Here's a new song written with Leigh Newton. Audio recording and video below. Yes that's Leigh in the photo.
I wrote this just prior to Holy Week when Ezekiel 37, the vision of the valley of dry bones, was in the lectionary. I thought of the coming events of Easter, and Jesus' suffering and death. I thought of people not dead, but facing death - not dry bones but what preceded them. People dissembling into bones. I guess it sounds morbid. Yet I wondered about the slowness of decay, the seeping away of life. I wondered about people and the church losing heart, losing faith, losing spirit. I wondered about all those for whom hope is nowhere to be found, for whom there are no easy answers.
It was the time that COVID-19 lockdown hit and suddenly our churches were not able to meet. The body of Christ felt separated, dissembled. Easter was going to be a time of being dis-membered. What happened to Christ's body and what was happening to the church has some kind of parallel to the vision of a valley of bones that needed the breath of new life. But before that there would be a slow and painful journey - to and through the Cross - before resurrection.
So for me, this lyric was about trying to reflect the lament of a people feel separated - a body being broken, slowly losing its life - and also the many fractions that are evidence of our lack of unity with God and one another. But there's also something here for me about the journey of discipleship as portrayed in Lent - of being a company of people on the slow journey to wholeness, accompanied by the risen, crucified One.
It is a lament for a people who feel that they are losing life, and who may indeed experience some deep kind of loss. It is a song of hope for people trying to make the long journey home.
Below is an early video recording by Leigh, a recent audio recording, and a video that I've just made with images from pexels.com and unsplash.com
The video, made a couple of days ago, is something of my own processing of the news this week that my brother has terminal cancer. The whole song has become personal in a way that I hadn't expected. It feels more about death, and more about the struggle to hope, and more about the need for company on the way. It's not meant to be a happy song, or an easy song, but one that invites us to persist in faith in the presence of the One who never leaves us, despite all evidence to the contrary.
We Walk On
We are a body
We’re bothered and broken
We are a family
so fractured and frail
Here is a household
We’re doubtful, divided
We are all pilgrims
together alone
And so we walk
And so we walk
We walk on
Lord, we walk on
We are a people
We’re holding a promise
Once were full-bodied
yet now we are bones
Here was a heart-beat
still heaving and hoping
Life-blood now seeping
as cold as a stone
And so we walk
And so we walk
We walk on
Lord, we walk on
We are all travellers
with little direction
We are all followers
with future unknown
God of the twilight
God of the morning
God who stands by us
Our story unfolds
And so we walk
And so we walk
We walk on
Lord, we walk on
We are all worriers
We’re anxious, despairing
We are all dreamers
still longing for home
Spirits are broken
Our hearts are wide open
just for ourselves and
just for our world
And so we walk
And so we walk
We walk on
Lord, we walk on
This is our journey
a wilderness people
This is our yearning
of healing for all
Behind and before us
Within and beside us
Christ in the pathway
Christ in the call
And so we walk
And so we walk
We walk on
Lord, we walk on
Words by Craig Mitchell. Music by Leigh Newton, 2020.
Lyrics revised 30-6-20.
From "Deeper Water" published by Mediacom Education 2021.
Here's a new recording with the updated lyrics by Leigh.
Here's the photo video...
We Walk On from Craig Mitchell on Vimeo.
Here's a video with the earlier lyrics, a bit faster.
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