from the journey of a blind woman: a discussion on Hallelujah (part 2)

Recently I was reading a post from The Diary of An Arts Pastor and realized that part of the reason I haven't been blogging lately is the overall lack of discipline in my life.

The other reason I haven't been blogging lately is an overall lack of discipline in my writing.

I realize that if I don't see myself as a writer -- or even a 'blogger' -- I can't be undisciplined. Either way, I know that, at the very least, I need to finish this discussion I started about Hallelujah and I've been procrastinating. Like crazy.

Hmmmm, let me think about this a moment....
Lack of discipline causes procrastination.
Fear of failure causes procrastination.
Laziness causes procrastination.
I'm three-for-three.

So, read the rest if you like, but know that the person I'm most writing this for is me. I need to do it as a part of my quest to not just consume information and not just talk about information, but to analyze, discern and apply information with wisdom.
Before going any further, I should state my bias. I do not believe that, in general, most of us in the church have a well-formed education when it comes to the intersections of faith and art and culture. I believe that almost all of us have been taught from one side of the fence or the other a sort of separation of church and art and culture. That is why I believe this conversation is so important. We need a healthy self-assessment about our understanding -- or lack thereof. It is crucial.

Here we go...
Question 1a re-stated, can we worship Father, Son and Spirit through works of art that were not created by artists who intend their work to bring reverence or awe to Him?

First of all, God is Lord of all whether or not we recognize Him as such. In other words, it is not the spiritual intentions of the artist that initiate recognition of God. As humans , we do not create ex nihilo -- from nothing -- we create as reflections of our Divine Creator. This is true whether your name is Jon Bon Jovi or Johann Sebastian Bach.
James 1:17 (CEV) Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father who created all the lights in the heavens. He is always the same and never makes dark shadows by changing.

Colossians 1:16 (CEV) Everything was created by him, everything in heaven and on earth, everything seen and unseen, including all forces and powers, and all rulers and authorities. All things were created by God's Son, and everything was made for him.

"Beauty stirs our hidden nostalgia for God." -- Pope John Paul II
"All truth is God's truth" -- Aristotle
I would extrapolate these statements to say All goodness is God's goodness and All beauty is God's beauty. (I realize the issue of beauty opens doors to personal preference...that's another topic for another post.)

God creates Goodness and Beauty and Truth. Scratch that. God is Goodness, Beauty and Truth.
He initiates; we respond. Worship happens when we choose to look outside our own tiny self-absorbed existence and recognize the goodness and beauty and truth of God and His gifts and respond in love and obedience toward Him.

Consider this statement by Madeleine L'Engle, a well-formed artist and God-responder,"...we call the work of such artists un-Christian or non-Christian at our own peril. Christ has always worked in ways which have seemed peculiar to many men, even his closest followers. Frequently, the disciples have failed to understand him. So we need not feel that we have to understand how he works through artists who do not consciously recognize him. Neither should our lack of understanding cause us to assume that he cannot be present in their work." (Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, p.33)

And this essay from David Taylor, arts pastor at Hope Chapel in Austin, (I apologize that I lost the title of the actual post I took this from. You should read all his stuff anyway...it's pretty great!)

"Can unregenerate sinners make good fruit? Yes. Yes, because God enables them to do so. Yes, because they have not completely forgotten what goodness tastes like; they've not completely forgotten the garden. The image of God in them is not dead, it is simply sick unto death. If it were completely dead, we would only have pure evil, and there is only one kind of creature that is purely evil and that is the demonic creature. Humans, on the other hand, however dimly, still recognize goodness when they see it; they even desire it. Theologians call this common grace, i.e., a grace common to all humankind. The non-Christian cannot accomplish in his own power the regeneration of his heart, only God can do that. But he can do good things - disburse potable water, heart surgery equipment, Fiddler on the Roof musicals - many good things indeed that remind him that it is good to be alive: that life is better than death. Granted, he often makes a miserable mess of his life because his heart is terminally ill, but oddly enough his works of art often betray his love for the Good ("Man of La Mancha"), the True ("In the Heat of the Night"), and the Beautiful ("The Nutcracker"). He can't quite seem to shake that mysterious lust for eternity in his heart."
This leads us to part b of question 1. Essentially, it asks, can someone respond to God's Truth, Goodness and Beauty through a work of art (say a song like Hallelujah) without the intention to recognize Him as the Creator?
I think this question is asking more than I bargained for, and it was in response to my initial claim that I felt like Bon Jovi was recognizing his Creator on that now infamous Unplugged episode. Truly the larger question is Are my eyes and ears open to recognizing God everywhere I go? If so, I can worship anywhere and anytime.

I can not truly know this man's heart. He could just be a great performer. He could just be worshipping the idea of God or spirituality and not God Himself. At the same time, I think it is entirely possible that Bon Jovi was transported through the truth and beauty of the music he was performing and the truth of the lyric "Hallelujah" (praise ye the Lord) to admit for even a moment that there is Someone larger than himself.

Consider many of the pagan kings in the Old Testament who were forced to recognize God as the true God after witnessing his mighty acts. Consider that one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. That those who did not make that vital choice in this life will show reverence to the true God in eternity.

