Sunday, May 25, 2014

So nobody is singing at your church? It may not be the music....



Just read yet another blog railing against modern worship music and why people don't sing at church anymore... *sigh*..... here we go...

It's interesting how many people want to put the blame on the worship leaders, musicians, the volume of the music, the style of the music, etc. Bla bla bla bla blaa. Frankly, I'm a little sick of it. There is one really major reason why more people don't participate in corporate praise that nobody ever mentions, and it has nothing to do with music: nobody is preaching about it from the Bible.

Despite the fact that singing is commanded in the scriptures repeatedly, and that music plays a crucial part in biblical congregational worship, almost no one ever teaches it as a mandatory spiritual discipline. It's hardly mentioned and when it is it is relegated to an optional expression for those who enjoy it. That is not what you see in the scriptures. It is not optional. There are nearly fifty verses in the Bible that directly command believers to sing praises to God, as well as four hundred references to singing in corporate worship. Ephesians 5:19 says Christians should be in the practice of "addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart." Notice it never mentions musical style or personal preference. It never excuses anyone who doesn't like the volume level or the spectator-style layout of the auditorium (never mind the fact that almost every concert ever is set up with the band on a stage and the audience facing them; it never seems to discourage anyone from singing along if they really want to).

In our church almost everyone sings because we teach singing as a command of scripture and an expression of love and joy. They may not like every song but they love every expression of adoration towards Christ and are eager to participate. Why? Because the leadership values it and has taught the congregation to value it from the scriptures.

Take Colossians 3:16 for example, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God." Sounds like a command to me, with all the same authority of the Word of God behind it as any other command. I wonder if we taught obedience in the area of congregational singing from the pulpit the same way we teach obedience in the area of tithing or praying or sexual purity, we just might see some people begin take it more seriously.

If people aren't singing at your church, it might not be because the music is too loud. It might not be that no one knows the songs (it takes like 5 seconds to learn a pop song off the radio; I think we can handle a new chorus or two every now and then). But it just might be because the leadership of your church doesn't teach it as a command to be obeyed. Maybe we should quit blaming the band and the worship leader and start looking to the pulpit for a change.

(ok, deep breath.) I'm good now. Whew. For more on this perspective, here is a great blog on the biblical approach to congregational singing.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

A Place At The Table: The Gospel According to... Mephibosheth?!?





Week 18, Day 2…. Love this beautiful picture of the gospel in the story of Mephibosheth…

“And David said to him, ‘Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always.’ And [Mephibosheth] paid homage and said, ‘What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I?’ … So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king’s table. Now he was lame in both his feet.” (2 Sam. 9:7-8, 13)

The story of Mephibosheth begins back in 2 Samuel 4:4: “Jonathan, the son of Saul, had a son who as crippled in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse took him up and fled, and as she fled in her haste, he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.”

The name literally meant “dispeller of shame,” and it carried within it the idea of a breath of air blowing away shame and humiliation, specifically as it related to idol worship. In 1 Chronicles 8:34, his name is recorded as Merib-baal, meaning “grapples with or struggles against Baal,” a pagan deity that was commonly worshipped in that region. Both names suggest that idol worship had brought shame and humiliation to Israel, and maybe Jonathan had hoped that his heritage would be to one day put an end to that shame and restore Israel to the pure worship of God again. Whatever the reason, Mephibosheth’s very name invoked hope for the future.

That day in the nursery when he was five, all hope must have seemed lost. One minute, he is the son of a prince, the grandson of the King, in the line to assume the throne. The future seemed bright and certain. The next a messenger from Jezreel is announcing that his father and grandfather have been killed in battle. His nurse knows the chaos that will come in the wake of this news: there will be a mad scramble for power. Death and bloodshed in a desperate grab for power by relatives and kinsmen. And there is David. The sworn enemy of Saul. Rumor has it that God has chosen him to be king over Israel. Surely, he will come and put to death any that stand in his way.

In fear, the nurse snatches little Mephibosheth up, hurriedly packs a few things she will need in hiding, and runs from the nursery. What happens next is a blur; all she knows is she is falling. Hard. Mephibosheth is injured. Both feet are crippled by the accident. He will never walk again. In a culture where the strength of a man to work his field and tend his flock is everything, Mephibosheth’s bright future, all the hopes and dreams of his father for him, crumble into ashes.

Mephibosheth. Dispeller of Shame. His own name must have become a cruel joke to him, and it probably felt like gravel in his mouth whenever he spoke it. How many times he must have heard it on the lips of others and thought, “Dispeller of Shame? Ha! Dispeller of Hope, is more like it.” So for years, Mephibosheth lives in humiliation, depending on the pity and charity of others, unable to contribute to the work, hding out, living in constant fear that his identity as a Saul’s grandson might be discovered and he be put to death. Maybe it would be better that way, he might have thought. After all, I am already as good as dead. A dead dog in the street. No one will even miss me, except those to whom I have become a burden, and they will probably be relieved.

You can imagine what he must have felt the day the messengers from King David showed up at his house, asking for him – by name! He must have thought, This is it. I’m dead. The day I have dreaded for so long has finally come. He can hardly believe his ears when he hears why they have come. David doesn’t want to kill him; David wants to show him kindness for the sake of his father.

His head must have been spinning when David called his name: “Mephibosheth!” Dispeller of the Shame of Israel. Bringer of Hope. Somehow it didn’t sound like a cruel joke anymore when he said it. “Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan…” Because of a sacred promise, a covenant between David and Mephibosheth’s father, the King wants to take all the love and kindness he had for Jonathan and give it to him! He had nothing to offer David. And David certainly didn’t owe him anything. By all rights, David should have had him slain as the blood relative of his bitter enemy and rival to the throne. Ha! The throne! Sure, as long as I can get somebody to carry me up and sit me on it!

