Now available for streaming and download, Wedding Supper of the Lamb has reached distribution on Spotify, Youtube Music, Apple Music, and all mainstream digital music outlets. Major thanks to Neverending Radio Show(You can listen to an interview I did with Rich here on the Never Ending Radio Show Rumble Channel)
and the Artist Corner for their patient support on those platforms. It is encouraged that all supporters of Good God Father to be listening and subscribing on those channels, for updates, and other content. On the occasion of this release, Sean Lewis, the singer, songwriter and producer for Wedding Supper of the Lamb, and all other Good God Father song releases, spent some time at the keyboard to lay out some underlying thoughts behind the song, and its development. The following are his words:
The story behind how the song was written was when I was getting married to my wife, Teal, the lead vocalist on the track. I know at the time that what I was about to participate in was a spiritual one. As a songwriter, you can think of no better occasion to write a song than for the wedding ceremony celebrating the love you’d found in another, and consecrating that. That was the motivation. In meditating on the meaning behind the ritual, being a man of deep Christian conviction, my mind was drawn to the scriptures.
The energy behind the content of this song comes from a handful of passages of scripture. The first is from the first epistle to the Thessalonians chapter 4, Daniel chapter 7, Apocalypse of St. John chapter 19 and another comes from I Corinthians 13, among others, which may or may not come up throughout this post. Each of these texts relay parallel frames of a particular scene in the repertoire of the prophetic images of the new testament. The former being the song’s namesake, “Wedding Supper of the Lamb”, and the latter giving the lyrics the weight of meditation on the words.
Both of these together form the basis of a lot of modern cultural suppositions surrounding some assumed Christian doctrines, namely what’s known as the “rapture”, which is held as virtual dogma in many corners of Protestant American and Western circles. The song reflects a sense of simplicity, that is packed with complexity. This opens a gateway to explore so many different concepts, and analyze relationships and connections that might not be obvious at first glance. This potential gives way to a rich wealth of history with regard to a number of various ideas in some Christian academic circles.
The ideas center on the concept of an idealized ending of all things, especially and including all mysteries, and what role prophecy played in the developments of events with regard to a historical timetable. Many might find themselves preoccupied with wondering whether it is the prophetic which influence the historical, or vice versa. Myopic focus and attention is directed at what has been and can be determined, as a matter of fact and data, and just how much is derived from truly eccastic Spiritual experiences, and just how can the accounts of these experiences be trusted, and to what level they ought to be. The discourse there merits its own entire field of study, which exists in the discipline known as “eschatology”, which has sustained a varying levels of importance among devoted faithful believing Christians, as well as in the studies of university professors, in the studying of various texts, and their associations with historical cultural groups and how they arose throughout the centuries. What did they share in common and in what ways were they different from other groups? This is one of the myriad of issues the Dead Sea scrolls casts a decent amount of light on.
Many issues in the Biblical tradition get largely overlooked for the sake of this tedious labor, that it may be overwhelming to even wonder where to began to be interested to take any kind of plunge in to the litany of depictions, symbols, manuscript and archeological findings that lend themselves to the subject with any amount of cohesion. History is not exactly everyone’s favorite hobby. Which is why the warning not to repeat it sounds so ominous.
The song, Wedding Supper of the Lamb, is not a study, in itself. It’s an expression of a core longing of the human heart to believe that there’s a way, in the end, that existence, and the futility of its suffering, somehow finds its bliss in an eternal state of harmony. Where love is tangible, real, and truly realized, after all is said and done. So the delivery of the lyrics come out without any sense of commentary. The words are intended to be a living moment, harrowing the sacred, and cherishing the conductivity of playing a part in completing the bigger picture. It is for this reason that there is so much richness to discover when someone turns their attention to the bulwark that is there as an established the record lying latent beneath the conscious awareness of modern society. When one takes a look, they find that there is a lot to be said that gives clarity to things that seem so otherwise aloof, and unrealistic, like Love, Knowledge, Faith or Truth.
