photo credit: Lawrence OP

Sing for Joy

Every Sunday morning the pretentiously titled local classical station–The Classical Station–airs several syndicated programs featuring sacred music. One of those is Sing for Joy, a production of Minnesota’s St. Olaf College. Every week the College Pastor presents choral music selected to coincide with the readings from the revised common lectionary. The result is a beautiful production that is well worth your listen, especially if you come from a non-liturgical tradition such as I. I’ve found that keeping up with the common lectionary vocally enhanced by world-class choirs is a delightful way to connect with the Church universal. Sing for Joy presents that certain bountiful depth of sacred music that is too often forgotten. My only disappointment is that the broadcasts, as far as I can tell, are not available via podcast. There is, however, a vast streaming archive available on their site of current and past episodes. You can listen wherever you are no matter the day of the week. Check it out.

Lectionary at Lunch

I discovered this second gem on iTunesU. Concordia Seminary St. Louis hosts an enviable Lectionary at Lunch group every Wednesday that is led by a professor who reads through the OT and NT lessons in Hebrew and Greek, translates them and discusses particular points of interest. The podcast of the group is available free of charge and is well worth your listen, especially if you’re interested in exegesis, translation and original language study. I can’t tell you how beneficial this is to listen to. Check it out.

photo credit: krisdecurtis

We woke up yesterday and went to church here in Williamsburg where we’re vacationing for the week. I employed the best method possible in finding a solid, evangelical church to worship at on the Lord’s Day: the phone book. Flipping through, we had an extended list of almost every conceivable denomination. We decided that we wanted to do something a bit different and go to a service at a denomination of church that none of us had ever visited.

I was immediately partial to a Coptic Orthodox church, but my sister-in-law wasn’t so sure about the possibility of incense. I then suggested we go Presbyterian. Still, so many to choose from. Is it the PCA or PCUSA that are the more evangelical, missions-minded denomination? We went with a good orthodox sounding name:  Grace Covenant. We like grace and I’m interested in covenant theology. It seemed like a good fit.

Great service. I was struck by, and this is the main purpose of this post, the singing of carols after Christmas. All except for one of the songs sung yesterday morning were Christmas carols. They’re hymns nonetheless, but they’re primarily now known as Christmas carols.

Doesn’t it make all the sense in the world to sing most of our carols after Christmas rather than before? They tell of the newborn babe lying in a manger. If the purpose of Christmas is to re-live the advent of the Savior, then the month leading up to the Day should be spent reading prophecy and the opening chapters of Matthew and Luke, stopping short of the actual birth narratives. The songs sung should be sung to match. Instead, we sing of the Savior’s birth before we celebrate it happening. Yesterday morning, it was refreshing to reflect on the birth of Savior through Christmas carols after we had celebrated it–or should have–on Christmas Day.

There is so much theology packed into these carol-hymns. Check out the last verse of Hark, the Herald Angels Sing:

Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.
Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the Life, the inner man:
O, to all Thyself impart,
Formed in each believing heart.

Let’s spend the month of January singing about the new-born King rather than jumping straight to Easter.

Inquisitors are often stupified when I proclaim my affection for electronic dance music, not because they know what electronic dance music is, but because they wonder why I didn’t just say “techno” instead of that thricely concatenated parvenization which I’ll abbreviate EDM. “Oh I like a little bit of techno, too” or “so, you like Moby?” seem to be the common rejoinders. I’ll respond only briefly here to the latter question by saying that while I respect Moby as a pioneer, I don’t particularly enjoy his tracks. So, I ish-like Moby. Anyways, Moby is not what I wanted to post about; rather, I wanted to draw out my trek away from contemporary Christian into EDM because this is usually the conversation that ensues after we get passed the unfortunate all-important Moby question.

Away from Christian Music

In high school I became increasingly disinterested in both pop music and Contemporary Christian music (oftentimes you can’t tell the difference!). I started to walk away from pop/”hits” about the time every four-piece male vocal bands decided they needed to sing  in a tight, gruff Creed-impersonating voice. You know what I’m talking about because I still hear “new” bands on XM’s 20 on 20 who sing like this! It’s incredible every time I hear it. Incredibly unoriginal.

Contemporary Christian Music similarly has its unfortunate trends: women-singing-like-girl bands, three chord “worship” songs with the same recycled vocabulary rearranged just like the last “hit,” and copying the pop music gruff-man singing; not to mention the myriad of songs spouting positive, encouraging but hokey theology. Please, Jesus is not your boyfriend or a rainbow. He’s God.

So as a high schooler with all this mounting up against pop music (secular or Christian or distinguishably otherwise), left me wondering to which genre would I turn to fulfill my musical cravings.

