics here. You'll need them.
"American Tune" by Paul Simon
There's a two-fold reason I chose this song, the lyrics and the melody. Perhaps that seems obvious, but they are almost not connected. Almost.
First, the lyrics. This song was written about the American experience, and all the contradictions and hope included in that. We live in a country built and sold on dreams, and reality can sometimes be a sharp and harsh contrast. Immigrants were told the streets were paved with gold, but the reality was a struggle in a housing project. The Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal, but those words were written by slave owners. Tired and poor are welcomed here by the Statue of Liberty, and find derision and suspicion even from and immigrant people, sometimes only a generation removed. We are sold the dream that working hard can get you anywhere, but sometimes factory work is outsourced and the student debt can never be paid.
We are, however, an extremely hopeful people. And I can hear these words from Jesus's perspective on this night. He gathers with his friends to celebrate a beloved holiday that remembers the love of God for his people that saved them. He knows what will happen, and though his friends may not grasp the precariousness of their position, many were probably worried. Every act of that Last Supper is colored with the joy of the now, fellowship, love, service and the sorrow of the future, the uncertainty, pain, death.
Imagine Jesus, washing his disciples' feet:
I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered
Or driven to its knees
Oh, but it’s all right, it’s all right
For lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road
We’re traveling on
I wonder what went wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong
And a little later, giving them his body and blood to eat and drink:
And I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassuringly
...
Oh, it’s all right, it’s all right
It’s all right, it’s all right
You can’t be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow’s going to be another working day
And I’m trying to get some rest
That’s all I’m trying to get some rest
That sorrow and hope are all mixed together, like it was to live then, as it is to live now.
Then, the melody. You probably recognize it, as we tend to sing it this time of year with the words "O Sacred Head Surrounded" (or "Now Wounded," in some circles). It's one of my favorite melodies, one that when I sing in church it usually brings tears to my eyes. Simon took it from JS Bach's St. Matthew Passion, and it was a Hans Leo Hassler German tune before that. The melody's origins in the Passion of Jesus cannot be coincidence. The Passion is a story of sacrifice, pain, and love, one that should sound familiar when we look at our own lives - very few of us escape without those being part of our existence.
That brings both of these together. St. Augustine said that singing is praying twice, and I think he would have appreciated this song. The words and the music express two different but connected ideas, and if a prayer then we pray two ways, in two ideas. We truly pray twice.
With this song today give it another listen, to the words and then to the music. Where do the two take you? Is it the same place, or different places? Imagine Jesus sharing earbuds with you. What would He say about it?
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