At the risk of taxing those of you kind enough to read this far, I will post the rest of this conversation in the next two days. At least I'm hoping I'll choose the disipline to do that.
In the meantime, what is your response to what I've posted so far? What do you think I've missed? Anyone disagree? Anyone agree? Why?

back in the saddle again

I've been pretty hit and miss with my blog writing of late.
It has been a busy, busy season in our household -- life, work, children, illness, school, ministry. All these things have piled in layer upon layer -- like old coats of paint.
And, somewhere along the way, I've lost the heart to write. Or read. Or rest. Or relax.
Not a healthy way to live.
So, I'm taking small steps this week to get back to a healthy place -- including back to my habit of writing new posts.

for starters a couple of book reviews. next, catching up on old business.

Night by Elie Wiesel
This book has been on my reading list for a while now. Then my 10th grade son told me he was reading it in school this year. Then I read this blog post and realized I didn't want to wait any longer. (thanks lola for letting me borrow your book...my reading budget is tapped right now!)
As promised, this was a powerful read. I thought I'd been exposed to most of the awful details of the Holocaust (read several memoirs from the era as well as The Diary of Anne Frank and Schindler's List and Band of Brothers, etc.) but I was wrong. There were, in fact, more agonizing details to consider. More horrific stories.
The author states that if he had only one book to write in his lifetime, this would be the one. It is his attempt at making sure the story has been told. It seems he sees his role to be much like the role of the character Moishe the Beadle who survived execution by the S.S. and chose to return to the town to warn the Jews to leave before it was too late.
In his Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, Wiesel states:
"...if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices...how naive we were, that the world did know and remained silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must -- at that moment -- become the center of the universe."

Annie Dillard
Another author on my reading list for three of her titles, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, An American Childhood and The Writing Life. What a fun surprise when my mother handed me a compilation book of all three titles! She had found it at the library and was not ready to read it yet...it felt like Christmas morning!
To call this woman a gifted writer would be akin to labeling Matthew McConaughey attractive. It's a major understatement. In fact, there was a part of my brain that felt like it had never even really read a book before Dillard's work.
I also quickly realized that I am spending way too much time on auto-pilot -- not noticing, not observing, not paying attention. If Dillard could spend entire pages on the sensation of running down the sidewalk as a young girl, what in heaven's name is occupying my thoughts most of the time? Sample the following excerpts as you would a wine-tasting -- sip, swish, swallow (or spit, if you're really serious about it and not trying to just get as much free wine as you can).

from Pilgrim on Tinker Creek
"The woods were as restless as birds. I stood under tulips and ashes, maples, sourwood, sassafras, locusts, catalpas, and oaks. I let my eyes spread and unfix, screening out all that was not vertical motion, and I saw only leaves in the air -- or rather, since my mind was also unfixed, vertical trails of yellow color-patches falling from nowhere to nowhere. Mysterious streamers of color unrolled silently all about me, distant and near. Some color chips made the descent violently; they wrenched from side to side in a series of diminishing swings, as if willfully fighting the fall with all the tricks of keel and glide they could muster. Others spun straight down in tight, suicidal circles.
Tulips had cast their leaves on my path, flat and bright as doubloons. I passed under a sugar maple that stunned me by its elegant unself-consciousness: it was as if a man on fire were to continue calmly sipping tea."

"Thomas Merton wrote, 'There is always a temptation to diddle around in the contemplative life, making itsy-bitsy statues.' There is always an enormous temptation in all of life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals and journeys for itsy-bitsy years on end. It is so self-conscious, so apparently moral, simply to step aside from the gaps where the creeks and winds pour down, saying, I never merited this grace, quite rightly, and then to sulk along the rest of your days on the edge of rage. I won't have it. The world is wilder than that in all directions, more dangerous and bitter, more extravagant and bright. We are making hay when we should be making whoopee; we are raising tomatoes when we should be raising Cain, or Lazarus.
(i apologize, but I find myself unable to stop with this excerpt...it's just way too delicious!)
Ezekiel excoriates false prophets as those who have 'not gone up into the gaps.' The gaps are the thing. The gaps are the spirit's one home, the altitudes and the latitudes so dazzlingly spare and clean that the spirit can discover itself for the first time like a once-blind man unbound. The gaps are the clifts in the rock where you cower to see the back parts of God; they are the fissures between mountains and cells the wind lances through, the icy narrowing fiords splitting the cliffs of mystery. Go up into the gaps. If you can find them; they shift and vanish too. Stalk the gaps. Squeak into a gap in the soil, turn, and unlock -- more than a maple -- a universe. This is how you spend this afternoon, and tomorrow morning, and tomorrow afternoon. Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you."

And from American Childhood
"Ah, the boys. How little I understood them! How little I even glimpsed who they were. How little any of us did, if I may extrapolate. How completely I condescended to them when we were ten and they were in many ways my betters. And when we were fifteen, how little I understood them still, or again. I still thought they were all alike, for all practical purposes, no longer comical beasts now but walking gods who conferred divine power with their least glances. ...

