A Tune Stuck In My Head

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Now, here’s a thing… I had a topic in mind for this week and then I got a song stuck in my head the other day, the way you do. Oddly, it was one I had not heard in a very long time – ‘Bad Moon Rising’ by Creedence Clearwater Revival, released in April 1969 (Available here –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUQiUFZ5RDw).   The thing is, that it was only when I listened to it that I realised how apocalyptic were the words. Here’s the words to the first couple of verses and the chorus.

I see the bad moon a-rising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin'
I see bad times today.


Don't go around tonight
Well it's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise.


I hear hurricanes a-blowing
I know the end is coming soon
I fear rivers over flowing
I hear the voice of rage and ruin[1]

Written about the Vietnam war and the turmoil in America at that time, apparently. What’s interesting, and here is the thing, is that what I was going to write about is the state of the world, and how sometimes it, makes me want to weep. How, in fact, I see the bad moon a-rising.

Around the world, we seem to see Governments that are either inept or corrupt (sometimes both),  societies that are either increasingly sordid and venal or narrow-minded and oppressive, all topped off with poor stewardship of the Earth and the Covid-19 pandemic. There’s been a big kerfuffle in the football world over the latest interpretation of the handball rule, leading many people to conclude ‘that the game has gone’ – i.e. lost its value and integrity. Sad to say, the whole world feels a bit like that.

There were times when Jesus could foresee disaster and turmoil – when he looked over Jerusalem for example, Luke tells us:

“And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it,  saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side  and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” – Luke 19.41-44

That, of course, refers to the consequences of unbelief and rejection of Christ as Lord and Saviour – which is pretty much where the world is at the present. But we are called to something different:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.’  – 1 Peter. 1.3-5


Remember that the next time you see A Bad Moon Rising! (Oh dear! I’ve just started to listen to Leonard Cohen!)

[1] © Warner Chappell Music, Inc, The Bicycle Music Company