brick-a-brack 040512

• James McGrath shares this little chesnut:

• Mike Aubrey discusses tense and aspect and how they relate to time in Greek grammar.
• John Byron discusses Philemon and the role letter carriers had in antiquity.
• Darrell Pursiful points us to three fascinating posts about that liberal Bible critic John Calvin
• And Frank Ritchie shares this cracking version of Robert Plant singing Satan your kingdom must come down,

 

Things I Know Nothing About: A Theology Student's Song

I wrote this a few years ago when I was a student and thought some of my readers might enjoy it.

If you like it then you might want to like my Jonathan Robinson (Music) page on Facebook and keep up with my other musical offerings as they appear.

Cover Version Redaction Criticism

So the first time I encountered this song was in a youtube clip shared on facebook by my friend Dale.  It is most notable for the extremely creative way 5 people (Walk off the Earth) are playing just one guitar simultaneously.  I have seen and even particpated in 2 people playingone guitar but five is pretty special.  As far as I know that was a first?  The girl is playing diads on the top, the long haired dude is playing the melody around her, and the guy next to him plays the bass line on the low E (top) string. Of the remaining two, fresh face plays percussion and hat+beard strum the strings above the nut. It is a cool song, but the unusual mode of delivery tends to overshadow the song. 
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Then Nick Norelli linked to this video, by an a cappella group called Pentatonix.  This is another nice arrangement, with impressive beat boxing and gorgeous harmonies.  Notable consistency between the versions is the lyrics and bass line, the lyrics pass between a male and female singer and the bass line remains the same.  There is also a guy with a beard and a beanie standing on the far right with a strange expression on his face in both versions. So one might posit that we could expect to find these characteristics in the original. 

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So after some digging on youtube I found this live version by the original artist.  Interestingly while the lyrics, girl guy exchange and bass line are consistent across versions, the original does not have a guy with a beard and beanie, standing on the right, or indeed anywhere on camera.  I would therefore posit that this development happened during the period of the first cover version perhaps due to the great wooly hat controversy that may have been raging at that time.  What we can see is that the original guy in a beard actual is on the right and wears not a beanie but a pair of headphones denoting status.  In the cover versions, however, the guy with the beard has been moved and given a wooly hat, denoting homelessness and an uncompromising right wing ideology.  We can see in these cover versions a clear example of the marginalisation and mockery of bearded men as part of the anti-beard culture which became prevalent in the music community early last year.  Thus the original message and purpose of the song has been subtly corrupted despite many features remaining otherwise undisturbed.

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Words and Music: Kate Tempest

For those of your interested in the spoken word as performance, here is some really powerful Shakespe inspired poetry by Kate Tempest which was posted on Billy Braggs FB page.


"What we came after" by Kate Tempest from RSC Sound & Fury on Vimeo.

She is new to me but apparently fronts a really interesting band The Sound of Rum, if the idea of a north London girl rapping left wing politics over trip hop and Jazz beats doesn't inspire you, then you probably haven't heard it yet.





Let me know what you think :-)

New Single, Whales, by Great North

My friend and fellow blogger Dale, also plays in a band, and this is their new single, enjoy,
(by the way don't move your mouse for a few seconds after pressing play and you will see a rather natty little visualisation)

Worship Thoughts

The church in North America lives too much by borrowing and creating nostalgic moments; too much of our worship events are media-driven uses of nostalgia to create moments of personal experience in a crowd of strangers.  Too little does it live into the memory of its story; it is largely forgotten by most who come to church buildings looking for moments of spiritual engagement to resource the thinness of their disembedded, fragmented lives. 

Roxburgh and Boren, Introducing the Missional Church, 2009, p61

You might also be interested in this interesting review of a David Crowder worship conference, and/or some good advice about geting really good at something.

#300! A best of blog . . .

This is my 300th post on Xenos. Too celebrate this milestone I have collected one of the better posts from each lot of 50.  It's interesting to see how the blog has changed over time.  It started of when I thought I knew a lot, having just finished my undergrad studies.  Now I know a lot less, coming to the end of my research degree. :-) Thanks to everyone who has contributed, interacted, and read it.  As I come to the end of my MTh degree it will be interesting to see how the blog develops, whether it gets more attention (due to no looming deadlines) or less (due to no dealines causing procrastination reflex).  Eitherway, I'm looking forward to the next 300 and hope you'll join me on the journey.  :-)

