On Church Music

What is the best way to "do music" in church? I don't propose to answer that in one blog post. But we have made music such a big part of church that it is worth noting. Every Sunday at church, a good fifteen minutes of the hour long service (a rude estimate, I know) are devoted to worship. People get angry if that changes, but other people get angry if it stays the same. Music becomes a point of divisiveness. Some of the biggest splits are over "contemporary versus traditional" music and simple amount of music.

Now, I'll admit that I don't care much for Christian music, and therefore probably one of the less suited commentators on the "issue." I'll also admit I don't listen to much contemporary music at all, so have a natural bias against it. Modern music seems to grow shallower, especially as the chorus is repeated some fifty odd times over the course of a two verse song (pardon the mini-rant.) The fact that the chorus is so often repeated tends to lessen the impact, causing it to become simply words if one doesn't concentrate. Hymns traditionally don't repeat so much (Note especially "Come Thou Fount" and "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing") and so convey more material in the same amount of time. And I would personally love to see modern hymns, but that's another point entirely. Either way, worship is worship, and everyone ought to stay in community, regardless of the type of music.

Now, the amount of sheer face melting noise that us old people can take is rather low. Especially for those of us who are naturally introverted. Worship that is prolonged can seem to be simply excessive. Cut it too short though, and others complain of the lack of music. All I can say is, we get used to our situation. The thing about music is that church members take the music personally. We ought to evaluate theology, not mode of delivery. There is no community if everyone is out for his own tastes. Then we just have the consumer culture spilling over to the church. I would like to see a depth in my own music, but accomplishing theological depth at a church should seem simple. I should care not for the package, but the message.

The Alchemist and the Metaphysician

Metaphysician: Good evening, friend alchemist. How fares the world?
Alchemist: Quite well: never was there an age of greater industry than ours. Of this I am sure. Friend metaphysician, how does the world to you seem?
M.: It seems in a state of despair never witnessed before this grand age of decadence. It can only worsen its condition as the ages pass.
A.: Perhaps the decadence allows, nay, fuels! the industrial age that I do love.
M.: So I fear.
A.: Ease yourself, friend. Youth flows through our veins.
M.: And, age does not burden us so much as that foolish ignorant blood of vigor. Accursed vigor!
A.: Are you quite alright, sir?
M.: We are not decrepit with age, but neither are we blessed with the wisdom and discernment of such an estate.
A.: My friend, leave wisdom for the philosophers and court jesters. The world is progressing. Can you not see that?
M.: I observe the same, but though you see the world marching forward, I see it marching back. And in case you have forgotten, I am a philosopher by trade.
A.: But in your soul you lack the weariness of a philosopher. Perhaps not his bitterness or anger, but those are also the traits of critics as well.
M.: So what is the difference between a critic and a philosopher?
A.: The philosopher doesn’t care quite so much. He is detached from the world, having abandoned hope in his prime.
M.: But I don’t care, I am detached from the world.
A.: Quite right, but so are many men. What makes you a philosopher, and not simply an outcast?
M.: The question of the hour, I understand. I am a metaphysician in name, at least. Not that it matters. Perhaps the only way to respond truthfully to that question is to ask it again at the gates of heaven.
A.: Fair enough. My science cannot tell a beings quintessence.
M.: To understand the veritas of a matter, and of all matter, is that to be God?
A.: You fool!: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, --that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
M.: That seems a bit ahead of our time. And you are a fool to think that. Just as Lucifer was the most beautiful of all the angels- yet not the truest.
A.: I have no time for your petty metaphysics, not while the physical world yet strives to comprehend all things, not while the air is rife with revolution.
M.: But if you understand your beliefs, humanist, then you understand that that revolution only begins when one man thinks of metaphysics and attempts to lead a hundred thousand to bend the world to his will. I just noticed: the man who leads the world to accept his truth, does he not try to surpass God?
A.: Enough now, of your musings. Will you pour me another glass?
M.: Certainly. But why do you desire another glass?
A.: As I am thirsty. But why should it matter? I have a desire, and I work to fulfill it. Or, in this case, you work to that end.
M.: Ye speak in jest in your latter phrase, yet do not realize the joke of the sentence preceding. You “have a desire, and work to fulfill it,” eschewing the metaphysical implications!
A.: But whenever you work to an end, whether in argument or in desire, you yourself eschew the scientific implications.
M.: Now here, if I state, science matters not, then you will say the same of my discipline.
A.: Verily.
M.: But if I said that my doctrine had a greater affect on man, would you allow me to continue.
A.: I will humor you for a moment. I am a bit thirsty, as well.
M.: Thank you. Men could see fire, long before science ever understood oxidation. But it was philosophy that first allowed men to see God.
A.: Greater impact? That I will not deny. I will negate a claim that philosophy is more healthful to mankind. Science does not launch wars.
M.: Fools on any side of truth launch wars. Those desires that you do not restrain also cause battles. Helen of Troy being the first such desire to come to mind.
A.: Then both my humanism and your philosophy have hurt all of mankind. But my science seems above that reproof.
M.: But your science can not find you eternal life.
A.: That is most likely the truth, though my fellows and myself seek for immortality, however unlikely.
M.: I would say immortality is found in heaven, in God.
A.: You can say what you like. The earth is my domain. It is all I can see before me.
M.: I study theology and metaphysics in an effort to see that which you cannot.
A.: Perhaps a foolish effort.
M.: Perhaps. But we both run that same risk. I gain my satisfaction through my understanding of things, and you through the increase of truth you experience. Ultimately, whether we fail or not, we strive, both of us, for truth and renown.
A.: I would prefer truth. If we can agree, for once, we can agree that renown is the surest way to hell.
M.: The valuation of renown above all things. Prophets are renowned, though we would also call them sagacious, wise, and heaven bound.
A.: You are a frustrating man.
M.: And you as well.
A.: Don’t you know how to laugh, and not seek so rabidly for truth? Leave your work behind you! Laugh!
M.: I do laugh, when I can release truth, and not be negated at every turn.
A.: Then you shall never laugh at all. The world is there to suppress all truth you might conjecture.
M.: I will laugh in heaven, when I am found right.
A.: That, or you will never laugh at all.

Praise and Indifference

Let us laugh and sing and glorify God, while we weep for what once we were. Slaves to sin, that's all the Bible says we are. That is, until Christ freed the body. We are no longer that, and we have reason to glorify God for our gift. But how can we cease praising God? We manage to anyway. We have taken so much real joy out of the Church by replacing it with songs of praise, that become worthless as the worshippers lack any real joy to put into the songs. When we should be focused on a heavenly beautiful eternity, we cry at funerals where there should be rejoicing. The dead are lucky, for they can truly experience the fullness of God. There is no wonder that the church is failing in America. Here, we are without joy in worship. We are insecure because we are safe, but desire yet more safety. And we have the same loveless insecurity as the world around us, and it is killing our souls.