They moved in violent jerks from which we hung back, impressed and appalled, as if from horses slamming the slats of their stalls. This and, as we would have put it, their messy eyelashes. In our heartless, condescending, ignorant way we loved their eyelashes, the fascinating and dreadful way the black hairs curled and tangled. That's the kind of vitality they had, the boys, that's the kind of novelty and attraction: their very eyelashes came out amok, and unthinkably original. That we loved, that and their cloddishness, their broad, vaudevillian reactions. They were always doing slow takes. Their breathtaking lack of subtlety in every particular, we thought -- and then sometimes a gleam of consciousness in their eyes, as surprising as if you'd caught a complicit wink from a brick."

Absolutely brilliant! For a writer to be able to not only remind me in a general sense of something so minute as the look of boys' eyelashes, but to do it in a way that I can literally recall each microscopic hair and also the rowdy faces behind those eyelashes. Truly brilliant.

as for the old business
Remember that discussion on Hallelujah? If it's the last thing I ever write, I will complete my thoughts on this. But not today. I've got to watch U2's Vertigo Tour on DVD with my 16-year-old son. Right now, he is giving me a weird look because I asked him if I could study his eyelashes!

bravo, God!

(*pastel by Matt Kellman; Art Show on Main 2007)

It's been two weeks since the event and I'm finally getting back to a sort of 'normalcy'. As a summary, I share my journal entry from the Monday morning, October 8, less than 12 hours after the completion of Art Show on Main 2007.

"Good morning, sweet Abba.
How ironic that my flesh tendency is to rush forward from this weekend into a worry list of "Where do we go from here?" ; "What do I do about [name of guilty party removed!]?"; "How should we evaluate this?", etc., etc., etc.
Please God, (I seem to be in continual need from you!) (is that a good thing as in 'APART FROM ME YOU CAN DO NOTHING') (i like to use parantheses a lot in my journal) now I'm asking for help to be grateful and restful.

Here's a bullet list of fond memories from this full weekend of Binghamton's First Friday, Art Show on Main and CenterStage Christmas auditions: (in no particular order)

• we're going to have a small orchestra pit band for Christmas!
• the cameo role of Zechariah for the Christmas play, God With Us
• Florrie Barnett and Earl Barnett's gallery opening at the Bundy Museum
• InsideOut's debut during Cubestock 2007 at the Night Eagle they brought the house down!
• our new friends, the Kinney family, joining us for the two days of the Art Show
• Craig and Andrea's friends joining us for the Art Show
• DOT RAMA!!
• Pastor John's "art & the church" talk on Sunday evening
• my friend Lisa Hoteling's open house for her dream "Harmony Hills Ranch"
• lunch on Sunday with my new friend Jean who is just getting to know Christ
• that we got to show my new favorite short film "Most" during the Art Show
• the beautiful autumnal decorations and yummy cookies for the art show reception
• watching the art show guests working together on our mosaic...it's gorgeous!
• watching Lateefah Covington teach children how to make oragami birds like the ones in her mobile on display
• reading all the title ideas for Mike Krause's sculpture
• the story behind the church stained glass pieces from the 1700's that artist Andy Palmer is restoring and had on display
• the lush, lush vocals and instrumentals of the classical music during the performing arts show
• watching Pastor John fight back tears during the performing arts show and the closing concert
• the leadership team: Wendy, Margaret, Nancy, Debbie and all the volunteers who worked so hard on the weekend
• my friend Lori singing her guts out on "Shine" during the closing concert
• the guitar trio Sunday night -- I could have listened a lot longer
• all the original works artists -- visual and performing -- who took the giant risk of sharing their heart and vision with us
• the variety of visual arts in Main Street (loved that GIRAFFE!)
• Barb Transue and Richard and Carol Caforio listening to my sons' very, very loud band and later affirming them - talk about a legacy to the next generation!
• watching my daughters create their own mosaics on Sunday afternoon

and i could go on and on and on and on and on an on....
Can't wait to see where we're headed next.


God, you continue to smile on us. I am amazed and ever grateful.


Love,
your daughter, Tamara

Art Show on Main 2007

It's here...the big weekend.

It's a big, big show.
You won't want to miss it.

We've got visual art -- paintings, pastels, photography, mosaics.

We've got children's art.

We've got interactive art.

We've got performing art.

We've got free concerts.

We've got a short film.

We've got live harp music.

We've got good food.

We've got caffeine-laden concoctions.

It's just your well-rounded arts weekend.

Don't miss it!

from the journey of a blind woman: a discussion on Hallelujah (part 1)

It was six men of Indostan,

To learning much inclined,

Who went to see the Elephant

(Though all of them were blind),

That each by observation

Might satisfy his mind.

The First approach'd the Elephant,

And happening to fall

Against his broad and sturdy side,

At once began to bawl:

"God bless me! but the Elephant

Is very like a wall!"

The Second, feeling of the tusk,

Cried, -"Ho! what have we here

So very round and smooth and sharp?

To me 'tis mighty clear,

This wonder of an Elephant

Is very like a spear!"

The Third approach'd the animal,

And happening to take

The squirming trunk within his hands,

Thus boldly up and spake:

"I see," -quoth he- "the Elephant

Is very like a snake!"

