Easter Is Welling Up Within
I got to sit recently with a dear friend as he played for me a song that has entered his soul. I wondered, “Is this song a reflection of what’s happening inside him, or is it part of what’s happening inside him?”
I can’t tell you how many times through the years people have wanted me to listen to a song: something that meant so much to them that they wanted to share it — or perhaps they thought I couldn’t understand them without hearing it. At times the songs have been “sacred”; at other times “secular.” That’s a very thin distinction, indeed, when you’re talking about something that has moved a person’s heart. The voice of Christ breaks out in many places.
Here are some words that have been on my lips recently, from my dear old buddy Charles Wesley:
Finish then thy new creation,
Pure, unspotted, may we be;
Let us see our whole salvation
Perfectly secured by thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place.
Till we cast our crowns before thee,
Lost in wonder, love and praise.
But also these (Chris Rice):
Weak and wounded sinner
Lost and left to die
O, raise your head, for love is passing by
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus and live.
I spoke with another friend yesterday about Easter, and somehow this morning — even with allergies trying to pin me to the mat (after the first day of baseball practice) — I can feel the lift of Easter faith.
These simple words are on my heart this morning:
He is Lord, he is Lord!
He is risen from the dead
and he is Lord!
Every knee shall bow,
Every tongue confess
That Jesus Christ is Lord.
Music moves my emotions, my heart, and even my actions quicker and deeper than anything else. I think that God sings. I think that is why music is so deeply imbedded in the church. And I think that music is a language that God has chosen to interact with our hearts and minds in ways that we don’t truly understand.
Hallelujah! He is risen! He is risen indeed!
Often at Christmas I think that is the best time of the year for a singer. But that is only the beginning of the story. The Easter songs have even more joy, deeper joy. I guess it’s just that it isn’t as much of a season as Christmas is.
This spring the chorus I’m in is singing a Mass in Latin. Part of the Creed says “Et resurrexit tertia dei, secundum scripturas: Et ascndit in coelum.— And the third day he rose again according to the scriptures; and ascended into heaven.” How many millions have procalimed that through the ages.
My old buddy Haydn put this to glorious music. It really stirs my soul.
Thanks Mike for these words. “He is risen” is so much more important than the Pageantry of Easter.
Easter brings out the song ‘Redeemer’ to my lips! I can’t help but sing that one at the top of my lungs (thankfully, it’s just me & God when I do this!)
“And I KNOW (I know) my Redeemer lives!!!!!!”
You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name
The line between secular and spiritual music does not even exisit in my world anymore. I have gleaned so much from so many different types of music, it would be difficult to pick one over the other. There are days when I need to rock out, and Rich Mullins just isn’t going to cover it. And then, there are days when only Rich’s voice and ministry can bring me back from the edge. A bit melodramatic, yes, but that’s what music does for me.
I listen to “Come to Jesus” at least once a week. Even then I put it on repeat and the words just sink into my soul. Its like I can envision Jesus with open arms inviting me into his space. Its a good feeling.
I’m with you, Beth. The line between secular and spiritual music does not even exisit in my world either. Being a jazz fan, I listen to a lot of music that doesn’t have lyrics, however, uplifts me and points me to The Redeemer.
Jeff – Would you mind fleshing that out a bit with an example? I think we’re onto something important here. A friend recently gave me some music that is “secular” — but has become “sacred.” We recognize that the whole earth is full of his glory and that the beauty of the one who is the Lord of the whole world is breaking out all around us, often in ways we couldn’t have expected.
Has anyone read Tolkien’s Creation Myth? You can find an excerpt on page six of this document:
http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/lordoftheringstrilogy/lessons/pdfs/unit_seven.pdf
Tolkien’s use of music to represent God’s creative act (as well as the rebellious act of sin and the discord it creates) is probably the clearest description of how we are called into His image that I know of. Music is at the center of harmony and illustrates so well the discord we all feel when we aren’t unified.
Music seems so central throughout scripture.
I agree about the very thin line between some “secular” and “sacred” music. Still, I wonder what you would think if in a worship committee meeting I suggested “Crazy Train” by Ozzy or “Amazing” by Aerosmith or even “Nothing I Can Do About it Now” by Willie Nelson? These are just a few of many examples of sermons that might never have been heard were it not for the freedom the artists found in music. Like Victor Hugo said, “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.”
I am just guessing that Ozzy isn’t going to be kicking John Newton out of our lineup for a while.
Of course, we sang Tommy Dorsey two weeks ago, so I could be wrong.
I will offer a few examples of music (no lyrics) that totally moves me.
