The B-I-B-L-E

There are many events I should write about, perhaps.  I'm hesitant to write about the split/schism that seems unavoidable for our Methodist friends since I'm not a Methodist.  There's the assassination in Iran that seems to be a portent of a ratcheting up of hostilities, a horse or a rider or some other symbol of apocalypse.  I suspect there will be many more opportunities to talk about heavier topics in the days to come.

Instead, I want to make a record of the power of song.  I work with a variety of people, and the topic of religion rarely comes up.  I can't remember how I came to be singing songs from Sunday school with my colleagues, but I wanted to record the staying power of the song, "The B-I-B-L-E." 

If you've ever sung this song, you probably remember the lyrics:

"The B-I-B-L-E.
Yes that's the book for me.
I stand alone on the word of God.
The B-I-B-L-E."

It was a week or two before Thanksgiving, and I was in a meeting with my boss and a much younger colleague.  My boss is a white man in his mid 60's.  His father was a fire and brimstone kind of preacher, so that's his background.  My colleague is in her early 30's, if that old.  She's African-American, and the only religious conversation we've ever had revolved around her decision to give up sugar for Lent.  My younger colleague is the only one of us who has a child.

So here we were, years and decades away from the last time we sang the song, and yet each one of us could still sing every word. 

Granted, the lyrics aren't that complex.  They're designed to indoctrinate children, so maybe it shouldn't surprise me that we still remember.

But what surprised me more than anything else:  we come from such diverse backgrounds, and yet, we all learned this song and could still sing it together.

I know that Christian Ed and working with children is often a part of the church that goes without recognition.  Let us now praise the Sunday School teachers (whom we can no longer name), those hard working women who taught us basic theology in the form of songs that we'll still remember well into our adult lives.