Tuesday, January 07, 2003

I Just Called to Say I Love Me
That, and much more, can be found in Victor Lams continued discussion of contemporary Church music, etc. He expresses what I’ve been thinking in a much more coherent and literate manner than I ever could.

(I have limited musical education and can basically just whine, “I know what I don’t like!)
And I just couldn’t resist repeating that title - I’ve been humming it and laughing to myself all day. Perhaps I will switch to “Isn’t I Lovely?” tomorrow while performing my toilette.

I do have great discomfort singing songs in the ‘vox dei.’ I realize that this can be totally appropriate, as another blogger mentioned, in the recitation of the Psalms, for instance. But I think the difference is that most average people in the pew don’t realize what they are singing and why, and it starts to have an influence on their attitudes.....We're singing to praise God. So many of the tunes Greg mentions ("On Eagle's Wings", "Be Not Afraid", etc.) are I songs which are venerating only the congregation. Anytime you put in the first person to represent the Lord, you're at risk of doing that -- and if you don't doubt this, walk up to your spouse or loved one and sing to them (doing your best Stevie Wonder impersonation) "I Am the Sunshine of my Life" or "Isn't I Lovely?" or "I Just Called To Say I Love Me" and see what their reaction is. You wouldn't do it to your wife, so why are you doing it to Jesus? These songs, and songs like them (paricularly any which refer to the congration, ie. "we", as any sort of "people" of "justice") bring about an attitude of liturgical masturbation in the congregation: we're no longer praising God but stroking our own egos. And in the past God's been fairly clear about what he thinks about that sort of behavior.

As for Victor’s worries that his children will have to be subjected to music more simplistic than that heard on The Wiggles or Bear in the Big Blue House, I think that is going to change. And I am hopeful that the generation that loves Bob the Builder will help lead us back to a time of more reverent ecclesiastical architecture. Can we do it? Yes, we can!

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