Taylor Swift themed sermon: Grief, Hope, and New Life

At the end of December 2023, I gave a Taylor Swift-themed sermon! Below is the video and the manuscript

Introduction

Thank you for inviting me to give a sermon that touches on two of the things I am most passionate about: God and Taylor Swift. You might be wondering, “What can Taylor Swift tell us about God? Isn’t all her music just about boyfriends and ex-boyfriends.” No, not all her songs are about romantic relationships, but I argue that even if that were true: the overall themes are theologically significant. Her songs often deal with grief, loss, hope and new beginnings. 

And of course, the Bible also touches on these themes. Part of the nature of being human is navigating the devastating lows and valleys and the incredible highs and mountaintops experiences of being alive. And I assert that Taylor Swift’s music, combined with the Biblical text, can help illuminate both our faith and our human experiences and enable us to understand them in new and fresh ways. 

I asked Rev. Jennifer to provide you with some Taylor Swift songs. Now, Taylor Swift has a lot of songs, and I like most of them. But for the sake of this time, I have chosen three songs and paired them with three Bible passages.

Passage and song 1: Psalm 88: 1-12 (NRSV) and You’re Losing Me

The first Bible passage is Psalm 88:1-12, which I pair with the song, “You’re Losing Me.” What I appreciate about Psalm 88 is the raw honesty and unfiltered torment it expresses. The psalmist is crying out to God in despair, with a touch of anger.  Everything in their lives is falling apart: they are on the brink of death, their friends and family have abandoned them, they feel as if God’s wrath is cursing them, and they are calling out to God only to receive silence in response.

 I paired this Psalm with  “You’re Losing Me” because in the song, Taylor Swift explains in clear language that the relationship she has with a loved one, is on the brink of falling apart. She compares the slow collapse of this relationship to a death-her death. She describes how what started out as a dream is slowly becoming a nightmare as the unnamed loved one ignores her and abandons her. Taylor Swift says, “stop your losing me, I can’t find a pulse, my heart won’t start any more…for you.” While the psalmist says, 

Do you work wonders for the dead?

    Do the shades rise up to praise you?

Is your steadfast love declared in the grave

    or your faithfulness in Abaddon?

Different words, but a similar vibe. 

The last few years, for most of us, have been hard. We have dealt with global tragedies and personal suffering. And many of us Christians in addition to dealing with everything going on in the world and everything going on in our personal lives, are also grappling with the reality that the Mainline Christian Church as we know it, at least in the United States is undergoing vast changes and struggles.  

Many congregations are struggling with maintaining their buildings, losing members, increasing their debt and in order to navigate those challenges they are making tough decisions. Some are closing. Others are staying open but in order to do so they have to give up some cherished traditions, or they have to think about doing church differently. These types of conversations are difficult. They are painful. And when dealing with difficult and painful situations it’s easy to react in one of two ways: 1)  get over it and move on or 2) put our heads in the sand and pretend everything can stay the same.. Both of these responses entail ignoring our grief and despair.

 In the first response, the impulse is to short-circuit the grieving process. “Oh well this is our reality, let’s just move forward.” And yes, getting stuck in grief and sorrow helps no one. It certainly doesn’t help individual congregations who are figuring out their future. But the truth is, we can’t fully move on if we haven’t truly grasped what we have lost. Grief that has not been adequately dealt with never goes away. 

 In the second scenario, there is an inability or unwillingness to see reality for what it is in the hopes that ignoring reality will let us maintain the status quo.  But this is only delaying the inevitable and grief delayed is grief magnified. 

As individuals, as part of the global church community, we need to learn to manage our grief and express it.  The grief and sense of betrayal in Psalm 88 and in Taylor Swift’s song, “You’re Losing Me” is palpable. On the surface, it can feel unhealthy and uncomfortable to express pain this vividly, because as a society we are so used to just ignoring our grief and pushing through.

But what this passage and song demonstrate is that it is ok and even necessary to name our emotions and to express our betrayal. We will survive our grief. And more importantly, God can handle our pain and suffering. God can handle our strong emotions. We don’t need to mince words. We can tell God, “This hurts. I feel like my world is falling apart. I feel as if you have abandoned me and if things don’t change  I won’t survive.” God can handle and even demands our honesty.

Passage and song 2: Isaiah 43:2, 15-19 (NRSV) and Epiphany

The second scripture and song pairing is Isaiah 43:2, 15-19 with the song Epiphany. The song Epiphany is not about a romantic relationship. Instead, the song touches on the horrific experiences of war experienced by her grandfather during World War II, and the agony medical personnel experienced during the height of Covid as they watched their patients die. In a few lines, she paints a vivid picture. When describing her grandfather’s experience she writes, 

Keep your helmet, keep your life, son

Just a flesh wound, here's your rifle

Crawling up the beaches now

"Sir, I think he's bleeding out"

And some things you just can't speak about”

In less than a paragraph she touches on the anguish her grandfather experienced during the battle of Guadalcanal, an experience that touched him so deeply that he never discussed it with her or other members of her family. 

