Salvation

Far better is it to dare mighty things and win glorious triumphs - even though checkered by failure - than to take rank with the poor spirits who neither enjoy much or suffer much. Be wise, they live in the gray twilight that know not of victory, nor defeat. Nor true sorrow nor true love. ~Theodore Roosevelt

Social justice has never been my specialty. I worked at a soup kitchen once, which didn't really move me that much. I watched the kids do their thing, and it really just felt like my school cafeteria in Victor, only slightly more colorful (they went with blue and green on the walls, Victor opted for hospital white). Call me insensitive, I probably am.

Lately I've heard a lot that makes me wonder about the effectiveness Christians have on the world around them. I mean, what better way to reach people than the way Jesus did - by helping them. He spent a lot of time with people that society didn't really like that much - lepers, the blind, gentiles, tax collectors, Roman centurions ... all undesirables according to Jewish law.

My aunt, a woman who has a huge compassion for those less fortunate, told me a story once that I'll never forget. She was with the Peace Corps at the time, and wandering through some jungle trying to get relief supplies to a group of people, when they walk into this clearing full of mud huts and mostly naked natives. What caught her eye was the huge two-story white clapboard house with a picket fence owned by a missionary couple who invited the weary group in for lemonade. When asked about their mission, they explained that their sole purpose was to inform the locals that they were sinners.

As if that's all there is.

No, "Jesus loves you," or even "repent, and you'll be forgiven." Apparently, they had the natives build them a landing strip (to get supplies to build their house), for which the missionaries payed the tribe a pot. I'm all for shiny things, particularly when they involve food, but a pot's value, at least where I come from, doesn't really outweigh the value of an airstrip(yes, we could ask if the pot represents a more permanant dishware solution, eliminating hours of tedious work carving new pots because the village idiot burned up the last cooking pot, but why?)

I've often wanted to answer my Aunt's implicit questions about a faith that tells people that they're sinners and does nothing to help them, and then exploits them. But I can't - all I can do is appologize for the insensitivity of the people that embarrass me too. If we are to follow scripture clearly, then as Christians, we are bound to make the world a better place day in and day out.

"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." [Ephesians 5:1-2].

If we are to imitate Jesus in all things, our primary concern is people. The only people Jesus ever condemned were the religious leaders who refused to see the spirit of the scriptures! It is after this passage that mimos (greek for "imitate") is named; we strive to imitate Christ in our daily lives.

And so I give you several organizations that deserve your support. To be clear: this is new to me too; of anyone, I am the worst at helping anyone but myself. I say we all try this together. I do not ask you to simply contribute money (it's easy to donate and think your job is done), but ask yourself, how can you bless the world today? How do you imitate Jesus in the world around you? Do you pass right by those homeless people day in and day out on the way to meaningless meetings without ever thinking about offering a meal? Do you pass by the same exhausted looking coworker every day without asking if she's feeling ok? Maybe, can you help? Have you asked your mailman his name? What hope have you given the world by waking up today?

World Hope
UNOH
Invisible Children

We do this not because it saves us, or because it could save others. We do this because it is right, because it is good. It is good.

"The time has come to realize
And see the plan you've been designed for

So face the fear of all unknown,

And see the heart inside

So open up your eyes ..."

[Jeremy Camp]

Music in the Church

As a senior in college, I was required to either write a thesis or take a senior seminar. I chose the thesis, mainly because it was the only way I'd get the registrar to approve my major. When I set out to write said thesis, I decided to go with a question: where does music fit into the world of the Christian? This required a lot of research, which was painstaking (mostly because very few people ever asked this question) and eventually, my paper turned into a description of the emerging church, where our culture has come from and perhaps where it may be going. The music part became a bit of an afterthought in lieu of something that, at the time, I thought was more interesting.

Part of the reason I made the change, though, was because of the rather boring answer I stumbled across. Now I think I may need to re-examine my position and explain it further. But I've noticed quite a few people talking about the subject of Christian music in the past several weeks, and I decided I want another crack at it.

Most people seem to be complaining about the stuff. I used to be a huge fan of the "contemporary Christian music" (CCM) scene, until about a year and a half ago. To be fair, my tryst with CCM was the result of a semi-depraved childhood; I grew up in a very traditional presbyterian church where the organist played all our hymns half-tempo and where nobody cared about being culturally relevant; the question hadn't even come up. Then we left.

