“For:
The Institue Of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Steven’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt“.
Additional comentary an afterthought included in this blog.
Question #1: Wright opens our course with ideas related to the four echoes of God in the world. Which of these echoes most deeply resonates with you as evidence of God’s reality, and how does that particular echo reflect what you believe to be the biblically expressed personality of God?
From here, answer how the four ‘echoes’ relate to the theology and worldview represented in the worship songs that you have used/sung in the past year? (Seek to be positive in your answers, but also reflective – i.e. this question is meant to engage our theological thinking related to worship songs, not to create a song-bashing session).
Consider the second half of the question less in the light of “what songs am I doing that match these echoes,” and more in the light of “how is the contemporary worship song body of work doing at giving voice to these echoes – the celebration of creation, the longing for justice, the magnetism of relationships and the hunger for spiritual reality.”
Use ideas from the readings & media to answer the question, and feel free to incorporate ideas outside of our study.
Answer: On 1/14/09 I posted the following answer to the first question of the essentials blue course. It reads:
Echoes in general suggest a point of origin. If I allow my imagination to engage for a moment I picture a small child in wonderment as he or she for the first time hear for them selves this phenomena called echo echo echo. Perhaps the child will grow up and become a world renowned physicist to study sound waves and such. In contrast perhaps it is the gut wrenching scream of someone who has just learned that a loved one has passed away never to been seen alive again. One can feel the pain swell and weaken the soul if someone close and near to their hearts has recently died by natural causes or killed in some violent manner.
Life, in all its beauty and shadowy existence, as we know it comes to an end for all.
The 4 echoes, as address by N.T. Wright, bring to mind a combination of palpable attributes that are both the work of God in the world and what one as a follower ought to be about the business of doing or living, expressing, lavishly replicating so that in the end the only resounding echo heard is that God (no matter which personified personality) without argument or question echoes God. The utmost of all echoes being the cross upon which my God suffered and died for my sins. My sins.
Finding it difficult to choose just one personality echo over another leaves me to resolve that they all blend in one against the other. Often it appears one personality is more pronounced over the other but in the end one finds (if honest) they all resolve into describing one awesome and most powerful God. There is justice. There is creation. There is relationship. There is an over powering God desire for us to be at one with Him in spirit, in mind, in heart, in life. I regard that should be our aim and goal when we begin worship.
The song : Everything that is beautiful. begins using the following lyrics: With rain, with sun, with much, with less, with joy, with pain, with life, with death. Only things that satisfy come from you. Everything that’s beautiful, wonderful, every perfect gift comes from you. It continues with: Your grace, heart, voice, touch, word, peace, hope, love and adds 1000 words could not explain, 1000 worlds could not contain! It concludes with from the Father of lights… giver of life … heavens above… straight from your heart… to the people you love.
In the hopes of concluding a sort of ramblings or rants…to my ears this song appears to hit on all those point mentioned and then some. Just re-sing it full blast when you are driving alone. Perhaps one might conclude the same or at least regard the following: Falling short of grace or exceeding all spiritual expectations (short of become arrogant idiot) and all that falls in between we are loved, created by God, in relationship with God, drawn to His spirit by God and over all justified through love (the origin of all echoes.)
[End of answer.]
ADDITIONAL COMENTARY (an afterthought):
Considering all the other post by many others (worldwide) I noticed I was among few that were not able to settle on just one (1) echo to resonate the personality of God (as best as we could.) For some it appeared to be an easy task…for others it was perhaps an arduous task (but they did manage to point out just one.) I for one applaud their efforts and responses.
As I attempt to look at world culture, world trends, world struggles or world limitations and influences on justice (after all we are only human.) The draw toward Spirituality. The desire for an intimate and personal relationship (only girls allowed, sorry dudes!…hey now, one can never sure these days) and the wonderment of all creation or that which appears as beautiful. I keep coming back to one resolve. The cross.
The cross, in my world view, remains the one and only central focus point that echoes loudest. All other “religions” tend to either embrace in part or reject in full. Albeit whatever seems to be that which is being sought after e.g. elements of justice, beauty in creation, relationship (and the lack thereof) or spirituality (the something or someone grater than and bigger than this world) each one in and of itself become empty without a refocus. I submit one must re-focus.