David continued,”… and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father…” Could this really be happening? All that was lost is being restored to him, even though he no longer has any rightful claim to it, much less the power to make such a claim. And here is David simply handing it to him. And for no other reason that because it pleased him to do it!

But David wasn’t finished. “…and you shall eat at my table always.” This last bit must have been almost too much for Mephibosheth to bear. King David had already been extravagantly generous in honoring his covenant with his father Jonathan as if it had been with him directly, in giving back to him all the land that was lost to their family, in letting him live! It would have been more than Mephibosheth could have ever dreamed possible if David had sent him away with all of that and had never seen or spoken to him again. But instead, David gives him a place with him, a seat of honor, at his table, beside him, always!

I don’t want to rush past this and miss this, because this is, I believe, where the gospel shines most clearly in this story. David wanted Mephibosheth to be with him always.  He wanted to get to know him, to dwell with him, for him to be like one of his own sons. For the first time since that horrible accident all those years ago, Mephibosheth must have felt wanted!

It must have undone him completely. Scripture records his response to this overwhelming of David: “And [Mephibosheth] paid homage” – in the original Hebrew it literally means to prostrate, to fall down on your face in submission before someone – “and said, ‘What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I?’ “ All those years of living in fear and hiding who he really was, of feeling the weight of shame and humiliation, of having no hope for his future, and of feeling like a burden to a family to whom he didn’t belong, all that just melted away like waking up from a bad dream. Almost in echo of the day his future was suddenly snatched away from him and he was plunged into a nightmare, he found himself suddenly living in the King’s palace, eating at his table, accepted as a friend and member of his own family. It’s called grace. Undeserved favor. Unconditional love and kindness. For no other reason that because it pleases the King to do so.

This is one of my favorite stories in scripture because it my story, too – Our story.We are Mephibosheth. Helpless. Hopeless. “strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” (Eph. 4:12) But like Mephibosheth, we are the recipients of astonishing grace, based on a blood covenant made long ago, before we were born. Not for our own sake, but for the sake of Jesus Christ and His blood shed for us, we are welcomed into the family of the King, and given a place at His table – always!

Paul describes our part in this story well: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Eph.2:1-9)

Our sin had alienated us. We were enemies of the King, living in rebellion. Our selfishness had crippled us, made us unable to walk in the way we were meant to. We had no power to save ourselves. No future to give us hope. We were “dead dogs” for all intents and purposes. “But God” – two of the sweetest words in scripture – showed us unfathomable grace for Jesus’ sake. And here is the part I love most: “so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.”

In the coming ages. Though we may feel like Mephibosheth today, there is a new King in town, and His Kingdom is coming even now. In that Kingdom we have been given a seat at the table. “Because of the great love with which He loved us.” Take that to heart today, friend. Trust in the kindness of Jesus. He wants you to be with Him so bad, not even death could stop him. Let the truth of that sink in today and truly be a Dispeller of Shame.


Thursday, May 8, 2014

David's Worship Band

Week 17, Day 4 of the Grand Story…. David assembles a worship band…


“David also commanded the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their brothers as the singers who should play loudly on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals, to raise sounds of joy…"
(1 Chronicles 15:16)

When it came time to bring the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem, David assembled a team of singers and musicians to accompany it. The ark represented the very presence of God Himself among the people, which is the end goal of the entire redemptive plan of God. This was an occasion of significant joy to the Israelite people. The presence of God was everything. It was their identity. It was what set them apart from every other nation on earth. It had been gone from the center of their culture for some twenty years. Now it was being restored to its proper place: the very center of their entire lives.

To celebrate appropriately, David commanded a worship team be assembled. I want everyone to notice this: He established the percussion section FIRST! Guess what? God likes drums in worship. And He wants them played loudly. If you don’t like that, guess who has to adjust? (I didn’t write the Bible; I’m just showing you what it says.) Next he brought in guitars. He even designated lead guitarists! Six of them! There was a horn section, too. And a musical director who “understood” how to arrange it all. (1 Chron. 15:19-24)

David’s job description for the worship band was simple: “play loudly on musical instruments… to raise sounds of joy.” The volume of the music is directly tied to the hearts of the people. Consistently throughout scripture, when the people were overwhelmed with the greatness of God, they declared that His praise by making a loud and joyful noise. It was believed that it was due Him – that He deserved it by right – and to withhold it was an offense.

Look, everybody has an opinion when it comes to church music. We all have our preferences and tastes. The problem is when we kid ourselves that what we think actually matters. It just doesn’t. What we ought to be asking is, What does kind of worship music does God like? Does He have a preference? Because if He does, and if we elevate our traditions and opinions and preferences over His direct commands, then whatever else we think we are doing, we are not worshiping. We are merely singing religious songs about God to make ourselves feel better.

David knew worship music. He was not only a man after God’s own heart (God’s words, not man’s), but he wrote a significant portion of the worship music we find in scripture. David seemed to know what God wanted from our worship music, and it can be summed up in one word: LOUD. Not for the sake of being loud, or trying to be relevant to the culture of the day, but because loud is what joy sounds like, based on the authority of scripture.

Christians have a lot to celebrate – more than anyone else in the history of the world, in fact. When people celebrate, they throw a party. So, because the Bible commands it, Sunday mornings at The Ridge will continue to be more like a wedding reception than a funeral.