Breaking the cycle 1 - Non-conforming
Introduction to Holy Week in Workington Benefice, 2016 (Romans 12.1-2)
[The first verse of A Day in the Life by the Beatles is played and fades out as verse 2 begins and the following paragraph begins)
1966. The Beatles have taken a stand, refusing to conform to the expectations of their record label, the wider music industry, and their fans. They are refusing to perform live, with all their energy focused on experimental recording techniques and songwriting not driven by chart-topping formulas. The idea of a fictional group, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, creating their album is adopted, and arguably the first British concept album is born in 1967.
The album ends with Sgt Pepper’s saying farewell, and ‘we hope you have enjoyed the show’, except the album doesn’t end. Refusing to conform to the tone and narrative of all that’s come before it, A Day in the Life brings the listener back to earth with a bump, John Lennon’s plaintive vocals and lyrics capturing and satirising a culture that increasingly ignores, minimises, or humourises tragedy, trauma, and terror. Not content with drawing a line there, having established a familiar pattern of Chords and melodic phrases, the track then refuses to conform to the rules of harmony, tonality, and orchestration as forty of London’s finest orchestral musicians at the time follow George Martin’s directive that they should ensure they are never playing the same note as the person next to them.
When I began thinking about our Journey together through Holy Week this year, I had recently rediscovered A Day in the Life. The first thing to grab my attention was the crowds in John Lennon’s verses, fickle in their choice to stand and stare when help was needed, and to turn away when the opportunity to celebrate is presented. It occurred to me that humanity has made almost no progress when we compare them to the crowd who shouted ‘Hosanna’ one day and ‘Crucify’ soon after in Jerusalem 2000 years ago.
The more I thought about it, the more I realised how much the songs’ emotional tone and non-conformity resonate with some of the most overlooked contextual information and themes that emerge from Holy Week’s events. It was just another week in the annual Jewish Calendar of festivals; the state was busy imposing its grandeur whilst being ignored by its subjects.
Almost all of the principal characters will reveal themselves to be either callous, selfish, narcissistic, or all of the above. All that is, except for one. One whose refusal to conform to even the most common or understandable patterns of human behaviour breaks the cycle of the need for human scapegoating, the need for either literal or metaphorical sacrifices on the part of humanity.
Before we run away with ourselves, it’s worth considering today’s events in the narrative compared to the cycle-breaking silences and acceptance at the end of this week. Palm Sunday was about more than prophetic verses about donkeys being fulfilled: it was a satirical protest against the practices of the Roman occupying forces and complicit impotence of the temple authorities. As Jesus was approaching from the East, the Governor, puppet king, and armed forces were parading with full pageantry into Jerusalem from the West to show the Jewish people just who was in charge. To underline the point, they were bringing with them the vestments that had previously been confiscated from the temple to allow the priests to conduct the temple ceremonies associated with Passover. Pilate and Herod had to use force to convince the people of their authority; Jesus was hailed as the Lord’s Messiah whilst undermining any authority he may have had by straddling both an adult and child donkey at the same time, riding through the slums on the outskirts of the city.
We’ll see as the week goes on that conformity to expectations is rarely of interest to Jesus’, and why the answer to the question ‘why did Jesus have to die?’ might actually be as simple as ‘because he upset enough people’. What we’ll also find is that, as uncomfortable as this might be, this offers meaningful good news to each one of us, both in the here and now and in the world.
For now, though, I invite you to lay aside any expectations you may already hold about this week, any notions that we can just be carried along by the story once again. Be open to the ways the Holy Spirit may want to disrupt your week; be prepared to encounter Jesus, who fails to conform to some of his most misunderstood characteristics; be willing to discover the Father’s goodness in the most evil of situations. Hear the music differently: be discomforted, disquieted; feel the shock and the outrage for yourself; refuse to become absorbed by the crowd; be ready for God to break the cycle of ‘normality’ so that you can not simply be a witness to Christ Victorius, but be united to him for all eternity.
[During the final paragraph, the final verse of A Day in the Life fades in. The final word of the paragraph ends just before John sings “I’d like to…”, followed by 24 bars of dissonant orchestral crescendo, with rhythm and tempo collapsing throughout, before a 16-hand Eb Major Chord is played on the Piano. Fade to silence].