The music in out hearts

Colossians 3:16 New International Version (NIV)

16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

God’s message of salvation is given to lighten our hearts, to let us know we are from sin’s condemnation. Therefore let us sing in gratitude for all that God has done.

Christians have joyful, stirring songs that celebrate the wonder of our relation with God. This is especially true during the Christmas season with songs such as the spine-tingling Handel’s Messiah. In contrast to this, in 2011 comedian Steve Martin performed a song on The Late Show with David Letterman that he called “the entire atheist hymnal” (on one page of paper). He called it: “Atheists Don’t Have No Songs.”

Christians have their hymns and pages,

Hava Nagila’s for the Jews,

Baptists have the rock of ages,

Atheists just sing the blues.

Romantics play Claire de Lune,

Born agains sing “He is risen,”

But no one ever wrote a tune,

For godless existentialism.

For Atheists there’s no good news.

They’ll never sing a song of faith.

In their songs they have one rule:

The “he” is always lowercase.

Of course, his humor is meant to entertain us—and does. But what a contrast to a piece of music that moves hearts and masses across the board. Handel’s Messiah is arguably one of the most mellifluous expressions of Christian doctrine ever produced.

In fact, I think it makes all the sense in the world that both inexplicable tears and profound joy accompany the words and sounds of Handel’s Messiah. For this Messiah brings with him an invitation unlike any other: Come and see the Father, the Creator, the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. Come and see the Light, and the Overcomer of darkness, the One who wept at the grave of a friend, and the one who collects our tears in his bottle even before he will dry every eye. Christians, let’s sing our songs!

[Jill Carattini, “Random Hallelujahs,” RZIM: A Slice of Infinity (12-16-16)]

The sacrifice of life

1 Peter 3:18 New International Version (NIV)

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.

Christ gave His life in exchange for the punishment our sins required. He did this for our sake so that we may become children of God.

In his recent book (2017) (Re)union, Bruxy Cavey writes:

The Victoria Cross is Canada's highest military honor, similar to the Medal of Honor in the United States. These medals are awarded for personal acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty. Of the thousands awarded to date, more citations have been bestowed for falling on grenades to save comrades than any other single act.

The first Victoria Cross of World War II was awarded to Company Sergeant-Major John Robert Osborn. The sergeant-major and his men were cut off from their battalion and under heavy attack. When the enemy came close enough, the Canadian soldiers were subjected to a concentrated barrage of grenades. Several times Osborn protected his men by picking up live grenades and throwing them back, but eventually one fell in just the wrong position to pick up in time. With only a split second to decide, Osborn shouted a warning and threw himself on top of the grenade. It exploded, killing him instantly. The rest of his company survived that battle because of Osborn's selfless other-centeredness.

I love stories of this kind of bravery and self-sacrifice. They give me hope for humanity and offer us all a glimpse of God's goodness reflected in his image-bearers. But no matter how beautiful that heroic act may be, through Jesus we see an even greater love at the heart of God. You see, soldiers who fall on grenades do so out of love for their friends while they are on the battlefield trying to kill their enemies. Jesus died for his friends, and his enemies, and for everyone in between.

Watching over the workers

James 5:4 New International Version (NIV)

4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.

James reminds those who employee workers that God owns what they have and it is their responsibility to manage his assets correctly. Employers should ensure their workers are paid fairly and not taken advantage of for God hears the cries of those suffering.

There is, apparently, a stigma attached to carrying credit card debt. More than a third of Americans say they would be embarrassed to let others know that they are not paying off their credit card debt in full every month, more than 40 percent say they believe they will be judged by family and friends because of credit card debt. The surprising thing is that Americans' average credit card debt is $15,355. Talk about the elephant in the room.

An executive for the firm that completed the survey said, "It's no surprise that shame about debt isn't necessarily productive in preventing or eradicating it. … Shame doesn't guarantee success. The only way to pay off debt is to face it head on and make a plan to get rid of it."

[Paul Ausick, "Americans Are Ashamed to Admit Credit Card Debt," 24/7 Wall Street blog (1-19-16)]