Thursday, July 23, 2015

Some thoughts from a few days ago (and the Weight of the World)

Shared this on the congregational Facebook site:
Maybe your father or mother didn't love you as they should have, but through Jesus Christ, we can know a Father Who loves us enough to affirm our value with the sacrifice of His only Son, discipline and refashion us in His image, redeem us from the grave, and promise to hear us whenever we call on Him, trusting in Christ. Let Him heal your hurts, guide your steps, and be your God and King.
The late, great (and often troubled) Larry Norman, the pioneer of what became contemporary Christian music, hit on this point, a tough one to remember, in his song, The Weight of the World.

I know of at least two cover versions.

One is by the duo Lost and Found.

The other is by Ringo Starr, who eliminates the reference to God in it. I guess my reaction to that deletion is that if Starr couldn't sing about the God revealed to the world in Christ with any conviction, it's just as well that he didn't reference God when he recorded the tune. He also probably should have not recorded it altogether, because turning to the God revealed in Christ is the whole point of Norman's song.

I wish that the person who presented this on Youtube had edited out the beginning of the next song in Norman's apparent medley. It would have been easy enough to do, I guess. But I put this on here because there are so few samples of Norman's performances around. The power of his songs wasn't in his voice or his instrumental virtuosity, but the way he funneled his experiences and quirkiness into songs that honored God and touched people.

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