Music Mondays

I realized it has been quite awhile since I did anything related to music or my ongoing series "Music Monday". A busy schedule has a way of doing that to me.

I thought I'd bring back the feature in a short-and-sweet way this morning with a newer song I'm really liking. I am not going to waste a lot of space to share why, just that I like how in a confessional sort of way, it describes Jesus' life, ministry, and the beginning of the Church.

Techne - How should Christians view technology?

It has been two weeks now since I attended the Center for Pastor Theologians annual conference in Oak Park, Illinois. The theme, as the title above infers, was to discuss and understand how Christians ought to view, utilize, and understand technology in this rapidly changing world.

There was a lot to process and many implications for various fields. I found the plenary and breakout sessions all to be very informative and interesting. I'm indebted the many speakers and presenters, including Dan Brendsel, Karen Swallow Prior, Charlie Dates, Felicia Wu Song, Joel Lawrence, Andy Crouch, Christina Bieber-Lake, and Jeff Hardin. The following take-aways originated with these highly-qualified and informed people.

I thought I'd share my biggest takeaways in no real order of importance:

1. It is probably helpful to differentiate between techne as a tool and modern technology. Humanity has always had tools of some sort - hammers, roads, writing utensils etc. But what marks are current era is how exponentially greater the quantity of power that has been harnessed and put into automated systems. This was a point made by Andy Crouch and essentially in boils down to the fact that we had used tech as a tool. Now we are tools of the "technique" system. I did find that there were differing views on this differentiation, but there is a common agreement that this pursuit for better and easier tech is driven by our innate desire for control and self-determination. 

2. Technology often invents problems that don't exist. And one of those developing problems is going to be that of our human identity. Clearly many cultures are already grappling with this from the aspect of sexuality. But as the digital and virtual worlds become mor eand more dominant, Christians especially will likely be confronted with issues they dealt with when gnosticism was a dominant world view. Our understanding of the "oneness" of the material and immaterial needs to be reaffirmed. And along these lines, it will be very important for the Church to clarify our mission potentially even showing the world a different way than one anchored to tech. We should be ready to highlight the longings of our souls that remain unfulfilled despite all the technological progress we are making.

3. Technology can be good and used in positive ways, but we must be keenly aware to its dangers too. Tech in general can really hinder our spiritual lives. It can reflect "the dark heart of man in an instant" as Charlie Dates said. It brings transparency in that sense. For pastors and ministers, it is especially crucial that we seek to be faithful rather than famous. Technology can also deceive, making good on its promises in the short-term, but never the long-term. It creates a sense of life being lived elsewhere. Life is lived on my Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook feeds and not in my actual physical context.This creates an obligation to technology that causes stress and forms it's own worship system. 

4. To balance out the above point, there are many practices we can embrace that will help us navigate this technological world wisely. Some I picked up on include:

• Embrace good technology. What would that be? Crouch defines it as any tech that serves, helps bring people together, and blesses others.
• Read. Dr. Prior made a good case for reading print and reading it contemplatively as a way to sharpen our brains and help better for our inner life.
• Intentionally design your living spaces with tech boundaries and create limits and routines that distance ourselves from our phones, tablets, and tv's. Something as simple as creating a family charging station where everyone puts their phones at night so they aren't waking up immediately to a screen.
• Demonstrate within our Christian communities the value and special nature of what the life with Christ is. The Eucharist (Communion to us low-church folks) was highlighted by more than one speaker as a regular observance that can be an oasis for our tech-saturated souls. One aspect that wasn't explicitly mentioned was fostering a spiritual environment where we are in tune with the Spirit.  But as we navigate this world, we need to recognize how it can numb us to experiencing true gratitude, to learning through suffering, and to receiving grace in the ups and downs of our lives.

This conference gave me a lot to think about and a lot to read (love the book tables!) and it confronted me with everyday ways I'm too tethered to technology. Good things to ponder and good reasons to seek God's empowerment to live like he wants me to live.

Music Mondays: When CCM gets serious

CCM often feels perfectly packaged. Artists need to fit a certain image and sing about certain topics in order to maximize their popularity. This is probably true of the entire music industry, but when your audience is Christian you are dealing with a whole different set of expectations and standards. 

Maybe sprinkle in a little bit of honesty and transparency about the difficulties of life but not too much. CCM often drift towards that safe space and really always has. 

Every once in a while though, someone breaks the mold. The first major exception like this that I can remember was this song:

"What If I Stumble?" was the track after dc Talk's megahit "Jesus Freak" on the album of the same name and the contrast of tones what startling and made me and many like me sit up and take notice. dc Talk was hugely popular in Christian circles before this album but their fame hit another stratosphere after it. And in the middle of all of this, they had the temerity/vision/arrogance/humility to include a song about doubt, vulnerability, and frailty.  

Self-awareness, transparency, and weakness are not common subjects in CCM. "What If I Stumble?" broke the mold. And that's what the songs in this series are all about.

Music Mondays: When CCM gets serious

I fully realize it is Wednesday and also it's been almost an exact month since I last posted for Music Monday or anything. But here we are.

I was listening to a podcast earlier this summer that takes a look back at various pieces of Christian culture. This particular episode was analyzing the Newsboys album "Step up to the Microphone". For me, it was a trip back through memory lane to my later high school years of the late 90's. 

There were a number of radio hits from that CD, but the song that I most appreciated remembering was one not featured as a single - the last track, "Always".

That song had always resonated with me, probably because of it's chorus highlighting God being our "Father in my fatherless days". This song reflects a story of fatherly abandonment and finding God's healing help in the aftermath of that. My story is about a father who died - so it is different, but the truth still resounds in a powerful way.

