My Cats Remind Me to Cultivate Interior Silence
“If I Had A Hammer” by Peter, Paul & Mary, & the Crucifixion
Photo by Valentina Ivanova on Unsplash
"If I Had a Hammer"
Peter, Paul and Mary famously sang “If I Had a Hammer” in 1962. It was written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hayes. Many have recorded the song.
“I'd hammer out danger…I’d hammer out a warning…I’d hammer out love between…My brothers and my sisters…All over this land…”
I like the song.
But, taking it as emblematic of unholy cultural currents of the 1960s-1970s…
The title of the song, “If I Had a Hammer,” says exactly why those cultural movements were false promises.
False promises
We can think, ”If only I had the right stuff then I’d fix this and I’d fix that!” We can think that if we had the hammer, the tool, the opportunity, the time, the resources, the money, the whatever, that we could fix or change things.
But we can’t. We can’t “hammer out” stuff on our own.
Not without God.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5 NRSVCE
The flower children were right about their ability to pick up a hammer and use it, but not in the way they thought.
They picked up a hammer and they crucified the Lord: The drugs. The "free love." The “sex education.” The legacy of, “I’m not religious—I’m spiritual.”
When we try to do things ourselves and without God, we hammer the nails into His hands and feet.
“I have done my part in your crucifixion…” —Richard Furey, Mary’s Way of the Cross
Sunshine
I was privileged to see Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul & Mary, live in concert in 2015. Faithful to his heyday, he boldly opined that Congress should begin with singing instead of prayer.
Forever one of my favorite songs will be his song, “Weave Me the Sunshine.” I regret not writing Peter Yarrow to thank him for that song while he was still alive.
But as great as Peter, Paul & Mary's music—and a lot of the music of that era—was, it could not actually weave the sunshine.
Because, like the hammer we don't have to pick up to try and fix things ourselves...
The sunshine doesn't need us to weave it.
"But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings” Malachi 4:2 NRSVCE
More reflections on the 1960s:
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