Holy Ghost Fire positively buzzed with excitement, even before anyone got seated. With last week having been even grander than the week before, there was so much excitement in the air that it was hard to sit down. The congregation was bigger than normal by a full third today, large numbers of friends having been invited to watch for and hopefully experience a swelling, compelling move of God. As the team assembled onstage, Esperanza and Damon looked more like the versions of themselves that everybody knew, but still full of...life, for lack of a better word. The same and yet different. This dynamic continued when the music started with a low rumble and a long "Joooooo-naaaaaahhh!"
It had been misty, but now the bongo rhythm seemed to usher in a green sky, howling winds, and rain that fell practically sideways.
Jooo-naaah / Jonah! / Where are you? / Ooooh! / Jooo-naah / Jonah! / Where are...yooouuu?
There was something truly eerie about the long "Ooh" that followed, Esperanza seeming to channel her very soul into the notes. It coursed through all present like an electric current through water.
The Lord came to me way down around Joppa Bay / He said, "Get up, Jonah; go preach to Nineveh-yay" / But I didn't wanna--why should I preach to them? / So I got on a boat and I took it the other way-yay
Ooh, Jonah / Where are you goin'? Yeah / Who do you think you are? You cannot hi-yide / Ooh, Jonah / Won't you stop runnin'? Yeah / You know in your heart you cannot escape My ey-eyes
A terrible storm came up, out on the sea / The captain and the crew finally figured out, the trouble was me / I said, "All will be well; just throw me over the side" / So over I went into the belly of a fish three days and nights
...
The waters were da-ark, the waves rushin' over / The seaweed was wrapped 'round my head / The ocean was ragin', my soul was a-faintin' / And then I remembered Your face / And I cried out, "Adonai, save me!" / And You heard me / From the depths You brought me
Hallelujah
...
I learned a valuable lesson that day / It really doesn't matter what plot gets in your way-yay / Right or wrong, you cannot run from Him / You're never too near or far to hear Him say-yay
Ooh, Jonah...
Only Damon and Sophia knew the story that charged Esperanza's vocals, but everyone felt the charge itself. It haunted the building like the voice of La Llorona, closing the song with a protracted groan accompanied by echoes of the name "Jonah" until the music tapered off into silence. Meanwhile the wind settled down, the rain lessened, and the sky regained its earlier grayish blue.
Soft thunder seemed to announce the next song. A hush fell over the congregation.
Lord, I've got no more tears to cry / Someone has hurt me, done me wrong / I'm walking wounded, Ohh-oh / Lord, this pain is a knife of fire / Why does it have to turn out this way? / Why do the innocent seem to pay?
How many times / Must I stand in the waves of this crashing sea? / How many times / Must I forgive all the hurt that's been done to me? / Let the jury go, set the sinner free? / Ohh-ohh-oh / Seventy times seven
Eyes filled with tears as the words hit home, brittle hearts cracking open under gentle notes, revealing raw but living flesh underneath.
Lord, I really don't understand / I'm lookin' round for some stones to throw / You're telling me..I should let it go! /
How many times / Must I stand in the waves of this crashing sea? / How many times? / I hear what You're saying inside of me / But I don't understand the mystery o-o-of / Seventy times seven
Where in "Jonah" there had been a wail, here there was a whimper. It was as if a boil had been lanced and was just beginning to drain. Then Damon played the bridge and the catharsis came in earnest.
How many times / Have You wept from the anguish of all my shame? / How many times / Have I nailed You up on the cross of pain / You bled from a broken heart, and I was to blame? / Seventy times seven
Over and over again / Seventy times seven / Don't You know just how hard I have tried? / Seventy times seven / Gotta see that I'm hurting inside / Seventy times seven / Don't You know that my pride is at stake? / Seventy times seven / So tell me how much one should take! / Seventy times seven...
There was not a dry eye in the house. Pain that had been babied for so long that it felt like family was finally leaving them. The journey to the doctor had been frightening and the treatment had stung, but not as much as they had feared it would, and the release...oh, the release! That had made it all worthwhile. Now that the pus was gone, no one missed it. A quiet contentment fell, soon settling into a soft spiral of keyboard notes.
When I was alone, I came to know a friend of mine / When I was alone, His voice was never hard to find / Loneliness would leave me / And that is when I learned to say / I love You / I love You
When I was alone, searching for a melody / He sang a sweeter song and gave it as a gift to me / And that which I feared most is that which is most precious to me now
Jesus, I love You / Oh Lord / Jesus, I love You / Jesus, I love You / I love You, I love You...
The rain had stopped, but no one noticed. Their eyes were closed and each person there was alone in a dark but comforting space with the Lord, all earthly cares swept away. In this sweet moment of intimacy they effortlessly joined their voices as one, bolstering the team's repetition of the chorus.
