Contemporary hymn master Card tosses church ‘Soul Anchor’

By Buzz Trexler
for The (Maryville, TN) Daily Times, October 2000

Michael Card has a complex reputation: biblical scholar, amateur astronomer, storyteller and musician.

So, it’s not surprising that the 43-year-old songwriter’s music tackles complex biblical themes; in fact, his latest work, "Soul Anchor," which was just released this week, concentrates on the Book of Hebrews.

Wait a minute ...

About three years ago, Card’s "Unveiled Hope" was a musical look at Revelation, the final book of the Bible. Why did he tackle Revelation first and then go back to Hebrews?

"I was putting it off," he says matter-of-factly in a recent phone interview from his home in Franklin. "That was exactly what I was doing. I was putting it off as long as I could.

"The problem was, I saw it as so complex, as such a complex thing. ... About two years into it I realized it’s not a complex thing. The real key is understanding that, I think, Hebrews is organized around one basic idea, and that is ‘hope.’"

The Book of Hebrews is actually a letter written primarily to Hebrew Christians. It’s authorship has been variously ascribed to, among others, Paul, Barnabas, Luke and Apollos.

"You realize that the writer is writing to people who are facing arena persecution – they’re gonna be crucified, they’re gonna be thrown to lions, set on fire and that sort of thing," Card says. "You don’t write complicated theology to people like that, you know, you write stuff that’s gonna give them hope. And that really is what the Book of Hebrews is about.

"So, I looked back at all those images that I used to think of as real complicated – like the high priestly imagery – and realized that if you are a Jew of the first century the only hope you have is a high priest," he says, explaining that the writer of Hebrews uses that image to then say, "Well, Jesus is your high priest, he’s your only hope."

Card, who attends First Missionary Baptist Church in Franklin, notes that while Christianity today is united around the symbol of the cross, "The first Christian symbol wasn’t the cross, it was the anchor."

"If I’m a first century Christian and I’m hiding in the catacombs and three of my best friends have just been thrown to the lions or burned at the stake, or crucified and set ablaze as torches at one of Nero’s garden parties, the symbol that most encourages me in my faith is the anchor," he says. "When I see it, I’m reminded that Jesus is my anchor. I’m in the middle of a very real and very terrifying storm, and if I don’t have that anchor, I’m going down."

In exploring the imagery and a newfound simplicity to the message, Card developed the theme of "Soul Anchor," which was just released by Myrrh Records.

It is a compilation that covers themes of grace, faith and assurance that Jesus Christ remains the anchor, and God the Father will never leave his children.

Card also visits the theme of persecution with "Fellow Prisoners" – not just the persecution of first century Christians, but today’s martyrs of the faith.

"I spent about a year on the road with a brother from Sudan, who had been tortured for his faith, who has gone through all kinds of horrible ... they broke his fingers trying to force him to deny that he was a Christian. And that song was really written for him," the 43-year-old songwriter says. "His name was William Levi."

Card says he was trying to connect with the sense of loneliness and abandonment that the persecuted church must feel "when the rest of the Body of Christ does so little to support or identify with them."

Acknowledging that denominations send huge amounts of money around the world in global missions, Card believes there is something more foundational that needs to be done; that, for the most part, the American church lives today "as if none of this existed.

"American Christians are woefully ignorant of the fact that more Christians are dying now that at any time in the history of the church, which is pretty amazing," he says.

The solution, he says, is foundational.

"First of all, prayer is a huge thing for us to do, and probably the central thing that we can," Card says. "The write of Hebrews tells us what to do. He says to ‘stand with those who are in prison as we were their fellow prisoners,’ and I think part of that means praying for them, developing what I can a ‘fellow prisoner mentality.’"

Card recalls that during the Vietnam War many Americans wore bracelets inscribed with the names of POWs.

"I think that was a fellow prisoner mentality," he says. "The man who was on the bracelet that I wore as a little junior high kid, I really had a fellow prisoner mentality with him: The idea that none of us are free until all of us are free. I think that’s what needs to happen."

It goes beyond mission funds, he says.

"Sometimes I think the worse thing we can do is rush and send them a bunch of money and then forget ’em."

In fact, you could say that the persecuted church needs less money, and more of the soul anchor.

The Rev. Frank "Buzz" Trexler is managing editor at The Daily Times and pastor of Green Meadow United Methodist Church, wwwthemeadow.org. You can e-mail him at PastorBuzz@nxs.net.