The Confessions (and Questions) of a Musical Junkie

Is there a soundtrack for church renewal?This is a question I've been wrestling with lately because, I admit it: I am a musical junkie.I love them! In film or on the stage, it doesn’t matter. I love the way a story is told through music. Rent is my current favorite. I can’t get the song “Seasons of Love” out of my head. It haunts me, really. My son, on the other hand, thinks this is the weirdest thing ever. He hates musicals (not counting, of course, the musical numbers in the Family Guy season premier a few weeks ago).I think I love musicals so much because the point(s) are made through song; and they just don’t leave your head. This is why my15-year old now walks around the house singing the songs from that Family Guy episode, no matter how stupid.And that, I think, is the point of our hymns: The gospel message is supposed to get stuck in your head.

But, lately, I’ve been wondering if, after awhile, they lose their punch? I mean, during worship, we sing songs about being welcoming and about how amazing God is, but how often do we engage in actual conversations with people outside of “church” about how amazing God is? And, really, exactly how welcoming are we? Most of us have at least a short list of people we wouldn’t want standing next to us at the Communion table. Some of us have a long one.A friend of mine went to the ELCA Worship Jubilee this summer. It was held at Chicago’s Navy Pier in the Grand Ballroom. This room is at the very end of the Pier and all but one side of it is glass. You can see the boats out on the water from there; you can see all the people walking along the Pier; and all those people can see you.My friend said worship began and the place was filled with wonderful music. Voices rang out in the four-part harmony typical of a Lutheran worship service. She felt awesome. It was all so beautiful. But then, she said, something caught her eye. She noticed people looking in on them, just staring at them through the window. And, then, something changed in her. She found herself thinking...

What are we doing? Who is this for? Do we believe what we are singing or are we so caught up in the beauty of it all that we have missed the point? Isn’t what we have meant to be shared?

She said, “We kept singing and worshiping and no one, not one person opened one of the many doors to invite those people peering in the windows to join us. People stood outside and watched us. And we, essentially, ignored them.”One of the books I am reading these days is titled, Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. (Yes even the books I like to read have musical themes!) He writes:

"…the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil but rather have us wasting time. This is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man’s mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God.”

For too many of us, worship is habit. Those songs and even the way we sing them, using the same instrumentation and the same style we’ve used for generations, are so familiar to us that it’s hard to hear how profound they are, how life changing they could be if we could only hear them again.On a flight home from facilitating a renewal event not too long ago, I was startled to hear Ginny Owens singing out “Amazing Grace” through the earbuds connected to my ipod. Ginny is a Christian singer and so it wouldn’t have been so strange to hear her singing this song except for the fact that I know Ginny Owens is blind. Chills shot through me as I heard her sing, “...but now I see.” The words came alive in a very new way. I could see, through Ginny, the way God changes us and sets us free from all the things that can bind/blind us, sets us free so that through us God can make a difference for others.My friend was changed that day on Navy Pier. She has begun to ask some tough questions. The songs she sang during that worship service in the middle of Chicago are tied to some pretty sharp imagery that won’t be leaving her for a very long time. And the doors that may have made her blind to all the people out there, watching and wondering and waiting for an invitation, have begun to be opened.What tune is stuck in your head today? What lyrics are haunting you? What is God trying to say to you through those words? What is the message you have been given? Who can you share it with?

Comments

[Daniel J. Bingham]

Pink Floyd's
"On the turning away", off of momentary laps of reason.

KELLY RESPONDS:

What a great song, Daniel. You just sent me right to my own ipod. Been a long time since I've listened to these words. Wow. Here they are for those of you who don't know this song. You can download it yourself at:

"On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say
Which we wont understand
Dont accept that whats happening
Is just a case of others suffering
Or youll find that youre joining in
The turning away

Its a sin that somehow
Light is changing to shadow
And casting its shroud
Over all we have known
Unaware how the ranks have grown
Driven on by a heart of stone
We could find that were all alone
In the dream of the proud

On the wings of the night
As the daytime is stirring
Where the speechless unite
In a silent accord
Using words you will find are strange
And mesmerized as they light the flame
Feel the new wind of change
On the wings of the night

No more turning away
From the weak and the weary
No more turning away
From the coldness inside
Just a world that we all must share
Its not enough just to stand and stare
Is it only a dream that therell be
No more turning away?"

[Debbie Wilson]

We have windows in the back of our sanctuary that look out into what is now the narthex as a result of a building expansion years ago.

It struck me last month. We are all sitting - or standing - in worship - with our backs to the world.

Somehow we have taken "in but not of" the world and twisted that idea into a feeling we have to turn our backs to the world. Which effectively leaves us with our backs turned to God's creation in order to stand inside a space of our own creating.

How Christian can that possibly be?