So for the next few weeks, I'll be highlighting songs that tackled serious subjects. CCM often retreats into clichés and bland theology, that while usually true, doesn't connect to real life. But every so often, an artist or artists will break the mold and venture into the challenges of reality. And as we'll see, the result is often some of the best work they do, even if it's not the most popular.

Sermon Snippets - Getting a reputation

When you've been labeled a certain way, it gets hard to shed that reputation. Sometimes those are earned. But I've recently been thinking about how many times in my life I believed something about someone based on no evidence at all and/or because all my peers did.

This has all been provoked by my current sermon series on misunderstood women of Scripture. All of these characters have been unfairly maligned to one extent or another, but this past week when we looked at Mary Magdalene was a doozy.

She's been cast as a everything from a reformed prostitute to Jesus' secret wife. None of these theories are rooted in Scripture though. Luke 8 mentions her as a close follower of Jesus who had been delivered from demonic possession. But there's nothing about sexual immorality or anything of that kind in any of the Gospel accounts which never hold back on people's sin. 

In reality, she demonstrates a high-level of devotion both as a student and a supporter of Jesus. Her life was a dramatic witness to Jesus' divine power and she was undoubtedly a key source for the Gospel writers as they compiled their accounts of Jesus' life. 

She's an example of how God can transform us, just not in the scandalous way we've been led to believe. And she's also an example of how we can faithfully follow Jesus as disciples.

Renaissance artists helped perpetuate these myths about Mary Magdalene, portraying her in a penitent-but-sensual light.

FWIW, this all started (probably), with a sermon Pope Gregory gave in AD 591. He confused and conflated a couple different stories of a couple different women (Luke 7, 8, John 12) and made them all about Mary M. 

Sermon Snippets - The Woman at the Well

See if you can spot the lie:

• Bats aren't actually blind. Some can see better than humans.
• Napoleon was above-average in height for his day.
• We don't have five senses, we have closer to twenty.
• The woman Jesus interacts with at a well in Samaria was a promiscuous relationship-addict who went from one man to another looking for the right guy.

If I haven't made it obvious, it is the last bullet point. Don't believe me about the first three facts? I refer you to this resource. Don't believe me about the last one regarding the story from John 4? Let me refer you to this article (and/or the Sandra Glahn-edited book "Vindicating the Vixens" which features that same article as one of it's chapters).

The article makes a compelling case that when we study the marriage practices of the Biblical world, we'll see this woman in a very different light. 

During her famous discussion with Jesus, he reveals that he supernaturally knows she has been married five times and is living with a man who isn't her sixth husband. It doesn't indicate she was divorced that many times - which would be unheard of when we compare it to other ANE (Ancient Near East) records we have. And even if she had five divorces on her marital resume, in their world, it was rare for a woman to divorce her husband. Women had next to no legal rights and would have to find a male advocate to initiate these proceedings. Men on the other hand could find lots of excuses to divorce their wives. Though they would suffer dowry loss for any reason other than adultery. A dowry was the material wealth a woman brought into the marriage. It was the only lifeline a woman had to protect her if her husband decided to abuse the system. 

So that brings us to this woman in John 4. which is more plausible? That she was the town tramp who hopped from bed to bed looking for love in all the wrong places? Or that she had husbands who died and/or husbands who had divorced her? That her current living situation was one of illicitly co-habiting or one where culturally they were seen as married? Or maybe it was a situation of bigamy, where she was like Hagar, essentially a second (class) wife. Her townspeople receive her testimony without reservation when she tells them of her interactions with Jesus. The eager reception and the lack of skepticism or hesitancy help convince me that she wasn't wearing some 'scarlet letter' in their minds.

John 4 is a lot less scandalous when we understand the historical context. Her theological curiosity and insight rise to the surface upon deeper reflection too. Maybe she wasn't thirsty for love but rather thirsty for healing and the truth. 

What is also unmistakable is the fact that Jesus satisfies her longings. She didn't even fully understand what she was searching for, but Jesus provided it in abundance. He reached across social barriers and sidestepped needlessly distracting controversies. And he did it all to bring salvation to that woman and her town. 

The beautiful thing is, that previous paragraph also applies to you and me. He quenches our thirst and he compels us to disregard the barriers and reach out to those around us with the offer of living water found only in Christ.

Music Mondays - Best Movie Ending Songs (#5-#1)

5. Napoleon Dynamite, "The Promise", When in Rome

A sweet, quirky, funny movie stumbles into a pitch perfect song to end the story. "The Promise"is a quintessential 80's song and Napoleon Dynamite takes place in a world seemingly stuck in the 80's. Both the story and song have a lot of heart though. 

4. Stand by Me, "Stand By Me", Ben E. King

This is a quintessential "coming of age" movie and the ending hits you right in the gut. Clearly they had no other choice to play this song at the end. But they certainly earned it.

3. Lone Survivor, "Heroes", Peter Gabriel

Another ending that hits you right in the feels. Lone Survivor is a harrowing account of a Special Forces operation in Afghanistan. When Gabriel's version accompanies pictures and videos of the soldiers portrayed in the movie, the gravity of the movie becomes all the more real. 

2. Fight Club, "Where is My Mind?", The Pixies

Fight Club is a crazy movie with an all-time twist ending. So how do you go out with a bang? Go with The Pixies' haunting and lyrically-nonsensical "Where is My Mind?" A match made in metaphor heaven.

1. The Breakfast Club, "Don't You (Forget About Me)", Simple Minds

Is there a more iconic closing frame than Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club? John Hughes had a knack for blending the right songs with his great stories. This is the best movie-ending song ever. There's a reason a music-centered movie like Pitch Perfect makes a whole thing of it.