Modernity's big red nose

The Interpretation of Parables is central to any thorough-going understanding of the mission and purpose of Jesus, yet it is at the very point of the interpretation of parables that moderns trip over the clown shoes of modernity. Understanding parables requires a familiarity with symbolic, typological, and figurative communication, but part of the clown act of modernity is a symbolic mime-act in which we are stuck in an invisible box. Moderns insist that they have moved beyond the Ancient and Medieval use of ‘symbolic communication’ to a precise scientific clarity.

Postmoderns, though they have realized that the box of modernity’s mime act was invisible only because it wasn’t there, continue to insist that their clown suit and mime act be taken seriously, and that they are different because, unlike the smiling clowns, their face paint has a frown and a tear and because they have an earring in their right ear (though not because they are a pirate).

Why Do We Sing?

People are made in the image of the Triune God and, as such, express themselves in three ways: Word, image, and music. When expressing themselves with words, they are acting primarily in the image of the Father, who is the revealed to us as a speaking God from the beginning. “And God Said . . .” The Son is the Word of God, but he is also the image of God who reveals God to us by image and impress (2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15, 3:10; Heb. 1:3). Human expression with images can be further divided into two categories. We express ourselves by decorating and creating images outside of ourselves and we express ourselves with our bodies in movements, touch, and symbols (kneeling, handshakes, kisses, etc.). By creating music, we express ourselves in the image of the Spirit, who is the person of the Trinity involved in the glorification what the Father and the Son have created (though the creation was also done by and in the Spirit). The Spirit is the person of the Trinity that is identified with the passage of history through time and the glorification of God's people in time. Music is the expression that glorifies of words in time. These three categories of expression (word, image, music), in four modes (speaking, decorating, dance/bodily movement/liturgy, music) encompass all that we do.

Where covenant-renewal liturgy is concerned, we are seeking to enact a command-performance before our Lord and King. We are attempting to worship God on earth in the way that God is worshiped 1n heaven. The Reformed Church is currently very strong in expressing its worship of God with words, weak on decorating and bodily expression and generally thoughtless about music. This leads to a very unbalanced and at times even idolatrous worship service. As we have emphasized speaking to the dissipation of the other aspects of the image of God we have slipped into functional Unitarianism and deism. The sacraments and traditional liturgies that emphasized our union with Jesus and his constant feeding and care and the reality of his audible voice have been replaced with a lecture hall in which we hear about a god who is far off or worse, only near when he is angry. We have a god who is constantly looking over our shoulder hoping that we will make a mistake so that he can smash us. This is a far cry from our Father, who calls his children before him so that he can bless them.

We in the Reformed church are musically weak. Just as the Spirit of God was poured out on the world to glorify Jesus (John 16:12-15), the Word of God, so have we been given music to glorify the Scriptures as we sing them back to God. Because of this, singing has traditionally held an important place in the church. King David (a superb Christian) forever established singing at the center of all the church’s dealings with God. Even before that, certain songs were central to what it meant to be a member of the body of Moses, the daughter of Yahweh (Ex. 15; Deut. 32). Like many American denominations, that are defined as much by their hymnal (or lack there of), Israel was defined by the songs that they held dear. The musical heritage of the church is rich, diverse and full of blessedness. The Reformation itself was as much a reformation of liturgy as theology, which has bequeathed to Protestants a rich musical heritage, though of late we have spurned our inheritance.

So why do we sing? In the Bible we are told that the whole world is to make a joyful noise unto the Lord, serve God with gladness, and approach God with singing (Ps. 100:2). We are to imitate God in all that we do (Eph. 5:1) and our God is a singing God (Zeph. 3:17). We are told to sing the psalms, to sing new songs, and to do it skillfully (Ps. 33:2-3). We are told that the wicked use their tongue to lay traps through flattery, but the righteous sing and rejoice (Prov. 29:5-6). Our singing is to include our understanding (1 Cor. 14:15), so no singing in tongues (like Latin or German) during the worship service, (this would include babbling, vain repetitions in song, and singing songs that are not true). Our singing is often to be loud (Neh 12:42-43), we are to sing if we are joyful (James 5:13), sing to one another for mutual edification (Eph. 5:17-20), teach through songs (Is 5:1), sing our thanksgiving (2 Sam. 22:50, Ezra 3:10-11) and sing our history (Ps 106:11-12). In short, the Church of Jesus is to be a singing people.

Singing is one of the most important and powerful things we do as Christians. Our songs are the breath of God, knocking down the wicked and their idols (Is. 30:29-31:1). The choir in the pews is at war with the idols of their community. Like the armies of Joshua circling Jericho, our shouts to God are effective where nothing else is. Because the church is the body of Christ, present in the world, our songs are powerful; more powerful that we ever imagine. They are prayers that God hears and answers. We are singing from within the Triune communion. Our songs are sanctified and empowered by the Holy Spirit. And like a true arrow, true songs shoot straight. This is why singing the psalms, the songs given to us by inspiration, should fill us with joy, because we are ramming the gates of hell with a enormous battering ram that was forged from Moses’ day until the exile into Babylon. And heathens get nervous when they hear the wood creak and begin to split with one gigantic boom each Sunday morning.