The song remains the sameBy the Revd David Burgess
This last year has seen the comeback of a number of rock groups who were previously at the height of their popularity in the late ’70s and early ’80s. I didn’t take advantage of the chance to see any of those groups again, though I’m married to someone who did.
Undoubtedly the most prominent of those comebacks was that of Led Zeppelin. For me, they were never a favourite, but I liked some of their music. And although I never saw them live, I did see a film of them in concert. The film was called The Song Remains the Same.
However, the projectionist made a mistake (it was a University film night, after all), and loaded the same reel of film twice, so instead of, say, reels two, three and four in succession, we got reels two, three, and then two again. Musically, though, three and two blended so perfectly that we didn’t notice the mistake until the songs had finished and we realised we were seeing some of the non-musical segments for the second time! The song had, indeed, remained the same.
As I write this, the dust is beginning to settle on the controversy surrounding the Archbishop of Canterbury’s remarks about Sharia law. I got into mildly hot water on the weekend the story blew up for suggesting in my sermon that the church sometimes strives so hard to be relevant that it misses the very point of its existence, and that this issue was a classic case of complicating things in an attempt to be contemporary and getting it wrong.
The whole church needs to recognise that the song remains the same. The song is so simple and direct that it takes a real effort to change it, and what emerges if you do doesn’t bear much resemblance to the original. When you get to Easter, the song simply goes “Alleluia! Christ is risen!”
Twenty years ago, it was a small number of Bishops and clergy who changed the song at Easter-time by denying the bodily resurrection of Christ. This past year, it’s been a small number of clergy, and one Bishop in particular, who have refused to make the simple proclamation “Jesus Christ is Lord”.
The Easter message is straightforward; not for us to accept blindly and unthinkingly – serious consideration of the faith has to be part of what we do as Christians – but to accept as an integral and necessary aspect of what we believe and what we preach.
One more musical indulgence to finish; a story about Pink Floyd, another band of that era. Their first singer, Syd Barrett, developed schizophrenia in his early twenties, but it took a while before those around him realised this. The first real indication was when he brought a new song to the band to rehearse but, frustratingly, the rehearsals never worked and the song was never recorded. Eventually the other band members cottoned on; Barrett was changing parts of the song every time they practised it. With supreme irony (probably intentional), the song was called “Have You Got It Yet?”
That’s the danger we face if we change the song; people won’t get it. Whether you’re a regular or occasional churchgoer, I hope the message you receive this Easter will be the profound simplicity of Jesus Christ crucified and risen.