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| Rickie Lee Jones |
01. The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem – “Mountain Dew (Live)” (1961) from Kiss Me I’m Irish II – Part 2
This song always puts me in a good mood and reminds me of enjoying homemade rakia (plum brandy) with locals in towns and villages across Bulgaria. Love the whistling at the beginning- so does my baby boy. Still hope to make it to Ireland one of these days.
02. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – “American Girl” (1976) from Pet Rocks! – Part 3
We had so many amazing women in our Peace Corps group in Bulgaria twenty years ago including a retired teacher who was honoring a promise she had made decades earlier after President Kennedy’s murder to one day join the Peace Corps and serve in his honor. Well, she did it.
03. Rickie Lee Jones – “On Saturday Afternoons in 1963” (1979) from Blue Jean Rock Poets IV
I like songs that for whatever reason remind me of a high school musical. This one has just the right amounts of wistfulness, sweetness, and nostalgia and might fit nicely right after the intermission.
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| Scott Walker |
04. Scott Walker – “Joanna” (1968) from The World of Scott Walker II
This song carries me away on tufts of fluffy golden clouds and makes me feel like I’m falling asleep in a barber’s chair.
05. U2 – “Ultra Violet (Light My Way)” (1991) from Four Guys from Dublin – Part 1
Achtung Baby is one of the most under-appreciated albums of the past 30 years and used to sound great late at night in my college bedroom- sounds even better in Europe. The album also had the misfortune of being released just two months after Nirvana’s Nevermind and while the ‘90s Seattle grunge explosion may have derailed U2’s plans to reconquer North America at least the Dublin quartet still had Europe and Australia- and the Jean.
06. Sheryl Crow feat. Sting – “Always on Your Side” (2005) from Gordon Sumner – Part 2
Just a sweet union of two pop music icons. I miss duets like these.
07. Warren Zevon – “Desperados Under the Eaves” (1976) from Blue Jean Rock Poets III
Not everyone views the end of the world as such a bad thing. I still have never been to the City of Angels but when I finally get there I would like to attempt a Warren Zevon inspired tour of the city. That’s Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys on backup vocals. BTW- does a song about California sliding into the ocean featuring a melody based on “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore” count as nautical themed?
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| Dan Fogelberg |
08. Dan Fogelberg – “Same Old Lang Syne” (1981) from Christmas Faves II – Part 1
Everybody’s favorite downbeat Christmas song- still going strong after all these years (and only gets better with age).
09. The Mamas and the Papas – “Safe in My Garden” (1968) from Oldies: Pass the Fritos IV – Part 2
Rich L.A. hippies in their fancy homes bemoan and contemplate the rioting in the streets. One of M&Ps’ last great songs before breaking up, it’s no “California Dreamin’” or “Twelve Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon)” but I find this to be a satisfying deep cut.
10. Gordon Lightfoot – “Same Old Loverman” (1971) from Summertime Dream – Part 3
Lightfoot you old cad, you heartbreaker. Leave the poor lady alone. (She doesn't stand a chance.)
11. U2 – “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses” (1991) from Four Guys from Dublin – Part 1
So much going on in this song- not the least of which is the ‘60s girl group inspired intro.
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| Duomo di Milano (Milan Cathedral) |
12. Joan Baez – “God Is God (Live)” (2016) from Joanie from Staten Island
True, we are not God but mainstream Christianity holds God is one of us: the Word made flesh- Jesus Christ- the one infinite and eternal spirit God incarnate- both fully human and fully divine and through whose sacrifice on the cross we are redeemed.
After Jesus rose from the dead and then returned in his risen and glorified body to his Father, the Spirit came upon the apostles. These weak and cowardly men were changed into enthusiastic witnesses to the kingdom Jesus had preached. But there was more to the coming of the Holy Spirit than an infusion of courage. The apostles not only began to behave differently; they also began to see things differently.
As the apostles reflected on the few brief and eventful years that they had spent in Jesus’ company, they realized with increasing intensity that Jesus had been more than he seemed. They reflected on his miracles, on his forgiveness of people’s sins, on his teaching that a person’s final and eternal value would be judged by how that person had related to him, to Jesus. They reflected on the special meaning that he seemed to give to the phrase he liked to use in describing himself: “the Son of Man.” He was often called “Lord,” a word used to address God. Sometimes he allowed himself to be called “Son of God” and to be referred to as “the Christ,” the promised savior.
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| Healing of the Blind Man by Duccio di Buoninsegna |
Jesus’ relationship with God seemed different from other people’s. He seemed more familiar with God. Jesus referred to God as “Abba” (“Dad”), which seemed to indicate that he enjoyed a relationship with God that others did not. Then came the Resurrection and glorification of Jesus. Was it merely a sign of approval from God for what Jesus had done and said during his public life, or was it a sign of something more?
As the apostles and other followers of Jesus reflected on him under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they became aware that Jesus was indeed more than he seemed. Jesus, full and complete human being, was at the same time no one less than God.
Jesus’ followers taught about the story of his life, death, and resurrection. They began to express, as best they could, the astounding truth of which they had become aware: that Jesus was God who had lived in their midst. Soon these accounts were written down by those who had heard the apostles, accounts that ultimately became the Gospels in the New Testament.
