earnest & mingli

2  WHEEL WITHIN THE WHEELS  

Calling Ezekiel, priest and son of Buzi 
By the Kebar River the hand of God was upon him
He sat by the shores of heaven when a northern cloud
Sailed in on streams of a stormy wind
It was moving like fire - liquid fire

What can it be, this quartet of living creatures ?  
Having human likeness, each four wings and four faces
Of a man, a lion, an ox and that of an eagle
These ministers of lighting, were swaying and dancing
To polyphonic thunders, in centrifugal wonder

And the wheels within the wheels within were turning
And the wheels within the wheels within they churned
And the wheels within the wheels within were landing
Then rising again, rising again they turned 

Calling Ezekiel, prophet to a stiff and stubborn nation
Given words inscribed on the two-sided scroll
His preaching is mourning, woe and lamentation
To a people of rebellion, who hear but never listenT
 Why don’t they ever listen ?

If only every heart would turn
For the glory of the Lord to return

SONGWRITER NOTES

Of all the OT visions, perhaps the most wondrously detailed was Ezekiel’s. He was a young priest at a time when Babylon invaded his nation Judah and exiled many Jews (him included) across the Babylonian kingdom. 

At that time,  false prophets kept telling the exiles they’d go home soon - back to Jerusalem, to the Temple. 

One day while sitting by a Babylon river, Ezekiel saw God coming on a windstorm. Ezekiel chapter 1 describes this cinematic vision vividly – how God’s glory sat on an immense cloud of flashing lighting, with a centre like glowing metal. The cloud was carried by 4 winged creatures each riding a wheel intersecting a wheel. Each wheel within a wheel was a gigantic, sparkling rim full of eyes. 

When the wheels landed, God told Ezekiel to prophesy to his fellow exiles that they are being punished for idolatry. Instead of returning home, God was turning them over to judgment. Removing His Presence – His Protective jurisdiction – from Jerusalem. One part of the vision depicted the cloud of God’s glory.  I found the description of this departure sadly intriguing - at first hovering, then pausing before moving away. It conveyed a sense profound grief and conflict  when meting divine judgment on the Temple, then Jerusalem and then the mountains that surrounded their city.

But when the exiles heard this,  instead of repenting, they mocked Ezekiel, and ignored his message. And so this song explores Ezekiel’s frustration, disappointment, and longing for God’s glory to return. 

3  GERAZIM / JOHN 4:1-26

There’s a broken shalom  lying buried in the sand, that made us enemies not friends.

Samaritans don’t mix with the Jews, so  why would he come here at noon ? 
Where I fill my jars only after the women are gone.  Better dry than be soaked in their scorn ! 
The stranger he asked for a drink. Beckoning boldly, surprising. 
I gave him cold shoulder but he offered life giving water -  to take away my thirst forever !

We talked about Jacob, we talked about the well. We talked about secrets that were only mine to tell. And we talked about the tensions that lay in  between Jerusalem and this mountain we call Gerazim. 
I want to hear more from him. 

He told me the hour has come when temples and places won’t matter. And a new congregation will worship in Spirit and Truth. But this made me more than confused !
So I call it a day saying “Why don’t we wait for the coming Messiah to finally explain ?” And right then his  answer sent shivers in me. Like the sound of many rivers in a whisper of - “I am He”!
And of that broken shalom, lying buried in the sand. Well I think he has come to bring us together again !

We talked about Jacob, we talked about the well. We talked about secrets that were only mine to tell. And we talked about the tensions that lay in  between Jerusalem and this mountain we call Gerazim. 
It’s where I believed in him !

SONGWRITER NOTES

Gerazim is the name of a mountain where Jesus met a Samaritan woman. The full account is found in John  4. Mt Gerazim is important to Samaritans. It’s where  they built a temple to worship God and where they draw water daily from an ancient well that Jacob the patriarch dug for them long ago. 

But Gerazim is also a place of broken shalom on several levels. 

There’s no shalom between Samaritans and Jews. For centuries, the Jews who worshipped in Jerusalem on Mt Zion, despised the Samaritans worshipping on Mt Gerazim. That’s why the Samaritan woman was surprised to see Jesus on Gerazim.

There’s also no shalom between the Samaritan woman and her community. She visits Jacob’s well at noon to avoid the scorn and gossip of the other village women who fetch water in the morning. Everyday, she’s reminded of her messy life - 5 broken marriages and now a live-in boyfriend.

But at the deepest level, Jesus went to Gerazim to address the broken shalom between God and humanity – regardless of tribe, race or moral standards, Jesus came to rescue all.