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,

And felt about the knee:

"What most this wondrous beast is like

Is mighty plain," -quoth he,-

"'Tis clear enough the Elephant

Is very like a tree!"

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,

Said- "E'en the blindest man

Can tell what this resembles most;

Deny the fact who can,

This marvel of an Elephant

Is very like a fan!"

The Sixth no sooner had begun

About the beast to grope,

Then, seizing on the swinging tail

That fell within his scope,

"I see," -quoth he,- "the Elephant

Is very like a rope!"

And so these men of Indostan

Disputed loud and long,

Each in his own opinion

Exceeding stiff and strong,

Though each was partly in the right,

And all were in the wrong!

MORAL,
So, oft in theologic wars

The disputants, I ween,

Rail on in utter ignorance

Of what each other mean;

And prate about an Elephant

Not one of them has seen!

John Godfrey Saxe's ( 1816-1887) version of the famous Indian legend

The process of digging into the 'behind the scenes' details of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah felt a little bit like interviewing the six blind men of Indostan. It seems that so many people have strong feelings about the song. (Or is it that the song has strong feelings about us?)


I kept having to ask myself, "Why am I doing this? Why do I care? I like the song. I saw it covered in a cool way by Bon Jovi. I enjoyed the experience. Isn't that enough?"


Well, yes -- and no.


Consider this statement:"We must learn again that vision is not for private consumption. My vision is my vocation; the world is waiting for it to find concrete form. So few people, alas, still perceive the art in which they participate -- music, films -- as an arena for exchange of visions, for discovery of our common human vocations...Many of our contemporaries think of art...simply as relaxation or personal therapy. They use their imaginations to flee into their mental cocoon, to weave a personal lifestyle not open to discussion."


(essay "The Christian Imagination" by Janine Langan The Christian Imagination: The Practice of Faith in Literature and Writing. 71,72)


So, hurray for the six blind men of Indostan for at least talking about the elephantin the room! Sadly, it doesn't seem that they got very far in listening to each other, "Of course, an elephant is a wall, or a rope or a snake. This is what my personal experience dictates as truth!" But you got to start somewhere.


In the spirit of learning from the six blind men, and because this conversation about a song and a song-writer seemed to become more than a simple discussion about songs and television shows and 8o's rockers. And, because it seemed, to me, to grow into a deeper discussion about some pretty important subjects -- art and faith; sacred and secular; art-making and art-responding and all that. And, because we have this wonderful vehicle of discussion, our blogging community, why not further the conversation right here, right now?


And, why not? What follows is my very ameteur attempt at breaking down the discussion-- generated here and elsewhere -- regarding this piece of a art, a song Hallelujah, written by an artist, Leonard Cohen. Please be patient with me, gentle readers, as one blind man to another.


First the questions:
1. Is it possible to engage in worship with a song (in this case) that was not ever intended to be a vehicle for worship? Part b: Is it possible for a person to engage in the act of worship without the intention of worship?

2. Is it possible to mix the sacred and the secular, the pure and the profane, without one diminishing the other?

3. Lastly, what the heck did Leonard Cohen mean when he wrote this song, anyway?


Alright, I'm going to go hang out with the elephant a little bit longer.
I'll be back soon.


In the meantime, feel free to give your input. From the discussion here and here, do you think these three stated questions are a fair summary?

fixing mistake

where, oh where, did my sidebar go and how do i get it back? does anyone know?

bad medicine

so for the last couple of days I've been fighting a wicked sinus cold.
a year or so ago a friend of mine turned me onto the granddaddy of all sinus medicines -- Mucinex.
you've seen the ingenious commercial right? the medicine does battle with the bulbous and grungy little green men trying to take up residence in your head.
the medicine flushes those green guys right out.

so last night, in my sleep, while the medicine was doing its dirty deed, I dreamt of several people who I have felt betrayed by over the last year or so.
tell me, where is the magic medicine for that??

good medicine

my family had a very busy weekend last Saturday and Sunday.


first on saturday, we attended our first ever Zooneyfest at Country Pines on Route 26 in Endicott.
it was very, very, very cold outside. lots of people there didn't seem to notice because they were drinking lots and lots and lots of beer. we had to put on lots and lots of coats and blankets because we only got to drink a little bit of beer.



if we wanted to use LOTR as an analogy (and why not, i ask?), this evening was the party in the shire -- with a humoungous bonfire instead of Gandalf's fireworks. this party had lots of cotton candy, greasy meat, beer and live music.





my kids -- intoxicated with airy pink puffs of sugar -- thought this was the perfect way to spend a saturday night.






our friends, Chris and Lori, love to dance. they are very good -- they even know how to polka! we felt old and boring when we looked up during the first song of Frostbit Blue's set and saw Chris and Lori swinging!

