(2011 brings the 10th anniversary of the death of Keith Petersen. While some now think of me as the maverick within the congregation, I can only wish that everyone now at CUCC had known Keith as intimately as those of us in the Wednesday night Bible study did. Keith was a sage and a poet. About a year before his death he penned this satirical version of "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus". -- Lavon Page)
A dissenting liberal protestant’s lament at the end of the second millennium
by Keith Petersen
(To be sung to Adam Geibel’s tune for “Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus”)
Sit down, sit down for Jesus, ye wise and thoughtful few,
to analyze our problems and ponder what to do;
then action, Social Action, with roll of muffled drum,
will make — without a monarch — the heavenly kingdom come.
REFRAIN
Sit down for Jesus,
ye wise and thoughtful few,
to analyze our problems,
then ponder, yes, ponder what to do.
Sit down, sit down for Jesus. Let’s sermonize and then,
for us and other children, let’s sermonize again;
then — offering collected and hymns correctly sung —
we’ll celebrate our triumphs of brain and cash and tongue.
REFRAIN
Sit down, sit down for Jesus until we sing the hymns
that now have been reworded to meet all modern whims;
There is no Lord, no battle; Christ can’t be called a man.
Sing to amorphous spirit — with spirit if you can.
REFRAIN
Sit down, sit down for Jesus — and wonder what’s been lost.
While newer views are safer, they save us at what cost?
The world’s too wide to touch us, humanity’s too bland
for those whose need is simpler: to touch one bleeding hand.
REFRAIN