I came this close to having a Grateful Dead song sung at my ordination, but I honored my wife’s wishes granting her the veto. The song would have been “Ripple,” a sweet, simple song with mystical, spiritual lyrics that speak of longing, journey and celebration. Thinking about my own mystical, spiritual journey wrestling with what constitutes the word of God, I heard the first verse of the song in a new light:
If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine
And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung
Would you hear my voice come through the music?
Would you hold it near, as it were your own?
What if that were God singing that to me? (Yeah, I know, I wouldn’t be the first Deadhead to deify Jerry Garcia) Indeed, that is sort of the way God speaks, isn’t it? Comparing words to sunshine and the message being in the music of instruments incapable of sound. But it was that last line that really grabbed my attention: if I heard God’s voice would I hold it near, as it were my own? Confusion between the voice of God and the voice of you and me is an age-old struggle for the faithful. One that Peter struggled with in the story in Acts 11.
Peter heard a voice offering him some bacon (and a few other non-kosher food items). Now I’m a vegetarian, but even I know that that is a tempting offer. But Peter, like so many about to make New Year’s resolutions, figured that it was simply his own voice leading him into temptation. He was pretty certain about God’s voice, you see it was written down (some of it literally in stone) and passed down through generations. No, of this he could be certain, that triple-decker bacon cheeseburger with a side of fried oysters was tref and the voice had to be his inner goy trying to get him in trouble with G-d. But there was something about this voice that did glow with the gold of sunshine. Perhaps it wasn’t Peter’s voice, but God’s. Then a strange thing happened. Peter heard a human voice, that of a man who claimed to have also heard God’s voice, telling him that God wanted him to come bring salvation to them. But this was no inner Gentile, these were real live Gentiles! What was God doing talking to Gentiles?!?! Perhaps this was a test, to see if Peter could resist temptation and remain pure. Ultimately, Peter’s very personal, very mystical, very spiritual, very individual experience trumped the old stories and interpretations in his head so he followed his heart and the rest is history; us Gentiles got to join the church.
My personal struggle with hearing the word of God came when the principle of inerrancy painted me into a corner. If the Bible were truly free from error in terms of principles that inform doctrine, particularly about the nature of God, then how was I to make sense of a God who ordered the deaths of innocents (which happens regularly in the stories of the conquest of the Promised Land)? Am I required to worship a God who plays favorites, issuing death sentences for those who occupy a land by accident of birth? The Bible says that the slaughter in battle on an order of magnitude greater than the My Lai massacre pleased God. Really? The God I know in my personal experience? If the Bible were truly free from error on this level then I would have to seriously consider finding a new God to worship. It was much easier to believe that the Bible is simply a human creation, some of it containing history that, like all history, was written by the victors. I can live with that, because, like Peter, I hear the voice of a God who loves each and every person madly. I agree with the assessment that this book is not top-down, but bottom-up. That is, it doesn’t come down to us from God, but represents the story of faithful followers seeking to express what they have found to be true of God. It is incomplete because we are still on the journey.
OK, so that can be scary: no more hard & fast judgments, no more rules, no more solid ground. Of course, it can also be liberating: no more hard & fast judgments, no more rules, no more solid ground. OK, maybe there still is solid ground, but we have to find it, one step at a time. That’s not so bad, is it? We have each other on this mystical, spiritual journey. We see ripples on the water that can’t be explained by wind or a tossed pebble. We hear the voice of God, even if it sounds like our own. We hear music that moves us, even when we aren’t certain.
The one piece of the Grateful Dead that I did sneak into my ordination service was using a line from “Ripple” as the thematic title on the bulletin, “Let there be songs to fill the air.” I don’t know about you, but the songs I hear tell me that there is no one who is not allowed to sing along, and God gives us reason to sing; all of us, Jew or Gentile, gay or straight, or any other.
Ripple
Lyrics By: Robert Hunter
Music By: Jerry Garcia
If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine
And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung
Would you hear my voice come through the music?
Would you hold it near, as it were your own?
It’s a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken
Perhaps they’re better left unsung
I don’t know, don’t really care
Let there be songs to fill the air (note 1)
Ripple in still water
When there is no pebble tossed
Nor wind to blow
Reach out your hand if your cup be empty
If your cup is full may it be again
Let it be known there is a fountain
That was not made by the hands of man
There is a road, no simple highway
Between the dawn and the dark of night
And if you go, no one may follow
That path is for your steps alone
Ripple in still water
When there is no pebble tossed
Nor wind to blow
You who choose to lead must follow
But if you fall, you fall alone
If you should stand, then who’s to guide you?
If I knew the way, I would take you home