Chris is the reason we went to Zooneyfest in the first place. he is friends with Joe Zunic -- the guy the festival was created for. he has Lou Gehrig's disease (some people call it ALS). he is barely over the age of 30. chris reads the bible with him -- and sometimes goes to mass with him because that's where Joe Zunic will go. i think Chris is acting like Jesus. i want to learn how to do that, too.



the other reason we went to Zooneyfest was our friend Scott. Scott plays the guitar. Scott plays the guitar really, really, really well.

this is Scott as a guest guitar guy during Frostbit Blue's set. the lead guitar guy and vocal guy for this band is Scott's brother Nick. they pretty much rocked our heads off during this song.
Scott used to play in a band with his brother -- they played at lots of bars and stuff. i think they were probably great. Scott decided not to do this anymore after he met Jesus. Nick does not know Jesus. his band is pretty famous where we live. sometimes Scott goes to the bars and stuff to watch his brother...like at the Zooneyfest. i think Scott is acting like Jesus. i want to learn how to do that, too.


this is Coleen, Scott's wife.
i love this picture of her face.
she is watching Scott's guitar solo.
i can tell that she loves him very much.
Coleen introduced Scott to Jesus after they were married. Jesus helped them decide to stay married. they have a great story. i never get tired of hearing it.




this is the bus my kids kept wanting to play on. by the time we left it was full with drunk people. after we left there was other stuff going on in this bus. we decided we left at a pretty good time.

if we kept using LOTR as an analogy (and why not, i ask?), Sunday would have been like the feasts at Rivendell, that ancient and lovely place where the fancy elves live.

on Sunday we went to this church in the middle of nowhere. (there were cows in the front yard!) the church was built in 1770. inside there was a thirteen-star American flag hanging over the narrow wooden pews. the pews were very hard to sit in. especially for my friend, Neil. he is 6-feet and 8-inches tall.

the sign outside the church said

"Palatine Church

the Shrine of Lutheranism in the Mohawk Valley"

my friend Sean is the reason we visited the old church building. Sean plays the organ really, really, really well. he is even in a Guild. i do not know what that means, but i know that one thing it means is that Sean has to wear special shoes when he plays the organ. and he gets to give recitals like this one.

i think Sean is like Jesus because we do not have a fancy organ at our church. we don't play old, old songs written by the composers that Sean loves. but Sean plays for our worship team anyway. Sean does not complain that he can't wear his special shoes at our church. i want to learn how to be like Sean that way.


this is Laurel. she is Sean's wife. i could tell she was very proud of him this day. she is a very smart woman and she draws beautiful pen and ink pictures with hundreds of tiny, tiny details. she entered some of them in our art show this year. she also knows how to plant stuff in beautiful patterns and keep flowers alive. i'd like to learn how to be like Laurel that way.

another thing i like about Sean and Laurel is the way they love their kids. they are very good parents.

the brochure said that this organ "has direct electric action and an American Guild of Organists standard console. It contains 648 speaking pipes and two manuals." i do not know what this means, but i think it is why Sean looks like he is playing Twister instead of playing the organ. i think it is also why sometimes Sean looked like he was shooting stars out of his fingers and toes instead of playing an instrument. and why a few times i felt like one of the low loud notes was not a note but a spear pinning me right through the middle of my chest and to the back of the very hard pew.

these are the friends who rode together to see Sean play the organ -- Brian, Tami, Neil, Scott, Coleen, Margaret and Paul. Margaret made us cry during church that morning when she sang "The Lord's Prayer". her voice made my skin get all bumpy.

we were very glad we decided to spend the day together driving through farmland to find this old church. we laughed a lot. sometimes we laughed too much and had to find a gas station with a bathroom. my friends make me think about Jesus. i want to learn how to do that more.

hallelujah beauty

This discussion of Leonard Cohen's song Hallelujah has caused me to think through so many valuable questions and beliefs this week. For some time now I have been living two lives: mom-of-four, wife-of-Brian, occasional house-cleaner and part-time church employee by day and insatiable-scholar-of-everything-arts-and-faith-and-church by night. For some reason I've been embarrassed to let people know how much time and energy I've invested in this moonlighting gig. I'm discovering, almost daily now, many of the fleshly fears as well as enemy-influenced deceptions that have contributed to that embarrasment (read shame).

Sometime soon I'll post the story from a childhood event that seems to have been the birthing room for much of that fear and shame as it relates to my desires to be an artist -- an art-lover, art-maker and art-supporter. Just look for the title that includes the key phrases Music Machine, Grandma's Livingroom and Cranky Cousins.

Along with that post, I'll include the journal entry I wrote after a phone conversation I had with David Taylor, arts and teaching pastor at Hope Chapel in Austin, TX. (what a gift of kindness that phone call!). It has been some time since I've felt like I've "heard from God" on His purposes, calling, on my life. (many reasons contribute to that, but that's another story for another day) In the past few weeks, though, I've begun to wonder if God is calling me from a place of reaction to my youth and, instead, calling me toward a pro-action for my adulthood.

Pastor Craig's teaching during the Kingdom series on Dallas Willard's exhortation that we are becoming who we will be -- forever seems to have brought me to a sort of crossroads. (is there such a thing as a mid-life crisis for a 36-year-old??)

For that reason, I didn't want to just blow smoke in response to this Hallelujah discussion. I didn't want to just throw out some cliche' 'why should the devil have all the good music' type of response. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things...

