John H Armstrong

Spirit Song

Last Lord's Day (January 13) we sang a medley of hymns and praise choruses in the morning worship service of the First Reformed Church in South Holland. I preached from the Lectionary text for the day, following Matthew 2:13-23, as I shared in a blog I wrote earlier this week.

Sometimes a familiar song or chorus strikes a new note in your heart that is deep and moving. I try to pay attention to what the Spirit is saying to me, and to the church, in worship. Some of my most moving and assuring moments have come, and still come, through the music used in worship. My emphasis, as a minister, is rightly on Word and Sacrament but congregational singing is so powerfully important. It allows us to respond to God and Paul says we clearly respond to one another in singing too. Thus there are powerful ways that music encourages us and others around us. Music can and does have a great deal to do with what happens in worship.

Last week we sang the familiar chorus "Spirit Song." Somehow, and I have sung this song many times before, several lines struck me very profoundly. Here is the song text if you do not know it:

Spirit Song

O let the Son of God enfold you 
with His Spirit and His love
Let him fill your heart
and satisfy your soul
O let him have the things that hold you, 
and His Spirit like a dove
Will descend up-on your life and make you whole.

Chorus

Jesus, O Jesus, come and fill your lambs,
Jesus, O Jesus, come and fill your lambs.

Verse 2
O come and sing this song of gladness
as your hearts all filled with joy.
Lift your hands in sweet surrender to His name
O give Him all your tears and sadness;
give Him all your years of pain,
And you'll enter into life in Jesus' name.

As I sang these words that I have italicized in bold type the Holy Spirit just reached deeply into my life in a moment of time. There was a deep and profound moment of healing. Anyone my age has years of pain inside them if they are really honest. There are also years of blessing that flood your mind when you count them. Life is simply that way and the Bible is most realistic about this fact. But we idealize and then settle in and forget the plain truth all too easily. I needed to be reminded, and deeply touched again, that I might be healed in my inner being. I am acutely aware that my pain can be used for good and for harm. I can manipulate with it or edify with it. No matter how much I work at this my motives and actions are always mixed. But I want to use my "pain" to bless, not to promote. Self knowledge is never easy and moments like these help you, or so I think. 

I also prayed the same for all those around me and for old First Reformed Church, believing that its future could be even brighter than its past. If God gives this flock a real shepherd, preacher and visionary leader this could happen. If you know me would you please pray that this might happen and that in coming weeks, as I preach quite often for First Reformed between now and the summer, that God's Spirit would visit us powerfully and refresh his people in South Holland?

Bono, U2 and Religious Pluralism

A few weeks ago I wrote some brief, but very positive, comments about Bono and his U2 band. A common criticism of Bono's confession of the Christian faith, which reputable people take very seriously and his music and actions clearly do support, is that he is a pluralist. I am increasingly inclined to believe there is considerable misunderstanding about what Bono is saying and why. Not only does this misunderstanding impact those who falsely judge Bono but it impacts the entire Christian, Jewish and Muslim discussion in the wider culture and throughout the world.

Bono believes that Jesus is the Messiah and that true peace is found in Jesus. What he also believes, and so do I, is that there are multiple religions in the world and we are going to have to deal with this fact the more we become a globalized community. A friend informs me that a writer who knows Bono says he has repeatedly suggested that the best way for these different religions to be brought closer together is for all Christians, Jews and Muslims "to meet the prince of peace." Amen! This is the kind of pluralism I spoke about several weeks ago. It is not a compromise of John 14:6 at all. It does refute the typical fundamentalist rant: "You are all going to hell unless you . . . . " (Fill in the blank.)

It would best serve world peace, without which we will have little or no opportunity to truly share the gospel with Muslims, to first recognize that denying the kind of Christian pluralism that I wrote about will surely end the opportunity for fruitful contexts for incarnational evangelization. I think Bono probably understands this point. I hope I do as well. I am not sure many conservative American Christians get it quite yet. They still want to get in the face of their neighbor and tell them where they are going and believe this is preaching the good news. If you don't believe me about this then watch Jesus Camp, a most distressing and powerful documentary film. (More on the film later.)

A Great Evening at the CSO

Conductor Daniel Barenboim is doing three farewell concerts this week with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO). After about fifteen years of leading this great orchestra he will be moving on to other musical challenges in Europe. Barenboim chose three great pieces for his last three evenings with the CSO: Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. I was privileged to hear the CSO’s masterful performance of Mahler’s Ninth last evening. I was given this special evening of music as a birthday gift (my birthday was actually more than three months ago) by my dear friend, our ACT 3 board chairman and my own pastor, Dr. Wilbur Ellsworth. Wilbur is himself a highly trained musician thus his insights and commentary helped to make the evening even more memorable.

What can I say about Mahler’s Ninth? It is a very moving composition that reflects Mahler’s obsession with death. In various ways Mahler reveals musically how deeply shaken he was about his own demise. There is both majestic beauty and haunting silence in his music. Mahler died very young, May 18, 1911, at only 50 years of age. Sadly, his life was filled with great concern for his own future but with no real evidence of relationship to the true and living God. The symphony ends, much like death comes, gradually slipping away. I was deeply moved and yet felt great sadness about Mahler’s life. Classical music, at least in the pre-modern era, has so much power to move the soul. Mahler’s Ninth is one of the greatest such pieces ever written and thus moved me very deeply.