SOUL SURMISE

STORMZY TAKES GLASTONBURY TO CHURCH

Stormzy’s Glastonbury headliner has been the talk of the weekend and in places that do not usually talk about grime artists or rappers. 

Stormzy on Mainstage made history. He was the first black solo British artist to headline the Pyramid Stage. He took the opportunity. A Banksy designed Union Jack stab vest highlighted the crisis of knife crime in London and racism was challenged throughout. There was some controversy as he used an expletive towards Boris Johnston. Political and beautiful have been words used in the same sentence of reviews all weekend.

It was also personal. Stormzy was celebrating his own success. This was his story set in his communities with his issues for being a black man. Before that theme takes on a self obsessiveness Stormzy concluded by telling Glastonbury that he was going to take them to Church.

Watching on television my soul smirked at the idea of a vast majority white secular English crowd, that see God as a joke, being taken to Church. It is probably not what they thought they were doing when forked out £250 for a ticket.

My smirk turned to a smile and my soul lit up as Stormzy and a gang of Gospel singers started into Blinded By Your Grace a song that would fit into any Sunday Church Service. It is a song of testimony and on the Pyramid Stage it was Stormzy telling us all who he was most grateful to for this pinnacle of his success - God!

 

“Lord, I've been broken

Although I'm not worthy

You fixed me, now I'm blinded

By your grace

You came and saved me”

 

Preach it Stormzy! Then into the rap:

 

“This is God's plan, they can never stop this

Like wait right there, could you stop my verse?

You saved this kid and I'm not your first

It's not by blood and it's not by birth

But oh my God what a God I serve”

 

I’m no fan of Grime but this boy reaches across the genres and grabs my attention with the political, the personal, the spiritual. Oh Stormzy stormed Glasto! 

In the wake there was much debate. How could someone God saved, who claims to serve God be so seemingly keen on the F word?

I am no fan of the F word but the too sensitive obsessiveness of over pious Christians bemuses me. I saw one thread where someone was quoting James 3 about the restless evil and poison of the tongue with Stormzy.

God isn’t so much interested in the words. They are sounds from a human mouth. James is talking about something so much more dangerous! If we think cleaning up our swear words has tamed our tongue we are missing the point and the power of the tongue that James refers to.

God is more interested in what these sounds are saying. Are they building up or knocking down? Are they edifying or divisive? I imagine James had the 9th Commandment in his head. Bearing false witness against your neighbour. Now that is cursing and sadly too prevalent in Christian communities no matter how “clean” our language is! Let us not chew gnats and swallow camels over words and cursing. 

In Stormzy’s heart on that Glastonbury stage was justice for those who are growing up like he did and the personal journey that God has him on. We can critique the rhymes. We can disagree with some of his views. We can have our opinion on his use of the F word but let us not bear false witness… Let us not lose the wonder of Glasto going to Church! 

SONGS CAN CHANGE THE WORLD - FOR PETE SEEGER'`S 100 BIRTHDAY

Pete Seeger’s legacy was handed down to me through other people. That in itself is his legacy. Seeger was as much an interpreter of songs as he was a songwriter himself. One of his aims was to hand songs down so he probably would be prouder than annoyed that that is my relationship with his legend.

I would call myself a Seeger fan yet I don’t own one of his albums. My first real exposure to his work was when a tribute album Where Have All The Flowers Gone was released in 1997, soon to be followed by If I Had A Song and Seeds.  The versions by Jackson Browne, Ani Di Franco and Billy Braggconnected. Even better was Bruce Cockburn’s Turn, Turn, Turn and Bruce Springsteen’s We Shall Overcome.  

The Bruces indeed did exactly what I love, and what this blog is all about, and brought the social justice and art together under a Biblical umbrella. Turn, Turn, Turn maybe made even more famous than Seeger by The Byrds is a straight lift from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes and We Shall Overcome started out as a Baptist hymn.

Springsteen of course revisited the joy of recording this song and eventually released an entire album called The Seeger Sessions. This record, and the wonderful tour that followed, brought Seeger closer to my affections and also inspired my MTh thesis on music as a transformational power both spiritually and socially.

The Seeger songs that Springsteen chose, and again they were not ones Seeger wrote but ones he used for transformational reasons through the Civil Rights Movement of the early Sixties, gave me musical references to the theology of James Cone’s book The Spirituals and The Blues. That Springsteen used five Christian hymns/spirituals on this record, and made it up to seven when he toured the record, was good evidence to me that music could make an impact for the spiritual and the injection of the spiritual into justice issues.