I feel like God is asking me to go up to the next level spiritually, emotionally, physically and intellectually. To move closer to becoming like Christ, and in turn become more like myself. The person I will be - forever.

And all of these seems more poignant against the soundtrack of my sons' band, Dot Rama, rehearsing in the basement. They have their own insomnia-inducing dreams. I do not become more like Christ and more like myself for only myself. What I do and believe and live affects people around me -- especially those five other people who live with me day in and day out.

Next post: Hallelujah: praise or profane? (cue drumroll, please....)

let's tawwwk....

OK, so BurningAlive and I are having a pretty interesting discussion about the song "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen. Here's the comments from this post:

3 comments:
BurningAlive said...
Ok....question.....and I might be crazy. I watched Bon Jovi do the song on youtube and then looked up the lyrics to Leonard Cohens version and it doesn't seem like a worship song at all. Am I nuts here? lol. It even has the line in it "Maybe there's a God above". I'm very confused.
9/10/2007 1:13 PM
livingpalm said...
thanks for investigating that...i was watching so late at night and the volume so low i couldn't hear all the lyrics. however, there's something about the chorus of that song...the 'hallelujah' that seems to move people beyond themselves. of course, this is no measure of one's understanding of Truth in Jesus Christ, but it does seem to demonstrate longing for that Truth. OR -- I could be completely out to lunch! thanks for your feedback.
9/10/2007 1:32 PM
livingpalm said...
checking into this a little bit more 'cuz i don't want to asserting stuff on my blog willy-nilly like. the dictionary definition of 'hallelujah'.hal·le·lu·jah 1. Praise ye the Lord! –noun 2. an exclamation of “hallelujah!” 3. a shout of joy, praise, or gratitude. 4. a musical composition wholly or principally based upon the word “hallelujah.” maybe when a musician enters into this song he is an example of "even the rocks cry out" -- as he dives into his created giftings and delivers the message that literally means "Praise ye the Lord", then he is, in fact, engaged in worship. i'm not a theologian by any means, but it's interesting to think about. i'll have to check out the rest of the song lyrics. why do you think cohen wrote "hallelujah"??

I would love to hear from some of you others out there. What do you think?? Why do you think this song is so powerful and has been covered by so many artists and showed up on so many soundtracks? What do you think about the lyrics (in all of the various forms)?

dreaming of restoration

check out this short film, Spin...it's worth the whole 8 minutes...

a week of loss: L'Engle and Pavoratti

I just read here that Madeleine L'Engle passed away this week. Somehow, strangely, I feel like I've lost a friend. If you've never read A Wrinkle In Time or Meet the Austins or The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas or A Ring of Endless Light or Walking on Water, please consider doing so soon.

Luciano Pavarotti also passed away. Read here.

Bon Jovi holds church

i've been noticing Jon Bon Jovi showing up in very interesting places lately. A while back i caught him on Crossroads with Sugarland. Tonight I found him on MHD Unplugged. He sang with All-American Rejects (It's My Life) and Lee Ann Rimes, but the moment that caught my attention most was his version of the Leonard Cohen song "Hallelujah". I am not kidding you when I say that he was worshipping...it came up from his toes. Can't guess what the rest of his life looks like, but in that moment he seemed to be fully aware who his Creator was.

(got a giggle out of his farewell, "You've been a hell of an audience!")

feeling Septemberish

" 'I guess I'm just feeling Septemberish,' sighed Chester. 'It's getting towards Autumn now. And it's so pretty up in Connecticut. All the trees change color. The days get very clear - with a little smoke on the horizon from burning leaves. Pumpkins begin to come out.' "
(The Cricket in Times Square)

Out of the 365 annual possibilities I have to be astonished that God gave me four children, perhaps the singular most shocking day of the year is The First Day of School. I've discovered that it is not while I am in the middle of the swarm that is my family that I remember to be amazed. But when, each September, they sever the ties of summer and walk away from me -- into the authority of other adult people, into buildings I know nothing about, surrounded by people I've never met -- that solitary moment is when I most feel like a mother.

confession of a groupie

...i've checked their tour dates and if i could i'd follow them across the country!

The new Shane & Shane album, Pages, was released today. I've been waiting several months for this and I can't remember the last time I was even aware of an album release date!

You've got to check it out. I've heard that the track We Love You Jesus has already gotten lots of radio time...hopefully that hasn't killed the song already. I've been able to hear that and Embracing Accusation live. If you listen to nothing else on the album you've got to hear that song...it wrecked me when I heard it performed at Granger last fall. That, by the way, was my first introduction to these two.

(David and Susan get to hear them live soon. You gotta tell us all about it, ya hear?!?)

Embracing Accusation

Father of lies, coming to steal kill and destroy

All my hopes of being good enough

I hear him saying, “cursed are the ones who can’t abide”

He’s right, halleluia, he’s right

The devil is preaching the song of the redeemed

That I am cursed and gone astray

I cannot gain salvation

Embracing accusation

Could the father of lies be telling the truth

of God to me tonight?