A reflection on 1 Samuel from Dec 2008 
I used to do more of these kind of devotional readings of the OT.  Will have to get back into the habit.
As sermon about the ethiopian eunuch from March 2009
This sermon works best delivered whilst holding two rocks suitable for crushing testicles and grinding them together whenever you talk about the eunuch's experience (but not on any actual testicles).
A critique of Charles Stanley's preaching from June 2009
This was a cheap shot, an easy target, but gets heaps of hits, and got me called "a muslim."  Whoever wrote that was probably misguided enought to think it was an insult.  I would like to do some more critiques of TV preachers, but really life is too short to sit through that drivel. Maybe one day...
A reflection on why bad music is good from Sept 2009
One of the regretably few anecdotes I have about my missionary/pastor grandfather inspired these thoughts about music.
Some biblical contradictions explored in Nov 2009
This was the first post linked to by one of the mega-blogs, whch saw a massive spike in hits to the blog . . . for that post only.  Then I learned, getting people to come to your blog once was no guarantee that they would return.
A first stab at a theology of scripture in Dec 2009
A subject dear to my heart and something I still feel contemporary Christians are all at sea about.  This post is hardly a life boat, but it is perhaps a first lesson in doggy paddle?
An coversation about vengeance and the gospel in March 2010
Sometimes my dander just gets up and I have to stick my oar in.  This was one of those times.It doesn't mean I think i'm right, it just means i'm agitated.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

bad music is better

My Grandfather was a missionary in India back in the days before independence. He would treck around the place taking services and preaching. In some of the churches he went to they might not have a pianist able to lead the singing, in which case he would do double duty and play the piano as well. After one particular service a lady approached my grandad and said, "well, I guess it is better to have bad music than no music at all!" My grandfather never played the piano again.

Apart from being a salutary lesson about the power of unkind comments I also think the lady's statement was somehow missing the point completely. CS Lewis remarks in God in the Dock (p61-2) that when he became a Christian he was at first appalled by the "sixth rate" music and terrible singing that he found in churches. He soon worked out though that the point of the music wasn't whether or not it was good, but whether or not it was being used for true devotion towards God.

In this way it is in fact better to have bad music than good music in church. When the music is good, you might be mistaken into thinking that you were there to enjoy the music, or that the music was somehow the point of the exercise, or even that the music was glorifying God on your behalf. When it is bad there can be no mistaking that those who join in are more concerned with worshipping God than enjoying music.

The popular notion that churches with great music will atract people is of course true, they will attract people towards music. Churches with great devotion to God, however, will attract people to devotion to God.

Of course all this comes undone when the bad music is actually the result of the musicians picking inappropriate songs, not rehearsing properly, not bothering to learn their instruments to an adequate standard, or general laziness. The attitude of 'it's only church' is as antithetical to worship as the attitude 'the music must be perfect.'

Sometimes I dream of a church without music...

How to resuscitate the guy who killed you...

House of Heroes "In the Valley of the Dying Sun" from Endeavor Media Group on Vimeo.

I really like this song. As a song writer myself I always struggle with songs that are too direct. This one manages to be programatic without being too blatant. It also seems to be an antiwar song but I'm not sure, it might just be about death in general. They are getting a lot of airplay at the moment on Christian radio, which is good. If there has to be such a thing as 'Christian rock' it might as well be as interesting as this.

let me know what you think :-)

Making music in the Kingdom Come

[Had to write a "personal chatty thought provoking piece" for the weekly college news letter. Here is my attempt. BTW it is New Zealand Music Month this month, and my college is marking that by having Music Week this coming week. You can get points for spotting the Bible references :-)]

When Jesus the Christ returns as Lord and King to redeem and renew creation all human wisdom and invention will also be taken up and integrated into the life of eternity. Scientists, inventors, engineers, artists, gardeners, farmers, and all the rest will somehow find their vocations transformed and incorporated into the Kingdom come, where God is all and in all. But not all human work is capable of being translated into the new age: arms manufacturers, military, police, and politicians, among others, will be rendered unnecessary by the coming of the King. This is why all preachers and theologians need a hobby. The time will come when people do not need to be taught about God, because they will know God. They will not need to read about God, because they will see God. There will be no need to tell people what God is like, because they will be like him. In a world like that there will be no need for pastors, Bible teachers, or authors of books about God. Having faithfully completed their essential work they will find themselves suddenly redundant. This is good news indeed! (And not just for those who find listening to sermons hard work!!)

I first heard the call of God to preach and pastor when I was halfway through a music degree at Lancaster University in the UK. It came as a surprise. It also came as a frustration; I had musical plans, dreams, and ambition, did I have to stop all that to go and do something else now? However, the more I explored that call, the more I realised how great the urgency was. The neglect and misunderstanding of God’s word is pandemic throughout God’s people, and, like so many things in life, if you’re not part of the solution you are part of the problem. I soon experienced the joy and fulfilment that come from faithfully ministering God’s word to people. Here I am ten years later and the call and joy are still there – I am enthusiastically studying and applying God’s word and trying to encourage others to do so through my work at Carey and involvement with church. But the frustration is still there also. I know that I am half the musician I could be, if only I could find more time to practise. I know that I have had so many great ideas and flashes of musical inspiration that have had to be ignored because of other commitments. My song book is full of half finished compositions. Events like music week are great fun, and a good opportunity to dust off the guitar, but they are also a reminder of unfulfilled ambitions and dormant dreams. (Don’t get me wrong, I am not claiming that I would have been ‘a great success’ as a musician or anything – I mean, who knows? I am just talking about creative fulfilment.)

However, there are no regrets, only the expectation that eternal life is going to be spent glorifying God – with all God’s people – in the renewed creation. And so I keep up my frustrated musicianship where I can, in anticipation of the day when Bible teachers become surplus to requirements and I can finally get on with making the music that God has put in my heart. Amen, come Lord Jesus!