As we celebrate Seeger's legacy on what would have been his 100th birthday I see him as more than a singer. He was an activist. He didn’t only love his art. He loved the human race. He chose not a road to commercial success but decided to take his art and use if for the good of humanity. He is remembered for more than the songs he sang, he is remembered for what those songs were about. He didn’t write We Shall Overcome but his use of that old hymn in the context of civil rights has led to it becoming, as Springsteen wrote in the programme notes of the Seeger Session Tour, one of the most used songs wherever there is injustice across the world.

In some ways we could see Seeger in one of Springsteen’s own songs. The Ghost of Tom Joad, so powerfully re-recorded on Springsteen’s new album High Hopes, could be a blend of Steinbeck’s fictional character Joad and the real life and vocational ambition of Pete Seeger: -

"Mom, wherever there's a cop beatin' a guy
Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries
Where there's a fight against the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me mom I'll be there
Wherever there's somebody fightin' for a place to stand
Or a decent job or a helpin' hand
Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free
Look in their eyes Mom you'll see me."

Mr Seeger, for your influence we thank you. We really believe we will go on hearing you…

 

 

 

Pete Seeger’s legacy was handed down to me through other people. That in itself is his legacy. Seeger was as much an interpreter of songs as he was a songwriter himself. One of his aims was to hand songs down so he probably would be prouder than annoyed that that is my relationship with his legend.

I would call myself a Seeger fan yet I don’t own one of his albums. My first real exposure to his work was when a tribute album Where Have All The Flowers Gone was released in 1997, soon to be followed by If I Had A Song and Seeds.  The versions by Jackson Browne, Ani Di Franco and Billy Braggconnected. Even better was Bruce Cockburn’s Turn, Turn, Turn and Bruce Springsteen’s We Shall Overcome.  

The Bruces indeed did exactly what I love, and what this blog is all about, and brought the social justice and art together under a Biblical umbrella. Turn, Turn, Turn maybe made even more famous than Seeger by The Byrds is a straight lift from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes and We Shall Overcome started out as a Baptist hymn.

Springsteen of course revisited the joy of recording this song and eventually released an entire album called The Seeger Sessions. This record, and the wonderful tour that followed, brought Seeger closer to my affections and also inspired my MTh thesis on music as a transformational power both spiritually and socially.

The Seeger songs that Springsteen chose, and again they were not ones Seeger wrote but ones he used for transformational reasons through the Civil Rights Movement of the early Sixties, gave me musical references to the theology of James Cone’s book The Spirituals and The Blues. That Springsteen used five Christian hymns/spirituals on this record, and made it up to seven when he toured the record, was good evidence to me that music could make an impact for the spiritual and the injection of the spiritual into justice issues.

As we celebrate Seeger's legacy on what would have been his 100th birthday I see him as more than a singer. He was an activist. He didn’t only love his art. He loved the human race. He chose not a road to commercial success but decided to take his art and use if for the good of humanity. He is remembered for more than the songs he sang, he is remembered for what those songs were about. He didn’t write We Shall Overcome but his use of that old hymn in the context of civil rights has led to it becoming, as Springsteen wrote in the programme notes of the Seeger Session Tour, one of the most used songs wherever there is injustice across the world.

In some ways we could see Seeger in one of Springsteen’s own songs. The Ghost of Tom Joad, so powerfully re-recorded on Springsteen’s new album High Hopes, could be a blend of Steinbeck’s fictional character Joad and the real life and vocational ambition of Pete Seeger: -

"Mom, wherever there's a cop beatin' a guy
Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries
Where there's a fight against the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me mom I'll be there
Wherever there's somebody fightin' for a place to stand
Or a decent job or a helpin' hand
Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free
Look in their eyes Mom you'll see me."

Mr Seeger, for your influence we thank you. We really believe we will go on hearing you…

 

 

 

MY PERSONAL TRIBUTE TO RICK ELIAS (died April 2, 2019)

Singer, Songwriter, Producer Rick Elias passed away on April 2, 2019. He had been battling cancer for some time. I had the privilege of spending a little time with Rick and this is a personal Tribute.

 

 

It made the late Rich Mullins weep the first time he heard Man Of No Reputation. It had been written by his friend and fellow Ragamuffin Rick Elias. 