1. Miles Davis – Kind of Blue – this entire album is absolutely AMAZING on so many levels.
2. (apologies for the name of this group, but guitarists get it) The Hellecasters – album is “Escape from Hollywood” and the particular song is “Le Journ’ee Des Tzinganes.”
3. On the album “New York Stories”, Danny Gatton’s song “One for Lenny,” the closing track of the album. (the whole album is great!)
I could MOST DEFINITELY go on (and on, and on…)
The verse from Wesley always gets me. There’s a ton of fine theology in that hymn.
O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
Music is where my spirit soars to the heights too. The picture in Revelation of the singing of the New Song. Yes, I do think God likes singing.
I have always been amazed at the power of music to both penetrate our hearts and express our hearts in ways that are so deeply meaningful, soul stirring, even life changing. I keep a “jam box” in my office, so my counseling clients can share with me the music of their lives. As this has grown as a connecting point between my clients and me, I have come to experience even seemingly awful songs from bands such as Tool or The Used as deeply spiritual and sacred, because it reflects some truth in the life of this valuable spiritual being.
Casting Crowns has become for me a great source of powerful inspiration. This song, in particular, keeps my life in perspective:
The love of her life is drifting away
They’re losing the fight for another day
The life that she’s known is falling apart
A fatherless home, a child’s broken heart
You’re holding her hand, you’re straining for words
You trying to make – sense of it all
She’s desperate for hope, darkness clouding her view
She’s looking to you
Just love her like Jesus, carry her to Him
His yoke is easy, His burden is light
You don’t need the answers to all of life’s questions
Just know that He loves her and stay by her side
Love her like Jesus
Love her like Jesus
The gifts lie in wait, in a room painted blue
Little blessing from Heaven would be there soon
Hope fades in the night, blue skies turn to gray
As the little one slips away
You’re holding her hand, you’re straining for words
You’re trying to make sense of it all
They’re desperate for hope, darkness clouding their view
They’re looking to you
Just love them like Jesus, carry them to Him
His yoke is easy, His burden is light
You don’t need the answers to all of life’s questions
Just know that He loves them and stay by their side
Love them like Jesus
Lord of all creation holds our lives in His hands
The God of all the nations holds our lives in His hands
The Rock of our salvation holds our lives in His hands
He cares for them just as He cares for you
So love them like Jesus, love them like Jesus
You don’t need the answers to all of life’s questions
Just know that He loves them and stay by their side
Love them like Jesus
Love them like Jesus
When I think of heaven, my minds ear hears music. Music somehow intertwines my senses and emotions to move me in a way that just words or images can’t. I think it is no coincidence that occasionally a song or hymn that I haven’t heard or sung in years will pop to mind and convict me of a current situation almost to the point of tears. I can’t put it into words exactly, but I have always felt that God uses music, with and without lyrics, to communicate with my spirit.
Spring starts at 8:07 pm! (Or is it 7:07pm with daylight saving time?) WhOO HOO!
The part that I don’t go along with is this:
“Till in heaven we take our place.
Till we cast our crowns before thee”
First, heaven is just the intermediate state. We are awaiting the new heavens and new earth. Second, the crowns are being cast now.
In general, though, I get what you are talking about. Lent is my favorite church season, and Easter my favorite holy day. The resurrection and new creation is what it’s all about.
Years ago, at ACU, my roommate had these words written and posted to her closet door…”Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.” It wasn’t until much later that I realized where I knew those words from. It’s the last stanza of the last verse of “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”. The words are beautiful, of course, but the meaning much deeper. And as someone who has absolutely no musical abilities whatsoever, (the whole “can’t carry a tune in a bucket” thing), it was the first time I really began to think about the words of the songs I had been singing all my life. In many ways, that changed corporate worship for me…for the better.
As for the whole secular vs. spiritual I am inclined to think God speaks to us through both. In fact, he used the Backstreet Boys with me one time, believe it or not! I had a very special Bible study that I wanted to attend and it began at 5:00 AM, I was so paranoid about sleeping late that I didn’t fall asleep until around 3 AM and then of course, didn’t hear my alarm. I woke up in the nick of time and getting in my car, flustered and irritated, I heard these words blast from the radio just at I turned the car on…” I’ll never break your heart, I’ll never make you cry, I’d rather die then live without you.” God in His sovereignty used a boy band to draw me close and calm my heart!