For medical personnel during COVID she captures the pain of being unable to stop all the deaths. She writes:

Something med school did not cover

Someone's daughter, someone's mother

Holds your hand through plastic now

"Doc, I think she's crashing out"

And some things you just can't speak about.

In the first scripture and song pairing, I talk about the importance of naming our grief and not avoiding or hiding it. But in this song, we are confronted with the reality that sometimes our grief, our pain is so vivid that it freezes us.. We are left hoping, praying, and pleading for some sort of epiphany or sudden revelation that puts everything we have experienced into perspective. We long to have an experience similar to Moses with the burning bush, or Paul’s experience in Damascus where he is blinded and hears the voice of Jesus.

We long for an experience where everything comes together and makes sense. But more often than not we are left struggling to find meaning. But one thing to remember is that we do not struggle alone. In this song Taylor Swift describes the agony of those returning from war and of medical personnel, but she also sends out a message of solidarity. In the song after each mini story she sings, 

With you, I serve

With you, I fall down, down

Watch you breathe in

Watch you breathing out

The song not only chronicles unspeakable pain and grief, but it also serves as a reminder about how we are not alone even in our darkest moments. This message pairs really well with our sacred text. The Bible, as most of us know, is not a singular, monolithic text. It was written, edited, and compiled over thousands of years and an untold number of individuals worked on it.

With that being said, there are common threads that can be found throughout the Bible. One of those common threads is the idea of a God who journeys with us. In  Isaiah 43:2, 15-19 (NRSV), God is depicted as being with the people of Israel as they struggle. God not only tells Israel, “I am with you” but also that God can make a path appear even when everything seems to be hopeless. 

The truth is that we do not go through this season of transition alone. God can and does walk with us. We do not carry this pain alone.  This hope matters, as we, as Christians, navigate the reality that the old ways of doing Church, are no longer working and we have to make tough decisions about where we go from here.

Passage and song 3: 2Corinthians 4:16-17 (The Message)  and Daylight

Finally, the last song/Biblical text pairing is 2 Corinthians 4:16-17 (The Message) with the song Daylight. The song Daylight is, yes, a love song. And in this love song Taylor Swift explores the ways in which her love with an unnamed person has brought her new life. This love has brought color into a life that was once monolithic and monochrome. She references a dark night of the soul:

 I've been sleeping so long in a 20-year dark night

And now I see daylight, I only see daylight

The love she describes is a love that is life changing, in a positive, affirming way. The sorrow and anguish that comprised her life before, has vanished. This song captures the hope and joy of love. Listen, most of us who have been in any type of relationship-romantic or not, understand that relationships can be difficult, they can be tedious, they can cause pain. Talking about those realities is important. And sometimes the overemphasis on relationships as difficult ignores the way in which love can open our eyes and make life meaningful.

 Similarly, I have been in some congregational contexts where the focus is on what God isn’t doing: on the declining membership and on the dwindling finances. I am not saying we don’t talk about these important realities. We have to.

And,  as Christians, we are a hopeful people, a resurrection people. We name grief, we share our anguish, and we do not fear staying in the grief, knowing that we will not be here forever. We do so trusting that God journeys with us. And we know, we hope, that even when things are at their worst God is working.

2 Corinthians 4:16-17, particularly the Message version, does not mince any words: things look like they are falling apart. Things look like they will never get better. But we trust that God not only accompanies us but is creating new life in the midst of death and destruction, sorrow and heartbreak. This verse encourages confidence and trust in God that heartbreak, sorrow, and mourning are not God’s end game for us. 

As Christians, we hold onto the hope that new life will arise, even if that new life looks nothing like our old one. And don’t get me wrong-new life can be scary. Some of us liked our old ones just fine. But new life brings new opportunities. Christians, today, are like everyone else, facing a lot of unknowns, a lot of transition. And yes, make sure to mourn what has been lost.

But as Christians, we at some point eventually need to hand the past over to God and open our eyes to the ways God wants to work in the here and now. We trust that what God has in store for us is better than we can imagine. We embrace God’s love, we embrace the new ways God has called us to be Church. We step into the Daylight of God’s love, knowing that we will be ok.

Let us say with the author of 2 Corinthians: Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us.

Let us embrace the fullness of God’s love and the new life God brings us by fearlessly stepping into the future, singing along with Taylor Swift: 

I don't wanna look at anything else now that I saw you

(I can never look away)

I don't wanna think of anything else now that I thought of you

(Things will never be the same)

I've been sleeping so long in a 20-year dark night

(Now I'm wide awake)

….

You gotta step into the daylight and let it go

Just let it go, let it go

Amen. 

Image: Black and white photo of a man putting his hands and head on his knees, in sorrow. Text: We name grief, we share our anguish, and we do not fear staying in the grief, knowing that we will not be here forever. We do so trusting that God journeys with us.