84. Rock Goes The Gospel - YES "Owner Of A Lonely Heart"

This song describes the paradox of loneliness. Once you've been hurt, loneliness is better than a broken heart. This is the first single from 90125, and was the group's one and only No 1 charting hit. The album was a drastic departure from Yes' progressive sound in the '70s, containing distorted guitar and synthesizers that were popular at the time. With help from MTV, Yes suddenly found a new audience, who were sometimes shocked to learn that much of their back catalog consisted of complex pieces that would often run well over 10 minutes. Trevor Horn, formerly of the Buggles, produced the 90125 album. Horn took over for Jon Anderson as lead singer of Yes for for their 1980 album Drama, and after a tour to support the album the band broke up and Horn focused on production work. When Yes re-formed for 90125, Anderson returned along with Tony Kaye, Chris Squire and Alan White, and Horn produced the album. This song hit #1 in the US the week of January 21, 1984, and held the position the following week, when in the UK another Horn-produced song, "Relax" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, claimed the top spot. This made Horn the only producer to have simultaneous No 1 hits in both the UK and the US with different songs by different artists.

Move yourself
You always live your life
Never thinking of the future
Prove yourself
You are the move you make
Take your chances win or loser

See yourself
You are the steps you take
You and you, and that's the only way

Shake, shake yourself
You're every move you make
So the story goes

Owner of a lonely heart
Owner of a lonely heart
Much better than a
Owner of a broken heart
Owner of a lonely heart

Say - you don't want to chance it
You've been hurt so before

Watch it now
The eagle in the sky
How he dancin' one and only
You, lose yourself
No not for pity's sake
There's no real reason to be lonely
Be yourself
Give your free will a chance
You've got to want to succeed

Owner of a lonely heart
Owner of a lonely heart
Much better than a
Owner of a broken heart
Owner of a lonely heart

Owner of a lonely heart

After my own indecision
They confused me so
Owner of a lonely heart
My love said never question your will at all
In the end you've got to go
Look before you leap
Owner of a lonely heart
And don't you hesitate at all - no no

Owner of a lonely heart
Owner of a lonely heart
Much better than a
Owner of a broken heart
Owner of a lonely heart

Owner of a lonely heart
Owner of a lonely heart
Much better than a
Owner of a broken heart
Owner of a lonely heart

Owner of a lonely heart

Sooner or later each conclusion
Will decide the lonely heart
Owner of a lonely heart
It will excite it will delight
It will give a better start
Owner of a lonely heart

Don't deceive your free will at all
Don't deceive your free will at all
Owner of a lonely heart
Don't deceive your free will at all
Just receive it

Britain is the loneliness capital of Europe with its inhabitants less likely overall to know their neighbours or have strong friendships than people anywhere else in the EU, an official study suggests. Research commissioned by Relate. Only the Germans are less likely than the British to feel “close” to their neighbours but they also are significantly more likely to have strong friendships on which they could rely in a crisis, the analysis published by the office for National Statistics shows. Britain is ranked 26th out of the 28 European Union countries by the proportion of the population who say they have someone on whom they feel they could rely if they have a serious problem. Only Denmark and France scored lower on that measure - but both countries showed significantly stronger neighbourhood ties than the UK. The pattern emerges from a comparison of results from the UK’s so-called “happiness” index and similar studies across Europe measuring aspects of people’s “wellbeing”.

Almost five million people in Britain have no close friends, a stark new study of the state of the nation’s relationships shows. Relate, the relationship charity, found that more than a third of working parents do not see or speak to their own children every day because they are too busy at the office. The study found that most workers have much more contact with their boss and colleagues than their own friends or close family. But despite people spending more and more time at or in contact with the workplace – partly as a result of the influence of email and mobile phones – more than four in 10 say they have no real friends at work. Overall almost one in 10 people polled said they had no close friendships at all, the equivalent of 4.7 million people if taken as a proportion of the adult population.

The early church serves for us a model of combating loneliness this morning. In Jerusalem at the time of the early church in the AD 30's the potential to be overlooked and left behind socially and compassionately rose considerably if you were a woman, if you were an orphan, if you were old, If you were from another nation, If you were a gentile, If you were sick and so on. The underclass was a "Broken Society" There was no welfare state and there was no way of dealing with the fallout from social problems. The early church that was instituted by Jesus was leaps and bounds beyond any thing that had been there before. In Acts 2 and 3 we get the picture of how they were dealing with a "Broken Society" 

Acts 2:42-47  "42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

Acts 3: 32- 35  32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

Here is a Jesus community who are compassionate to those who are in need. Compassionate in getting involved in their "Broken Society"  To those who are on the margins the least the last and the lost the early church community are the welfare state. The Early church are the people who combat the social issues of the day. The church has always been at the heart and thrust of social change in "Broken Societies" There are many examples of that Philanthropy. This was the reason in the 1800's that William and Catherine Booth had a dynamic impact, and there were others too who were God's people who had money and a social conscience and were willing to see change. Fry's, Cadburys, Salts, to name but a few from the annals of history who like the early church were serious about combating the serious social ills of their day, serious about combating their own "Broken Society"  like the early church did in theirs.

“Broken society” is a catchy phrase that the government use for  encompassing a variety of social ills.  Drug abuse, violent crime, teenage delinquency, family breakdown, welfare dependency, poor urban environments, educational failure, poverty, the loss of traditional values, teenage pregnancy, dysfunctional families, binge drinking, children who kill: all have been cited as proof that we have a broken society. We may have Loneliness and Brokenness existing in in the UK today. We may well be able to quantify it and report about it but I know in my heart that the church has part of the answer for delivering on it. there seems to me to be no other company of people who can be effective enough. You can take you rotary clubs, and your charities and put them all together and they will only be small in comparison to that which the church of Jesus can offer in combating social in any generation and in any nation, creed, tribe or tongue. The church like in the ad 30's can be a vision of hope and fulfil the word that Jesus spoke about it. 

Matthew 5:14- 16 14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

May God bless every expression of faith community today. May God give each the gifts and skills the talents and abilities to combat the social ills of each community and therefore usher in the kingdom of God. Amen.