I’ve never been to the
Glastonbury music festival. And I never will. Not because I don’t like the
music, it’s just the sheer size of it and the small matter of being disabled. I
must admit to being a bit envious of Methodist colleagues in the Somerset Mendip
Circuit. Sir Michael Eavis, who along with his daughter Emily, runs the festival,
is a Methodist local preacher and a member of Pilton Methodist Church.
Therefore, ministers in that circuit can go to the festival and be part of the
chaplaincy team.
This year, like most years,
my wife and I found plenty of acts to watch on television. Some familiar to us
– Pulp, Franz Ferdinand and Scissor Sisters. Others not so much
but we’d heard of such as Self Esteem, CMAT and Ezra Collective.
Ezra Collective are
described as a jazz quintet. Their music fuses elements of
afrobeat, calypso, reggae, hip-hop, soul and jazz.
Four of the five members met at a youth club.
The band’s leader is Femi
Koleoso. At the acceptance speech he gave in 2023, when the band won the
Mercury music prize, his first words of thanks were to God. But this wasn’t
just some cliche. Femi Koleoso is a Christian. He and his brother TJ, the
bassist in the band, are sons of preachers.
It’s therefore no
coincidence that in 2024 Ezra Collective released a single called “God gave
me feet for dancing”. A single which Barack Obama named as one of his favourite
pieces of music in 2024.
At the end of their set at Glastonbury
this year Femi Koleoso addressed the crowd and explained that as they played “God
gave me feet for dancing” he wanted the crowd to be filled with joy.
Joy can be used in everyday
language to mean happiness. But in Christian terms it is much more. There are
references to joy, of being joyous or rejoicing (proclaiming joyfully)
throughout the Bible but particularly in the New Testament.
The writer John Piper says:
Christian joy is a good
feeling in the soul, produced by the Holy Spirit, as he causes us to see the
beauty of Christ in the word and in the world.
Christian joy is a good feeling. By that, I mean it is not an idea. It is not a conviction. It is not a persuasion or a decision. It is a feeling. Or an emotion.
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-do-you-define-joy
St Paul tells us in
Galatians 5: 22 – 23 that Joy, in the sense we’re thinking about is produced by
the Holy Spirit. It is one of the fruits of the Spirit. Therefore, if we feel
joyous, if our souls are overflowing with joy, it is because we are filled with
the Holy Spirit.
"the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."
Going back to Ezra
Collective at Glastonbury. Watching them perform on television I did feel joy.
It was something more than just hearing great music. It was something in my
soul. And it is my hope that some of those watching live felt that way too –
even if they didn’t necessarily know why.
And if you are so filled
with joy that you want to dance that’s ok. In the words of an Ezra Collective
song “Dance, No One’s watching”!
