Pro-creative. In a non-sexy way.
michael’s pretty interesting links
Yep. I’m preaching again on Sunday.
This week’s topic, “God is Good … So why is everything so f’d up?” I’ll probably modify the title by Sunday.
A little help please?
Next in series: God is Good, Good, Good. Mostly.
(NOTE: Some of you already saw this on Facebook. I really wanted to post this here instead, but the server was just going nuts the last few days, so I couldn’t. These kind of thinky thoughts totally belong at the Roadhouse, not on that trashy whore Facebook.)
If you took Intro to Music Tech from me in a previous semester, the class probably started out with my patented “You all suck at music, and will likely end up working at Walmart” speech. While I stand by that speech, and think that it is largely true (especially for you, Brandon), I feel as though it may have set the wrong tone for my class.
Instead, this year, I gave a different speech. Addison Road-ites will notice several recurring themes from my posts here, wrapped up in a tidy 5 minutes diatribe on Music and Technology.
So here it is: my opening speech to the incoming freshmen.
Music is vast. It is so much bigger than you think it is. It covers more things, runs deeper, any grasp you have on it is always too small. It will always be bigger than your experience in it.
Music is vast. I call myself a musician, and in the last 4 months that has meant playing keyboards for a national commercial, writing a modern composition for trumpet, piano, and laptop, conducting a choral recording session for another piece I wrote, playing keyboards live for 100 awesome fans at Hotel Cafe, teaching a younger player how to set a tap-delay for a guitar tone, leading worship, singing backing vocals on a demo, writing two songs for a musical, and playing piano for a bad j-pop album. All of those things are music. That’s just one summer, for one person, and you should all know that I am nowhere near the top of the heap when it comes to this industry. Other people are doing far more work than I am. But all of that is music.
Music is vast. It runs deep. It reaches out and strikes the soul, and the whole body resonates on that pitch. It reminds us, like nothing else can, that we are more than meat and bone, more than dust. We are the breath of God, created in His image, and just as he sang the world into being, we create in imitation of Him. We are the immortal echo of the eternal, living for just a little while in these clay jars, and music reminds us who we are. If you haven’t ever felt that, then I honestly have no idea why you’re here.
Music is vast, and it is shared. Music is the exchange of ideas. Melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo, vibe, tone, tension, resolution – music is about the trading back and forth of ideas. And language is, frankly, a very bad tool for exchanging ideas about music. There’s a quote, attributed to Frank Zappa but probably not his, that says, “Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.”
Technology is the ink and paper of music. It is our best tool for exchanging ideas. If you have ideas worth sharing, and again I don’t know why you’re here unless you do, then technology is you best tool for capturing and sharing those ideas.
My goal is not to turn you into geeks and nerds; that will happen on its own. My goal is to turn you into musicians. That means being fluent in the language of music, which is, increasingly, the language of music technology. My goal is to help you learn to use technology so well that it lets you do what you really want to do, which is music. The technology should be transparent, it has to get out of the way, and let you be a musician.
Music is vast. It is broad and it is deep, and it’s way to early in your musical lives to start defining yourself in narrow ways. Don’t say, “I am this, not this” or “I do this, not this”. You have no idea yet who or what you can and will be. Be big! Be curious, be broad, be deep, be soul-ish and magnificent. Everything else in this world will conspire to make you small – don’t be complicit! Resist the urge to define yourself in small ways.
Be a musician. Be vast.
Go here, listen to “Names that Fell” on the media player. Love this guy’s sound. There’s a wind up / grind about 60 seconds in that will get your feet tapping and your head swaying. Zack Williams is gonna be my muse this week.
Kyrie Yeshua
Even over death?
What of death come early?
death come in the midst of life
and passing by the body
and passing in echos
into every part of life
These echos of death
are theft of joy
and bind us too closely to feet of clay
These echos of death
make sharp our tooth and claw
to rip from the earth our daily meat
These echos of death
make me selfish
and base
and cold
and mean
they cause me to betray my sacred birthright
These echos of death
wrap fetid hand across the mouth of
breath of God and dragging down
make silent what should be
our chorused song of hope
Even over this death?
This death come in the midst of life?
Here’s the audio from today’s message (not sure if the audio player is working, so I’ll just put a download link.
Faith … and Doubt (sermon audio)
If you don’t want to listen to the whole thing, here’s the outline:
If you want the full experience (minus the actual experience!), you can download everything here:
Faith … and Doubt (manuscript)
Faith … and Doubt (keynote presentation)
Previous in series: 7 Days of Doubt
I’m reading Matthew Henry’s commentary on John 20, and he makes an observation that I hadn’t noticed before. In the “Doubting Thomas” story, 8 days pass between Thomas’ proclamation of doubt, and Jesus reappearance to confirm his resurrection. Henry’s interpretation is that the delay serves as a kind of rebuke to Thomas.
