In checking a sidenote to a study on Jeremiah, I looked up
It's All for the Best. I concluded that the song had too much flippancy to be useful, though the solo of Herod/Judas singing "Some men are born to live at ease, doing what they please, richer than the bees are in honey Never growing old, never feeling cold, pulling pots of gold from thin air" and ending with "Someone's got to be oppressed" is perfect--beautifully cold.
They end singing "it's all for the best" on top of one of the twin towers.
In some sense that's true (following Romans 8:28), but it is hard to know how 9/11 worked for good, even for those who love God. Somehow.
The rhythm and cleverness made it a song I would often have in my short list of things to hum. It's a patter song, similar to G&S.
ReplyDeleteI take the "all things work together for good" meaning to be about God's ability to transform rather than our ability to understand. Some things are clearly not going to be for any good on their own. Evil is real. But as in Milton, redemption of any circumstance is promised.