In “The Magician’s Nepehw” of the chronicles of Narnia series. C.S. Lewis tells of the creation of Narnia. He also uses music to join together all of creation. Different rythms and keys are used for each phase of creation. This has always struck me as natural seeming. I can easily imagine when God said “let there be light.” with the appearance of light there was a HUGE gong sound that took the whole six days for the reverbations to subside completely. Then as each day passed an orchestra of instruments joined and swelled untill the crashing crescendo when God created man.
I remember when I was a student at ACU, one of the adjunt professors spoke for a three day period in chapel. The first day he spoke, he had a portion of Joan Osbourne’s song, “What if God Were One of Us?” played. He also spoke of listening to some of Kurt Cobain’s music after Cobain committed suicide (I believe these references both occurred at the same time; I am almost positive they are from the same speaker). The conclusion he arrived at was that a lot of secular music was pre-Christian music. There are people in this world who are lost, hurting, full of angst, questioning, and searching to find their identity. As Christians, we should be able to connect with those feelings in some level through our own spiritual journey. When I hear a group like Linkin Park sing, “I’ve tried so hard and gone so far, but in the end it doesn’t really matter,” I am reminded of feeling that disillusioned. Luckily, words like Casting Crowns’ Voice of Truth resonate with me: “Out of all the voices calling out to me, I will listen and believe the voice of truth.” That song has saved my life; that is no exaggeration (you can check out the story on my blog: paulsjonah2song.blogspot.com)
Music hits us in a place very little else can.
By the way, that chapel speaker now writes a great (almost) daily blog while awaiting the arrival of his first grandchild. Perhaps he remembers if both of those references were from the same lesson?
Just to clarify, the (almost) goes with daily, not with great.
A Newsboys song that is lesser known but has powerfully moved me:
“…No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
“til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.
“In Christ Alone” is the name of the song.
I usually turn to Christian music for praise, but secular music has MUCH better lament songs, don’t you think???
No More Tear….
Momma I’m Commin Home…
Knockin on Heaven’s Door
And
Stairway to Heaven.
One of MANY musical works without text that just dumps me in a heap before the glory of God:
Vaughn Williams’ ‘Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis’. Absolutely slays me!
(For a bit of fleshing out and some commentary and analysis — all fun reading — click on this link: http://www.agentsmith.com/rvw/guides/tfguide.html)
But more than that, just listen to it some day soon.
Cheers!
The Requiems are such glorious combinations of praise, joy, hope and lament.
Faure, Mozart, Verde, and Berlioz come to mind.
When my heart is heavy with grief, Mahler speaks to me, as does Wagner and Bruchner. For joyful frolicking – in a rehearsal with the Romano family as they pick and pluck their way through Rodrigo’s magnificent guitar works.
But when I worship, it is with the high church hymns such as O! Sacred Head or Worthy is The Lamb – and to make my heart leap with joy, singing These Are The Days of Ezekiel with a room full of college students.
Music is with me nearly 24/7 in one form or another. I have been asked by a blind friend of mine in Mexico City what my choice would be if I could have only one of two senses: sight and hearing. If I had to choose, I would want hearing. A life without music, including the music of voices I love, would be nearly unbearable to me.
“Psalms, & Hymns, & Spiritual Songs”—-Scripture doesn’t clarify what genre a “Spiritual Song” is, does it? I believe that God & the angels watching over us sing songs every day all day. I also believe strongly that they dance & use instruments. I think Heaven will be everything the cofC disallowed for so many years. I can’t wait to go there!!
Oh yes, Annie! What music there is in Revelation – music around the Throne, music sung and played by the angels surrounding the Throne – music declaring “Holy, Holy, Holy!” We’ll see and hear this one day. Glory, Glory, Glory to God Almighty and to the Lamb! Hallelujah! /
Death cannot keep his prey–Jesus, my Savior.
He tore the bars away–Jesus, my Lord.
qb’s with Kathy on this one. Conceding that some of the church’s “laments” in hymnody may be sappy shortcuts to shallow hope, one would be hard pressed to imagine lamentations more searing and true than John Rutter’s Requiem or Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem. (VM may have been an agnostic, but much of his music belongs to the church!)
QB and Kathy: How fun it would be to go to a few concerts with you!
How is it that the agnostic – Rutter, Fauré, Mahler, Vaughn Williams, Finzi, Stanford, et al – crafted musical thoughts that could connect so cogently with those of us who believe so deeply in the resurrection and life everlasting in Heaven?
I like this quote from Robert Reilly: ‘I have found that they [agnostics] are often particularly close to God – intimate enough to hold a personal grudge. Usually, it has to do with a misunderstanding as to who He really is or what He has done. Frequently, their objections to God concern things to which God Himself objects…’
Oddly enough, one of those “pre-Christian” anthems that still stirs my heart is the Styx ballad “Show Me The Way.”
