Alternatearts

 

when i get home, i’ll write you a sonnet
but i haven’t left yet

when i get home, i’ll sing you a song
and wrap it around your finger

you’ll hear the mountain lion’s roar
as it echoes in the valley

you’ll see the fleeing eagle
as she brings food to her young

you’ll see the sky split and thunder
when i come home

when i get home, i’ll write you a sonnet
but i haven’t left yet…

Here’s why I like these authors…

Malcolm Muggeridge:  “Every happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message.”

Flannery O’Conner:  “All my stories are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it, but most people think of these stories as hard, hopeless and brutal.”

Oz Guinness:  “Christianity is the only religion whose God bears the scars of evil.”

Francis Schaeffer:  “Each generation of the church in each setting has the responsibility of communicating the gospel in understandable terms, considering the language and thought-forms of that setting.”

Alexander Solzhenitsyn:  “Man has set for himself the goal of conquering the world but in the process loses his soul.”

Everything in your world
Becomes part of my world
Your memories and emotions
Your wishes, dreams and desires

There once was a separation
I wanted to fill and connect
To see things like you do
To feel them like my own

Now we’re together
Two being as one
Sharing memory
Touching the same space

A flash of brilliant light
Which will never fade
Increases its intensity
As flesh and bone decay

A bright new thing that I have seen
Been on my mind and in my dreams
It’s attractive I know
Pulls me in, won’t let go
Before I know what’s happened
I realize I’ve been taken

“I love songs about horses, railroads, land, judgment day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation, home, salvation, death, pride, humor, piety, rebellion, patriotism, larceny, determination, tragedy, rowdiness, heartbreak and love. And Mother. And God.”

- Johnny Cash

by Denis Haack

It was one of those rare moments in life. It’s only happened twice to me, that I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard a song for the first time. It was 1993 and I was in a theater waiting for a movie to begin, which movie I do not remember. Between films the theater streamed a local rock radio station through their sound system. The music had been unremarkable, a series of apparently popular and forgettable songs that seemed to have more in common with marketing than they did with art. It was almost time for the movie to begin.

The next song was one I hadn’t heard, and suddenly I found myself hoping the movie wouldn’t begin before it finished. It opened with rhythmic scratchy sounds imitating the flaws on an old vinyl record, and after a moment the scratches merged into the percussion of the song. A rich bass-baritone voice—uncommon for rock vocalists—sang lyrics that told a mysterious story, painted impressions in my imagination, and creatively touched on some of the deepest questions that human beings have raised since the dawn of time. I loved the sound, the arrangement, the choice of instruments, the vocal performance, the lyrics. After the movie I stopped by a record store to get a copy of the album.

Really good music, of every genre, is always about more than mere entertainment. The musician expresses realities that are best communicated through metaphor, sound, poetry, and the allusive beauty of art. When we truly receive the music rather than just casually listen, we end up seeing more deeply into life, in part or in whole, for blessing or for curse.

Good music is an expression of the artist’s deepest yearnings, fears, hopes, dreams, and worldview. Music is more than that, of course, but it is certainly that. And because the artistic gift involves seeing with clarity, the art that is produced often helps to both shape and reflect the artist’s culture and times.

So, for those of us who take Christian faith seriously, listening to the music crafted by artists who raise challenges to our faith is not just interesting but vital. It’s a good way to hear the doubts and questions that we need to address if we are to live out and talk about our faith in a way that can be appreciated and understood in our pluralistic world. This is the purpose of this series of articles. (The first is posted on Ransom’s web site—the song was “It Ain’t Necessarily So” from Gershwin’s classic American opera, Porgy and Bess.)

There is some risk here. That some might think I am only concerned for the lyrics of the songs, or that I’m reducing them to their theological content. Doing so would mistreat the music and the artists. Nor am I suggesting that all the musicians produced these pieces to criticize the Christian faith, which I don’t think is true. An artist’s convictions naturally tends to shape their work, so their doubts and beliefs, positive and negative, will make some appearance. I expect non-Christian artists to produce art with integrity, and that means that they will, occasionally at least, raise challenges or questions or criticisms of Christianity. What I am arguing here in this series is that the music involved can still be lovely, meaningful, and help us as Christians see more clearly.

