I haven't watched much TV over the holidays but on Christmas Day I watched the Queen and tonight, New Years Day, I watched Queen (the rock legend). Both have aged somewhat since I first became an avid follower of one and a sceptic about the other. The Queen concert (excellent by the way) was from 1975, the year before I began my ordained ministry. 1975 was also the year that the Vietnam War ended (at least that's what the US claimed) and yet 35 years later much of the Queen's speach was given over to an expression of gratitude to soldiers and their families who continue to loose their lives in Afghanistan - another unwinable war?
In October of that year, 1975, Queen released their all time great Bohemian Rhapsody which included the lyrics,
Mama, just killed a man
Put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger, now he's dead
Mama, life had just begun
But now I've gone and thrown it all away
Sobering thoughts for the start of a new decade. So many lives just thrown away, in Vietnam in 1975, today in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, DR Congo (and the list goes on). Lives thrown away not just through war, but in senseless living and moral confusion as well.
Now for the interesting fact! Do you recall that line later in Bohemian Rhapsody?
Bismillah! We will not let you go. Will not let you go. (sung as the hapless teenage killer is being dragged into jail (so you think you can love me and leave me to die.) What on earth does Bismillah mean? Well, Bismillah is the opening word of the Qur'an meaning literally, "In the name of Allah" So ...... "In the name of God, we will not let you go"!
Queen may have believed in that unforgiving, punishing, God in 1975 (or perhaps it just made a good lyric!) but I have spent the last 35 years living with a very different message, "In the nane of God, get up and walk", "In the name of God, be free". Even to the distressed 17 year old I once met on a prison visit who had stabbed his friend to death in an arguement over ten pounds, "In the name of God, stand up, believe, begin again, find life."
Thank you Queen, now I feel a whole lot better about the new decade which began this morning. "Bismillah! Live .... for God's sake."
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