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| Christ at the Sea of Galilee by Jacopo Tintoretto |
Some people today refuse to believe that Jesus was divine. For them, he may be a great teacher or a splendid model of human behavior, but that’s all. Others refuse to accept that Jesus was human. They think of his life as effortless, without the real pain and frustration that every human experiences. Both approaches are wrong; both are incomplete because neither accounts for the full reality of Christ.
If the Christ we reverence is not fully divine, if the Christ we worship is not fully human, if his humanity and divinity are not united in a single subject, then the Christ we are dealing with is not the Christ of the apostles nor the Christ of the Christian faith, but a figment of our imagination.
But what difference does it make? Granted that Jesus was a real human being, what does it add to say that he was God? Granted that he was God, why bother about whether he was really human? The Christian answer is crucial when it comes to considering our relationship to God in redemption and grace and glory, when it comes to considering the community of believers in the church, when it comes to figuring out what our own individual human existence ultimately means.
To say that Jesus is one being, both human and divine, is to say that in him God became a human actor on the stage of the world’s history, that God became a human participant in the love story that had begun with creation. With God as a human participant, the story takes a whole new turn, and so does our part in it.
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| Resurrection by Matthias Grünewald |
Thanks to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, divine and human, our world is no longer merely the creation of God, good as that is. It is now the place where God’s human and divine activity in Jesus continues to unfold. It is God’s world in a way in which it was not before God became a human participant in it. It has been given a new direction and a new significance.
All that is what we mean when we say Jesus saved and redeemed us.
Now perhaps we can see how fitting it is that Jesus was both human and divine. If Jesus had been merely a human being, his life would have been, at best, an example. On the other hand, if God had chosen to restore the world without the collaboration of humanity, the restoration of the world would have been an acknowledgement that things had gotten so bad that they could only be dealt with through an interruption from outside. By redeeming and saving the world through humanity, the humanity of Jesus, God indicates that the original plan was a good plan. God acknowledges the inherent worth of the human creature by using humanity to save and redeem humanity from ultimate failure. We have been saved and redeemed through the power of God, but we have also been saved and redeemed by a human being like ourselves. God has an ingenious way of doing things. 1
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| Madonna and Child blessing by Giovanni Bellini |
Owing to the sin of the first man, the race had lost its union with God; a breach lay between. Where God and man had been at one, they were now at two: till at-one-ment, atonement, was made, heaven was closed to the race’s members.
God could, of course, have simply written off the race as a failure. He could, as simply, have forgiven the sin. He did neither. He chose that in human nature the sin committed in human nature should be expiated.
For the act by which Christ redeemed us was a wholly human act. The life He offered as sacrifice was His human life; an offering of the divine life would have been meaningless. The suffering was in His soul and body; the death was the separation of His soul and body.
In Him, humanity gave its all, holding back nothing. Here was a total obedience against the disobedience of man’s sin, a total acceptance and self-surrender as against the thrust and self-assertion of man’s sin. And all this was wholly in human nature.
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| Christ carrying the cross by Andrea Solario |
But He who performed the act was God: actions, we have seen, are always in the nature, but the person does them: and the Person whose human nature this was, in whose human nature all this was done, was, is, God the Son. Because He was truly man, His sacrifice was truly human, so that it could be set against the sin of the race. But because He was God, His act had an infinite value, by which it compensated, outweighed, not only all the sin men ever had committed but all they ever could. That, in essence, is why it is redemptive.
Every act of Christ was infinite in value because He who performed it was God. 2
13. U2 – “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For (Live)” (2005) from Adults Only II
Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee. – St. Augustine of Hippo
U2 attempts- and pulls off- distilling each person’s lifetime journey of faith into a timeless song which surprisingly (or not) went to #1 in the U.S. in the summer of ’87. This version was recorded in Milan.
14. Arlo Guthrie – “Victor Jara” (1976) from Folkies V
Besides the history lesson, I also dig the audio production on this song- recorded in 1976 but sounds like it was recorded just yesterday.
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| Victor Jara |
15. Jerry Jeff Walker – “L.A. Freeway (Live)” (1984) from Country Grab Bag II – Part 2
16. Elvis Costello and the Confederates – “Brilliant Mistake” (1986) from Declan MacManus – Part 1
One of my favorite Elvis Costello songs. I always enjoy hearing foreigners sing about America.
17. The Human Beinz – “Nobody But Me” (1967) from Garage Freaks!
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall not have other gods beside me (Exodus 20:2-3).
18. Jackson Browne – “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” (2012) from Bob’s Birthday Bash – Part 2
One of my favorite ‘60s Dylan songs. I like Browne’s laid back interpretation as if he’s recalling a long forgotten childhood nursery rhyme one line at a time.
19. Adele – “Make You Feel My Love (Live)” (2011) from Pop Faves II
Words and music by Bob Dylan. Like all great love songs, this one is also probably about Jesus.
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| The Human Beinz (what’s with the broom?) |
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1 Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk, Being Catholic: How We Believe, Practice, and Think (Cincinnati, OH: Franciscan Media, 2006)
2 Frank Sheed, Theology for Beginners (Brooklyn, NY : Angelico Press, reprint edition 2011)
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