A spirituality of authentically blended worship: part one...

NOTE:  Here are my worship notes for Sunday, August 7, 2911.  This starts a four week series I am calling "A Spirituality of Authentically Blended Worship." In a way it is a popular distillation of my doctoral thesis - A Spirituality of Rock Music - that I completed in 2007. I suspect, however, that this series will also more broadly explore the totality of music in worship - how it is prayerful, an embodied practice of our deepst ethical commitments, etc - so I am excited to get going with it.  So, if you are in the area at 10:30 am this week, join us as we incorporate the music of Paul Simon into the sacred choir.

There is a staggering intellectual ambivalence towards music – dare I call it fear – in the world of contemporary Christian theology. Although it is true that the father of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther, once celebrated and encouraged the spiritual and moral virtues of music saying:

Music is a fair and glorious gift from God. I am strongly persuaded that after theology there is no art than can be placed on a level with music; for besides theology, music is the only art capable of affording peace and joy of the heart.

It is equally true “that in the 20th century, the corridors of theology have not generally been alive with the sound of music.” Dr. Jeremy Begbie, once of Ridley Hall and Cambridge, England and now professor of Systematic Theology at Duke Divinity School, has observed that:

Music has received virtually no sustained treatment in contemporary systematic theology. Much has been written about the bearing of literature upon theological disciplines – especially biblical hermeneutics – and the same goes for the visual arts… but 20th century theologians (have) paid scant attention to the potential of music to explore theological themes. (Theology, Music and Time, introduction)

To be sure, Patrick Evans at Yale Divinity School, Janet Walton at Union in New York, Andrew Shenton at Boston University and Don Saliers at Emory University are pushing the envelope – but they are the exceptions to the rule. Saliers summarizes the situation like this: we in the Western Church have inherited both the blessings and the curses embedded in the theology of St. Augustine – and nowhere more so than in the wise one’s understanding of music.

• On one hand, Augustine likened loving God to the mystical ecstasy of sensual beauty:

When I love you, Lord, what do I love? Not the body’s beauty, nor time’s rhythm, no light’s brightness… nor song’s sweet melodies, nor the fragrance of flowers, lotions and spices, nor manna and honey, nor the feel of flesh embracing flesh – none of these are what I love when I love my God… and yet, (this love) is something like light, sound, smell and touch – the light, voice, food, fragrance and embrace of my inner self, where a light shines for my soul… That is what I love when I love my God!”

• At the same time, he was equally afraid of his delight of music:

On occasion he grew fearful that his sensual engagement with melodies – that often brought him tears of joy and release – would distract him from the “pure” hearing of sacred Scripture… (Consequently) we are now the recipients of Augustine’s ambivalence about sound and music, especially when music is joined to the texts of prayer. (Don Saliers/Emily Saliers, A Song to Sing, A Life to Life: Reflections on Music as Spiritual Practice.)

As you might guess, this creates a number of problems for contemporary people when it comes to the celebration of music in worship or our everyday lives – including the church’s very complicated interpretation of other kinds of sensual engagement as well – like love of the body itself. Just this past week, for example, Msgr. Miguel Delgado Galindo, a spokesperson for Pope Benedict on the upcoming World Youth Day rally to be held in Madrid, made a point of saying that the faithful should not: 

Consider the upcoming festival to be the ‘Catholic Woodstock,’ a multicultural festival of Catholic young people which leaves no lasting trace when the lights go down… Remember: the generation of the 1960s confused revolutionary and libertarian ideas with their own personal contradictions.

My blogging buddy from Ireland, Blue Eyed Ennis, noted that there was NO good reason for the Vatican to trash Woodstock – whatever you think of the event – except fear. Rock and soul music may not be your cup of tea, she notes but “Jesus would be just as much at ease at Woodstock as He would in Madrid – but clearly Monsignor Galindo… wouldn't – and that is one of the saddest reasons why so many people who should be able to consider going to both, would not go to Madrid.”

Then this still faithful Roman Catholic lay person lays it on the line:

What will my church be remembered for in the next forty years? Somehow I don't think it will be music but I have a greater fear and that is that it won't even be remembered primarily for bringing the message of a loving and compassionate reconciling Christ to the world either. And lest the church forget, the hemorrhage of priests and the closures of many churches in our present time have left many faithful parishioners to be the last one to switch the lights off as they close the church door. Let them dwell on and examine the real reasons for that and please don't make the excuse of blaming it all on the ghost of the 60's. Stop scapegoating. (check it out @ http://blueeyedennis-siempre.blogspot.com/

For the next four weeks I am going to share with you an alternative to the fear and scapegoating that is still all too lively in all branches of Christ’s Church. Specifically, I want to outline for you some of the intellectual, theological, practical and aesthetic elements of something I call a spirituality of authentically blended worship. Because, you see, it is my conviction – both practiced and revealed – that this is one of the ways we learn to live into Christ’s compassion and radical hospitality. 

Where else but worship – and a few exceptional pubs or concerts – do we get the chance to practice the extraordinary grace of God that breaks down barriers between race, class, ethnicity and gender? Where else but worship are we given the space and freedom to listen to the FULL choir of God’s people singing praise in all their richness? Jazz and German chorales? Black gospel and White Appalachian folk tunes? The majestic tributes to the Lord that Bach composed for the organ alongside the humble chants of the faithful in the Bantu?

