Jots and Tittles

I have been thinking about this particular subject an awful lot lately, as it seems to be cropping up everywhere.  One of the biggest problems I see cropping up in modern Christianity is a desire to rob God of His majesty, His glory, and His dignity to make Him more "approachable."  We see this in many modern praise songs, where the swelling tones and triumphant words of the old hymns are replaced with wimpy chords and repetitive dribble.  When I was home this Easter, I got from my parents a copy of a CD set called "More than 50 Most-Loved Hymns," and have listened to it several times through while driving around. And I noticed that most of those hymns, familiar to me as they are, still managed to make my heart swell to bursting with the sense of majesty and glory they imparted.  Think of singing "All Praise to Thee" or "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" - do you know the sensation I mean?  It often comes with the last verse, when there's usually a key change, and the entire piece builds to this crescendo that just explodes with power and you're practically shouting instead of singing because it's that exhilarating. It even comes at the end of hymns like "Be Thou My Vision," whose last verse goes like this:

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

This is back before key changes had the cheesy connotation they do now, and instead denoted a climax to the piece that increased its intensity and majesty.  Oh, I wish I could play some of it for you so that you would understand what I mean!  I can only pray that you do. If you don't, spend some time on SeeqPod and see if you can find some of the music I'm talking about - usually it's accompanied by an organ or a full orchestra, though sometimes you'll get something with bagpipes that's pretty nifty.  It's rather difficult to find if you don't know the names of the hymns you want (and even then, you go through a lot of bad ones before reaching a decent rendition) - I suggest starting with something really common, or something like the Hallelujah Chorus.  This sort of music worships God in a dignified, majestic, even stately manner - yet the worship is no less fervent for that.  Contrast this with the limp vocals of "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever."  Need I say more?  God is loving, and nice, and sometimes even sovereign and powerful, but no longer does he have the dignity afforded him in the old hymns.

This trend is not limited, however, simply to music.  In books, too, I find it runs rampant.  I recently reviewed John and Stasi Eldredge's Captivating, which is a perfect example of this sort of thing.  Another is a book which I have not read myself, but judging by what people have said in reviews and synopses, it's a dreadful shambles of bad theology that aims to take from God all majesty and glory He has ever possessed.  The book is called The Shack and represents God as three people: the Father has been replaced by "Papa," an African-American woman who, when not going by gender-bending familial names, goes by "Elousia"; Jesus, a Middle-Eastern man (though, by all accounts, a rather effeminate man), and the Holy Spirit, an Asian-American woman named Sarayu.  Now, anyone with half a brain and the capacity to read can find out in about ten minutes of browsing the Bible that this is completely ridiculous.  Apart from my usual complaints about God being portrayed as a woman (although, at least the book goes so far as to admit that this world is in need of some masculine role models and God provides that), with which we won't bother just now, here again we have this problem that God has been completely stripped of all majesty, dignity and glory to provide us with someone who is a little bit more manageable.  This god is friendly, sweet, never gets mad, likes hugs, is kind of clumsy (Jesus is, anyway), and, while seems to be fun to hang out with, isn't exactly, you know, powerful or wrathful or even dignified or majestic or glorious. 

I think the reason for all this is simple: it's way easier to deal with a really cool "Papa" who's hip six ways from Sunday and never wants us to be anything other than who we are.  We don't want God to be majestic, dignified, or glorious, because that means He's better than us and that we need to treat Him with respect.  Respect, for all it's tossed around these days, isn't something we much like to give to anyone.  It's cooler to just slack off and diss everyone.  Easier, too, because no one will listen to someone they don't respect.

God, however, deserves our respect, and He's not getting it.  The symptom I've pointed out here may manifest itself in many different ways, but it points clearly to the loss of respect we have as a culture for God, and that's very frustrating to me.  I'd much rather sing praises to God that fill me with awe at his majesty of which that music is only a glimpse, and read books that challenge me to think about a Being I can never fully comprehend, than to sing songs and read books that put God in a nice little box that I can carry around in my pill case and take it out when I need a fix.

-Jaya-

One more note.  I was playing on SeeqPod and found a version of the Hallelujah Chorus by Dan Sindel which is just SWEET.  DJ will love it.  It's a little slow, and I'm not sure what it does for the dignity of God as portrayed in the original version, but it's STILL a darn sight more majestic and glorious than the "Jesus is my boyfriend" music.  ROCK ON, JESUS! ^.~  And if you're looking for a good version of the original, look for the one by Drexel Choruses.