- Sermon - Mickey Anders

Jesus' blood never failed me yet, Never failed me yet

Jesus' blood never failed me yet,

There's one thing I know, For he loves me so...

Fred Kane, pastor of Hillsboro Methodist Church in Portland, Oregon, first told me the story of this song. After I heard about it, I had to do some research of my own, and I haven't been able to get it out of my mind ever since. I want you to listen as this simple melody is sung.

Jesus' blood never failed me yet, Never failed me yet

Jesus' blood never failed me yet,

There's one thing I know, For he loves me so...

In 1971, one of England's leading musicians and composers, Gavin Bryars, agreed to help his friend Alan Powers with the sound on a film about street people. Powers was filming various people living on the streets in an area around London's Waterloo Station. He was making a documentary in which he caught their daily rituals, trials and joys on film. Of course, there was a wide variety of the homeless. Some were obviously drunk, some were mentally disturbed, some were very articulate, and some were incomprehensible.

Back in the studio, Gavin Bryars went through editing the audio and video footage. That's when he became aware of a constant undercurrent, a repeating sound that was always there on the audio tape whenever one older man appeared on camera. But he couldn't tell what the sound was. At first it sounded like muttered gibberish. So Bryars used his audio technology to remove the background noise and clean up the audio tape. Then he discovered that the old homeless man was singing. Listen to it again; this is the actual audio from the unnamed, homeless man:

Jesus' blood never failed me yet, Never failed me yet

Jesus' blood never failed me yet,

There's one thing I know, For he loves me so...

It was like an endless loop. The song's final line fed into its first line, starting the tune over and over again without ceasing. The man's weak, old, untrained voice never wavered from pitch, never went flat, never changed key. The simple intervals of the tune were perfectly maintained for however long he sang.

This was his mantra, his phrase repeated over and over to help with meditation and prayer. Many Catholics do the same saying the Rosary over and over. Jewish worshippers sometimes repeat the Shema. Some say the Lord's Prayer over and over. For this old man, it was this simple song.

I wonder if we can worship and meditate with this old man today. Join me in singing along softly or saying the words under your breath. Let these words comfort your heart and turn your mind toward God.

Jesus' blood never failed me yet, Never failed me yet

Jesus' blood never failed me yet,

There's one thing I know, For he loves me so...

This odd bit of audio didn't make the film maker's cut. But Gavin Bryars' took the rejected audio tape with him and could not escape the haunting sounds of this homeless, nameless man. He did some research on his own into who this homeless man might be.

From the film crew, Bryars learned that this street beggar didn't drink. But neither did he engage others in conversation. His speech was almost impossible to understand, but his demeanor was cheerful. He was old and alone and filthy and homeless, but he had a kind of playfulness about him. He would tease the film crew by swapping hats with them.

Then Bryars learned that the old man died shortly after the film crew left the shelter. He was an unknown homeless person who lived and died on the streets like countless others.

What distinguished this old man from other street people was his song. The song he sang under his breath was a simple, repetitive Sunday-school tune. He would sit and quietly sing it, hour after hour after hour.

What faith! Here was a man for whom life had turned so badly that he was homeless. I can't imagine all the things that had gone wrong in his life, but here he sings that Jesus blood had never failed him yet!

Jesus' blood never failed me yet, Never failed me yet

Jesus' blood never failed me yet,

There's one thing I know, For he loves me so...

As a musician, Bryars was fascinated. He began thinking of ways he could arrange and orchestrate around the constant, repeated lines. So he played the tape over and over in his office as he tried to think of the orchestra accompaniment.

One day, he was playing the tape as background to other work in his studio. He left the door to his studio open while he ran downstairs to get a cup of coffee. When he came back a few minutes later, he found a normally buzzing office eerily quiet and stilled. The old man's quiet, quivery voice had leaked out of the recording room and transformed the office floor.

Jesus' blood never failed me yet, Never failed me yet

Jesus' blood never failed me yet,

There's one thing I know, For he loves me so...

