By the Waters of Babylon

Lent, my favorite time of the year, is quickly approaching. I think I love the season of Lent so much because it places my sin, my weakness, my mortality, and my deep need for God at the forefront of my mind. The fasting inconveniences my life and challenges me to think of God at every turn and helps the increased devotional reading pierce my soul in ways it normally wouldn't.

I really do love Lent because it prepares me for Easter and helps me to clearly see my God. I think there may be no greater travesty among Protestants than the slow removal of Lent from our calendars.

During seminary while I attended St. Athanasius Orthodox Church I heard one of the most wonderfully piercing Lenten hymns I've ever experienced. This hymn brings me to tears every time I hear it because it reminds me of deep ravine that separates who I am from what I am called to become by the grace of God. I was reminded about this hymn today on an Orthodox blog that I often read - Glory to God for All Things. This is the blog of Fr. Stephen Freeman and it is a wonderful wealth of wisdom and spirituality.

The hymn that I'm talking about is "By the Waters of Babylon" and is based on Psalm 137. Here is are a few of the lyrics re-posted from Fr. Stephen's post (here).

By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. Alleluia.
We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. Alleluia.
For there they that had taken us captive required of us a song;
and they that had carried us away required of us a hymn, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. Alleluia.
How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? Alleluia.
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten. Alleluia.
If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem as my chief joy. Alleluia.

How does this Psalm bespeak of Lent? It tells of the exile of Jerusalem and how they chose to worship God even when they were separated and driven from the true place they belonged. It reminds us of our condition that we meditate strongly on during Lent - that we too are exiled. We must keep our hope, we must continue to sing the Lord's song even in this strange land.

So let us prepare ourselves for this Lenten journey. Let us ready ourselves that we might truly embrace the fast and let us sing the Lord's song even as we remember our sin, our mortality, and our exile from Eden.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

- Ben

If you're interested there is a great Lenten "pastoral note" by Fr. Justin Paterson at the top of the St. Athanasius web-page (here). You can also scroll down if you are interested in learning more about Eastern Christian fasting practices during Lent.

Great Minds Think Alike

Apparently I'm not the only one with thoughts along the line of my last post. Check out my friend Isaac's blog post (here). He takes a slightly different approach in that he's more calm and probably nicer about it, but either way here is a slightly different perspective on the same issue.

And I don't think he read my post before he wrote his.

Enjoy.

- Ben

Why I don't Like Protestant Worship Music

I'm trying to catch up on some reading for classes so I can't write a long post, but I wanted to jot down this thought before I got distracted.

For my independent study I've been reading the second volume of Jaroslav Pelikan's wonderful church history set entitled The Rise of Eastern Christendom. Since Pelikan's work chronicles the history of theology and thoughts I am finding that it's a moderately heavy read, especially given that even at seminary many of these historical concepts have not been taught to me.

Today I was reading about the Nestorian, Jacobite, and Monophysite heresies and on the hypostatis of Christ. Since Pelikan quotes from so many primary sources (something that is often missing in many church histories) I found myself getting a little confused concerning the hypostasis of Christ and what orthodox doctrine taught. Instead of turning to wikipedia or another source that would of taken a lot more time to find some resolution I remembered that there is an ancient hymn of pascha that briefly discusses the hypostasis of Christ. Since I had my ipod on me I decided to turn to the music of the church to teach me the orthodox way and bring about clarity of thought.

Granted the hymn isn't a treatise, but I wasn't looking for a treatise, I was merely looking for a quick answer as to how many hypostates Christ has. This is when I realized that I was able to articulate one of the many reasons I don't like Protestant worship music - namely, that I don't like to guess and check when it comes to the doctrine conveyed within my church music.

Due to the plethora of music in protestantism and the constant desire to update the music I find that one cannot trust the theology that is conveyed in much of it. In strict juxtaposition to this is the music that is sung at the Orthodox church I currently attend. When I hear the hymns of the Orthodox church I am sure that what is being taught is theologically in-line with the 7 ecumenical creeds of the church. I don't have to guess if I'm being taught something heretical because the songs have been tried by church and found fitting to be used in the worship of the Holy Trinity.

Sure, there may be some great assets to protestant music, but as a whole it is theologically vapid and emotive to a fault. While it is always good to asses and think about what is being sung in worship, I think that having to constantly analyze and wonder if the music is teaching correct doctrine is counterproductive to the church service. The music of the church should be filled with dogmatically correct theology and should be able to be used as a basis for the lay person to refute or accept notions of the divine. One can very easily argue that our theology in protestantism is weak because we do not sing it and we do not sing it because it is weak. This cycle is a disastrous one that is hurting the church and leading people into ignorance of the divine. How can we, expect to truly become partakers of the Divine essence (2Pet 1.4) if we do not even know God as he has revealed himself to us?

I fear I'm approaching a tangent so I will conclude now. If the reason I set out to articulate wasn't clear above let me sum up. Part of my aversion to Protestant worship music is that it has no substance and that which it tries to pass as substance is often near heretical if not blatantly so. The songs of the church should be those which have been tried by years of reflection and should be able to be used as concise creedal statements of belief that will plant the deep truths of the faith into the hearts of clergy and lay persons alike.


May the faith grow deep within you all

- Ben

Reading from morning devotions

The last few days (maybe a week or so) I've been reading/singing through a hymnal along with my other disciplines. I find this to be absolutely enlightening. Most of the time i just flip page by page until I see a hymn I know and I sing it, but occasionally a title will catch my eye and I'll read it and meditate on the words. That's what happened today, a title caught my eye after singing like 4 hymns and I started to read the words. The words really spoke to me so I thought that I would share them on here. The hymn may reveal my charismatic/mystical biases, but I'm in good company because after I was done I looked at who wrote it and realized it was Charles Wesley.

Come, Holy Ghost, Our Hearts Inspire
by Charles Wesley - pg 131 in the 1966 Methodist Hymnal

Come, Holy Ghost, our hearts inspire, Let us thine influence prove:
Source of the old prophetic fire, Fountain of life and love.

Come, Holy Ghost, for moved by thee The prophets wrote and spoke;
Unlock the truth, thyself the key, Unseal the sacred book.

Expand thy wings, celestial Dove, Brood o'er our nature's night;
On our disordered spirits move, and let there now be light.

God, through himself, we then shall know If thou within us shine,
And sound with all thy saints below, the depths of love divine. Amen.

I don't want to sound overly preachy, but we truly need the move of the Holy Spirit in our dead western Christendom. His move is not just for the charismatics or the pentecostals. No, the whole church is to be driven by the "celestial dove," we should expect to see the evidences of the Holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God in our churches as we earnestly pursue God. We should be actively moving in and practicing the gifts that are given to the church for the edification of believers.

I would write more but I'm off to lunch with my Pastor, and no we're not going to study the Purpose Driven Life (see post below entitled: "an email I sent a few people the other day.” if you're confused). I guess since I have to go, my ranting and raving will have to be saved for another day, but fear not, it will come.