Elias released a number of records in the Contemporary Christian Music market in the 90s but was not confined to that niche bubble. He was one of the main writers for the Tom Hanks movie That Thing You Do.

When Rich Mullins drew together his Ragamuffin Band for his album A Legacy, A Liturgy & a Ragamuffin Band, Rick was an obvious candidate. Rich’s Ragamuffin’s were the black sheep of CCM. They had edgy faith but they played great! 

A couple of albums later and Rich, perhaps even inspired by Man Of No Reputation, decided to record a whole album around the person of Jesus. He recorded an albums worth on a boom box before sadly being killed in a car wreck. Rick, along with fellow Ragamuffins Jimmy Abegg and Mark Robertson decided to finish what would become The Jesus Record.

I had booked Rick for Greenbelt in 1997 or 98 but I don't think it was at Greenbelt that we actually met. The Ragamuffin Band had come to London to record the strings for The Jesus Record in Abbey Road. While they were there Jimmy and Ben Pearson would film interviews with Sammy Horner and myself for a Tribute documentary about Rich Mullins called Homeless Man. What a thrill to be in Abbey Road! I remember walking down the steps with Rick into that huge studio that The Beatles used. 

I had Rick back in the UK and indeed in Ireland in April 2000 where Janice and I entertained The Ragamuffin Band to an Easter weekend in Ballycastle. They were playing gigs at Glenabbey Church in Newtownabbey and The Exodus in Portstewart,

Rick proved himself very much the city man with his lack of interest in the Giants Causeway and by getting up at 6.30am not for a beautiful walk on the beach, across the road from his hotel, but to walk up the main street to look in the windows of closed shops. 

In those gigs in Northern Ireland Elias’s songwriting and vocal skills were showcased. I was particularly drawn to God Grant Me Tears from Prayers Of A Ragamuffin:

 

Grant me the tears of a beggar
Til the fighter begins to sway
Punch drunk knocked down by grace
God grant me tears I pray.

 

As I pray for friends who will be grieving deeply Rick’s loss today I am still drawn to A Man Of No Reputation. For Rich to give the centre piece of his record to another water isn’t a surprise to me. He was a humble guy. He also had little choice. The song is as good a song about Jesus as anyone has ever written. It’s dark, brooding and radical. Theologically it touches on incarnation, grace and hope. It poetically works in the most poignant of ways. Ways that brought Rich Mullins to tears. 

 

He was a man of no reputation 

And by the wise, considered a fool 

When He spoke about faith and forgiveness 

In a time when the strongest arms ruled 

 

But this man of no reputation 

Loves us all with relentless affection 

And He loves all those poor in spirit, come as you are 

To the man of no reputation 

 

Thank you Rick Elias for all the music but particularly this song.

ARCADE FIRE & CHURCH

 

"I had a somewhat religious upbringing," he says. "Not strict, but it was there and I’m kind of thankful for that. If you grow up just watching MTV, that’s its own form of religion and it’s not even based on happiness or communal responsibility. I mean, try to construct a worldview out of that."

 It sounds, I say, both from his conversation and his recent songs, like he still misses that faith-based sense of community. "Yes. I guess I do," he says, after some thought. "I’m not practising, I don’t go to church, but what I got from it was a sense of belonging to something bigger. What I really miss is being forced to be in a community with people that aren’t the same as you. Then, you really have to work through the ways that you’re different. I think that’s important and it’s missing in youth culture. I guess some of the songs are a reaction against the tyranny of youth culture, where you only hang around with people who dress like you, think like you and listen to the same music as you. Even though we are seen as the quintessential indie band, I feel very far from that culture a lot of the time."

The above quotes are a fascinating article about Arcade Fire, in The Observer newspaper by Sean O’Hagan. What is it about the Mormonism that has brought faith back onto the artistic palette of good recent rock records; I am thinking of The Killers as well as Arcade Fire? Whatever, you don’t expect journalists to have a conversation with a British band and have them speak about Church communities!

Win Butler’s comments about the benefits of Church community comes in the light of the fact that the band’s album Suburbs is a critique of youth culture. As so many people, even believers, suggest that growing up in Church has been detrimental to their lives, Butler suggests the opposite. His phrase, “What I really miss is being forced to be in a community with people that aren’t the same as you”, is most prophetic. Perhaps the MTV world that has created the homogeneous and spoiled generation he critiques so strongly are so pampered that the give and take of real community is too much for them.

