National Public Radio consistently projects what we may fairly call a secular point of view. There’s nothing which feels quite so secular as listening to NPR on a Sunday morning. All Things Considered, the long running evening news magazine is a liberal broadcast which few conservatives can resist. Years ago near Christmas I was listening to ATC when a woman commentator shared the challenge of being Jewish in America at Christmas. I wish I could remember her name. What she said was cordial and insightful. As she wrapped it up she conceded wistfully that Christmas had quite simply inspired the greatest music in the history of the world. That admission contained a sigh and a signal.
Even Richard Dawkins (who succeeded Bertrand Russell and Madalyn Murray O’Hair as the world’s most famous atheist) has admitted to being a "cultural Christian." The foundation for so startling a confession.? He found the singing of English Christmas carols to be irresistible. There is a truth and power in music whose source is not yet fully comprehended. Music is the registry of an unarticulated native reality. The power of music offered in praise suggests that though God’s truth can be denied the beauty which radiates from that truth cannot go unadmired. Music which praises God’s majesty reflects God's majesty. The music of Christmas, like the message of Christmas resonates with something deeper than the mere recognition of excellence.
As thinkers like H R Rookmaaker, Calvin Seerveld and Jeremy Begbie have taken pains to point out there is an undeniable conncection between aesthetics and apologetics. By apologetics we mean the effort to substantiate the truth claims of Christianity by the marshalling of evidence. That effort necessarily involves the refutation of error.
Where are the hymns of the cults?
If they exist I’m sure they are not worth singing. That the world is fallen means that much which is unspeakable proceeds apparently unabated. But God has drawn a line in some places. Let’s face it ,the world has produced powerful and appealing music which may be sensual, romantic, patriotic, or whimsical. But God’s sovereign providence has not allowed a corresponding volume of appealing music to be produced in the service of false worship.
Nowhere does the superiority of Christian music show itself more dramatically than in the music of Christmas. The season does not adorn the theology. The theology adorns the season. The traditions are invested with beauty and wonder by the augmentation of historical reality.
Christmas happened in Bethlehem .
Angels announced it.
Shepherds found it.
Magi searched for it.
Herod feared it.
The facts sound prosaic enough but when we respond to the facts reverently the music and poetry begin to flow. The thing becomes first luminous, then overwhelming.
We offer a bit of the Bach 'Magnificat' as Exhibit A.
After which I rest my case.
When we hear this news can anyone keep from singing?
Richard Dawkins could not.
Nor can I.
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2 comments:
I was praying today during Lessons and Carols that Christ would be revealed by the beauty of the music even if my ESL students couldn't understand the words. I've been working on an essay about being in the choir and will be quoting from this post, if you don't mind.
For all of the pleasure (made possible by our Creator) that beautiful music has brought me, particularly Christian music, it was a bit ironic to discover a few years ago that acapella song was the norm in church gatherings throughout much of Church History (particularly in Protestantism). During that time choirs, organs and the like were largely unheard of.
That discovery forced me to look at the whole matter of "worship styles" in a new light.
When considering the value of any activity that is a part of our liturgy, should we be asking ourselves these questions? Does that element of the service direct our thoughts towards God or distract us from Him? Is the physical and sensual part of our natures primarily engaged by what happens, or is our spirit and intellect affected by what is taking place? To what extent does our appreciation of the activity depend on its aesthetic appeal? Or does that portion of the service promote those deep-seated, TIMELESS responses to God-the object of our worship-which are universally common to Christians: adoration, awe, fascination, humbleness, contrition and gratitude?
As C. S. Lewis has said in his “Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer”, Letter 1), "It looks as if they [clergymen] believed people can be lured to church [and to Christ, should I add?] by incessant brightenings, lightenings, lengthenings, abridgements, simplifications, and complications of the service... Novelty, simply as such, can have only an entertainment value. And they don't go to church to be entertained... The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God. But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshipping. The important question about the Grail was "for what does it serve?" "'Tis mad idolatry that makes the service greater than the god."
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