I really like Thanksgiving. I find it amazing and inspiring that we as a people have set aside a day to give thanks, even if the cynic in me reminds me we can’t help but follow our one day of gratefulness with a day of unabashed displays of greed. It stirs in me a deep sense of hope because I think of all the holidays we celebrate, Thanksgiving is the one that remains stubbornly Christian. This might not seem obvious at first glance. It’s not a day designed to commemorate a particular religious event, and it hasn’t caused nearly as much controversy as more obviously Christian holidays like Christmas. Thanksgiving is far more subtle.
First of all, Thanksgiving is less easily subverted by the culture because it is not a celebration of an event, it is a celebration of a simple idea– that we should take a day to count our blessings. Second, Thanksgiving is powerful because expressions of gratitude and thankfulness assume that there is someone to be thankful to. Whenever a family sitting around this veritable feast go around and express their gratitude for their friends, their family, their health, and their money, it begs the question– who are you thanking? It seems to me that on this day it is not impossible, but very difficult to celebrate it without the recognition that most of our good fortune is not our own doing. We had no power over where we were born, what time we were born, what species we’d be born as, to whom we’d be born, and we had no power to control the vast majority of other peoples’ actions that have benefitted us in some way.
We often place on God the burden of all our troubles and misfortune, but today, on this day, I believe we are reminded to attribute to him our blessings as well. On this day we remember that we are ever only receivers from God, never givers. Because of this, I believe it is on Thanksgiving that we as a people are closest to God and the spirit of the gospel. And that’s something worth feasting over.
Currently:
… watching a Westmont performance of The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco. It was intellectually interesting, but I can’t say I really liked it.
… coming within two points of winning the intramural volleyball tournament. We’ll get it next year!
… giving a lecture on the Pelagian controversy… as Dr. Vander Laan
… performing at Westmont’s Fall Concert. Not too late to sign up for our Christmas Festival!
… reading St. Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo
… writing a paper on the Euthyphro Dilemma (is a command good because God commands it, or does God command it because it is good?)
… listening to Switchfoot’s Hello Hurricane and Phil Wickham’s Heaven and Earth. I recommend them (in that order)
… watching Chuck. Love it, really fun show.
… rejoicing that I worship a joyful God
A passage from Graham Greene’s novel The End of the Affair.
I went back home and again I tried to settle to my book. Always I find when I begin to write there is one character who obstinately will not come alive. There is nothing psychologically false about him, but he sticks, he has to be pushed around, words have to be found for him, all the technical skill I have acquired through the laborious years have to be employed in making him appear alive to my readers. Sometimes I get a sour satisfaction when a reviewer praises him as the best-drawn character in the story: if he has not been drawn he has certainly been dragged. He lies heavily on my mind whenever I start to work like an ill-digested meal on the stomach, robbing me of the pleasure of creation in any scene where he is present. He never does the unexpected thing, he never surprises me, he never takes charge. Every other character helps, he only hinders.
And yet one cannot do without him. I can imagine a God feeling in just that way about some of us. The saints, one would suppose, in a sense create themselves. They come alive. They are capable of the surprising act or word. They stand outside the plot, unconditioned by it. But we have to be pushed around. We have the obstinacy of nonexistence. We are inextricably bound to the plot, and wearily God forces us, here and there, according to his intention, characters without poetry, without free will, whose only importance is that somewhere, at some time, we help to furnish the scene in which a living character moves and speaks, providing perhaps the saints with the opportunities for their free will.
Currently:
… reading The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
… reflecting on the past five years
Friends,
What did you think about today?
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Phil 4:8)
What did you say today?
The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45)
What did you do today?
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. (James 1:21-25)
The end of the matter.
Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus (Acts 3:18-20)
Currently:
… reading The Republic by Plato
… reading The Symposium by Plato
… reading The Enchiridion of Faith, Hope, and Love by Augustine
The release of David Crowder* Band’s newest album Church Music decisively marks the end of the cycle begun by A Collision. That album, birthed from a series of tragedies that struck the band in 2005-2006 chronicled in Crowder’s book Everybody Wants to go to Heaven but Nobody Wants to Die, was one of the most thematically and lyrically complex albums the band (and arguably Christian music in general) has ever produced. In many ways the next album Remedy was a follow up to that album, a simple and hopeful response to that journey.
Church Music effectively closes the book on that era and forcefully hurdles the band into a new one. For fans of A Collision, this is bittersweet. Gone are the striking moments of vulnerability and deep statements about the nature of art and worship, death and resurrection. What we have instead, is Church Music.
Church Music is nothing if not ambitious. In the words of Crowder, “I hope this album serves as a reminder of music within the Church, of its richness and its broadness, and the tension that exists in using elements of cultural language to express our collective experience and also still remain a transformative presence that is set apart”. And tension there is. Lyrically this is Crowder’s most church-friendly album since Can You Hear Us? To be sure, the church needs needs thoughtful, personal and probing albums like A Collision, as well as social critics like Derek Webb and Switchfoot. But Crowder’s aim is pastoral at heart– he simply wants to make people sing. His lyrics are straightforward and unambiguous and eminently singable, yet always sensitive to the struggles and pain inherent in the Christian life.
Stylistically though, this album is jarringly different from typical worship music fare. While the church has typically been wary of popular music, the Crowder* Band has thrown its arms wide around it, enthusiastically enveloping their message in that musical palate. This is the band’s most confident and assured album to date. At the start of recording David Crowder made the cliché claim that he had never been so excited at the front end of an album, but this time I believe it. Church Music is easily the band’s most fun album yet. There is club disco. There are “guitarmanies”. There is face-melting. And, if rumors are to be believed, a drum-playing robot may be joining the modified Guitar Hero controller and keytar in the band’s live performances. This isn’t to say there aren’t moments of profundity and solemnity; Crowder’s powerful and reflective covers of John Mark McMillan’s “How He Loves” and Flyleaf’s “All Around Me” form the emotional heart of the album. But it would be a cold-hearted person who could listen to this album without cracking a smile.
Crowder has stated that his intention was to construct a cathedral with music, “a thing full of meticulous detail, a thing that speaks of the magnificence of God, and also aids in articulating a response.” One way he does this is by making the album continuous, leaving no break in the worship experience. Also, this album is long, filling almost every available second on the CD. Finally, he does this through crisp lyrics framed in a diverse and distinctive musical landscape. In many ways A Collision will remain the Crowder* Band’s masterwork, but I have no doubt that Church Music will earn its place as one of the richest and most satisfying worship albums of the year.
For more…
David Crowder’s Introduction to Church Music
David Crowder* Band Website
David Crowder* Band Twitter
Church Music on iTunes
Currently…
… installing Snow Leopard
… learning outrigger canoeing. Taking a class out on the beach after an entire summer in a cubicle is great
I performed this at Armington’s Open Mic.
Currently:
… reading The Sickness Unto Death by Kierkegaard
… reading In The Name of Jesus by Henry Nouwen
… watching The Man who Knew too Much
… reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan
… listening to Rebel by Lecrae
… reading Getting Things Done by David Allen
… watching Gandhi
… watching Man on Wire
