Ring the Bells



Dear Eugene,

I can't run no more
With that lawless crowd
While the killers in high places
Say their prayers out loud.
But they've summoned, 
     they've summoned up a thundercloud
And they're going to hear from me!

This must be Cohen's most unambiguous Biblical voice, with no tongue in cheek, a song he would usually play before he went for an intermission in one of his 3-hour concerts, not just because it is musically sensible for the purpose but also as if to say, Enough foreplay, now this is what you've come for.

It is not usual for him to articulate such clear judgement for he knows it's he who is first being judged by his own words.

Yet there is is point, there is a point, that a thundercloud is summoned, summoned up by our lawlessness.  And being lighthearted about it is to be halfhearted, which won't do when the prayer-saying killers are doing their killing while we toy with words and theology and Bible verses and exchange neat ideas we found on Youtube.  The Lord says, You are gonna hear from me!  Like NOW!

But things like this we can't say, let alone sing, in church, right?  We need to gently engage people to reflect and give them the space to consider.  It is about love after all.  God is gonna set things right; who are we to say we can take over?  Who is the lawless crowd anyway?  Big companies?  Governments?  Can we truly do without their service and live not under their auspices?  There will be true lawlessness, won't it?  And, really, what "law" are we talking about which we are that much worse for observing less of it?  As far as I know we are all law-abiding, tax-paying, church-going citizens of earth and heaven, and my reading of the Bible tells me God is by-and-large happy with me and the way things are.  If he is less happy than I take him to be, I am sure he would speak up and do something about it.  I might need to join but that's not necessary.  He will come up with a good way to handle things, certainly better than what I have in mind.

When I was young I sang this line a lot: "I can run no more, with that lawless crowd..."  Then I got used to the running, the crowding up and the lessening of law.  Now I can't remember the last time I heard thunder.  If I did I was in no fear of it.  Maybe that's why I don't remember it too well.  The church kept affirming me God loves me, but deep down I hated myself because I knew my ways were wicked, much more wicked than jerking off to a computer screen or telling a more-than-occasional lie.  My way of life was killing people close and far, for God's sake!  And what did I expect, that God would just shut up and let things be and "love" me nonetheless?

"My concept of hell, I suppose, is being stuck with myself for ever and with no way out," Rowan Williams once defined hell this way.  Being alone forever.  All bridges burned.  In exile for all eternity.  I knew I was risking that, sheltering myself from God's voice of thunder, in my concrete house, my air-conditioned car, my ironclad way of life, unmovable, and for that with no way out either.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in

Yours, Alex

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