Call it a
collaboration, one that developed across centuries. No less than five people
were originators of the words that came together in “No Longer Slaves” around
2014. Its inception is a familiar one for those people like the Helsers
(Jonathan David and Melissa) and their friends Brian Johnson and Joel Case,
musicians who delve into the bible’s pages for inspiration. These four wanted
to share a message of confidence, and their musical genesis was an
apostle-writer’s letter they must have been reading or remembering as they
thought about how to make this process fruitful. How they decided to proceed is
a story of synergy, between themselves and undoubtedly directed toward those
whom they wanted to communicate, in a generation some two millennia removed from
the original thoughts that captured their own imaginations. Slavery is an old
institution (see picture here of some Christian slaves in 19th
Century Algeria), one that we humans have been fighting for a long time.
‘We Will
Not Be Shaken’ is the title of the album that Brian, Joel, and the Helsers were
bouncing off of each other in 2014. They’re part of Bethel Music in California,
where they spent an evening in a live recording of the album, sharing with the
audience what they felt about their conviction. The words of “No Longer Slaves”
speak about their own certain feelings, as well as recall a history of belief
in the Red Sea episode (Exodus 14). You can tell from a video story (see link
below) by the Helsers how the song’s ideas helped spur them to creativity. Brian’s
immediate positive reaction to the Helsers’ suggested inclusion of “No Longer
Slaves” was a sign that its words had struck a chord between the group’s
members. From Brian to Jonathan, and then from Jonathan to Melissa, with Joel
included also, the four of them teamed up to bring to life the song about
freedom from slavery. Jonathan says he had a powerful mental image of the Red
Sea story that stirred him, and the great apostle’s words to Roman people (chapters
6-8) from the first century likewise resonated with these composers, too. They
concluded that what worked for themselves, as 21st Century musicians
pondering ancient words, would be an effective transmitter to a larger audience.
But, one cannot merely mouth thoughts without first personally engaging in
their meaning, Melissa says. ‘This is my testimony’ she declares, regarding the
song’s title words. Evidently, she herself spent some time prostrate
considering what freedom meant, before she took a stab at singing ‘You rescued
me’ and ‘I am a child of God’, the song’s finishing cries. Was this a
reenactment of what that 1st Century writer might have done, as he
considered his own liberation?
Perhaps
boring into, and identifying with the 1st Century writer’s story would
be an effective strategy for all of us. An educated Jew like Paul would have
known the story of Israel fleeing the Egyptians via the Red Sea, and how that
motivated a nation to devotion. But, in his time, Paul must have been puzzled
at times that a nation freed from slavery in one era (during Exodus) could
still be in physical bondage (to Rome) centuries later. He really didn’t get it
either, until a Damascus Road light opened his eyes to another plane. Get
beyond the physical, he discovered. Find the spiritual. The Red Sea was just a
prelude to something greater. We could say that Paul, like the Helsers and
friends have written, was ‘unravel(ed) with a melody…surround(ed) with a song…’
when he met God for the first time. Had an encounter like that, yet?
The following link tells the story of the song by the
Helsers: https://bethelmusic.com/videos/no-longer-slaves-song-story-jonathan-and-melissa-helser/#
Video of the composers performing the song: https://bethelmusic.com/videos/no-longer-slaves/
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