Towards Electronic Dance Music

Two friends caught me in this delicate imbalance of musical tastes and put EDM in my hands…or ears. The first was a gentleman with whom I rode to soccer practice who had burnt CDs sent to him by his brother in New Jersey featuring the latest dance hits. I remember Ayla (whoever it’s by) and Ian van Dahl’s Castles in the Sky. Those two are enough to get you hooked.

The other friend introduced me to XM radio and thereby its two dance stations BPM and The System. Sandstorm is the memorable hit of this period in my life. We also loved Tiesto, 4 Strings, Ferry Corsten, Lange, and yes, DJ Sammy. We cruised in his subwoofered-BMW after school booming the satellite radio. I was hooked.

Though I listened to EDM while living at home it wasn’t until I went away to college and had my own room with understanding roommates that I began to deeply imbibe all the EDM that the Internet and its radio stations have to offer. I started off listening to DI.fm and then found out about what is now ETN.fm. Over the years, numerous stations have come and gone but that hasn’t limited the flow of live and recorded DJ sets you’ll find on a sites like alldj.org or newmixes.com. These fit nicely on any number of portable MP3 players.

I could now tell you how I began producing my own songs (cf. http://drew.maustsontoast.com) or how I once djed live on Marshall University’s college radio station, but my Facebook Friends mixes I posted on Facebook the end of last year probably bespeak my continued EDM affections.

What I Like about EDM

It’s structured. Most people don’t realize the highly structured production of EDM and therefore lose respect for it. Thinking that EDM lacks structure is utterly fallacious, except those genres that strive to be more abstract and avant-garde, but let me assure you that they’re the exception not the rule.

Most EDM is built around 32 count bars. That’s 8 bars of 4. Tune into AH.fm and starting counting (on beat) to 32 when you hear a cymbal crash. When you reach 1 again, you’ll likely hear another cymbal crash or a new part of the song entering or exiting. This structure is imperative to what EDM considers all-important: mixing, transitioning one track into another seamlessly. This seamless flow is the environment djs like Armin van Buuren are paid the big bucks to recreate in any number of clubs on just about every night of the week. This is also the feel you’ll get from most Internet radio stations when you stream them over your computer. I love it!

Secondly, the fact that EDM is danceable is a plus. How are you supposed to dance to Matchbox 20? You’re not! But Ferry Corsten’s Punk is major on the dance floor.

Thirdly, most EDM is incredibly rhythmic and harmonious. Sounds playing off sounds. Percussion. Melody. Harmony. Bass. More bass.

Fourthly, it’s uplifiting. Yeh, I find it positive and encouraging (unless of course you’re listening to GOA or Psy-trance).

You Listen to No Christian Music?

False. I love Duke Chapel Choir’s podcast, choral music in general, Leeland, Flame, Lecrae, Trip Lee, Keith and Kristyn Getty, and oddly enough, (usually) Hillsong.

What Were You Listening to When You Wrote This?

friskyRadio @ friskyradio.com

What Should I Do to Start Listening to EDM?

Go to DI.fm and click through all the stations to get a feel for what EDM has to offer. You never knew it was such an umbrella term until you’ve actually listened!

Peep the embedded player for a preview of the goods.

A second one-of-the-best-things-about-Christmastime is the theology inescapably present in carols. All of sudden glitzy starlets turn from singing the praises of their many paramours to the glories of the advent of the Christ child. In so doing the themes of sin, judgment, reconciliation, true peace, salvation, redemption, and God’s provision fill the airwaves for the season until we’ve gotten what we wanted from under the tree and can tuck these confronting, blatantly Christian topics away into the attic with all our Christmas decor. Out of sight, out of mind.

The theology present in carols highlights a difference between Christianity and Islam to which I would like to draw your attention. Tonight as I listened to the mellifulously sopranic voice of Celine declare over the radio for all of North America to hear Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever I was struck by the ineffective nature of her otherwise decidely Christian confession. Let the reader recall the somewhat infamous martyrdom of Polycarp at which time he was called upon to declare Kurios Caesar (“Caesar is Lord”) but rather than choosing to deny his Lord replied securely Kurios Iesous (“Jesus is Lord”). This is the most basic Christian confession. Indeed at the church I attend the baptized are asked “What is your confession?” to which the expected response is “Jesus is Lord.” However, much to my chagrin, there is reason to believe that Celine Dion along with the company of fifty plus artists who have recorded this carol in singing out “Christ is the Lord!” are not making heart-felt, Spirit-induced confessions of the lordship of Jesus of Nazareth.

