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I have written before (beginning here) concerning issues of contemporary “Evangelical” spirituality; if you haven’t read the prior “My Own Personal Religion” series, I highly recommend it. This is another in that series, as I continue to read, watch, and evaluate things. 

Among other things, I have been paying close attention to the lyrics of the worship songs we have been singing and the congregation’s (I am tempted to say audience’s) response. I’ve also paid close attention to the sermons I have heard (from 4 different speakers that I’ve heard in the last 2 months), and following are some observations.

First, concerning worship: Most of the songs are theologically vacuous. That is, the songs beg for some real worship material. God, you are great…  Why?  Jesus, I love you…  Again, why?  What characteristics produce this response? What can inspire me to sing heartily along?  You’re too marvelous for words…  I think the Psalmists could disagree. Some of these songs are not far off from George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord.  Now, I am not totally against these songs; but, if that’s all you sing, it’s like eating cotton candy for every meal.

A couple of weeks ago, we sang a song by an old friend of mine, Brent Helming, Your Beloved:

Lord it was You who
Created the heavens
Lord it was Your hand
That put the stars in their place
Lord it is Your voice
That commands the morning
Even oceans and their waves
Bow at Your feet

Believe it or not, the song gets even better. One thing that I was instantly aware of was that my mind was actually engaged in worship, perhaps for the first time in months. It struck me at that moment that most of our contemporary worship songs are aimed at our emotions, actually encouraging us to disconnect our brains. 

In fact, if you actually think about many of the worship songs we sing, it actually kills worship - if the words aren’t wimpy, they’re actually wrong. There’s nothing like bad theology to kill a good worship set. That is, unless people have been encouraged to not think about what they are singing.  However, sing a great old hymn or a song like Your Beloved, and thinking about the words actually inspires worship! What a concept!

Last Sunday, this suspicion - that we are trained not to think about worship -was further supported: I watched the congregation as one wimpy song ended, and another song with a great beat and a heavy rock guitar riff started in - the people started “worshipping” without any words at all.  Worshipping? or just rocking out?  It’s really difficult to tell.  Perhaps they just anticipated the words…

Jesus told the woman at the well that “those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.”  Now, this is a somewhat enigmatic statement, at least as it is translated into English. What I understand it to mean, at least in part, is that worship is not only a liturgical/physical/emotional act, it also has to be based in truth. That means that true worship should also involve our mind.

Bottom line: I believe that it is a worship leader’s job not just to manipulate an emotional / spiritual response - although an emotional / spiritual response is not in itself wrong. It is their job (yeah, I’ve been a worship leader…) to encourage people to worship with their minds as well as their spirits. In Spirit, and in Truth.  Of course, that requires a bit more of a worship leader than just being a fair musician.

Next: The problem with sermons

Remember when the days were long
And rolled beneath a deep blue sky
Didn’t have a care in the world
With mommy and daddy standing by
…
But this is the end
This is the end of the innocence
- Don Henley, The End of the Innocence

I like Don Henley; Don really knows how to paint a glorious picture and then smash it to bits. But, in many ways The End of the Innocence paints an accurate picture of the “already but not yet” state the earthly inhabitants of the Kingdom of God find themselves. It’s brilliant, actually, but Henley has no answers, which makes the song so wistful and depressing. (Thank goodness for Bruce Hornsby’s wistful but bouyant piano work.)

I often think back to my childhood, spending lazy days laying on the cool grass, studying bugs, listening to the wind rustle through elm & cottonwood leaves, and watching clouds roll by. Even then, life was not always idyllic. Bad things happened: things broke, pets and people died, there were rumors of wars. I learned fairly early on that there were things outside of my control, and even outside of my parents’ control. However, for the most part, I did have my parents to rely on. I didn’t have to be responsible for much of anything except getting my homework done. I could hang out in my yard, which was miles away from the rest of the world, and life was good:

But I know a place where we can go
That’s still untouched by man
We’ll sit and watch the clouds roll by
And the tall grass wave in the wind

It’s not the same anymore. I lay out in our yard now, and I’m instantly aware that it needs mowing, or fertilizing, or something. I now have responsibility, to a lot of people. I’m responsible to my family, to everything I own, to my employer, to the hordes outside my gate to whom I have obligations. Everything comes with a bill attached.

Responsibility is the end of the innocence. The way Don Henley writes, it’s all someone else’s fault:

Armchair warriors often fail
And we’ve been poisoned by these fairy tales
The lawyers clean up all details
Since daddy had to lie
But I know a place where we can go
And wash away this sin …

Perhaps we can blame Adam (or Eve). We can pin it all on Satan. Or, if you’re one of the new liberals, on the President. But, in the long run, it doesn’t help:

Offer up your best defense
But this is the end
This is the end of the innocence

In the end, there’s really no one else to blame, or at least it doesn’t matter. Responsibility is what it is, no matter where it came from. Behind that, of course, is knowledge; more specifically, the knowledge of good and evil. That knowledge is a weight that we weren’t intended to bear, but as they say, that’s life. We know, and we are aware of responsibility.

This is the end of the song, but not of the story. If the story ended, leaving us only with responsibility, I’d be as depressed as any of the existentialists. However, as the Bible says, “He (God) gives more grace.” Grace empowers us to deal with life in the interim - the world as we know it. Grace also reconnects us with the source of all responsibility, lifting it again off of our shoulders (Come, he who is burdened …). Grace empowers us to mow the grass, as it were, and to get back to laying in the grass.

But I know a place where we can go
That’s still untouched by man
We’ll sit and watch the clouds roll by
And the tall grass wave in the wind

The end of the innocence? No - grace is the beginning.

First, I’m not talking about their software or business practices. What I am talking about is a great video clip (da SBS Code) that they had produced for the lauch of a recent product, which you can accesss here.

The clip is a take-off of The Da Vinci Code, one of my favorite things to make fun of. It is brilliant, and hilarious, even when they’re trying to make a point. It’s definitely worth 4 minutes of your time (or 8, or 12…; I watched it several times…).

Everyone needs a little levity…