Even Churches have become little communities, with great vocal emphasis on community, that are just a group of refugees who couldn’t take the friction and self sacrifice of building real community so they withdrew into an easier option. It is easy to create community with those who all agree with your style of worship, theological opinion and song playlists. Easy and pretty much useless to any sense of spiritual growth.

The community that Jesus birthed and that we read about at the end of Acts 2 was a menagerie of quirks and freaks and ages and backgrounds. It was a sign of his transformational power that they could be held together. It was a part of their lifetime discipleship course that they should be forced to shape and hone each other in their differences and disagreements.

It is why I love being minister of Fitzroy. Our community is differences right across the pews. Different ages, different backgrounds, different spirituality journeys, different theologies and different opinions about everything. The rubbing together of ages, denominational backgrounds and theological opinions develops both belief and behaviour. If done in a grace centred respect it also prevents mono-theological arrogance and judgementalism. Holding tether such varied and vibrant community tests my own discipleship too!

Church communities where God's grace are is not needed seem pointless and indeed perhaps Godless. They are certainly no advert for God, just another club that could be about golf or yachts! Oh for many communities like the one Butler misses...and oh for mine to be like that one. 

I'M SORRY, JAPAN (INDONESIA) - A POEM BY EL GRUER

On days like these I often turn to this poem by El Gruer from her book The Paper Sky. 

El wrote it for Japan. Tonight it is for Indonesia.  We can become desensitised by the constant news stories. Let us remember those who are going through the toughest challenges a life can be thrown.

I’M SORRY, JAPAN

In our world, it was one of those days.

I had to study for an exam so I didn’t fail,

had a phone call with my Uncle dale,

and it was buy one get one free at the picture sale.

 

It was there that I heard, Japan, you hit 9 on the Richter scale.

So I stopped. I thought.

I’m sorry, Japan.

...

 

But by that time, the day was done

and the news was on.

From a comfortable distance,

I watched the day in your world.

 

I watched with eyes

desensitised to the perspective

of our Father’s eyes because

I was tuned out from your

blood    spilt   cries.

I sat calmly, as your

flood-damaged   souls   died.

I stopped. I really thought.

 

I am sorry, Japan, that your earthquake

failed to shake me

to my knees to cry out

Father, please, relieve.

 

I am sorry, Japan

that in my world, your world

wasn’t a part of our world, didn’t move

me to move things in the spiritual world.

...

 

I’m sorry, Japan,

that it wasn’t my plan

to pray for you today.

THE MAGDALENE LAUNDRIES... THE MOVIE PHILOMENA... AND FORGIVENESS

I found Philomena a spiritually stimulating movie. In another blog review ( read it here...) I looked at the evangelistic work of Philomena on Martin Sixsmith. In this blog I want to look at the end of the movie. If you haven’t seen the movie then I am heading in to a big spoiler so stop reading now… go and watch it… and then come back here after you have enjoyed. If you haven’t seen it and want to continue reading then having been warned a will give a little background. 

Philomena was an unmarried teenager, sent to an Irish Magdalene Laundry where Nuns looked after you in return for your working for a few years in their convent. It wasn’t pretty and many of the children were then sent off to be adopted. Fifty years after her son was born, and almost as many since she had seen him last, Philomena sets her heart on finding her son. Martin Sixsmith who has lost his journalist credibility in a political leak takes on the story. An unlikely partnership they set off on a trail that leads them to a shocking conclusion that the Nuns have lied to not only Philomena but her long lost son. By the time they discover this her son is dead and the hope of reconciliation gone. 

Sixsmith is outraged at this injustice and the behaviour of those who claim to represent a God that he already has trouble believing in. He bursts through the private doors of the Convent and begins an assault one of the old Nuns who he reckons is culpable. As he does so, Philomena appears on the scene, looks the Nun in the eye and tells her that she wants her to know that she forgives her. Sixsmith is even more exasperated and says to Philomena, “Just like that?” to which she answers, “No, not just like that,” expressing the cost of this brave act. When Sixsmith shares his anger Philomena looks at him with some pity and says, “that must be exhausting!”

It is one of the many many profound scenes in a movie that has lingered with me. Everybody needs forgiveness. We need to forgive those who have wronged us. We need to forgiveness for those we have wronged. we need to find ways to forgive ourselves when we flounder in our mistakes.