When I got to the next church, the reason we stayed was one Greg Campbell and the fact that he asked me to play saxophone on his worship team - music was what I loved, and that someone would take an interest in it with me was almost too good to be true. That was when I discovered that people had been writing music like the rest of the world for years, except that nobody had bothered to tell me. I was hooked; most of the "secular" music I'd encountered had left me wanting more. I didn't realize that I'd just been listening to the wrong "secular" music; turns out that pop and r&b and boy bands really aren't my taste, but I couldn't find anything else. But I fell in love with the music of Michael W. Smith, Twila Paris, and especially David Crowder and Jars of Clay.

I still have a great respect for Michael W. Smith's music, and I remain a huge fan of David Crowder and Jars of Clay. Add to that Jeremy Camp, Kutless, Switchfoot, and Caedmon's Call. They're probably still the music I listen to the most. But my view has changed. I used to think (especially when I discovered this music for the first time) that one shouldn't listen to "secular" music because it would poisen the mind, like, why would you listen to "bad" lyrics when you could listen to "good" lyrics (I think I used to equate "good lyrics" with "lyrics with the name Jesus in them").

I've changed my tune, so to speak, since then. As I began investigating postmodernism, it seemed to me that the music of Christian circles was rather shallow. It was never very musically intricate, the poetry was sort of lame, and the same "christian" cliche's kept appearing over and over until every song, regardless of the artist, began to blend together. (What I love about David Crowder is his ability to use words like "intoxicating" and apply them to his love for God). It got me thinking, do these people have any idea what they're saying? Do they think about what they write or are they just trying to write another piece to use next sunday?

I think now that music is simultaneously nothing special and something very intimate. Music, and indeed, all art, is a means of expression for a Christian community. Look at the original music of a community and you'll be able to tell a lot about them. At the same time, music is not the equivalent of "worship." You can worship through music. But we worship with our very lives, the way we live and breathe in this world.

The hebrews knew this; the reason that nobody likes reading Leviticus or Deuteronomy is because those books are full of the rules for a good hebrew to worship God. They're not musical rules, either; they apply to everything from the sort of fibers to use in their clothing to the way to sacrifice a goat on which day of the year. The mundane was still worship for the hebrew people. Likewise, we who call ourselves followers of Jesus, while not bound by rules, are called to live a life of worship. A life of worship. Not "on sunday we worshipped so well in that song the band played," but our. whole. LIFE.

Music, in this worldview, becomes something of a problem. I love music, but I'm coming to think that maybe paid worship pastors aren't such a good idea; it gives the wrong idea, like the only time we worship is on sunday at a corporate gathering. Even if we had the most amazing music in the world (which we don't, I'm sorry, John Mayer and Linkin Park and U2 and Eminem write better poetry than most so-called "worship artists"). Music is a form of personal expression - poetry and the music that goes with it are a way of expressing the raw emotions and yearnings and rhythms of our primitive souls. It's also communal expression - the psalms are an entire book of music written to sing together to God. But let's not elevate music to such a high place that it overlooks other worship - the way we prepare an onion to sautey into spaghetti sauce, the way we walk down the street, the way we talk with our friends ... the way we serve the poor and take care of our environment. In everything we do, we worship.

EEDs

The second law of thermodynamics states that any system left to itself will naturally progress towards entropy. Entropy is a fancy word for disorder or chaos.

What the second law doesn't state is that a person can enhance entropic effects quite easily, by acquiring an EED, or Entropic Enhancement Device. The most common models of these devices are organic in nature, carbon-based, quadrapedal, and have names like "spot", "fluffy", or sometimes, "Wisdom." Most commonly, they are referred to as "dogs."

A dog is, "any object that is perpetually on the wrong side of a door." While fairly easily acquired, no one has, as of yet, determined the easiest proceedure to allow them to reach their full potential as EEDs. I believe I may be of some service to the scientific community in this matter.

Allow the EED full access to your living room, backyard, or if possible, both. Leave as many soft items around as you can; paper towels, socks, and powered computer cables generally work to this effect. Merely allow your EED 1-2 hours in the contained space, and you will witness an increased rate of entropy.

Other EEDs are now in testing. Small children, anarchists, and the Christian Coalition are among the latest subjects under study. Among failed experiments include ants, trees, and schools of fish, for all being too organized. Our most promising study is the Christian Coalition, for its ability to absorb massive amounts of energy and still produce entropic results.