What's with the singing?

There are many flavors of Christianity.  But despite such a wide variety, one of the many common threads you will find among them all is a strange propensity to sing.  Whether there is the full worship band with modern instruments or the organ-led hymns of traditional churches or even the good-ol hand clapping and dancing in African and Asian churches, across the spectrum Christians are always singing in some measure or other.  An interesting question is why?

Other religions have singing to be sure.  But singing is not as central, nor as universally prolific across cultures and traditions as it is for Christianity.  Some religions center on recitations and rituals, some on fasting and offerings, some on meditation and chanting.  Christianity has these customs as well.  But Christianity is a religion whose worship is more characterized by singing than any other.  And more than that, it is so prolific that you will actually observe people that you would think the least-likely to take part in public singing and popular music (like the older and conservative no-dancing churches for example) still finding reason to joyfully lift their voices together.

The answer to why is more than sociology –it is more than just tradition.  Christianity has proven to allow very unique expressions of its beliefs across the spectrum.  The meaning of worship has proven to be more significant to Christians than the various forms of worship.  This is not true of many other religions.  And so if this is true, saying singing is just a traditional Christian form is too simplistic of an answer.

I submit that the most important reason is a specific (and unique) aspect to its beliefs that produces this propensity to sing.  There is something at the heart of what Christians believe that demands community-wide celebration.  Every religion, including Christianity, has a path and a destination for its followers that at least has the potential for a hopeful ending -a nirvana, a heaven, a new world.  But Christianity, as far as I know, is the only one where the eschatological new age has already been set in motion.  An enduring hope, that has already (in some measure) been realized.  What do I mean?

First, lets talk theology.  Contrary to all the endtimes sensationalism and speculation, the theological center of what the new age is really about in the bible is three things:  new resurrection, eschatological judgment, the return of God's presence and Spirit to be amongst His people.  This was and still is the Jewish hope for God's new creation.  Then Jesus marches on the scene and says the kingdom of God is here (Lk 17:20-21, Matt 12:28).  Here now.  Right now.  God is starting to fulfill the long-awaited promises. The new age is dawning.  And so it did.  End times judgment for sin actually began then on a wooden cross.  The first-fruits of humanity's new resurrection also happened three days later.  And 40 days after that, God's long awaited presence returns in a whirlwind.  It has already happened.  But of course not in its fullness.  The New Testament teaches the new creation has already been set in motion, but its full consummation is still yet to come.

For this reason, there is not just promises and hope in Christianity.  There is also fulfillment.  Jubilee.  There is new creation.  There is forgiveness.  There is God returning and literally dwelling in and amongst His people again.  Right now.  Christians say not just that Jesus will save us one day.  They actually say he has saved us (notice the past tense).  And if these aspects of fulfillment are at the center of Christian belief across the centuries and across the continents, there is only one thing to do.  Celebrate.  Sing to the Lord.  Make a joyful noise!  Rejoice.  The new life, the new creation, the new age is not just to come.  Look around... it is already sprouting around us!

It is remarkably unique.  And for this reason, it becomes a beautiful invitation for others to touch and taste something that for most people is only a distant hope.

A "Retired" Christian... ?

In a television interview actor Peter O'Toole was once asked, "Are you a believer?"

His unique response was "I am a Retired Christian."

He seems to mean that he doesn't practice anymore, but he's still "cool" with God (whatever that means).  He does admit to reading the bible because of "the beauty of the language" and also comments on his admiration for the faith and belief of those people within the bible.

A perfect dodge.  A delicate sidestep away from any denial or acknowledgement of whether the faith of those people in the bible is actually built on something true.  If I was in the interview chair I would have asked two follow up questions...  Since I don't like dodges no matter how playfully colorful, I would have asked again: So then are you a believer Peter?  Do you believe the teachings of the bible to be true?...  Another interesting follow up question would have been:  What do you think it takes –as you say Peter– to be "cool" with God?  His answer to that probably wouldn't be that unique, but still worth asking.

I remember in High School a teacher was "cool" the more he or she for the most part let us do whatever we wanted.   If the teachers joked around a lot or used a few profanities for effect, they were really cool.  Basically a teacher being "cool" was a teacher being quite like the students themselves.  I wonder if Peter O'Toole might be going along the same track about God.  I'm cool with God.  God's cool with me.  God doesn't get uptight or really take anything too seriously.  For the most part, God just lets us go about our lives and maybe He just throws us a few tips along the way...

It is a perspective that provides plenty of room for the idea that someone could actually "retire" from God.  A notion so dramatically disconnected from anything resembling the beautiful, life-giving teachings that O'Toole says he reads every night, that the only logical thing to say is this understanding of Christianity is pure projection.

Saying I can "retire" from Christianity is like saying a Cocker Spaniel can retire from being a dog.  It would show more that I don't actually know what a Cocker Spaniel really is. In the same way, saying Christianity is the sort of thing you can retire from (like a hobby or a summer home or a vocation) shows Mr. O'Toole missed the basic category of the sort of thing Christianity really is.