I keep thinking I will be able to make the time to write some more about this season's songs. And yet here we are a month and a half into the season, and all I've done is the initial post. So, we are into the time of the church year sometimes know as the season of Pentecost. In an older calendar (early to mid-twentieth century), this season served as a time to focus on the ministry of the Church empowered by the Holy Spirit.
I chose to start this season with the Dar Williams song, I Had No Right. It was April who pointed me towards this song. This song speaks about Catholic priest and anti-war activist, Daniel Berrigan. Through the lyrics of the song, Dar sings of the things that Daniel has gone through in the service of peace - the protests, the arrests, the trials, the misunderstandings. And the chorus repeats that none of it would have been done but for the love of God. The Holy Spirit empowers us to live in the kingdom of God - a kingdom without war, a kingdom where love of God and love of neighbor outweigh all else. Fr. Berrigan is certainly one of those who knows what it means to live in that kingdom. All that we hear in this song helps us to see what that kingdom will look like when it is fully brought into being. May we all find ourselves as empowered by the Spirit, burning with the fire of God for the justice that all deserve.