Of that idea of forgiveness to the social and political reconciliation in Belfast. Forgiveness needs spoken, and it is not lost on me that it is spoken to the Church in this instance, and there needs to be understanding that when it is falteringly uttered that the words come with a huge cost and deep pain. Yet, it is something that releases the anger and that pain. It is a freeing act. Philomena, not for the first time in this movie, reveals deep truth in the simplest of ways.

PAUL MCCARTNEY - JAMES CORDEN SEES JOY... STOCKI SEES HOPE...

If you haven't seen James Corden's Carpool Karaoke with Paul McCartney on his Late Late Show, you need to. You say that you are not a McCartney fan. I still hold that you need to see this. It is precious television. A brilliant spectacle and full of personal emotion for both McCartney and Corden.

The concept is fabulous. McCartney back in his old home in Liverpool, at the barbers in Penny Lane and pulling off a surprise pub gig too. The car karaoke scenes are hilarious, though they get emotional when they talk about Let It Be, McCartney remembering his mum and Corden his dad.

Corden makes a point about McCartney's music that is obvious and yet often overlooked. He describes the joy that McCartney eeks out of songs. Indeed, in todays times that sense of joy might be as important as the clever lyric that expresses our social critique and angst.

Corden reminded me of a blog I did on the, now 76 year old, ex Beatle for his birthday last year. Corden sees the sound of joy, I hear the words of hope! We all need a blend of those!

Paul McCartney is never seen as the most political or spiritual of The Beatles. He has certainly never written anything lyrical to challenge the political subversiveness of Imagine by Beatle John or the spiritual enthusiasm of My Sweet Lord by Beatle George.

However, a couple of years ago, as I lay on my early morning holiday bed listening to him on my iPod shuffle, I became aware of a theme that I had never recognised before in McCartney’s work; hope!

Now some might immediately jump to his song Hope Of Deliverance and say that it states the patently obvious. Maybe! However my songs that appeared spookily close together on that shuffle were Tug Of War from album of same title, Summer’s Day from McCartney II and Golden Earth Girl from Off the Ground.

All three songs speak of a deep hopefulness of what will happen beyond the difficult moments the singer is in; the entire culture in Tug Of War; the very personal in Summer’s Day; and the eco world in Golden Earth Girl.

Before this holiday eureka moment I had previously blogged about another McCartney song with an eschatological theme, The End Of The End from Memory Almost Full:

 

"On the day that I die I'd like bells to be rung
And songs that were sung to be hung out like blankets
That lovers have played on
And laid on while listening to songs that were sung

 

At the end of the end
It's the start of a journey
To a much better place
And a much better place
Would have to be special
No reason to cry
No need to be sad
At the end of the end"

Some of Macca’s most poetic lyrics indeed. McCartney does know about death losing parents, wife and two Beatles. What faith he is believing here is hard to understand though he does touch on Christian and eastern faith In his most spiritual work, the more classical, Ecce Cor Meum for which he mentions being shaped by a philosophy “the faith in a benevolent spirit.”

Finally, and most recently McCartney has added to his canon of hope 2014’s single Hope For The Future:

“Hope for the future

It's coming soon enough

How much can we achieve?

Hope for the future

It will belong to us

If we believe

If we believe”

Yet again, we might question what Macca is believing or putting his hope in. It would seem to me that McCartney confirmed in Hope For The Future my hunch that he is expressing a secular wishfulness of something better.

All of these songs might be McCartney-esque in their ambiguity of belief but I as a Christian can shake hands with the sentiments and actually, whether Macca knows it or not, the theology of them, vague and all as it might be!

 

 

 

BIDI BIDI REFUGEE CAMP THROUGH THE LENS - with DAVID CAVAN

 

BIBI BIDI REFUGEE CAMP THROUGH THE LENS

with DAVID CAVAN

SUNDAY MAY 13, 2018 @ 7pm

FITZROY (77 University Street, Belfast BT7 1HL)

 

Northern Ireland photographer David Cavan is not new to bringing his camera to some of the world's neediest situations. Working for TEARFUND he was been using his deepest gladness to photograph the world's deepest needs for some years.

Bidi Bidi, in northern Uganda, has been on our news for a few years now. The biggest refugee camp in the world it has taken in over 1million people escaping over the border from the bloody conflict in South Sudan.

In March, David was in Bidi Bidi with Alain Emerson and Fields of Life. The photograph at the top of this blog is one of there photographs David took. At this event I will chat with David about photography, how you take photographs in such a sensitive place, how much power a photograph has in changing the world and how it impacts the guy looking through the lens. 