What then is it that gives each different element more substance and more importantly a value with a price tag no money could ever buy?
Borrowing from my short but deep dive into classical philosophy (Major Criminal Justice, Minor Philosophy) Both Hiedeger and Hegel (as tackled by Cambridge Companions aid to understanding each…each became like my unabridged cliff notes that now collect dust on my shelves) hint at fully understanding and becoming “alive” so to speak by embracing death at its basic level (e.g. dead is dead) and from that point move on to the business of living through a series of thesis and antithesis (Hegel) or being (Hiedeger).
And what the heck do two (2) metaphysical philosophers have to do, in the form of suggestion, inside a worship “symposium” of sorts? (as Mr. Wilt hinted on “Vineyardites” taste for good beer, Smithwicks and Bass becoming my recent favorite.)
Note: Were it not for a comment made by Mr. Peter Fitch “kings seek it out” (and don’t even think for a second that I consider my self a king, far from it and no hold desire to aim at that title) I would have tossed out the following afterthought altogether. Thanks Mr. Fitch.
Well, between understanding angst (Hiedeger) and a system of antithesis (Hegel), both have influence my thinking on many levels of thinking and sometimes living. Moreover, both inadvertently became responsible for causing me to embrace the death of Christ in a manner that has moved and shaped my worldview to one resolve.
My resolve, in short is that apart from the cross and death of Christ all other compartments and facets of life become empty. More so with any common “religion” or set of rules regulations and traditions. It is the cross of Christ, His ultimate end and keeper of the last faint whispers of life, that quantifies social justice and personal justification (because at best we are broken helping the broken if we do not involve God), it is the cross that makes creation that much more beautiful, it is the cross that makes our earthly relationships (and ultimately our relationship with a risen savior and the mystery of it all) that much more meaningful…that much more ALIVE!
Note: Since only Christ has risen from the dead…perhaps Hegel and Heidiger are rolling in the grave debating over angst as related to the maxim seen in concentration camps and such (Heidiger) or a wanting to yell that a system of antithesis was only supposed to be a tool to aid and filter simple and complex logical arguments (Hegel). Not the cross. Sorry dudes but thanks for the synergistic and priceless value in shaping my thinking!
So, to surmise what I present now only skims the surface of my thoughts and my approach to life in general. To digress and address my commentary in more layman’s terms…
We come together as corporate (silly me wants to spell this cooprate) or as individual to worship an almighty God and we do so alive. My guess is that at the end of the year this world wide group will do just as Mr. Wilt suggested in the first call by the following four (4) ideas: 1. Community (water) or heart and connecting with others like water to the deepest part of the heart. 2. Formation (green growing fields) good seed is going to be sewn. God is dropping seeds in every heart in this field and it will bear more fruit. 3. Creativity (fueled, inspired, enthused creativity) flaming the flame of creativity. Asking questions, many of them! 4. Influence (stars in the night sky) offer the gift of everything the Vineyard movement is about to the rest of the world wide church and give it away. And keep things to ourselves as God guides.
What a privilege to do so with imperfections and all.
But back to my thoughts. It is the cross that brings more than unification, absent forgiveness. I, for one, would be dead to sin with out Christ and the cross. I think we all (those taking the EB course) would agree. Every last one of us share a room with the hanging thief asking “please don’t forget me.”
Note: I am not suggesting that we literally steal per se.
What I find as an ultimate resolve is that without God and the shadow of the cross (as I call the greatest of echoes) one, at best, will end up in a heap of selfish altruisms (I insert this as an example of one possible paradox stemming from the desire to both help but also want credit for, sadly in some cases past efforts have ended with historical notoriety.) As example and only as an example one can consider the great works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. being shadowed long after his assassination by being a womanizer and having multiple affairs. NOTE: Really quick before I upset many I only repeat what became public knowledge years after the fact. It is possible such knowledge was altogether rumor at best. Fact or fiction one must resolve to this end, as wonderful and timeless as his works rippled across time and intentionally affecting the future, many today are finally able to yell we are free at last, free at last. And to think that the proudest moment of American history is just around the corner. You have to give Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the credit that is due! Thank you my brotha from another motha!