Such is the song I heard that day in the theater. “God Shuffled His Feet” by the Crash Test Dummies, with lyricist and lead vocalist Brad Roberts.

Critic song #2.1: “God Shuffled His Feet”

After seven days
He was quite tired, so God said:
“Let there be a day
Just for picnics, with wine and bread”
He gathered up some people he had made
Created blankets and laid back in the shade

The people sipped their wine
And what with God there,
they asked him questions
Like: do you have to eat
Or get your hair cut in heaven?
And if your eye got poked out in this life
Would it be waiting up in heaven with your wife?

God shuffled his feet
and glanced around at them;
The people cleared their throats
and stared right back at him

“God Shuffled His Feet” is a richly creative song, with the percussion, instrumentation, arrangement, and vocals befitting the lyrics. It is a song that has a child-like simplicity and charm while evoking questions that are raised by people of all ages. What happens after death? And what about the heartaches, disappointments, and disabilities suffered in this broken world? Even if they are repaired, what about the lost years and dashed hopes that dogged us for an entire lifetime? Even if the pain is somehow dulled or forgotten, the pain was still a tragic reality that can’t be erased. Even if evil is somehow done away with at the end, the scars its ravages carved across souls and time remain a reality, and will remain in memory unless heaven is the rough equivalent of a lobotomy. Doesn’t that matter? Can even God deal with such a reality?

So he said: “Once there was a boy
Who woke up with blue hair
To him it was a joy
Until he ran out into the warm air—
He thought of how his friends would come to see;
And would they laugh,
or had he got some strange disease?”

God shuffled his feet and glanced around at them;
The people cleared their throats
and stared right back at him

The people sat waiting
Out on their blankets in the garden
But God said nothing
So someone asked him, “I beg your pardon:
I’m not quite clear about what you just spoke—it
Was that a parable, or a very subtle joke?”

God shuffled his feet and glanced around at them;
The people cleared their throats
and stared right back at him.

[“God Shuffled His Feet” by Crash Test Dummies on Crash Test Dummies (1993)]

God has answered, but the answer is insufficient—an answer that intrigues, but that fails to satisfy. And so in the world of the song we are stuck, in a sort of limbo, our questions made sharper with the sense that the God who should be able to answer refrains from doing so. Or even worse, possibly cannot. So trust is rendered impossible. And with no trust, no real relationship is possible.

This song, it seems to me, is not an angry fist shaken against the sky but a sorrowful lament. God’s existence is not challenged, but hard questions about hope, redemption, sorrow, and eternity—which both children and adults raise—go unanswered.

I believe Brad Roberts and his band are on to something. I hear the same issues being raised by lots of people. And I notice that many Christians find it difficult to field thoughtful responses to those issues that seem satisfying and compelling. Actually, I’ll go one step further: most of the descriptions of heaven I hear make me certain of two things: the description does not reflect what the Bible teaches about the new earth, and the heaven they describe (made of metal, worship-service-forever, little if anything else, spiritual without the problematic physical) is not particularly the sort of place most people yearn for as a spot to live forever.

Which leads to some great questions. What is the Christian hope? What does it imply for the disappointments and illnesses we suffer? Why do common descriptions—by Christians, mind you—of heaven and eternity so often seem unattractive? And what do the Scriptures really teach about this? After all, if it is our true home with our true Father, if it is the final destination, and if it embodies the full purpose of all of history, then we can be certain the Christian hope will not only fulfill the very deepest yearnings of the human heart, it will do that and far, far more.

It sounds as if Brad Roberts, like many others, hasn’t heard about that hope. And sadly, he won’t hear about it from many Christians today or in many churches.

“God Shuffled His Feet” reminds me we have work to do. And I am grateful for the reminder, even as I am touched by the music’s beauty, a glimpse of glory of a God who does not shuffle but strides through human history with redemption.

The Crash Test Dummies have stronger things so say, sharper challenges to raise in other songs.

