Songs about God's Love are Cheap

Posted on October 8, 2008

So many of the songs about God’s love currently being written and sung are cheap. They are mushy without being hardy. Like milk-bloated cereal, they drip with emotion but fall flat on substance. Such cheap love songs act like God is our cosmic girlfriend. God is not a girlfriend; God is God.

Cheap love songs typically talk about how great God’s love is for us, full stop. They fail to consider how God’s great love becomes great for us. Biblically, we know no great Godly love apart from an angry God. If God was not angry, he would be bad lover. If he didn’t grow wrathful over idolatry, murder, lying, jealousy, gossip, and sleeping around, then his love would be cheap. He’d be like the pathetic girlfriend whose identity is so bound up with male affection, that she just takes a beating. But God stands up for himself, for his infinite glory and beauty, and says, “I will not be abused. Those who treat me poorly must suffer the consequences of failing to honor the God who is infinitely honorable.” And so he pours out his righteous wrath and anger by putting to death his enemies or by putting to death his own Son. Because God is angry and just; his love is deeper than we will ever fully comprehend.

In order to understand God’s love, we must understand his anger. God’s anger inevitably leads us to the cross where justice and mercy meet in perfect, soul-wrenching, Christ-crushing, sin-forgiving, life-giving, love-flowing harmony. For those that hope in Jesus, the anger of God against our unrighteousness is mercifully diverted from us onto His beloved Son. As a result, God preserves and promotes his justice and humanity’s joy where anger and love converge, at the cross. The purpose of God’s anger is to display the depth and character of his eternal justice and his love for us. When we understand that God’s love is God’s because of his justice and anger, only then can we begin to comprehend how great a love he has for us.

So how do we write worship songs that speak of God’s great love, not cheap love? Three suggestions:

  1. Contrast God’s great love with his great wrath. The more we see God’s just wrath, the more we see how great his love is to save us, “a wretch like me.”
  2. Show how God’s love is ours in the death of his Son. Text after biblical text ties God’s unfailing love to the sacrifice of his Son.
  3. Articulate the greatness of God’s love alongside the magnitude of his glory. Reveal that God’s love is just one aspect of God’s many splendored glory.

Violence in Pop Culture – III

Posted on October 7, 2008

See previous posts here and here.

As I continue to reflect on the ethical challenges presented by the ubiquity of violence in pop culture, I have found Richard Hays a helpful exegetical and theological guide. Hays book The Moral Vision of the New Testament is top shelf applied biblical theology for Christian Ethics. He comments: “From Matthew to Revelation we find a consistent witness against violence and a calling to the community to follow the example of Jesus in accepting suffering rather than inflicting it.” Hays addresses texts that are often proof-texted for support of violence or war. I will mention a few below and then make some comments.

Matthew 10:34; Luke 12:51 -“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” A surface reading of this text would support Christian violence; however, a closer reading reveals that Jesus means quite the opposite. The word “sword” is a metaphor for division, which is actually the word Luke uses, omitting “sword” from Jesus’ saying altogether. In speaking with his disciples about the kingdom of God, Jesus explains the reason for an age of swords: “For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law…” Jesus is not saying take up arms against your family if they don’t believe as you do! Rather, he is trying to prepare the disciples for the suffering they will undergo for following Christ. Far from being proponents of violence, the disciples are to be those who suffer violence for the cause of Christ: “And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Far from advocating violence, Jesus promotes peace and promises suffering for all who follow him!

Luke 22:36ff – “He said to them, “But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.” It would appear that Jesus wants the disciples to arm up and get ready for battle. To which the disciples readily pull out two swords, brandishing them with childish glow. Jesus ambiguoulsy responds: “It is enough.” How are we to understand this passage? Is Jesus glad to see two swords instead of one? Shortly thereafter, Jesus is arrested and Peter cuts off the ear of the high priest’s slave, an apparently well-approved action. But Jesus rebukes Peter: “No more of this!” And then heals the slave’s ear. Literal armed violence is clearly not supported by Jesus. Jesus is clearly employing warfare imagery to make a spiritual point: “Prepare yourselves for battle because your enemies will try to put you to death.” But the harm and death his disciples befall is part of the cost of discipleship, something they don’t get until after the cross, until after Jesus offers peace and love to his captors and killers. Only then do they get it. The cross rearranges thier discipleship to include suffering and dismiss violence for the sake of the gospel.

As these texts show, Jesus advocates spiritual not physical war. Violence is something Christians are to dismiss or suffer, not advocate or initiate. In short, we are to love our enemies. How then should we apply these insights to violence in pop culture? Three suggestions:

  1. Consider whether or not your participation in “pop violence” stirs up feelings of anger or love, violence or peace? When you walk away from the show, movie, or game are you spurred to love, serve, and suffer in the name of Jesus?
  2. Ask yourself if your discipleship needs to be rearranged by the values of the gospel of Christ, to be someone who embraces suffering not someone who advocates violence, virtual or otherwise. Does your participation in this media encourage suffering in following Jesus?
  3. Open up a similar dialog with your fellow Christians, push the boundaries of accepted violence through irenic, Jesus-centered dialog.

Society for the Advancement of Ecclesial Theology

Posted on October 7, 2008

A new church-focused theological society is starting up calledThe Society for the Advancement of Ecclesial Theology (SAET). SAET is a network of evangelical thinkers committed to resurrecting the pastor-scholar paradigm for the renewal of the local church.

The pursue this mission through fellowships, conferences, papers, and so on. In addition, the SAET Journal is published twice a year, an online book review journal with a distinctly pastoral focus. Scholarly works relevant to evangelical theology are reviewed with a view to pastoral ministry.

Taylor on Beauty

Posted on October 7, 2008

Check out David Taylor’s new article on “Beauty” and the Gospel in Christianity Today: A Holy Longing:Beauty is the hard-to-define essence that draws people to the gospel. From the intro:

The saying, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” suggests that attempting to say anything concrete about the nature of beauty is a futile task. As soon as one person deems something beautiful, ten others will show up deeming it ugly. But theologians of the early and medieval church did not assume beauty was subjective. Borrowing from neo-Platonic philosophy, they believed that for something to be beautiful, it must also be good and true, with God reigning as the ultimate source of beauty. Today’s church can be thankful for people like David Taylor, who connect such esoteric reflections to the church’s mission. As the arts pastor for 12 years at Hope Chapel, a vibrant congregation in Austin, Texas, Taylor helped believer artists make the connection between worship, creativity, and community. Here, Taylor makes a similar connection between beauty and gospel proclamation to answer this year’s cvp question, “Is our gospel too small?”