David will be showing his photographs too. 

 

WHY FITZROY DOES THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SERIES

(With Fitzroy's Dave Thompson and creative crew presenting The Gospel According To... Finding Nemo on Sunday night (Feb 18, 2018 at 6.30pm), here is a blog about why we do such events.)

The Gospel According To... Series came about, as many good ideas, by accident. During my days as a University Chaplain we raised thousands of pounds to take students to South Africa to volunteer with Habitat For Humanity. At the launch of my book Walk On we had gotten local artists to cover U2 songs and so we went for it again as a fund raiser. 

Then we did Johnny Cash. Then Van Morrison. As part of these tribute nights I started to “Preach Jockey” them; that is to link the songs with commentary of a spiritual nature. I had been creating sermons through songs and chat on my BBC Radio Ulster show Rhythm and Soul for ten years. 

When I arrived in Fitzroy in 2008 it was a natural thing to repeat the idea and then develop it. The great advantage at Fitzroy was having an amazing array of talent, not only able to perform the songs but absolutely passionate about doing so. 

The creativity and ability of my congregation has widened the scope of The Gospel According To... Series. We now have not only done the rock music of Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison, The Waterboys, Bob Dylan, Christy Moore and Bruce Springsteen but we have now stretched the canvas to include Harry Potter, The Lion King, Narnia, Les Miserables, West End Shows and Van Gogh. When Jonathan Abernathy-Barkley was our assistant we had other colours in our palette. Dave and Lorraine Thompson have brought the Disney and Pixar movies into play too.

With my penchant for all things U2 we have done a variety of events around their work. As well as The Gospel According To… U2 we have had an evenings on Songs Of Innocence and Joshua Tree. Songs of Experience is being prepared for the autumn, around time the SOE Tour arrives in Ireland.

Not everyone understands the concept. Some say that it is baptising secular music. For me it is not anymore baptising the artist in performing a song than it is to quote a novelist or poet in a sermon. Some seem to struggle with the idea of the Gospel of Bruce Springsteen. Of course it is not called that. It is The Gospel According To… It is seeking out what Springsteen or whoever says about Jesus and faith.

There are six important things that I am attempting to do through these evenings: -

 

USE OF CONTEMPORARY CULTURE IN SHARING FAITH

Since I started trying to share my Christian faith in the early eighties I have constantly attempted to cross the gap from Scriptures into the culture by using the arts as a bridge. The use of quotations from all kind of sources has been rife in preaching for centuries. I just felt I could reach a younger, perhaps more secular audience by using quotations they would relate to and maybe be surprised I would use. This has all a Biblical model that from Acts chapter 17 where Paul does what I am doing; he takes the art and poets of the city, quotes them and then uses them to draw people to the truth of Jesus. This is an effective way to communicate in a cultural context.

 

ENGAGING FAITH AND CULTURE

It was Marshall McLuhan who said, anyone who thinks there is a difference between entertainment and education doesn’t know the first thing about either. The ability for people to engage and listen to the entertainment that surrounds and near saturates them is for me a vital part of discipleship. If we think entertainment is just noise I believe we are wrong! The discernment of Christians to understand what they are listening to, reading or watching is a vital part of the job of a pastor. I believe that if Jesus is Lord he should be Lord of our aesthetics. I believe in iPodic obedience! There is art that can give us a healthy soul in a positive way. I wrote my MTh dissertation on this idea. 

My hope is that The Gospel According To... Series awakens people to think about their art. I also hope that it will exercise the muscles of our imaginations as we connect art and faith. The most positive outcome of this series for me is that my very own children will often say to me that they have heard a song, read a story or watched a movie that we could do a Gospel According To... on. They have learned to look for the spiritual in their entertainment. Success!

 

DOUBLE LISTENING

In his book The Contemporary Christian, John Stott speaks of not being so caught up in the Word of God that we miss the contest of the world that it needs to apply into. He suggests it is necessary to listen and have a grasp of both. One of the ways to get a handle on the issues of the day is by engaging with the art of the day. It is a window into the soul of the society. The Gospel According To... Series gives us an opportunity to listen.

 

TRIPLE LISTENING

In the introduction to my book The Rock Cries Out I suggested something more than Stott's Double Listening. I was aware in my own spiritual formation that rock music had played a major part in God's speaking to me, leading me back to the Bible to wrestle with social and personal issues. God was speaking in unexpected places. Of course this wasn't an original idea. From Clement of Alexandria in the Second Century to John Stott again, this time in his book The Incomparable Christ, "there seems to be truth among all men." Again we might here God if we were able to listen and this Series is aimed at helping guide us in this listening.     

