God is a DJ

Maxi Jazz, the vocalist with the British trip-hop band "Faithless", famously sang in 1998.

“This is my Church.
This where I heal my hurts….
…..for tonight, God is a DJ”

When I first listened to this track, I thought, hey this is blasphemy. To equate God with a disc jockey, the Church with a discotheque. But as I think about it, and as the night air wafts the sounds of Iron Maiden performing at the Super Bock Rock Festival at the north end of the Park through our bedroom window at half past midnight, I think to myself. Well, is he not just expressing the reality of how life is for thousands out there, jumping up and down by the River Tejo? We don’t know God, but we do know this! We connect together. We jump around. It’s awesome. We feel good.

July is the month of Festivals, Events, Concerts here in Lisbon. It gets totally crazy. You’re spoilt for choice – jazz (Diana Krall), rock (Bob Dylan), classical or whatever you want. No wonder everybody goes to ground in August!! But for now there’s something on almost every night. We’ve had the rock festival up the road from our apartment block over the last couple of nights. I’ve never been that familiar with the sound of Iron Maiden, but a quick surf of the internet washed up the lyrics of one of the songs they blasted out on the night air. And it’s intriguing. Entitled “Hallowed be thy Name”, it’s about a guy on his last night before facing the death penalty and it end with this

When you know that your time is close at hand

Maybe then you’ll begin to understand

Life down there is just a strange illusion

Maybe we need to work a little bit harder at connecting with this “church”, to find ways in, and to help make our God, the God we know, the God of love and compassion, who’s rich and unfathomable and holy, their “D.J.”, providing the authentic rhythms for their lives.