good theology, bad theology, acorn squash and songwriting

I called my friend Tim the college senior about a meeting we were supposed to have this afternoon and he shared an insight he had earlier in the day today...  he compared his morning trip to the farmers market to the cycle of the lectionary — a really good theological insight from a twenty-one year old kid — he was basically comparing acorn squash ("err, thanks: what do i do with this in-season veggie i've never come across?") and the sometimes-randomness of the lectionary pericope 'handed' to you because it's in season ("thanks be to God — err, I think. What do I do with this scripture??"). Great fresh thoughts. I told him he needs to blog about it or write an essay or something while it's still fresh. hope he does. i'll link it 4 U if & when.

and Chelsea does some brutally honest reflecting about suburban fears of perceived inner city type dangers. also, good theology, if not named as such. this reflects many of the fears some of my friends seem to have about imagined violence, safety, etc. (especially moms with children: understandable to a point).

"he saw a man who was in leg irons. He was a prisoner of some sort, and [my friend] was a little freaked out by the time she got to the 12th floor.... But it got me thinking... Why are we so afraid of people "different" than we are? Jesus would have gone up to that man, struck up a conversation, and probably absolved him of his sins. Me? I would have meekly scurried away and said a prayer of thanks for the nice armed guards.

If this resonates with you, I wish you could meet moms like Lisa Scandrette who talks with calm ease about the realities of her nearby homeless neighbors living under the bridges of San Francisco's Mission District ...  the normalcy of drunks passing out on her stoop etc. and gunshots every few evenings — and then the correlating givenness with which her well-adjusted pre-teen daughter shrugs off these 'dangers' because she's been exposed to this reality and is streetwise enough to not worry so much.

Chelsea, I commend your honesty, and would love to read a followup blogpost about how or whether these fears inhibit kingdom work. (She still manages to go down to the Riverside apartments and participate in Homer's roll-up-yer-sleeves ministry with the poor, so I'm not singling her out).. But ... In what ways does the wealthier confessing Christian's fear of being hurt (or God allowing hurt) keep the poor at arms' length? how does this jive with shiny new churches all springing up outside our outermost beltway, Loop 1604, instead of inhabiting the abandoned places of empire? What do we do with inner city ruins? How should a Christian respond to phenomena like gated communities? Talk amongst yourselves.

I'll agree with Dan Kimball on this thought: we (parishioners, congregants) are all "lower-case t" theologians, awares or not.

oh yeah, also: i was a visitor at a church service this evening and was struck by a mix of good theology (in this case, words about thanksgiving-for-provision coming from the college & young adult pastor's mouth) and IMO bad theology (in this case coming from the triumphalist self-congratulatory lyrics of the contempo- and 20th cent. choral arranged praise songs) — all this commingling and the whole congregation taking it in ... is no one else squirming in their pew with the tension these create? are the songs we are singing in American churches really okay with you guys? how about the way we are arranging music?
and this: what ever happened to the lament? we're at war.

if any of this resonates just a little, i will point you to two quick-read mini-essays from a few years ago, which I maybe haven't linked to in a while. perennial favorites, plus a new one that dovetails.

if you want to know soupablog's feelings about the contemporary worship scene, let me nod my head in agreement with my friends John and Brian:

the first is called
An Open Letter to Songwriters by Brian McLaren

and the second is
An Unauthorized Postscript to An Open Letter to Songwriters, by John Mortensen

and one more after you've read those two if you're still with me:

"we have a thousand songs about loving God, but how many songs do we have about loving our neighbors? We have a thousand songs about God blessing us, but how many of our songs plead with God to bless the poor, the oppressed, the war-torn, the unloved?"

Mark quoted Dostoevsky tonight:

Beauty is not only a terrible thing,
it is also a mysterious thing.
There God and the Devil strive for mastery,
and the battleground is the heart of men.

Comments

[gordon]

I'm sorry to say it but it's true:

This is why we need you, man. You know what I'm talking about. We need your gifts and insight.

[Chris Morris]

In reply to the songwriting portion of your post: any of these tunes do anything for you? I don't submit them thinking they will (well, sorta :-), but I'm interested in your feedback. I have some similar leanings, at least with "songs of lament" and wonder if it comes through at all in the writing (though certainly the recording quality deters).

http://cministries.org/cstudios/beggar.htm
http://cministries.org/cstudios/psalm.82.htm
http://cministries.org/cstudios/silence.htm

[Chris Morris]

Having skimmed McLaren's article, I seem to agree with the direction of it.

I do take exception to this bit, "these people are all mildly dysfunctional and need a lot of hug therapy
(which is ironic, because they are among the most affluent in the world, having been blessed in every way more than any group in history)." Dysfunction is simply another word for sin, and in my experience most in a church are moderately to seriously struggling with it. Our affluence is only ironic if we believed material wealth to be a suitable salve.

He does go on to say, "I don’t think these indictments are completely true," and I do agree there is danger in not working through issues in order to move on. There is equally a danger in a church that is so focused on serving it forgets to get itself right with God, leaving it holding out an empty tray to the world.

All this to say, as Brian does, let us look for a better balance.

[paul soupiset]

Thanks for the insights, Chris.

I like this thought: "Our affluence is only ironic if we believed material wealth to be a suitable salve."