| A Message from the Interim Pastor…
For the past several weeks, the song lyrics I’ve been writing about have come mostly from 1960s rock and roll songs. A few of them were songs about the times – Civil Rights, Vietnam, etc. So, this week, I’m going to change direction a little and talk about something different.
In 1994, Disney Studios released the classic animated film, The Lion King. I have seen this movie over a thousand times (that might be a slight exaggeration) because it was our grandson Shane’s favorite movie when he was a toddler. The music for the film was written by a team led by Elton John and this week’s song verse comes from one of those songs, The Circle of Life.
“It’s the circle of life, and it moves us all through despair and hope, through faith and love, till we find our place on the path unwinding; in the circle; the circle of life.”
Now, some folks would say that this song is about nothing more than the process of birth, life, and death – all things are born (even vegetation), live for some period of time (some longer than others), and then die – return to the earth to start the cycle all over again. But I think that Sir Elton goes a whole lot deeper than that.
First of all, he talks about a circle. Circles have no beginning and have no end. In other words, the circle of life has no beginning and has no end. In the Bible we read, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you…” (Jeremiah 1:5). I read this to mean that God knew each and every one of us – that we existed – even before we were born to what we call “life.” And, in the story about the raising of Lazarus from the Gospel of John we read, “Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26).
But, perhaps more importantly, I like to think that “the circle of life” is actually our path with God – our never-ending path with God. God moves us through despair and hope. God moves us through faith and love. God moves us until we find our place – until we recognize that our path is not a path to God but is a path with God. In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul writes, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life… nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39). Nothing can separate us from the love of God who is always walking with us in the “circle of life.”
Peace and blessing,
Pastor Michael
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