Indeed, where else but worship do we come to sense – and then incarnate – the theological truth that in Christ Jesus we are all one? One body – one faith – one baptism as St. Paul announced in Galatians:

You have arrived at your destination: By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you up in an adult faith wardrobe—Christ's life, the fulfillment of God's original promise. For in Christ's family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. Also, since you are Christ's family, then you are Abraham's famous "descendant," heirs according to the covenant promises.

I submit to you – and actually insist upon it, too – that for this time in history, only an authentically blended style of worship helps us break down the divisions – the false and unhealthy divisions – that exist between the so called sacred and the secular. It helps us get over ourselves and learn how to be truly open and hospitable; it leads us beyond our society’s multiple layers of segregation that only serve to keep us divided and afraid; it trains us listening rather than insisting; and it is a joyful way of being prayerful and open to God’s Spirit in action.

Too often lazy minds conclude that I like to include rock and roll and jazz – or 60s folk music – into worship simply because I’m a hippie. Look, I’ve got NOTHING against hippies – or freaks – or those on the periphery. I resonate with their rejection of the status quo and search for a truly counter cultural way of living. But let’s be clear, my commitment and instance upon authentically blended worship goes deeper than nostalgia for Woodstock, ok? Consider the breadth of music we have already sung this morning – and what it tells us about God’s love in today’s world.

• We began with an ancient Hebrew psalm made modern by an American jazz pianist. 

• We then sang a contemporary Roman Catholic hymn of praise, a sung prayer chant from the Reformed community on the Isle of Iona and a group folk song from South Africa.

• What do you think I’m trying to communicate with such diversity of sound and rhythm?

Well, let’s go deeper into both the theology and spirituality of authentically blended worship. And I want you to experience these insights through the artistry of a secular song writer: Paul Simon. You see, if you truly believe that God is still speaking – and I do truly believe this – then God didn’t quit communicating a sense of love and awe and grace and hope when the Hebrew Psalter was closed. Or when Bach hung up his organ slippers. Or when Calvin left Geneva, ok?

So here are three guiding principles that I use when considering what secular songs I think help us worship God beyond our habits, prejudices and fears. First, like Augustine, Calvin and St. Paul, I believe that God’s grace was not simply revealed in history only when Jesus was alive. Rather, as the text from Acts suggests, God can be present in the poetry, philosophy and culture of a society in a hidden or obscure form. How did Paul put it today when he was speaking to the cultured elite of Athens?

It is plain to see that you Athenians take your religion seriously. When I arrived here the other day, I was fascinated with all the shrines I came across. And then I found one inscribed, to the god nobody knows. I'm here to introduce you to this God so you can worship intelligently, know who you're dealing with… He doesn't play hide-and-seek with us. He's not remote; he's near. We live and move in him, can't get away from him! One of your poets said it well: 'We're the God-created.'

That’s exactly what I hear in this early song from Paul Simon’s work…


• Do you sense a deep and honest longing in this song?

• Do you recognize that this longing is universal – a part of the human experience in the US and Turkey – as well as South American, China and beyond?

The guideline I use in blending secular songs into sacred worship is built on this insight: does it help touch a universal human truth or experience? If yes, then it might help communicate God’s love for us all not just those already within the church.

The second guideline grows out of the first: in searching for the universal, remember what Jesus told his disciples in the first century. “Those who are not against us are… for us.” Paul Simon is a master at discovering ways to blend musical cultures together – and we can learn a great deal about being faithful from his creativity.

• He was one of the first to find a way to respectfully blend world music into Western pop culture – his greatest achievement being the work he did with South African musicians.

• But he started closer to home – creating a lament and a prayer – borrowing a melody from Peru…


As the lyric says with an aching sweetness: “A man gets tied up to the ground and gives the world its saddest sound” – I think he’s on to something that can help the Body of Christ connect to people hurting or alienated, yes?

And then the third guideline – “cast your mind on that which is lovely, true and beautiful” – a spiritual commitment that has its roots in Plato and Aristotle but which also found resonance in Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn. St. Paul gave it shape and form in Philippians 4:

You'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his harmonies.

In his most recent recording, Simon discovered that he was writing and singing a great deal about God – and often in very Christian ways. In an interview Simon said that after a concert, Paul McCartney of the Beatles, greeted him backstage and offered his congratulations only to ask: Man, I thought you were Jewish?

• In this song, “So Beautiful or So What?” he sounds like a modern St. Paul who invites us to give up our obsession with bottom line thinking and living and go for something deeper.

• Something that begins with beauty and truth… or what’s the point?


That song is prayer to me, beloved, prayer and prophetic challenge all wrapped up in a driving rhythm that speaks to my heart and soul. And as I read about the CD’s impact on the world of music, it would appear that other are praying to it, too.

Ok, that’s enough for today – three guidelines for bringing the sounds of the Internet and popular culture into sacred worship:

• God is still speaking through the songs and poetry of our era: are we listening for what is universally human?

• Genre-bending in music is a way to live into the promise and commitment of being Christ’s living body in a diverse world.

• Cast you mind and heart and soul upon that which is true and noble and beautiful – or so what?

Not everything in pop culture advances worship.  As C.S. Lewis once said, "Just because you LIKE it doesn't mean you have to BAPTISE it!"  True enough - I like a TON of songs that wouldn't work in worship - but there are another TON that would if we had ears to hear.  And that is part of the story of how the good news meets us where we live.  So... let those who have ears to hear... hear.