 

A GENTLE WAY FOR PEOPLE TO COME INTO CHURCH

What the Series has done is draw many people into or back to Church. For whatever reason many people have problems in coming to Church. They have stereotypes or have been damaged by Church experiences. What we have found is that The Gospel According To... Series has done is to encourage such folk into the Church again and reassess their relationship with it.I often describe it as a Burning Bush, an intrigue that catches people's attention draws them closer to sacred ground.

 

THE USE OF PEOPLE’S GIFTS

This was a bi-product that I hadn’t gone looking for. After we had done a few events in the series I realised how fulfilling it was for those who sang or played. Church is often not a place where arts are encouraged and many musicians, singers and performers feel that they cannot easily bring the life of art and faith together. To be allowed to use their gifts for God in these musical ways has not only been a an opportunity to develop and hone their gifts but also to grow in spiritual confidence as they find a role within the Body of Christ.

 

Fitzroy will be doing In The Time Of My Confession; Dylan's Gospel Years on April 8th at 7pm.

Watch for The Jesus Story in Poetry and Song on April 1st at 11pm

And in the autumn watch for U2's Songs Of Experience Tour; Performed and Surmised

TO THE EXILES IN BABYLON - by DOUG GAY

 

(my good friend Doug Gay, wrote this around Jeremiah 29. I used it this morning in Fitzroy. Exegetical insights through poetry...)

To all the exiles:

Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel

I have sent you into exile in Babylon

You are going nowhere quickly,

Don’t let the Ba-bylonians grind you down!

Build

Live

Plant

Love

Marry

Grow

Pray

Build houses – build them strong – take your time – dig foundations – build them to last – build extra bedrooms for the kids and for their kids

Build houses to last you 70 years – and live in them – unpack the suitcases then throw them away – put your pictures up – make the place homely -
And outside mark the plots where you will bury both the elders and yourselves
you’re going nowhere quickly

You must live here – I mean you to live - within these walls, in the secret spaces, behind closed doors, prayers can be said and secrets whispered, the songs of Zion can be sung, the language kept alive, the stories told, your children taught
within these walls dreams can be kept alive  - the dreams that Babylon cannot control

To all the exiles – 

Plant gardens, take your time and build raised beds, dig ditches to water them, plan your crop rotations, plant trees which will take decades to give you fruit

the earth will keep on giving to you – dig the soil, push the seed in the ground, cover and water it, fertilise the crops, wait for the sun and the rain - plant olives and vines, plant figs and pomegranates, plant lemons + oranges
almonds and apples – bend your tastes to foreign food
Plant wheat for bread and vines for wine – – this is your Eden – this is your Canaan – this is your shift – this is your time – this is your place

Here you must plant and harvest and eat and share – you are going nowhere quickly –
Within these gardens, seeds can grow, seeds of resistance and renewal, seeds of change, seeds of the future, seeds of hope, under these trees when they are grown, your children will sit down in circles and will plan the journey home

To all the exiles

Don’t let the empire make you hate yourselves
Fall in love with one another – take wives and husbands – give yourselves to one another - dance at each other’s weddings – make new families, you are going nowhere quickly
Make love, make babies,

Be proud when your bellies stretch and swell, they are full of the promise of your future,
welcome and bless your sons and daughters,
teach them the old stories in new ways

Multiply, multiply, multiply – become more
don’t let Babylon reduce you, make you less,
grow up and on into the people you were made and meant to be

To all the exiles,

take this place of cursing, cruelty, enslavement

take this place of exile, this non-home,
these enemies and masters, bullies, racists, bosses
take them and seek their welfare - you are going nowhere quickly
bring your best to their worst –
dig tunnels of love under the foundations of empire
pray hard for Babylon, pray daily for its good, seek its shalom,
in its shalom your own is lodged for now
do good, show love, do justice, live in peace – create a colony of heaven which the power of empire cannot overcome

To all the exiles,
I know the plans I have for you
Plans for your good not for your harm
To give you all a future and a hope
I will restore you, I will gather you and bring you back,
I will be found by you and hear you

You are going nowhere quickly

Build – Live – Plant – Harvest - Love – Marry – Grow – Pray – Love - Hope

Seek the welfare of the city. For in it you will find your own. AMEN.