After a few seconds of silence, the sun broke through and the next song caressed everyone's ears like a cool breeze.
Highland of love...
A tale of wonder told / Written with lines of gold / The secret of life unfolds / On the canvas of my heart / Veiled in a misty breeze / There's a higher ground I see / My Savior is calling me / And I'm running to that place / His footsteps I must trace
On the highland of love / He is calling me / Reaching down for me / On the highland of love / I will join Him there / It's His love I'll share / On the highland
Don't you see? It's all been changed / Nothing can stay the same / I have taken the holy name / Of the One who sets me free / Now anger must turn to love / The bird of prey becomes the dove / That's the world I'm dreamin' of / Where the lion and the lamb / Can live together once again
On the highland of love / I will call for you / I will reach for you / On the highland of love / We will join Him there / It's His love we'll share / A castle towers there / Breathe the mountain air...of love
The question that marked the bridge was one to which everyone could offer a resounding yes as with eyes still closed, they left the calm darkness of a soothed soul for the bright and open expanses of a celestial city, seemingly leaving their bodies behind on the Earth.
Can you feel your spirit soar? / It's a world I've never seen before / Who could ever hope and dream for more?
On the highland of love...
Everyone having forgotten their bodies for a time as the song finished, they began a gradual descent back to Earth with the opening notes for one more song.
O hear the watchman cry / The Bridegroom is a-coming / O hear the watchman cry / From the midnight's lonely tower / Listen, the watchman cries / The wedding feast is dawning / Keep watching the eastern sky / For the chosen day and hour
Cry out that the time is near / When in clouds of glory He'll appear / Sing for the end of fear / From the midnight's lonely tower
O hear the watchman cry...
Here the tempo picked up and the speed of their descent back into earthly awareness likewise increased, stimulated by a drumbeat reminiscent of a military muster.
God is raising up a people, clothed in light / Holy people to stand through the watch of the night
And the cry goes out / And the cry goes on and on and on / Searching out the skies / With expectant eyes / Listen for the cry
God is raising up a people, robed in truth / And they know what the Father has told them to do
And the cry goes out / And the cry goes on and on and on / All across the land / The time is at hand / Listen for the cry
Don't be left with a lonely heart / Don't be left in a world of doubt / When you can live in the Fatherland / Love too deep to comprehend / Do you understand? The cry goes out for you
That summons blew through the congregation like a mighty wind. Senses were heightened, dormant heroism stirred.
Will you come and join the people / Standing on the heights / Holy people brave enough to carry the fight
And the cry goes out / And the cry goes on and on and on / Crying out from the east / Shouting out from the west / Listen for the cry
Don't be left with a lonely heart / Don't be left in a world of doubt / One day there'll be an angel cry / It's gonna shake the earth and the sky / At last the world will know the reason for the cry
God is raising up a people...
Hear the cry...
By the end of the song, the general mood was one of excitement, further heightened by the sound of a siren going off outside. Hear the cry indeed. When Pastor Moses took the stage, he hit the ground running. Inspired by the previous week's set to remind himself of what the Bible said about the days of Noah and the coming of the Son of Man, he proceeded to give the best sermon of his entire career to date.
Be vigilant, he cautioned. Be ready at all times for the coming of the Lord, for the only thing that you will ever know about the time of His return is that He will come when He is not expected and complacency will earn many stripes. Blessed is the servant who will be found faithful when his Lord returns, but cursed is the one who will be thus found wallowing in sin. Remember Lot's wife, who pined for Sodom enough to look back and was no more. Whoever would seek to save his life will lose it, but whoever would lose his life for the Lord's sake will save it. New souls were added to the flock. Everyone was galvanized, Sophia most of all. As an undercover voice at the U, she felt very much like a watchman in the midnight's lonely tower, and the phrase "listen for the cry" stuck with her all the way back home.
Something in the back of her mind told her that there would be a cry in the music she should use for her next segment. She browsed around for a bit, then saw suggestions from a Steve Taylor album that she hadn't heard before: "Meltdown", dated 1984. That sounded conceptually promising... Curious, she began playing the tracks. It seemed like she had a live one with "We Don't Need No Color Code", but it ultimately proved to be a dud. No new historical insights, no cry. But then five tracks in, she heard it: the cry.
The subject was the postwar Soviet oppression of Poland. No one had talked about this on campus. No one. "Over My Dead Body" sounded like something that would generate instant applause in the present context, but in the year of its release, the reaction would have been different. This would have been the Russia that Jim Jones and his fellow communists discussed fleeing to: the one represented by the Hammer and Sickle. The same and yet different. This would be the chisel that split the rock open. And in a way, it was strangely fitting that a fact-finding mission involving slavery should begin with the Slavs.