Sunday Sabbath Poetry: Chris Martin

The last song on Coldplay's most recent album, my initial shock at "Death and All His Friends"'s powerful message has worn off, but my respect has not. The proclamation of not wanting to follow after "death and all his friends" is a playfully subversive prophetic stand against all the anti-God forces that threaten shalom, abundant life, in God's good creation. And what an unexpected source for such profound words.

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Death and All His Friends

By Chris Martin (of Coldplay)

All winter, we got carried

Away over on the rooftops

Let's get married

All summer we just hurried

So come over, just be patient, and don’t worry

And don't worry...

Try

. . .

No I don't want to battle from beginning to end

I don't want to cycle or recycle revenge

I don't want to follow death and all of his friends

No I don't want to battle from beginning to end

I don't want to cycle or recycle revenge

I don't want to follow death and all of his friends

. . .

And in the end, we lie awake and we dream of making our escape

And in the end, we lie awake and we dream of making our escape

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Friendship in Gilead

John Ames and Robert Boughton are friends.

Old men and wise, from tireless

youth they have played games and baptized

infants and argued theology

like jealous husbands fighting for

the hand of the beloved. If

these town elders are not men of

God the thing does not exist. In

old and creaking houses echoing

their own rugged bones' decline, they

spring from their pulpits' altars or

solitary studies to sit

in reconciliation, known

otherwise as checkers. These friends

share a history and a future --

even a son. John Ames Boughton,

the gift of the Lord, thorn in the

flesh, Abraham to Hagar, a

son beyond prodigality,

known and loved and blessed by God in

the heart of Boughton, by the hand

of Ames. In the flesh and spirit

of this man these two men meet, as

prayerful servants unto death, like

solemn soldiers marching in rank

unbroken, wilting in the sun.

Will the sovereign commander lead

the way across the Jordan? Will

he prove merciful? Is his word

ever a yes, never a no?

In a dusty town alight with

glory, the Lord is wonderful.