That if the penalty of sin is death, then death is mine

I hear him saying, “cursed are the ones who can’t abide”

The devil’s singing over me an age old song

That I am cursed and gone astray

Singing the first verse so conveniently over me

He’s forgotten the refrain.

JESUS SAVES!!!

Art Show on Main 2007

(pic: last year's art show; guest artist Andy Palmer)

Here it is...the Prospectus I've been working on for this year's Art Show on Main. The theme "Mosaic" revolves around a topic that literally gives me goose bumps. Would love to hear your thoughts....

Art Show on Main 2007 PROSPECTUS: “Mosaic”
A NOTE ON THE THEME


mo·sa·ic [moh-zey-ik] noun, adjective, verb, -icked, -ick·ing.
–noun
1. a picture or decoration made of small, colored pieces of inlaid stone, glass, etc.
2. the process of producing such a picture or decoration.
3. something resembling such a picture or decoration in composition, esp. in being made up of diverse elements: ex., a mosaic of borrowed ideas.


Contrasts carry a certain fascination. For example, vanilla and chocolate ice cream. Alone each flavor is tasty. Wound together into a soft-serve twist cone – sheer genius.


And consider the contrast displayed in that now familiar photo of the Conklin elementary school sign promoting good character. The word on the sign, “Persistence”, stands in stark contrast against the backdrop of a growing pile of flood debris. Ironic.


Mosaic as an art form features creative use of contrast displayed in intriguing arrays of shape, color and texture. Study a piece close up. At this range, one’s perspective is limited to individual fragments of colored glass, tile and a variety of other found treasures. From this angle the only thing this odd assortment seems to have in common is a random shatteredness.


Behold the surprise and delight, though, after taking a few steps back and discovering the image created from the meticulous placement of each tiny, diverse element!


And a certain realization dawns.


There is a deep symbolism contained within the images that emerge from those contrasting colors and textures.


Mosaic finds beauty in found objects – smashed and discarded.
Mosaic requires the genius of an artist, willing to take time and care to form a unique and whole masterpiece from random broken pieces.
Mosaic is most masterful the more diverse and intricately woven the individual elements.

Mosaic sounds a lot like us.


As we strive to come together as artists who follow Christ and care for each other and our community, we form a living Mosaic. We are individual people from various colored and broken backgrounds and who practice many different art forms. Yet in the Mind of the Divine Artist, we are made into one masterpiece, the Church.


“God is building a home. He’s using us all - irrespective of how we got here – in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day – a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.” Ephesians 2:19, The Message


In some mystical and Christ-saturated way, God places the broken up and diverse pieces that our individual lives represent and forms a unified community. When looked at from the right perspective, this image reflects the imago dei – God Himself.


Sheer genius. Sheer grace.


The purpose of the 2007 Art Show on Main is to celebrate artistic diversity as a unified community in the following ways:


diverse gifts unified in one Body“Each one brings their irreplaceable individuality to make life a pattern of diversity with a pursuit of unity.” Ravi Zacharias


“A body is made up of many parts, and each of them has its own use. That's how it is with us. There are many of us, but we each are part of the body of Christ, as well as part of one another. God has also given each of us different gifts to use…” Romans 12:4-6, Contemporary English Version
Whether someone participates in the Art Show on Main 2007 by showing art or performing art or by helping to prepare for the events or by attending the events and enjoying the art, the whole Body is blessed.


Additionally, in recognition of the fact that Christ’s Church extends beyond the walls here at Union Center and has grown in unity through recent events in the Greater Binghamton area, we invite artists from area churches to submit work to our Visual Arts show.


diverse media unified in one art show
Visual Arts: painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, textiles, mixed media, etc.


“In Exodus 28:31-35, a passage describing the priest’s garments, we find pattern, color and sound all working together. As Francis Schaeffer once observed ‘The making of the Tabernacle involved almost every form of representational art known to humanity. But because God is also the god of creative imagination, of metaphor and symbol, of parable and analogy, the design of the Tabernacle, and later of the Temple, was packed with symbolism. The design and placement of furnishings and vessels, the use of different materials such as linen, goatskins, silver, brass, gold, acacia wood, and the ceremonies prescribed for the worship of God in these sacred precincts, the system of sacrifices and oblations, all had meaning beyond themselves.’ This is the essence of the sacramental – that material things remind us of and point us to the things we cannot see but which have ultimate and eternal reality.” Luci Shaw, essay in The Christian Imagination
Performing Arts: vocal, instrumental, spoken word, theatre, dance, film presented in either original or classical works