That’s not what struck me, though. Thomas basically calls the disciples fools, and says “Someone has duped you, but not me.” And yet, when the story picks up 8 days later, Thomas is hanging out with the 12 (11 at this point, sans Judas). He’s still part of the community, still in the fellowship. Imagine what those 8 days must have been like! What else would the other disciples be talking about, apart from the resurrection? It had to have been the topic at every meal, every gathering. The resurrection, what it meant, what they should be planning for the future. I wonder if, when the week had passed, Thomas had begun to hope that it was true, if he was prepared to believe it, or if he become cynical in the face of their foolish (to him) faith.
I like the precedent that this sets for the church and those of us who are doubters in her midst. There is space for puzzling through, without breaking fellowship.
Previous in series: Digital Art Photos
Next in series: From Descartes to Indiana Jones
A week from this Sunday, Chad and Erica will be leading worship at our little dutch chapel in Orange County, and I will be bringing the bible-thumping fiery rhetoric from the pulpit. You should definitely come check it out. Or, if not, you should at least help me plan my message.
I think I’m going to talk about the third rail of the life of faith: doubt.
Here, let me make it a little spookier:
DOUBT!
Topics on the table:
Doubting Thomas
Mother Theresa
Mark 9:24
So – hit me. If you had to put a percentage on is, what’s the ratio of belief to doubt for the things in your personal creed? How influential is the belief of others in reinforcing your belief? Do you feel the freedom to express honest doubt about fundamental things (scripture, resurrection, omnipotence) when you’re in the company of other believers? And most importantly, Doug, will I still have a job waiting when I get back? For that matter, Phil, will I still have a job waiting when I come before the faith interrogation high council?
Next in series: Digital Art Photos
Disclaimer: My thoughts on the following topic are not my most articulate. Please do not throw tomoatoes.
On New Year’s Day, a white BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) police officer fatally shot a black man after a fight had broken out. On Wednesday night, riots in Oakland destroyed the businesses of, ironically, black people.
The officer who shot the bullet resigned his position just before he was otherwise required to issue a statement. One of many theories is that he thought he was reaching for his gun-shaped tazer.
My heart breaks for everyone. The victims and the shooter. When I read that dozens of clergy were willing to meet with the officer, I thought, That is a step in the right direction. That guy needs some love.
Then I read that the clergy were outraged with him, “demanding answers”. At that point, they were no longer “clergy” to me. I could not distinguish them from “everybody else”.
One of my earthly heroes is Sister Helen Prejean. She came to speak at St. Mary’s College when I was a student there, and she revolutionized the way I think about our justice system. One idea she has shared is: “The only way I know what I really believe is by keeping watch over what I do.” She is beautifully and artfully able to entwine herself in complicated and tragic situations, loving the victims and the accused. In my heart, she has earned the title “clergy”. Clergy love.
An atheist ex-pat from Malawi writes about how important Evangelical missionaries are to the future of Africa. Not just the work they do, but what they believe. I read it from a position of ignorance, but I hope that he is right. Looking forward to discussing this with my brother-in-law Scott, a missionary in Tanzania.
Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.
used to avoid this truth by applauding – as you can – the practical work of mission churches in Africa. It’s a pity, I would say, that salvation is part of the package, but Christians black and white, working in Africa, do heal the sick, do teach people to read and write; and only the severest kind of secularist could see a mission hospital or school and say the world would be better without it. I would allow that if faith was needed to motivate missionaries to help, then, fine: but what counted was the help, not the faith.
But this doesn’t fit the facts. Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock. This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing.
Read the rest of the article here.
I know some the folks who hang out here have some unique insight into this issue, and I’d love to hear it.
What an absurd celebration we have embraced to remember the incarnation.
We celebrate by filling up. Calendars, full. CD players, full. Gift lists, full. Credit cards, full. Belly, full. Every moment of this season is dedicated, months in advance, to being filled up. Not all of the filling up things are bad things – time with friends and family are good things, gifts given out of selflessness and friendship are always a good thing.
But taken all-together, the result is a season that is every moment filled up, without a second to breathe, and no time to think or reflect.
What an absurd way to celebrate the incarnation. I wish we could push all of that to Easter, the great celebration. Let’s move our Lenten fast to Christmas, and celebrate the incarnation by imitation.
Who, being in very substance God, did not consider his divine prerogatives as things to be gripped tightly, but emptied himself. Made himself nothing. Humbled himself.
This is the Christmas story that has captured me. The folding down of the divine person into the frail and corruptible human story, the setting aside of every perfect glory to take up this mundane flesh. All the redeeming that is to come begins in that moment.
Christmas is the great emptying out.
Previous in series: 10 Days of Christmas: Of The Father’s Love Begotten
Next in series: 10 Days of Christmas: Mary Ponders