In Christianity, just saying the words is not what renders a confession effectual. Yes, Paul affirms in Romans 10:9 that “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” But Jesus’ words in John 6:44 are also true “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” This is not to deter anyone from Christianity or from turning to Christ for the forgiveness of sins; but to deter a flippant confession by which one might expect to be saved apart from the work of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:3). This then is where the difference between Christianity and Islam emerges.

The Shahada

Al-Islam.org in a section entitled If You Decide to Convert outlines what it takes to become a Muslim:

Ash hadoo an laa ilaahaa ilallaah [I bear witness that there is no god but Allah (one god)]

Ash hadoo anna Muhammadan Rasoollallah (I bear witness that Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah).

If you state those two things with belief and conviction, you are Muslim.

Unlike Christianity, in Islam there is a magic formula, the Shahada, whereby one becomes Muslim upon declaration in Arabic. Later on in the above-linked article the new convert is advised:

When you get the chance, meet with someone who already knows the prayer and they can help you with the Arabic and little details, God willing.

Help with the Arabic seems a most important step. In Christianity, however, each hearer of the gospel is invited to respond by turning to God through Christ in prayer in their heart language and in their own words in faith, for he is not merely God of one tribe, tongue or nation alone, but the high king of heaven around whose throne peoples from all nations will gather.

Caroling Doesn’t Save

Christmastime is therefore not an automatic in-gathering of carolers but a season during which each listener gains another precious opportunity to take in the glories of God in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). Each season gives the gospel another spin on the record players and over the airwaves only to be ignored and superficially melodically enjoyed. Were this a time during which the Shahada filled the airwaves set to infectiously hum-worthy tunes we might all awake on Boxing Day Muslims!

1. Upon recommendation I bought Flame’s latest album entitled Our World Redeemed. Amazing Christian rap. I especially like the last track, Joyful Noise, and number seven, Hold On. Deeply and richly biblical. Powerful.
2. Dr. Russell Moore presented a very moving treatise against abortion from the first chapters of the Gospel of Matthew in Southern Seminary chapel on October 16 entitled “Joseph Is a Single-Issue Evangelical: The Father of Jesus, the Cries of the Helpless, and Change You Can Believe In.” Definitely worth your time. Download the MP3.
3. Al Mohler just today preached a very timely message here in Southeastern chapel on How Not to Raise a Pagan from Deuteronomy 6. Listen to the MP3 or watch the video (MP4). Your children need to know that “God kills people.”
4. On the latest edition of The White Horse Inn Dr. Michael Horton and company give unique Election Coverage. No mention of Obama or McCain here; only the biblical concept of election presented from a decidedly reformed standpoint with plenty of helpful discussion.
5. If you listen to nothing else from this list, download the interview with Burl Cain, Warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, on The Drew Marshall Show. The testimony of the power of the gospel to transform lives that is taking place right now at this prison in Louisiana will astound you. It could only be God.

Powerful lyrics from Lecrae:

See your money your singleness marriage talent yo time
they were loaned to you to show the world that Christ is divine
that’s why it’s Christ in my rhymes
that’s why it’s Christ all the time

See my whole world is built around him He’s the life in our lives
I refused to waste my life
He’s too true ta chase that ice
Here’s my gifts and time cause I’m constantly trying to be used to praise the Christ
If he’s truly raised to life
then this news should change your life
and by his grace you can put your faith in place that rules the days and nights.

Read the entire lyrics.

photo credit: Mc Morr

Charles Latham in his antifolk song My Perfect Church offers this bit of truth-in-jesting cynicism concerning spirituality:

I pray from my toilet seat, “Make my holy life complete”

My god hears me when I speak, can yours say the same? My god lets me have my way, I can pray for it not to rain today, I can chant cars off the motor way when I’m late for work. My god grants financial miracles and the rules are always flexible, my god watches my vehicles when they’re parked in the street.

My perfect church is built only for one: where I am the priest and the congregation, my one regret is that no one can come, it’s gonna be awful lonely in this private heaven.

My god likes human sacrafise, his services demand a price and mine’s the only blood he likes, no virgin’s will do. He can’t heal me should I go blind, he can’t burn a bush or absolve my crimes, he can’t turn my water into wine but he can point me to the bar.

My perfect church is built only for one, where I alone experience salvation. My one regret is that no one can come; it’s gonna be awful lonely in this private heaven.

He gives me no creation myth, the commandments end with the fifth, the prophesies are pretty hit or miss but I don’t give a damn because every day’s a holy day and you can’t work on a holy day, my god wants me at home to pray, begging for more things.

My perfect church is built only for one, where I am the priest and the congregation, my one regret is that no one can come, it’s gonna be awful lonely in this private heaven.

There’s an MP3 of the song available on what looks to be a legit (i.e., not illegal) site.