A Musical Moment

I.
We sing a song at church
That I love inordinately.

Sisters, tell your brothers
That our God is alive.

From the first instruction to Mary:
Tell Peter;
To all believing women since,
It’s beautiful in its historicity
And its recognition that
Women have a place in the Gospel.

II.
What gives me goose bumps, though,
Is the moment where,
Having sung about the crucifixion,
Having sung about the dead Christ,
We sing about the king’s heartbeat
And all words and music go silent

But the beat of the drum.

Measure after measure,
Beat.

III.
I knew that the song would be broken
Unusually today, that because the sermon
Was about death and resurrection,
We would sing only the first half,
Leaving off where Jesus died,
Waiting to sing about the renewed heartbeat
Until after the message of resurrection.

And I was excited
For this creative entering in to death.

I was excited.

What was I thinking?

To stop with Christ beaten down,
With Christ in the grave …

It was powerful to dwell there.
It was devastating.