I can’t help but believe there are still a lot of souls in the world who have a sense that they are lost in it; who pray and hope that there’s a heaven.
I, too, hear God’s voice in all kinds of music. Even Country, believe it or not! He gave us a beautiful gift in music.
Last year on Easter we sang “How Deep the Father’s Love” by Stuart Townend. Those lyrics have stayed on my mind for a whole year now. I think this one will stand the test of time and become a classic hymn up there with “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”.
Are you just on pins and needles waiting on this grandbaby or what? Please don’t delay too long while you call the long list before you post the big news here!
Hi Mike,
You asked me to flesh out my post with an example, thank you, I’m honored you even bothered to read it.
As you mentioned, “the whole earth is full of His glory and that the beauty of the one who is the Lord of the whole world is breaking out all around us, often in ways we couldn’t have expected.” Music—another gift from God in my opinion—can be analyzed in human terms. For example, in western culture, if you sing the first seven notes of a major scale, we instinctly hear the tonic to resolve the scale. The 7th pushes or pulls us towards the root.
Certain music—for me, Pat Metheny in particular—is very uplifting. Lush harmonies that pushes and pulls, improvisation that truly sounds like instant composition, the joyful manner in which he presents it. In fact, there’s a scholarly work on one of his pieces, Emotional Response to Music: Pat Metheny’s Secret Story (Studies in the History and Interpretation of Music, V. 80,) (Hardcover) by Wayne E. Goins (Author).
We scientifically know loud noises (and music, such as metal, etc.) trigger adrenaline. Culturally, as I mentioned, we hear a major scale resolve when the first seven notes are played. Surely we have some response to even more complex harmonies and melodies.
I believe God hardwired us to appreciate music, and gave it to us as a gift. A cappella, instrumental, or vocals with accompaniment, I love it all. And like the Father himself, the more you learn, the deeper the love. As the great jazz drummer Art Blakey said, “music washes away the dust of everyday life.” I can’t think of a better way to say it.
In the Church of Christ, et. al., tradition, a cappella is the standard. But even without instrumental accompaniment, elements of music are still present that inspire us. Rhythm, tempo, dynamic, range, etc. I would argue those elements, presented without lyrics, may sometimes have the same desired effect of making us feel appreciative for the gift of life, the gift of music, of relationships, etc.
I’ll give this some more thought and try to answer more intelligently and succinctly soon.
Thank you,
Jeff
Here’s another book that looks interesting:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525949690/ref=pd_luc_0250307734743900525949690/104-0629862-9036719
From one review:
“In this textbook for those who don’t like textbooks, he discusses neurobiology, neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, empirical philosophy, Gestalt psychology, memory theory, categorization theory, neurochemistry, and exemplar theory in relation to music theory and history in a manner that will draw in teens. A wonderful introduction to the science of one of the arts that make us human.”
Mike,
Surely that sweet music for you heart’s ears will play any moment now!
“To baby girl, welcome!”
Can’t wait to hear that paeon announcing the entrance of Mike and Diane to the fellowship of grandparents!
[I know, not a pure paeon, but I tried.
]
A new song out that transitions from secular to sacred is Martina McBrides’ Anyway:
You can spend your whole life building something from nothing
One storm can come and blow it all away
Build it anyway
You can chase a dream that seems so out of reach and you know it might not ever come your way
Dream it anyway
Chorus:
God is great, but sometimes life ain’t good
And when I pray it doesn’t always turn out like I think it should
But I do it anyway, I do it anyway
This world’s gone crazy and it’s hard to believe that tomorrow will be better than today
Believe it anyway
You can love someone with all your heart, for all the right reasons, and in a moment they can choose to walk away
Love em anyway
Repeat Chorus
You can pour your soul out singing a song you believe in that tomorrow they’ll forget you ever sang
Sing it anyway, sing it anyway
I sing, I dream, I love, anyway,
Your silence makes me wonder if littel R has arrived?
The difference between Wesley and Rice is huge. Wesley introduces ata least 8 (maybe 9) theological themes in that brief stanza, each one worthy of a series of messages, whereas Rice has but one, maybe two.
I too, love Charles Wesley. I’ve just completed a project that includes updates of 12 of his hymns. One was the hymn, Love Divine, that you quoted above. I’d love to hear the response to these new songs from anyone on this blog. You can hear samples of all 12 and read the lyrics on my web page. wesleyputnam.org You can even download the leadsheets for free! Four of the songs can be heard in their entirety at myspace.com/wesleyputnam