From the hymnal · Anointed
Anointed
Track one from our laundromat record — the title hymn, on the oil and the water both. No shadow overhead and no rival to name: only the low table, the poured oil, and the being-made-ready. We open the record low on purpose, the way you set a basket down before you carry it, and we print it as we sang it, in the one key of A.
They poured out the oil till it ran to the hem,Down the beard, down the collar, and further than them;Not a crown to be worn and not weight to be shown —Just a warmth on the head that was more than our own.
So we open low, and on purpose, and slow,The way you set a basket down first, before you go;You stoop to the handle, you steady the load,Then you lift what is given and carry it home.
To be anointed is not to be made grand or made great,Not a stage, not a spotlight, not a heavier freight;It is only to be readied, and gently, and thenTo be sent to the next small and faithful again.
For the oil and the water both fall the same way —They run down to the low, to the least of the day;And they pool where you'd kneel, where the folding chairs stand,And they ready, not enlarge you, for the small thing at hand.
Refrain
Anointed, anointed — not larger, but low;Made ready, made willing, made ready to go;The oil and the water run down, not above —Not called to be great, only readied in love.
A note for the folding chairs
Anointed (2019) is our laundromat record, and "Anointed" is track one — the title hymn and the doctrine the whole album leans on. We open the record low on purpose, the way you set a basket down before you carry it, because to be anointed is not to be made large; it is to be made ready for the next small thing. The oil that runs over the head in Psalm 133 does not climb up toward a crown — it runs down, to the beard and the collar and the hem, the way our own water runs to the lowest, thirstiest ground; that is why we call it the song of the oil and the water both. We cut it the way we cut all eight, across a single weekend and in the one key of A, with Sister Petra's folding-table songs already stacked and waiting. There is no quarrel anywhere in this one and no neighbor's name to fold away — only oil, water, and a basket set down. Its sister song, "Small Things, Faithfully," says the same thing from track two; this is where it starts. If you have been waiting to be made large before you begin, the anointing you already carry is the kind that readies you for the next small thing, and that is enough. Bring a dish. Bring a roll of quarters. Stay for decaf.
Hymn ten of eight albums' worth — and the second we've printed from Anointed (2019), the first record to give up two. Back to the hymnal — “We Held the Volume” →