A word in song...

So, well now, I discovered something that I think is most definitely cool.  Two things, actually.  With my serving as personal shopper, I had enough credits to get Michael Card's CD of the Gospel of Matthew.  I had been thinking that I should have bought that first, since I am struggling with the Jesus of Matthew so much.

Second, I found this interview of Michael Card as he talks and sings through his project of commentating on the Gospels!!

Here is a clip in which he sings a song from Matthew.  In it, he actually said that going in, Matthew was his least favorite Gospel!  How bold to admit something like that.  But what I like is how simply he explained the setting for Matthew and then the song, how he crafted a song of identity for the believer struggling with identity using the Beatitudes.





This is Who You Are

Misunderstood and undefined
A stranger to myself
Incarnate contradiction
I am poverty and wealth
I can believe and disbelieve
I can bless and I can damn
I am dying in the darkness
Of not knowing who I am

Then rising like the morning sun
A light begins to speak
In a voice that is vastly strong
Yet still so infinitely weak
It’s roaring like a lion
And It whispers like a lamb
It's thundering that who you are
Is wrapped in who I am

You possess the kingdom
You’re the sorrowful, the meek
The gentle starving ones
Who are the strongest when you’re weak
You’re always making peace each time
You suffer for what’s right
You freely offer mercy
From a heart I filled with light

To everyone who’s lost
He gives a new identity
That’s grounded in the kingdom
And a new reality
It’s found in lovingkindness
And a mercy that is free
You can become the child
That you were always meant to be

You possess the kingdom
You’re the sorrowful, the meek
The gentle starving ones
Who are the strongest when you’re weak
You’re always making peace each time
You suffer for what’s right
You freely offer mercy
From a heart I filled with light

The flavor of My world comes through
The seasoning of your life
Remember when the darkness looms
You were meant to be the light
A light that can’t be hidden
All will see it from afar
This is who you are
                 ~Michael Card

Michael Card starts off with the opportunity to sing any song he likes.  So, he picks one that I posted the lyrics to earlier.  He said that a while ago, a college student came up and told him that he had counted up all the songs Michael Card had written.  The total, as of the interview is 403.  That said, Michael Card said that this one was his all time favorite!




Come Lift Up Your Sorrows

If you are wounded
And if you're alone,
If you are angry,
If your heart is cold as stone,
If you have fallen
And if you are weak,
Come find the worth of God
That only the suffering seek.

Come lift up your sorrow
and offer your pain.
Come make a sacrifice of all your shame.
There in your wilderness
He's waiting for you
To worship Him with your wounds,
For He's wounded, too.

He has not stuttered and He has not lied
When He said, "Come unto me, you're not disqualified"
When your heavy laden, you may want to depart,
But those who know sorrow
They're closest to His heart.

Come lift up your sorrow
and offer your pain.
Come make a sacrifice of all your shame.
There in your wilderness
He's waiting for you
To worship Him with your wounds,
For He's wounded, too.

In this most Holy Place
He's made a sacred space
For those who will enter in
And trust to cry out to Him;
You'll find no curtain there,
No reason left for fear;
There's perfect freedom here
To weep every unwept tear.

Come lift up your sorrow
and offer your pain.
Come make a sacrifice of all your shame.
There in your wilderness
He's waiting for you
To worship Him with your wounds,
For He's wounded, too.
           ~Michael Card


The clip above is the song, but if you watch the opening of the interview in the first link, Michael Card admits that, being a child of the Jesus movement, he always felt like a second class spiritual citizen.  He never learned to speak in tongues, even though he took classes on it.  He just didn't fit in and never could get to that "spiritually mature" status.  He was really struggling and turned to the Psalter.  Ultimately, he wrote the song from Psalm 51.

In short, in the psalm, David is utterly broken and has nothing left to offer to God but his contrition and sorrow.  And in this darkness, in this brokenness, David realizes that all he has left is all that God ever wanted.

Michael Card tells people to go look at Psalm 51 and they'll see the song he wrote.  Then he quips that even if they don't agree with him, he's already won because his goal is to get folk to open the Bible.  I guffawed heartily at that.

I wept when he noted that, unfortunately, we've been taught, in church, to leave our brokenness and sorrow at the door.

In the interview, Michael Card also sings one of his songs from the Gospel of Mark (and also John).




In Memory of Her Love

Now at last the time had come
This moment had been waiting
With her alabaster jar
The woman came to give
It was all she had to give

Pouring out the sweet perfume
Down across His forehead
And some of them began to fume
What this waste was for
It should be spent upon the poor

Let her be
It’s beautiful to me
You will have the poor
And they’ll be with you always
But can’t you see
You’ll not always have Me
And the fragrance of her gift
Will always be remembered

She has done all she could do
Pouring perfume on my body
She has prepared me for the tomb
Though she never knew
This was what she came to do
Let her be
It’s beautiful to me
You will have the poor
And they’ll be with you always
But can’t you see
You’ll not always have Me
And the fragrance of her gift
Will always be remembered

What she has done
Will never fade
From the memory of the Gospel
When it is preached around the world
It will be spoken of
In memory of her love

     ~Michael Card


I watched the interview and a few others I found.  It is interesting to me that Michael Card has spent his career writing songs more about brokenness than joy, that he talks about how this really is the worship God wants from us, our desire for forgiveness and healing.

I also learned that his home church for many years is an African American church in Tennessee.  So, he has been keen about reconciliation throughout his career, noting that that is what Jesus is:  our reconciliation with God.  So, when the interviewer asked him which one of the beautitudes he would like to be known for, if such a thing were possible, Michael Card quickly replied, "peacemaker."

Then, the interviewer asked him how he approached that, thinking that Michael Card was going to talk about his concerts or his many trips to Israel or his concerts around the world.  Instead, Michael Card explained that being a peacemaker starts first in the home.  [Hah!  Vocation speak!]  And he shared how he really struggled with his son and thought at times he would lose him.  At one point his son was arrested and sitting with him in jail, in court, which was humbling and frightening as a parent.  But he learned that parents need to trust the seed they are sowing in their children, that the Word of God will do its work.  He said they had a war zone at home at times and that is why, often, being a peacemaker starts with your spouse and your children, with your neighbors and fellow parishioners.  That you don't have to go out in the world at large for God to accomplish His good works through you.

One of the best quotes I heard, one that was an aside actually:  "Never be dogmatic about what the Bible is not dogmatic about."  Amen to that!

One of the best moments was when he interrupted the interviewer, once he saw the projection technology, to pull out his phone and show a photo to everyone of his new grand baby.  No pretense about the artist at all ... he's just a proud grandfather.

Finding the videos was such a blessing!

And, well, I am really enjoying the CD from the Gospel of Matthew.  I plan to gird my trembling loins and try Matthew's Jesus one more time.