Critic song #2.2: “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm”

Once there was this kid who
Got into an accident and couldn’t come to school
But when he finally came back
His hair had turned from black into bright white
He said that it was from when
The car had smashed so hard

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

Once there was this girl who
Wouldn’t go and change with the girls in the change room
But when they finally made her
They saw birthmarks all over her body
She couldn’t quite explain it
They’d always just been there

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

But both girl and boy were glad
‘Cause one kid had it worse than that
‘Cause then there was this boy whose
Parents made him come directly home right after school
And when they went to their church
They shook and lurched all over the church floor
He couldn’t quite explain it
They’d always just gone there

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

[“Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” by Crash Test Dummies on Crash Test Dummies (1993)]

This is a song I cannot hear without great sadness, a realization that for many the worship of Christians is not a mysterious wonder but an embarrassing spectacle. Those of us who are in traditions where lurching and shaking is not part of the liturgy are not, however, off the hook. It is worth asking whether our service of worship is inviting to those who are non-Christians and even unchurched. Like people who chatter without thinking and end up being misunderstood, our worship can get stuck in mindless repetition rather than expressing the freshness of the gospel.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Ransom Fellowship. Used by permission. For more on Ransom Fellowship click here.

by Gabe Lyons

The word “counterculture,” a sociological term describing a group whose actions run counter to mainstream norms, is making a comeback. The term was popularized in the West during the 1960s when it was used to label the movement to oppose the Vietnam war in the United States and England. But the next Christians are also countercultural, though they look nothing like the peace-loving protesters of the mid-twentieth century.

How are Christian leaders being countercultural, and why do their lifestyles give us hope for the future of our faith?

“While we remain a nation decisively shaped by religious faith,” wrote Newsweek editor Jon Meacham in the April 4, 2009 issue, “our politics and our culture are, in the main, less influenced by movements and arguments of an explicitly Christian character than they were even five years ago.”

To a growing group of believers, the changing religious landscape represents a new chapter in the story God is telling through His people. It’s a welcome change from the out-of-control manipulations they’ve experienced when religion gets intertwined too closely with public life. They see it as a new opportunity to send the Gospel out in fresh and compelling ways. Every generation must face this quandary of how to maintain cultural influence, and in our changing world, the conversation has been resurrected again. Let’s consider the way past generations have predominantly related to culture in light of our future leaders.

Separatism. In the past, some Christians fell into the separatist trap. They responded to culture with condemnation and retreat. Removing themselves far away from the corruption of culture is the name of their game. But Christians who remove themselves from the world in hopes of self-preservation fail to realize that true cultural separation is impossible. More importantly, separation ignores the task we’ve been given to carry the love of God forward to those who might need it most.

Antagonism. Some Christians see little in the current culture worth redeeming and have decided to fight against almost everything culture promotes. Offended by our current cultural disposition, they want to flip over the tables of society instead of negotiating the difficult terrain of working it out from within. By default, they are known for being great at pointing out the problems of society, but they rarely offer good or practical solutions and alternatives that promote a better way of life. They succeed in stating clearly what they are against, but their Achilles heel is suggesting alternatives that embody what they are for.

Relevance. Others have gone to the opposite extreme by falling into the “relevance trap.” In my estimation, this is probably the larger threat for Christian leaders today. In an effort to appeal to outsiders, some Christians simply copy culture. They become a Xerox of what they perceive as hip in hopes that people will perceive them — and their organizations, ministries, and churches — as “cool” and give them a chance. Unfortunately, this pursuit of pop-culture removes the church from its historically prophetic position in society. Relating to the world by following the following the world is a recipe for disaster.

Countercultural. The next generation of Christians aren’t separatists, antagonists, or striving to be “relevant.” Instead, they are countercultural as they advance the common good in society. The next Christians see themselves as salt, preserving agents actively working for restoration in the middle of a decaying culture. They attach themselves to people and structures that are in danger of rotting while availing themselves to Christ’s redeeming power to do work through them. They understand that by being restorers they fight against the cultural norms and often flow counter to the cultural tide. But they feel that, as Christians, they’ve been called to partner with God in restoring and renewing everything they see falling apart.

