5 . 3 . 21
Contemporary worship music is often banal. No matter the content, the form by itself trivializes what takes place in the liturgy. We keep trying to put asunder what God has joined together medium and message, form and content but invariably the divorce does not end well.
I’ll never forget when our kids came home with a new song they had learned at school:
I say Pharaoh, Pharaoh
Huh! Yeah, yeah, yeah
Don’t be too hard on the song. It at least keeps together what belongs together form and content. The simplicity of the tune and the part-sensual, part-infantile body motions suit the song’s utter vacuity.
Worshipping with Thomas | Hans Boersma
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Loving with Mary | Hans Boersma
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Following John | Hans Boersma
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3 . 8 . 21
Lent is a good time to think about COVID-19. Both bring suffering. True, Christ’s passion on the cross infinitely exceeds the turmoil, hardship, and death of the pandemic. But Christ’s suffering is what allows us to make sense of our suffering, and there’s a direct tie between our response to COVID hardships and our reaction to the cross of Christ.
Squabbles and conflicts on COVID-related issues have mutated and spread as fast and pervasively as the illness itself. Bioweapon or bat-spawned virus? Pandemic or flu-like sickness? Virtual consecration, drive-by communion, or flouting the rules? Open up or lock down? Yea or nay to the jab? I have views (some of them held passionately) on each of these topics, but the blogosphere has exhausted them, and I won’t here add fuel to the fire.