There is a lot more to comedian Steve Martin than a zany guy with an arrow through his head. He is an actor, comic, musician, writer, and art collector. Martin brings no little insight to life. He studied philosophy at California State University and it feeds his “absurdist” brand of humor.
Check out this clip from Steve Martin on David Letterman. Raised Baptist, he uses bluegrass and comedy to get at some essential truths about how inextricable Christianity and music are. Prepare to laugh at these verses here below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wogta8alHiU
“Christians have their hymns and pages,
Hava Nagila’s for the Jews,
Baptists have the rock of ages,
Atheists just sing the blues.
Romantics play Claire de Lune,
Born agains sing “He is risen,”
But no one ever wrote a tune,
For godless existentialism.
Chorus: For Atheists there’s no good news. They’ll never sing a song of faith.
In their songs they have a rule: the “he” is always lowercase.
The “he” is always lowercase.
Catholics dress up for Mass,
And listen to, Gregorian chants.
Atheists just take a pass, Watch football in their underpants.
Watch football in their underpants.
Atheists don’t have no songs.”
After smiling my way through this spoof, it occurred to me how much as people of faith our hope and joy are wrapped up in music. Atheists can complain about what hypocrites we are, in part because we’re human and in part because impossible standards are set up for us to live by. But where are your hope and joy, detractors of the faith? Where are your trust in the goodness of life and your vision for something better? For us so much of this is wrapped up in our hymns.
This Sunday is Fat Sunday, one of our two jazz Sundays per year. Invite a friend to join us, as we put our best foot forward with Dan Hague, our choir, and a jazz quintet bringing alive gospel hymns and spirituals, recast in Dixieland. Don’t forget the Mardi Gras-themed dinner to follow.
On Fat Sunday I see more smiles than any other Sunday. After the prelude, I walk out to make the announcements. All I see are smiles. We close with “When the Saints…” All I see are smiles.
Christians have songs, really good songs we lift up together. Come, rejoice and sing out with us!