"Just How Deep This Rabbit Hole Goes..."

JustPat had a post - Fun With Inflections - in which she commented on a Vineyard Music CD entitled "Why We Worship." Only, on the cover it apparently reads "Why We Worship Vineyard Music." So, I got a chuckle out of that - particularly because both she and I attend the same Vineyard Church...

But I've been thinking (ohmygosh!)...

What I've appreciated about Vineyard music and the "worship movement" in general, has been the turn toward addressing God with our songs. As great as the hymns are, there are not many that address God. Instead, they tend to be great works of theology set to music.

And that is a good, good thing. Seriously. It is a really good thing to sing theology. (I'm not being sarcastic!)

Music is one of God's most amazing creations, and all the wonderful attributes of music would take many, many posts to unpack. An attribute of music (and perhaps the least meaningful) is its ability to function as a mnemonic device. Therefore, singing the truths of God is a VERY positive activity for the church to engage in, and so...

Long live the hymns!

Music also is a wonderful channel of expression and conversation, and Vineyard has brought this to life for us (or revived?). Who knows? Perhaps it is the Vineyard's greatest gift to Christianity... And so...

Long live "worship songs!"

But even as I say this, I see problems. And the thing is, the root problem started long before anyone picked up a guitar or tuned an organ pipe. Somewhere along the way, Western Christianity affirmed a reality that separated our heads from our hearts. So, one arm of the church becomes more and more "intellectual" and, from their pews we hear worship songs referred to as "7-11 Songs" - you sing the same 7 lines, 11 times (snicker, snicker). While, the other arm of the church begins to despise the "frozen chosen" and there heartless pseudo-relationship with God.

And so in the end, the first group sings the great truths of God as if they were singing a funeral dirge. The other group sings (almost orgasmically) about...bubble gum.

Yes, those are the extremes and I know it. And there are many places I could go right now with this discussion. For example, we should talk more about this artificial division of head and heart. We should talk about unity in the church. We should talk about a lot of things, but I'm going to chase a peculiar rabbit for a moment.

"Oh Mi-sta' WAAA-Bit!!!"

I go to the Vineyard. I'm on the worship team. I am happy with that. Some of the lyrics, though, are not exactly on target in my opinion. Particularly, lyrics that suggest that we are "in love" with Jesus, or "madly in love with you", or what not.

It's not bad to express deep affection for God. It's not bad to look for analogies to describe the indescribable. Think about it. Here we are, fallen people in a hopeless situation, and a beautiful amazing God full of grace chooses to relate to us. How can I describe that reality?! And so we fish about for ways to talk - ways to describe our relationship with God. Inevitably the idea of "falling in love" with God comes up.

The first issue is simply the nature of analogies. They're approximations and they will fall short. So, problem number one is that many people don't seem to understand this (thus there are people out there who really believe God is male because she is referred to as "Father" - ha.)

The second (and biggest) issue though, is this: "falling in love" in our culture tends to be a really selfish, fluffy and otherwise relatively nauseating phenomena. In other words, "I'm experiencing these really intense emotions that make me feel good."

Well, yippie for you.

See, falling in love has nothing to do with the other person. Thus, there may be someone at this moment who is "in love" with me. Yet that doesn't do me a darn bit of good. I'm not experiencing their emotions. And, because above said imaginary person has yet to act loving towards me, it doesn't affect my life one bit. Furthermore, because they've not acted loving towards me, it is likely they are not in love with me, per se, but instead are in love with something in their head that they have misappropriated to the physical reality of the Headless Horsewoman.

Essentially, the reality of me, is unimportant to them.

Likewise, quite often it feels as if people who are "in love" with Jesus are, in fact, more in love with an idea that makes them feel good inside and which they have simply attached to the name "Jesus" or "God". The reality of the person of Jesus - of his moment by moment existence - is essentially ignored. Let me demonstrate.

Last Sunday, I was on the worship team. We sang a song with these words:

"Many men will drink the rain,
And turn to thank the clouds,
Many men will hear you speak,
But they will never turn around..."

I am unable to sing these words. Are they a reality? Well, it seems like it might be. But how is it loving to God to rub salt in his wounds? Do we not understand that God aches for those who are lost? And here we are, singing quite callouslly, about the many people going to hell. Is this song really a gift to God? An offering?

Or have we instead created a god that makes us feel good and then attached it to the name of Jesus? Is this song an offering to that god? Indeed Pat, "Why We Worship Vineyard Music"...

The analogy of being "in love" with Jesus carries with it the baggage of selfish, self-centered, fluffy feelings and I think they might be bleeding over into the reality of our relationship with the One Who Died.

But let me just say, for the record, I wouldn't trade my community for the world. I can sound a bit harsh at times, but my experience has been that people often need to be jarred a bit in order to wake up. My church community is wonderful. They are great people - they serve, they earnestly work towards the Kingdom, we have intense, searching discussions, thoughtful sermons and really, really good music. We might have just missed on this one.

Oh well, no gathering of the church is perfect...

And that's a wrap!

posted by Headless-in-GR @ 8/03/2004 09:49:00 AM

 

Comments:

Do you know where I can find a recording of that worship song that goes
"Many men will drink the rain,
And turn to thank the clouds,
Many men will hear you speak,
But they will never turn around..."? if you could, please email me at the1andonly03@yahoo.com . THANK YOU!

# by:  Anonymous : 10:17 PM

 

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