In today’s day of relativistic, post-modern thinking, there is so much lip service given to the notion that all faiths have some importance to bring to the table for developing the human collective experience, or as some stage in the evolutionary process known as enlightenment. What they find at the end of that process consistently proves itself ever out of reach, yet in spite of this, the apparatus remains of gurus who present themselves to be trusted and believed and a never ending supply of books to be sold. What answers are ever given, and beyond that, who bothers ever even to ask the question of what faith is? If they truly took all faiths seriously, they would understand that not only Christianity, and Christ Himself, but all other world religions and spiritual traditions, each give a very distinct and profoundly exact description and explanation to answer any and all questions pertaining to the general issue. Whether or not that answer given is sufficient to satisfy our individual particular wondering is up to each to be determined. One would think that at least since there is an actual answer given, that it should be analyzed and understood and assessed for the substance of its meaning, that is if you truly wanted to know if an answer exists to be given.
In I Thessalonians 4, Paul has his finger on a particular image to keep in mind to formulate the notion being presented. Namely, the scene of the trumpets blasting on the mount known as Sinai. The foundational narrative for this comes out of Exodus 19, and finds a certain culmination in Exodus 24, where the scene begins with the sound of the Trumpets on the mountain, which frighten the people, as does the voice of God thundering down on them. “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but do not have God speak to us, or we will die!” they said. So, in making accomodations for these timid people, Moses takes note on what God wants for His terms of the covenant, and then the people all agree, and then God calls up 70 of the elders to come up with Moses, and they do, and it says twice in chapter 24, verses 9 and 10, that they “saw God”, and were even able to describe that He (God), stands on pavement of sapphire as “clear as the sky itself.”
This is the peculiar moment Paul is taking his inspiration from in order to encourage the Thessalonians. Because unlike the Israelites who turn to idolatry before Moses comes back down the mountain, in violation of the terms of the covenant they had only just agreed to, the believers in Jesus are assured of their promise to be with the Lord forever based on a foundation of Faith and Fidelity rather than obeisance to a particular set code of Laws. One of the most significant institutions that have maintained a covenantal structure, that of matrimony, is the most heavily relied on to complete and articulate this Sinaitic picture as well as that found in the Book of the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ as recorded by the Beloved St. John, in chapters 19 and 20.
Unlike the idolaters in Exodus, where the presence of God stayed on the mountain top, the faithful believers in Christ live, move, and walk in God’s presence that came down, in the full glory of the Holy Spirit, when the fires of heaven descended and fell upon the Apostles in the upper room on Pentacost, in fulfillment of the promises made on Sinai. The picture of that scene is considered by the Christian Church, the inauguration and birth of its authority and ministry, following the tongues of fire that rested on the Apostles, which enabled them to speak in languages of the myriad of nationalities that found themselves in Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Weeks, otherwise known as Shavuot by the Jewish communities of that time, and even today.
The scriptures of the Tanakh, or “Old Testament”, as well as the New Testament are rich with language of poetic, and symbolic quality describing the relationship between God, and the people He’s chosen to reveal His nature to, as a husband and wife marriage relationship, unique in terms of the relationships of other nations to their so called “gods” of the pantheon, who had a more colloquial arrangement as business partners. You offer sacrifices, and return receive protection, health, and prosperity. Alternatively, the God of Israel, as the Heavenly husband of an earthly bride, offered his protection, health and prosperity in exchange for their loving fidelity. This was, and continues to be, essential in view of the nature of the Messiah, in terms of what would develop in to the doctrine of the Trinity in Orthodox Christian theology, throughout its earliest developments of the first millenium. The doctrine of the Church as the Bride of Christ carries a much more provocative connotation that doesn’t get as much attention in modern Christian culture.
This song, Wedding Supper of the Lamb, is an attempt to sit in, live in and soak in the space where that notion, and mentality gets the attention it deserves. Tasting of the sweetness of peace, justice, and love fulfilled in the simple decision to choose to trust that whatever there is in place to resist and obstruct true love will ultimately meet its demise, through the victory of the cross from before all time. When this reality is held in the heart, it plants a seed which offers a taste of that future victory in the present moment. In that instance, of tasting in the eating, the theoretical time and place that waits for us beyond the veil of flesh and blood, ceases to grip us as an impossibly out of reach pipe dream. Instead, all of heaven begins to present itself as a very immanent and present tidal wave washing over the mind and light of all of life, as a gift which is constantly offering itself to anyone who has the courage to receive it with humility and affection. In doing so, the meaning of the words, “on earth as in the heavens” are no longer observed as some illusive dream, but as a necessary nourishment for every moment of every day.
Wedding Supper of the Lamb Written and Produced by Sean Lewis All instruments performed by Sean Lewis except marching snare performed by Eamon Lewis Lead Vocals performed by Teal Lewis