Under the spell of this stranger's voice, an office of busy professionals had grown hushed. Everyone in the office was standing around listening to the tape. Those who were still moving around walked slowly, almost reverently about the room. Many more had taken their seats and were sitting motionless at their desks, transfixed by this voice. Some were silently weeping, tears falling down their faces.

Gavin Bryars was stunned. He said, "I was puzzled until I realized that the tape was still playing and that they had been overcome by the old man's singing. This convinced me of the emotional power of the music and of the possibilities offered by adding a simple, though gradually evolving, orchestral accompaniment that respected the tramp's nobility and simple faith. Although he died before he could hear what I had done with his singing, the piece remains as an eloquent, but understated testimony to his spirit and optimism."

Although not a believer himself, Bryars could not help but be confronted by the mysterious, spiritual power of this simple voice. This nameless old man brought a message from God in his song.

Jesus' blood never failed me yet, Never failed me yet

Jesus' blood never failed me yet,

There's one thing I know, For he loves me so...

It took him until 1993 to create and produce what he felt was a proper accompaniment to this homeless person's song of trust and obedience. He did this in partnership with one of America's leading composers, Philip Glass. The result is a CD entitled "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet." The song selections are listed simply as "Tramp with Orchestra 1," "Tramp and Tom Waits with Full Orchestra," etc.

Robin Edgerton reviews the CD with these words, "This 74-minute piece has had a near-legendary effect on its audience. It's the rare work created specifically to tug gently at one's heartstrings that actually does, and not subtly, either. It starts with a found recording of a homeless man singing a halting, simple melody looped over and over. Then Bryars builds and buttresses this with a full orchestra brought in incrementally… (and near the end) the gravelly-voiced singer Tom Waits joins in. It's an obvious but effective work--appealing to all the basics of our emotional nervous system, but still tragically beautiful."

Jesus' blood never failed me yet, Never failed me yet

Jesus' blood never failed me yet,

There's one thing I know, For he loves me so...

In the Biblical world, the Jewish people fully understood the talk of blood sacrifice; they had seen plenty of that in the Temple. But for the modern mind, blood sacrifice is a foreign and off-putting idea. But, the blood is simply a symbol of love - the love of God made known to us through Jesus Christ. Love came down at Christmas. Love walked the dusty roads of Palestine. Love reached out to the poor and the sick, the lonely and the disturbed. Love raised high on a cross on a Friday. Love rose from the grave on Easter.

Jesus blood - Jesus love is the story of Christian faith in a nutshell. It is the story of the unfailing blood - the unfailing love - of God made known to us in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ -- God with us.

Quite often as I sing along, I find myself substituting "Jesus love" for "Jesus blood." Sing "Jesus love" this time.

Jesus' love never failed me yet, Never failed me yet

Jesus' love never failed me yet,

There's one thing I know, For he loves me so...

The old man died shortly after the film-crew left his street-home. It was almost as if, when someone finally heard his song, he could leave for another place. He only had one song. It should be our song too.

In some versions of the story, the homeless person disappeared "mysteriously" - suggesting to our hopeful culture that he was actually some sort of angel-in-residence. Perhaps he was.

Who knows? Maybe he was an angel, sent to lead us to Bethlehem, to the manger, and then to the cross and the one whose blood never fails us. The angel leads us to that empty tomb where love never neglects us, forgiveness never deserts us, and we are found and set free.

Shouldn't this be our story too? Each one of us has a quivery voice, a frail pitch and a broken song. The Christian message is that long ago Jesus carried our broken songs and shattered chords to a place called Golgotha. There on a cross God took our feeble attempts at singing and added a cosmic orchestra of unconditional love and acceptance. Whatever debt, whatever guilt, whatever it is that holds us for ransom is brought to its end on that cross. The debt is paid. Our debt is paid. We no longer owe our soul to anyone. We are free.

If only we could join this nameless old man to sing with that kind of confidence and trust. Listen to one of the complete songs by Gavin Bryars. I invite you to sing along softly, to bow your heads and pray, and to let the impact of this powerful story lead you in worship.

Jesus' blood never failed me yet, Never failed me yet

Jesus' blood never failed me yet,

There's one thing I know, For he loves me so...