Paradoxically, in our current cultural context, this not only opens up more people to personal salvation, but it also sustains a God-glorifying testimony to the world of His restoration power at work. It’s truly good news to the world. Rather than fighting off culture to protect an insular Christian community, they are fighting for the world to redeem it. This is the essence of being what pastor Tim Keller refers to as “a counterculture for the common good.”

A commitment to being countercultural rather than being removed or “relevant” isn’t always easy. Living differently can be hard. Going against the ebbs and flows of culture can create friction and sometimes provoke a hostile reaction to the good we are trying to create. Theologians Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon remind us that this should be expected, for “whenever a people are bound together in loyalty to a story that includes something as strange as the Sermon on the Mount, we are put at odds with the world.”

Yet, it is through maintaining this cultural orientation that the world can experience God’s restoration power and people will be convinced that our faith is all we claim, all that Jesus commissioned his followers to. As the apostle Peter encourages, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (1 Pt. 2:12, TNIV).

Is a countercultural community the answer to restoring the soul of the world, winning the skeptics, and revitalizing our faith? We’ll have to wait and see. For now we know that the clear call of Jesus is for the Christian community to be salt on a rotting world and light in the dimmest places.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Q: Ideas for the Common Good. Used by permission. For more on Q Ideas click here.

 
We recently added another tab to our blog: ThinkLinks

In ThinkLinks we’ll point you to cutting-edge articles about Christians, the arts, and culture.

If you know of any sites/blogs that should be listed shoot us an email or comment and let us know.

Yes, the water will run a bit deep and you may want to wade in at first. After a while, you’ll find yourself refreshed and ready to go create. So… dive in!

 
Gary was a plumber. I was training to be one. Driving to work one day he turned up the radio and told me to listen to the lyrics – something he often did when he wanted to make a point.

The song was Who’s Gonna Drive You Home, by The Cars.

Who’s gonna tell you when
It’s too late
Who’s gonna tell you things
Aren’t so great
You can’t go on
Thinking nothing’s wrong, but bye
Who’s gonna drive you home tonight

Gary pointed out that the Holy Spirit uses songs like this to talk to people. I was still fairly young as a Christian and had not thought of that before. The Lord speaking through the radio to lost souls, just like that.

Who’s gonna pick you up
When you fall
Who’s gonna hang it up
When you call
Who’s gonna pay attention
To your dreams
Who’s gonna plug their ears
When you scream
You can’t go on
Thinking nothing’s wrong
Who’s gonna drive you home tonight

Not long after, my wife told me about a sacred moment in her life. Listening to the radio, James Taylor gave her the push she needed to break off a relationship. She felt the Spirit speak directly through You’ve Got a Friend.

Gary long ago passed away, too young to have had a heart attack. I think of him often, and sometimes, when it’s just me in the car, I turn up the radio and I sense a presence…

Who’s gonna hold you down
When you shake
Who’s gonna come around
When you break
You can’t go on
Thinking nothing’s wrong
Who’s gonna drive you home tonight

Molten lava flows by; fireballs hurl hundreds of feet through the air.

Resting on a rock, awaiting the inevitable, Frodo says, “I’m glad to be with you, Samwise Gamgee, here at the end of all things.” (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King)

Time collapses; the world fades.

Suddenly the eagles arrive. They are unheralded, unexpected. They pick up Frodo and Sam and carry them home to safety.

This is not unlike what artists feel when they are struggling. Everything around them seems to be falling apart and it all looks so hopeless.

The Christian artist has two tricks tucked away. Two truths to hold on to.

The first is that it is never, ever, really hopeless. They are on a rock and the rock is Jesus. They may experience bitter disappointment, pain, rejection… all the things common to man. But there is something steady underneath them. Ultimately that rock desires their good and is powerful enough to accomplish it, even if the accomplishment is totally unexpected.

Secondly, through the mists of faded space and lost time, eagles arrive: those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:31, NIV)

At the seeming end of all things, be comforted by the reality that, even though you can’t make the eagles come… they will be sent.