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Notes
Having resolved to return to faith, the Narrator must reconcile where he's been with where he's going. I chose two familiar passages for this spoken word intro to the album:
1. Friedrich Nietzsche's "God is dead" discourse.
2. The Gospel according to John's account of Christ's resurrection.
Both narrations are my own voice. The spiritual tension is deliberate here. It represents two contradicting ideas, each with its own merit and evidence, vying for the narrator's devotion - and ours. As the narrator's own personal reformation begins, we hear the conflict here, and the beginning of its resolution.
I do believe that, yes, God was dead - and we did kill Him. But, in contradiction to Nietzsche, God did not remain dead, nor was death inflicted upon Him against His will. Rather, He chose to die in our place, and then rose again to save us all.
Lyrics
Track 1 and 2 overlapping
[Track 1]
Have you not heard of that
Madman who lit a lantern
In the bright morning hours,
Ran to the market-place,
And cried incessantly:
I am looking for God!
I am looking for God!
As many of those who did not
Believe in God were standing
Together there, he excited
Considerable laughter.
"Have you lost him, then?" said one.
"Did he lose his way,
Like a child?" said another.
"Or is he hiding?
Is he afraid of us?
Has he gone on a voyage?
Or emigrated?"
Thus they shouted and laughed.
The madman sprang into their midst
And pierced them with his glances.
"Where has God gone?" he cried.
"I shall tell you.
We have killed him - you and I.
We are his murderers!
"But how have we done this?
How were we able to drink up the sea?
Who gave us the sponge
To wipe away the entire horizon?
What did we do when
We unchained the earth from its sun?
Where is it going now?
Whither are we going now?
Away from all suns?
Are we not perpetually falling?
Backward, sideward, forward,
In all directions?
Is there any up or down left?
Are we not straying as through an
Infinite nothing?
Do we not feel the
Breath of empty space?
Has it not become colder?
Is it not more and more
Night coming on all the time?
Must not lanterns be lit in the morning?
Do we not hear anything yet
Of the noise of the gravediggers
Who are burying God?
Do we not smell anything yet
Of God's decomposition?
Yes, Gods do decompose.
God is dead.
God remains dead.
And we have killed him!
How shall we,
Murderers of all murderers,
Console ourselves?
That which was the
Holiest and mightiest of
All that the world has
Yet possessed has bled
To death under our knives.
Who will wipe this blood off us?
With what water could we purify ourselves?
What festivals of atonement,
What sacred games shall
We need to invent?
Is not the greatness of
This deed too great for us?
Must we not ourselves become
Gods simply to be worthy of it?
There has never been a greater deed;
And whosoever shall be born after us
For the sake of this deed
He shall be part of a higher history
Than all history hitherto."
Here the madman fell silent
And again regarded his listeners;
And they too were silent
And stared at him in astonishment.
At last he threw his lantern to the ground,
And it broke and went out.
"I have come too early," he said then;
"My time has not come yet.
The tremendous event is still
On its way, still travelling -
It has not yet reached the ears of men.
Lightning and thunder require time,
The light of the stars requires time,
Deeds require time even after they are done,
Before they can be seen and heard.
This deed is still more distant from
Them than the distant stars -
And yet they have done it themselves."
[End]
Track 2:
It was very early on the first day
Of the week and still dark,
When Mary of Magdela came to the tomb.
She saw that the stone had been
Moved away from the tomb and
Came running to Simon Peter
And the other disciple,
The one Jesus loved.
"They have taken the Lord
Out of the tomb" she said
"And we don't know where
They have put him."
So Peter set out with
The other disciple to go to the tomb.
They ran together,
But the other disciple,
Running faster than Peter,
Reached the tomb first.
He bent down and saw the
Linen cloths lying on the ground,
But did not go in.
Simon Peter who was following
Now came up,
Went right into the tomb,
Saw the linen cloths on the ground
And also the cloth that
Had been over his head.
Then the other disciple
Who had reached the tomb first
Also went in -
He saw and believed.
Till this moment,
They had failed to understand
The teaching of scripture,
That he must rise from the dead.
Still weeping,
Mary stooped to look inside,
And saw two angels in white
Sitting where the body of Jesus had been.
The said, "Woman, why are you weeping?"
"They have taken my Lord away,"
She replied,
"And I don't know where they have put him."
As she said this, she turned around
And saw Jesus standing there,
Though she did not recognize him.
Jesus said,
"Woman, why are you weeping?
Who are you looking for?"
Supposing him to be the gardener,
She said "Sir, if you have taken him away,
Tell me where you have put him,
And I will go and remove him."
Then Jesus said her name: "Mary!"
She recognized him then
And said to him, "Master!"
Jesus said to her
"Go and find your brothers,
And tell them:
I am ascending to my
Father and your Father,
To my God and your God."
So Mary of Magdala went and
Told the disciples that
She had seen the Lord
And that he had said
These things to her.
[pause]
Now if the risen Christ
Is what has been preached,
How can some that
There is no resurrection of the dead?
If there is no resurrection of the dead,
Then Christ himself cannot have risen,
And if Christ is not risen
Then our preaching is useless
And your faith in in vain.
For if the dead are not raised,
Then Christ is not risen,
And you are still dead in your sins.
And all who have perished
In Christ are lost.
If our hope in Christ has
Been for this life only,
We are the most miserable
Of all people.
But Christ has, in fact,
Risen from the dead:
The first of all who
Have fallen asleep.
Just as all men die in Adam,
So all men will be brought to
Life in Christ;
But all of them in their proper order:
Christ, the first, and then,
After his coming,
Those who belong to him.
For the trumpet shall sound,
And the dead will be raised, incorruptable,
And we shall be changed as well,
Oh Death, where is your sting?
Oh, grave, where is your victory?
For this perishable nature must
Put on the imperishable,
And this mortal nature must
Put on immortality.