Jesus, Jesus

This year a friend of mine introduced me to the artist Derek Webb.  The more I listen to him the more I like him as a songwriter and artist.  I have a deep love for music and what can be communicated through this form of art. 

In "Mere Christianity" C.S. Lewis discusses the biblical imagery of harps in heaven.  He says that "Musical instruments are mentioned because for many people (not all) music is the thing known in the present life which most strongly suggests ecstasy and infinity."

For myself, music is something that can bring powerful words to life.  Lyrics are a big deal to me.  (This is why I struggle to worship when a song played at church consists of individualistic lyrics or a simple "oh" for an extended period of time).  Derek Webb has used his lyrics in a brilliant way.  He often has a point to make and (I truly believe) his desire is to encourage the church to strive for a more biblical outlook. We are flawed human beings and these days our churches can easily consist of several post-modern concepts that don’t necessarily have anything to do with what the Bible commands.  These are just things we need to be careful of.  This is one of the things that Derek Webb uses music to communicate about.  

Today I was searching for the meaning behind the song "Heaven" from Webb's Stockholm Syndrome album. From my understanding, this is a song written to call out our often misinterpreted, worldly idea of heaven. Webb basically says that if heaven was this way (a big party with our friends) it wouldn’t be very different from earth.  We would continue to have divisions between one other and even Christ.  While looking for the meaning behind this song I stumbled upon this:

 http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Evils%20in%20America/CCM/derek_webb.htm 

Basically this is an article dissing Webb and attempting to argue (weakly) that Derek Webb is leading people astray, does not know the Gospel, etc, etc.  I did not make it through the whole article due to the frustration and anger that I was beginning to feel towards the person who wrote these things.  I stopped reading at this quote regarding another artist “[she is] a big phony and a disgrace to the name of Christ.” Can a person created by God no matter how sinful ever be a disgrace to the name of Christ? Sure a person can (and we all do) do things that disgrace his name. However, to label a person themselves as a disgrace seems to be an extremely ironic claim.  To call God’s creation a disgrace is a way of disgracing his name, in my opinion.

This brings me to another of Webb’s songs entitled “Freddy Please”.  This song is addressed to Fred Phelps who is an advocate of Westboro Baptist Church. 

Webb sings (in the form of Jesus speaking to Fred):

“How could you tell them you love me

when you hate me,

Freddie, please?”

“Cause Freddie can’t you see,
brother, you’re the one who’s queer?

And the stone’s been rolled away
but you’re picketing my grave
for loving the things you hate.”

This leads me to my final point.  These things break my heart, these things upset me greatly, these things are unjust! These behaviors cause Christians like Derek Webb to write songs like “Freddie Please” and artists such as Noah Gundersen to write beautifully tragic songs such as this.

So the final thing I want to say is specifically for any non-Christian readers (and I hope there are some) and those who are believers, but have been hurt greatly by the church.  Think of a doctor.  You might go to see a doctor and he might be a bad doctor.  He might prescribe a fix that does more harm than good.  Because of this you switch doctors, but your next doctor is no better (he may even be worse).  Does this mean you give up on the entire concept of medicine, medical care and treatment, surgery, etc.  Does this mean you begin to believe that no form of medical care has ever saved or helped anyone? I see this in the same way as I see the church and how it has hurt others.  The people of the church have hurt others.  We are flawed and all terribly wicked and I apologize for the horrible things we have done to disgrace Christ's name.  However, just because people have made great mistakes does not mean that the entire concept of Christianity (and Christ himself) should be associated with hate, legalism, homophobia, hypocrisy, etc.  This is far from the gospel of Christ and what Jesus said and did.  I hope this makes sense and puts things into a new perspective for those who read!