Lyr Add: Who'd Have Thought the Lord Almighty

17 Dec 02 - 12:13 AM (#848643)
Subject: Lyr Add: Who'd Have Thought the Lord Almighty
From: Haruo

I wrote this "sacred ballad" during Advent, 1996, in honor of Jesus' female ancestors, especially the five mentioned in the genealogy in the first chapter of Matthew's Gospel. The five mentioned (out of a potential 42) have, as far as I can see, only their scandalousness in common, and I believe that they are singled out for special mention precisely because each of them, sexually or ethnically or both, is "embarrassing".

I first performed the song at a retirement home, prefacing each of the first five verses with a brief comment on what it was about her that made her an embarrassment to the lineage of a Holy Son of God. It actually went over quite well. Sometimes old folks can be rather openminded.

The tune is very similar to "Silver Threads and Golden Needles", though as I was writing the lyrics I thought I was writing to "Scarlet Ribbons"; it was only when I got done and tried singing it that I realized my error. I call the tune "Cheating Game"; it's also similar to the tune of "I don't want your Rolls Royce, mister" or whatever the title of that one is.

Who'd Have Thought the Lord Almighty

Lyrics: © 1996 Leland Bryant Ross

Tune: CHEATING GAME (more or less "Silver Threads and Golden Needles")

1: Tamar

Genesis 38: impersonates prostitute in order to get her father-in-law to impregnate her

Who'd have thought the Lord Almighty
     from all women on the earth
Would have chosen Tamar the wily
     to prepare for Jesus' birth?
But he chose her, and we laud her
     for her chutzpah and her brains,
In gratitude we applaud her:
     Hallelujah! Jesus reigns!

2: Rahab

Jos. 2: traitor to her country, Jericho; bordellista

Who would dream the God of Moses,
     and of Joshua son of Nun,
Would elect a Jericho harlot —
     and a traitor — for his Son
To descend from? Yet he picked her!
     Praise the wisdom of his choice:
Hallelujah! God is with us!
     Let us marvel and rejoice!

3: Ruth

Gen. 19: illegal alien* descended from the incestuous survivors of Sodom

     * Note that under a strict halachic construction it was illegal for David to have been accounted an Israelite, let alone King

Who'd imagine, of all nations,
     God would call on Moab's aid
To advance the cause of salvation?
     that a needed role played
A widowed exile sprung from Sodom
     — and from incest — that her part
Would be great-grandmother, in Israel,
     of a man after God's own heart?

4: Bathsheba

2 Sam. 11: she's cute; have him killed!

Who would guess that when, in wartime,
     on her roof Bathsheba lay
And occasioned maybe the worst crime
     in the annals of her day,
God, the righteous Lord of Zion
     through that lust would vict'ry win,
From their union bringing a scion
     who'd annihilate all sin.

5: Mary

Luke 1: the word on the street is, it was a Roman soldier

Who'd suppose a country girl
     such as Mary would attract
The Creator of the whole world?
     But she did, and that's a fact.
She conceived and bore a child
     by the Spirit of the Lord —
Our Redeemer, "meek and mild",
     sharper than a two-edged sword!

6-8: Reprise

Who'd believe that these five ladies,
     and so many nameless more,
In God's great assault upon Hades
     would be called and chosen for
The advancement to perfection
     of the Lord's ongoing plan
By a process of election
     to bring forth the Son of Man*?

          * (the title is used ironically; the homiletic interpolations
remind us that this is the genealogy of Jesus, the Son of Woman
— as Julia Ward Howe wrote, "Let the Hero born of woman
crush the serpent with his heel...")

Mudstained cloth and damaged vessels
     are the means our Lord has used,
Yet our sense of pride still wrestles
     with the meaning of these truths:
Not the holy and the haughty,
     but the humble and the flawed —
Be they prostitutes or monarchs —
     are the forebears of our God.

Hallelujah, hallelujah,
     hallelujah, hallelu!
Hallelujah, hallelujah,
     hallelujah, hallelu-hu-hu!
So we sing their praises gladly,
     named and nameless, brash and shy,
For the offspring of their body
     is the Apple of God's eye!

Haruo

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17 Dec 02 - 12:18 AM (#848645)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Who'd Have Thought the Lord Almighty
From: Haruo

As to Ruth, the Torah passage that can be construed as denying David's right to be an Israelite is at Deuteronomy 23:3. Of course, that is not the only possible construction, but I think it is one that was fresh in the mind of the author of the Book of Ruth.

Haruo

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17 Dec 02 - 03:03 AM (#848710)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Who'd Have Thought the Lord Almighty
From: Keith A of Hertford

Unsung heroines indeed!
A powerful and intrigueing song.

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17 Dec 02 - 03:09 AM (#848714)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Who'd Have Thought the Lord Almighty
From: Genie

Amen, Keith! Wonderful, Leland!

Genie

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17 Dec 02 - 08:59 PM (#849344)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Who'd Have Thought the Lord Almighty
From: Haruo

Thanks for the kind words, Keith and Genie.

The tune I was calling I don't want your Rolls Royce, mister is probably the one in the DT with the file-name GBDOLLAR; another tune that I think is closely related (and could be used for my text) is "Life's Railway to Heaven" (Life is like a mountain railroad) by Charles Tillman, also used with the (Wobbly?) text Miner's life is like a sailor's.

It can also be sung to "Scarlet Ribbons", though I think less effectively, and you have to tweak the syllables a bit here and there. As it stands, the main place where there may be scansion problems even with the "Cheating Game" tune is in the third stanza, where "A widowed" is sung to a triplet of notes (or whatever it's called when there are three notes with a bracket above and a "3" in the middle of the bracket). Also, the "-hu-hu" in the eighth stanza; I'm not sure how to explain it without giving sheet music or a recording.

Leland

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