My point is this: apart form the cross we are all empty and left with nothing to offer, much less nothing to cling on to and hope for as evidence of our faith in that Christ died on the cross for the sins of the world and on that day God the father (grieving at best) filled with joy did echo a loud well done, well done, WELL DONE!
In short, if not for the cross then everything (and I mean everything) is done in vain.
By nature of vocation (or “Career” as they say here in Capitalistic America) I continue to investigate crimes both small and large. Many involve putting to rights many wrongs. Others involve just making sense of what went wrong and finding the bastard that thought ending ones life was the best thing to temporary problems we humans often bring on ourselves. Sadly, even with all the facts in the favor of the state, Justice is sometimes served but taste like a half diluted glass of lemonade that makes you wonder if you asked for fresh squeezed spring water. At least put some ice cubes in it! Hello do I get a slice of lemon with this? Regardless, all investigations have in common one thing and that is to get to the bottom line and really sift out the facts. Just the facts maam! Just the facts. One cannot lock themselves into a solution until the weight of evidence pulls you entirely into one direction. Otherwise you arrive at a false end begging one to scramble to make the theory fit (sometimes this appears as an arrogant idiot trying to save face after being the arrogant idiot claiming to have solved the problem in the first place.)
So… enough rambling of thoughts and meaningless rants.
I resolve that one particular murder resulting on one (1) cross gives meaning to evidence that God is at work in our time, both then and now (the term murder as related to the cross is borrowed from Mr. Lee Strobel and his book and film “The Case for Christ.”)
Giving second reflection to the 4 echoes address by N.T. Wright: 1. Justice 2. Spirituality 3. Relationships and 4. Creation /Beauty. They still appear as being all inclusive of each other and in my opinion continue to be in the shadow of the cross. Or at least they should be.
I regard that at some point or other, in life, as the four echoes intermingle with one another one is left to actually fleshing out the echoes [and again be about the business of doing or living, expressing, lavishly replicating so that in the end the only resounding echo heard is that God (no matter which personified personality) without argument or question echoes God.]
Naturally, once you realize “hey this is no joke!” one gravitates to resolve [The utmost of all echoes being the cross upon which my God suffered and died for my sins] the need for a personal relationship with God. And to begin that relationship one must come to the foot of the cross.
Naturally my first inclination was pulled toward that of justice but after much thought (as I have attempted to explain above) I couldn’t just hold on to one and not the other. In other words, putting wrongs to rights, having a desire for the spiritual and more out of this life, being among others in unified relationship (those that agree with you and those that do not) or left to appreciate and be amazed at that which holds beauty (weather it fades or lasts…usually the former out last the latter and sometimes it really is the opposite) they all pale in comparison and at best become a sort of vapor without something more. Within the shadow of he cross.
To repeat: [Often it appears one personality is more pronounced over the other but in the end one finds (if honest) they all resolve into describing one awesome and most powerful God.]
Moreover I regard that the powerful symbol of the cross (symbol because to some that is all it is…never know who might read this) demands further questioning, demands all introspection, demands a second closer look, demands all our worship. Without it I would be nothing.
To conclude, the cross is the ultimate expression of love that ought to be our only source for and desire to worship. Yes there is a whole lot more to include in worship and whole lot more to motivate our actions as a form of worship. But absent the cross, what do we have?
One last thought, certainly I do not regard my answer as being the answer. Thank you everyone that had the ability to stick to just one echo. There is a lot to glean from each individual answer. I suppose as time goes by I might be able to do the same or maybe I will just remain a stubborn fool seeking independent thought. Well, at least that is my hope to be able and grasp just one echo instead of being the fool making my own.
Comments, concerns, corrections are all welcome.
p.s. Oh if it was only easier to live out what I know, embrace and understand as true! Any perfect non humans out there? Cuz I could sure use a hand!
(Whew! I think I’m ready for a cold Smithwicks…nah I’ll wait until dinner time…actually I need to go buy some! 🙂 Ha!)
