Monday, December 2, 2013

A Love that Shines (Blitzen Trapper)


“There ain’t no love like a love that shines/ There ain't no tie like the tie that binds/ There ain’t no way like the way divine...”

In past years, our themes for the A.M.P. have felt like a gradual contemplative pilgrimage toward the dawning light of Christmas - as well as anticipating the final making-whole of all things in Christ. This year, our theme feels a little more like an imperative - driving us toward both the deepest solstice shadows and the coming light: Shine On. 

To "Shine On" during Advent is a bit of a defiant move. It's Advent, but with a little more sass and funk. It's Advent "waiting" with some attitude


When we Shine On we don't let "contemplation of the mystery" become an excuse for passivity, but we also don't just let our righteous anger or desire for action pour forth unchecked. When we Shine On, we tell the truth... but in a way that just might make others want to clap along.


  

"There ain't no love like a love that's blind/ 
that loves in spite of the loveless kind / 
a light that burns with an endless shine..."

Blitzen Trapper is a band I've followed for a while, and their new single had been on the radio for a while before I really heard the final bridge: 

"Baby don't let your lamp run dry..."

I'm a sucker for an interesting Biblical allusion in pop culture. But I'm really a sucker for an allusion that turns Biblical images or stories that are often heard only one way (as a threat from Jesus, maybe, or as a 'traditional spiritual' about which people in white U.S. culture often miss the full, powerful meaning)... into an idea we could imagine in a whole other light. 


“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, 'Truly I tell you, I do no know you.' Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour."
- Matthew 25: 1-12


This song turns that line, "don't let your lamp run dry" into an invitation - even a celebration. It's a call from Christ to Shine On, "to be wise," as the Sufi poet Hafez once stated, "and cast all your votes for dancing!"

                                      ... to be wise, and cast all our votes for Love


May your lamps stay lit this season by the fires of your passion for Christ, by the flame of your hope, always in the most audacious defiance of all that would extinguish your thirst for God's love.

Shine On, friends, shine on.

                                                                   -- Anna

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