May 28 2015
Driving between Jerusalem and Tiberias through the Jordan valley in my church car – something I’ll be doing more often this summer, now that my colleague Colin Johnston has left St Andrew’s, Galilee – I play CDs to keep me focused.
One of these is a praise band album gifted to me by visitors to St Andrew’s Scots Guesthouse.
Praise music is not my favourite genre – give me Tallis or Victoria any day. Taizé chant it also is not. But most of the tracks are perfectly acceptable, and some are even inspiring.
The opening track is from Joshua 1.9 (NIV):
Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
So far when driving Route 90 – in many places not so much a road as a tarmacked goat track – the only strength I’ve needed has been to keep the car straight on the roller-coaster sections; and the only dangers I’ve had to fear are the dangerous curves with which the road, or goat track, is over-liberally supplied. Still, we all need encouragement.
Track six is from Ecclesiastes 5.2, 7 (also NIV):
God is in heaven and you are on earth… Therefore stand in awe of God.
In the hands of the American-accented singer, the first line sounds significantly less banal than it reads. It comes out like “God is in heaven and Jew are on earth”.
I’m reminded of Woody Allen’s Annie Hall:
ALVY: I distinctly heard it. He muttered under his breath, “Jew.”
ROB: You’re crazy!
ALVY: No, I’m not. We were walking off the tennis court, and you know, he was there and me and his wife, and he looked at her and then they both looked at me, and under his breath he said, “Jew.”
ROB: Alvy, you’re a total paranoid.
ALVY: Wh- How am I a paran-? Well, I pick up on those kind o’ things. You know, I was having lunch with some guys from NBC, so I said … uh, “Did you eat yet or what?” and Tom Christie said, “No, didchoo?” Not, did you, didchoo eat? Jew? No, not did you eat, but Jew eat? Jew. You get it? Jew eat?
This may be where my Jewish neighbours quote Joseph Heller’s Catch-22: “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not after you.” Some of them have the numbers on their arms to prove it.
The last track I now routinely skip. It’s not taken from scripture. It’s an original composition, with a subtle and penetrating lyric:
Thank you Jesus
Thank you Jesus
Thank you Jesus
Thank you Jesus
Thank you Jesus
Thank you Jesus
Thank you Jesus
Thank you Jesus
Thank you Jesus
Thank you Jesus Christ
The soloist and her backing choir of angels sing this verse over and over again, complete with key changes, until I want to cry out “Enough already!”
As Abraham Lincoln said – or perhaps didn’t say [1] – people who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like.
Colin Johnston will be in Scotland for some months, on deputation and other duties, before returning – as we hope – to a new posting in the Middle East. His successor will most likely arrive in Tiberias at the beginning of November. Meanwhile, Joanna Oakley-Levstein, the reader in our parish grouping, will hold the fort, ably assisted (or unably assisted) by me and perhaps by others.