Distinctly Welcoming iPod - No. 2 "God is in the House"

I've just had a weekend hosting the Resource training here in Birmingham and to kick-off some discussion on Gospel and Culture, I played Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' classic track, "God is in the House". This has to be my number 2 track for the Distinctly Welcoming iPod. Nick Cave wrote it after travelling around the Bible-belt of North America. It's a eulogy to a perfect, Waltons-style town, laced with bitter irony: "Drug freaks in the crack house, We don't have that stuff here. We have a tiny little Force But we need them of course, For the kittens in the trees And at night we're on our knees As quiet as a mouse For God is in the house".

Nick Cave's window into the church is of a white-only, morally superior, clean, unsullied community of privilege. It's a far cry from the vision of what church ought to be: a multicultural community of the broken, of sinners forgiven and affirmed, of people embracing the dirt and messiness of life and bringing God's transformation. The kind of "heaven in ordinary" that we prepare for in this Advent season: God with Us, with the teenage mum, the shepherds, the spiritual searchers from other lands. The thing is, Nick Cave's perception is not drastically far of the mark. Let's hear his prophetic voice from the outside.

As the song closes, Nick Cave's voice drops to a whisper: "For no-one's left in doubt, There's no fear about,  If we all hold hands and  very quietly shout, Hallelujah, God is in the house, Oh I wish he would come out". God did come out, he is out; let's look for him in our cities, in the poverty, brokenness and diversity.

Comments

[Ray]

I just love the line "Well-meaning little therapists,
Goose-stepping, twelve-stepping Tetotalitarianists..."

A good choice of Cave song, though "Into my arms" would be up there too.

#1 something from Johnny Cash's later catalogue perhaps? We shall see....

[LauraHD]

Couldn't agree more - but you well know my penchant for Cave's work. When he performed this at the Bridgewater Hall, you could hear a pin drop...

[Smeeee]

In a simililar vein, the lyrics to 'Love and Me Make Three' by the Violent Femmes critque a self indulgent church concerned with the upkeep of buildings.
'You're a man
Who works for the Lord
Polishing the statues
When their faces look worn
The best of times
And the worst of men
Don't seem to affect you
You're asleep again'