“Hallelujah! Praise God in his holy house of worship, praise him under the open skies; Praise him for his acts of power, praise him for his magnificent greatness; Praise with a blast on the trumpet, praise by strumming soft strings; Praise him with castanets and dance, praise him with banjo and flute; Praise him with cymbals and a big bass drum, praise him with fiddles and mandolin. Let every living, breathing creature praise God! Hallelujah!” Psalm 150, The Message
diverse eras unified in one history“Believing Christians in the arts tend to become discouraged…When discouragement sets in, we should remind ourselves that the Church is a living church. For the believing, practicing Christian or Jew, there is no eternal death, only life in the present and life in the future. C.S. Lewis, Bach, Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci and King Oliver (of New Orleans jazz fame) are not dead but alive and well in the cloud of witnesses.
Because of the arts, we are not limited exclusively to our present period of history. We can stand in the Florence of Dante and Vasari. We can listen to the music of Scarlatti. We can read the words of Homer or Winston Churchill. We can listen to the music of Mahalia Jackson. We can live, through the arts and humanities, in all time at once…” Franky Schaeffer, Sham Pearls For Real Swine
Classical Works: from the classical repertoire (Renaissance through the 20th century)
“The Jewish-Christian West has produced unrivaled glories in the field of music… Certainly there are serious Christians engaged in making good contemporary music, but those who limit themselves to contemporary popular ‘Christian music’ seem to be unaware that the horizons are so much broader.” Franky Schaeffer, Sham Pearls For Real Swine
Original Works: lyric, composition, poem, essay, choreography, film, theatrical scene, etc. performed by the original author
“Spring is, of course, not really less beautiful because we have seen or heard of other like events, never from world’s beginning to world’s end the same event. Each leaf, of oak and ash and thorn, is a unique embodiment of the pattern and for some this very year may be the embodiment, the first ever seen and recognized, though oaks have put forth leaves for countless generations of men. We do not, or need not, despair of drawing because all lines must be either curved or straight, nor of painting because there are only three primary colours. We may indeed be older now, in so far as we are heirs in enjoyment or in practice of many generations of ancestors in the arts.
In this inheritance of wealth there may be a danger of boredom or of anxiety to be original…
Recovery (which includes return and renewal of health) is a re-gaining – re-gaining of a clear view. I do not say, ‘seeing things as they are’…though I might venture to say ‘seeing things as we are’ (or were)’meant to see them’ – as things apart from ourselves. We need in any case, to clean our windows; so that the things seen clearly may be freed from the drab blur of triteness or familiarity – from possessiveness.” J.R.R. Tolkien, Tree and Leaf
“Good people, cheer God! Right-living people sound best when praising. Use guitars to reinforce your ‘Hallelujahs!’ Play his praise on a grand piano! Invent your own new song to him; give him a trumpet fanfare.” Psalm 33:1-3, The Message




A CALL FOR ENTRIES


Dear Artist,
We are bursting with anticipation at what God will bring together through the Art Show on Main 2007. The Art Show leaders have been working and praying for many months over the very best way to cultivate beauty and community through the arts at this event. During these months we have felt strongly that this is the year to introduce a few new aspects.


The first addition is the introduction of the performing arts to the event. Secondly, as a result of the joy of working together for the Franklin Graham festival and other recent events in our community, we are inviting artists from area churches to participate in the visual arts portion of the show. And thirdly, we are excited to provide an opportunity for children to enjoy the experience of making and displaying their own art during this weekend.


For our visual artists, although you are welcome to, we are not requiring you to create a literal mosaic. The art show itself – each one bringing their irreplaceable individuality to make a pattern of diversity with the pursuit of unity (Zacharias) – will display the theme in bold and living color. To further enhance the theme for this year, an interactive mosaic piece will be prominently displayed in Main Street and anyone who attends will be able to have a part in creating the work. Once the Art Show on Main is concluded, the mosaic will be donated to an organization that would benefit from a piece of original artwork.


We can’t wait to start receiving submissions (see enclosed entry forms for both performing and visual art). As you prepare for the show, we invite you to pray over this theme, Mosaic. Study the word from different angles, holding your personal ideas and experiences up to the light of Scripture. Meditate on the patterns that the Holy Spirit creates from the assortment of pieces you place before Him. Get on http://www.biblegateway.com/ and do a word search (possible word choices -- unity, diversity, broken, whole)…see how God treats this concept in the Scriptures. Talk to a friend, explore a new medium, and look through your portfolio or repertoire in a fresh way.


Above all, as you prepare your submissions, we encourage you to speak truth through your art. Avoid the temptation to draw and paint and sculpt ‘Christian’ or ‘churchy’. Jesus became man and walked through the stuff of earth without ever losing His deity. In the same way, He is able to take the stuff of your artwork and reveal Himself through it.


We are praying for you. We are asking God to encourage us and guide us and protect us as we take this risk of revealing the imago dei individually and collectively. Most of all, we are asking Him to bring great fame to His name through our obedience and vulnerability.


Ever your biggest fans,


Tami Murphy, Director of Creative Arts at Union Center Christian Church

Wendy Westcott, Art Show on Main 2007 Event Coordinator

I am in love!!

OK -- while I've been chained to my desk all week finishing the Prospectus and Entry forms for this year's art show I have discovered the MOST AWESOME MUSIC ONLINE EXPERIENCE!!

you say you want to fall in love, too?

go to pandora.com
type in the name of a favorite artist or song
listen to your very own customized radio station
FOR FREE!

(i've already created a 'john mayer' station, 'jack johnson' station, 'corinne bailey rae' station, 'duran duran' station, 'phil collins' station, 'U2' station and 'over the rhine' station...i've been at my desk a lot this week!)

tell me what stations you create....

look who we found in Wrightsville Beach!!