Strange Fruit (Part II) December 8, 2009

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What was that fruit like?  I wish we never knew, that is, I wish to God that Adam and Eve had not eaten from that tree.  How much time could we take up talking about the Pandora’s box that action brought forth?  At the same time, I recognize the sovereignty of God to ordain the fall of mankind so that man would utterly depend on him and not on any work of their own for being in him.  All glory belongs to him.  This hints at the symbolic meaning of the tree and its fruit and how being in union with Christ replaces the desire within us to want to determine for ourselves what is right or wrong, good and evil.

John Piper suggests,

It seems to me that what happened in the Fall is that God took from man the light by which man could see the glorious desirability of God over all things,

At first, this sounds absolutely insane, but the Scripture attests to this reality.  Romans 8:20 reveals to us that the Lord subjects all creation to futility.  Why?  Well, before I get to that answer, I’d like to consider what the fruit of this tree represents.  Piper goes further,

…what God was forbidding was not an arbitrary fruit, but what the fruit symbolized. To eat of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” would mean to reject God as the all-wise, all-caring Father who knows what is good for us, and in his place to put ourselves. Therefore, what God forbade man to do was to exchange roles with him. He simply said: Don’t try to dethrone me. Don’t try to take my place. Trust me to fill your life with maximum joy and meaning.

So, the tree and its fruit when consumed by the man Adam and his wife brought shame, fear, death, and a myriad of spiritual maladies that we as believers would mourn, but that the whole world would be indiscriminately subjected to.  Sin doesn’t care whether you’re black or white, male or female, intelligent or dumb, rich or poor, able-bodied or lame, it’s desire is to live in you until it has killed you.  And very much like the aftermath the corpse hanging from a Poplar tree in the “gallant south” brings, sin brings with it – after all the violence it has done, after all you thought you could bare – it reveals from it’s trick bag your final blow, namely shame and humiliation.  It means to rid you of all true human dignity and worth.  The most humiliating aspect of this might just be that that is what we got when we did it our way.  Now we know what the outcome of chasing after identity outside of Christ looks like.  Not only does it bring death, but in death, it produces shame.  Where is the glory in doing it “my way” if my way is simply the wrong way?  If my way, profits me nothing, but death, then if I choose that path then quite frankly, I’m a fool!

The question of why God ordained the fall is not explicitly answered in Scripture, but the fall as the very naming of it, “the fall” signifies a great failing in angels and men in particular.  Praise God the narrative does not end there, but leads us to discover the redemption of man and in this redemptive plan we see, as Jonathan Edwards’ preached it, God Glorified in Man’s Dependence.  As  I try to wrap my mind around what this actually means, I’m reminded of a sermon I heard on the holiness of the Father by Sinclair Ferguson.  Ferguson had made a extremely important point.  As one attempts to understand what Christ meant by referring to his Father as holy in John 17: 11, (commonly described as Christ’s high priestly prayer),  there is the temptation to miss the forest for the trees.  I must understand this before I can go any further…Ferguson declares this to be the work of “an arrogant fool.”

The revealing of God the Father as holy should not merely invite further theological inquiry, but instead engender in the believer the flaming fire of worship to the God who is holy.  Similarly, the manner of the fall, its means, and the disaster itself should not be made proper consideration of if we mainly question those things.  Rather, the believer ought to consider the point of all this.  He should muse on the utter dependence of man on God for his righteousness and further how God is glorified in it.

Edwards,

We may here observe the marvelous wisdom of God, in the work of redemption.  God hath made man’s emptiness and misery, his low, lost, and ruined state, into which he sunk by the fall, an occasion of the greater advancement of his own glory, as in other ways, so particularly in this, that there is now much more universal and apparent dependence of man on God.  Though God be pleased to lift man out of that dismal abyss of sin and woe into which he was fallen, and exceedingly to exalt him in excellency and honor, and to a high pitch of glory and blessedness, yet the creature hath nothing in respect to glory of; all the glory evidently belongs to God, all is in a mere, and most absolute, and divine dependence on the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  And each person of the Trinity is equally glorified in this work: there is an absolute dependence of the creature on every one for all: all is of the Father, all through the Son, and all in the Holy Ghost.  Thus God appears in the work of redemption as all in all.  It is fit that he who is, and there is none else, should be the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. the all and the only, in this work.

God Glorified In Man’s Dependence, July 8, 1731

And this concentration ought to bring about complete adulation.

Just considering trees and their fruit…

All quotes from John Piper are from his sermon entitled The Emergence of Sin and Misery.  Find it here, http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/1981/314_The_Emergence_of_Sin_and_Misery/

Strange Fruit (Part I) December 5, 2009

I was considering trees and their fruit, but not just any kind of trees.  I was thinking about the tree on which the Lord died, the tree of  life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and finally the trees on which men, women, and boys particularly of African descent were lynched from [primarily] in the south as well as other places in the States.

Let me work backwards here.  Some time ago, a Jewish high school teacher by the name of Abel Meeropol wrote a poem about the lynching of two black men.  Its purpose was to express horror at Lawrence Beitler’s famous 1930’s photograph, which depicted the lynching of  Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana.

Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves
Blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
The scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
for the rain to gather
for the wind to suck
for the sun to rot
for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop

The poem was later set to music by Meeropol and performed by various musicians; most notably singer Billie Holiday whose rendition was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1978.  By now, you’ve recognized that this is the song Strange Fruit.

The scatological language of the song produces a lot more than nausea in my members.  I’m sick listening to the melody, but it does what it is supposed to do.  It awakens a deep sense of repulsion and horror at what this country condoned for years.  My ancestors hung from trees as though they were fruit.  The seed of racism spawned pods of sin that would corrupt the minds of white men who desired to prove that what hung in the scorching sun of the south on any given day was little more to them than something to be demoralized, stripped of human dignity even in death.  These contorted bodies were to hang as forgotten or scourged fruit.  Picked, plucked, and left rancid; a stench to the mind of good upstanding white citizens and a note of warning to those who looked on.

What must have gone through the minds of the black Americans who saw this?  Fear? Anger? Shame?  It’s clear that the bodies hung as a metaphor from the status quo, it  screamed, “I dare you!”  What a scene.  What a violent attack against the shalom of this land and the marring of the God bearing image of men.  This is in a word, shameful.  These are the trees on which hung my people and though Poplar trees and the men and women who hung from them bring a deep sense of mourning in me, it is a legacy that is mine and one that I cherish.  The trees acted eerily as a device of death; their brown bodies represented strange fruit.  The innocence or guilt of the hanged parties was not so much a consideration for inquiry.  This was sin gone wild and in living color.  Yet, the scars worn and passed down throughout generations both, black and white are worth remembering.  Possibly more than anything, we consider the lessons learned and work to avoid the same temptations to prejudice and racist attitudes that are perpetuated in many facets of our society, and more personally in everyone of us as individuals.

I’m considering trees and their fruit…

Confession August 11, 2009

When I was a little girl going to Catholic School, I used to hate going to Confession. I just never got it. I’d sit in that little box with its partition; me on one side and father what’shisname on the other.

Looking back on it, I realize that I did not have a true understanding of sin and how culpable I was before God for my sin, even at the age of 13. I’d rack my brain in that tight darkness squeezing out stories about how I rolled my eyes behind my mothers back when she asked me to do something. The short beams of light that crept lazily along the booth were ten times more exciting than my tales of disobedience. I was stumped. I didn’t know what else to offer, so I took my prescriptive Hail Mary’s and bounced out of there like it was nobody’s business. That was it, a couple of pleas to Mary to keep her son off my back and maybe an occasional “Our Father” ? Always eager to get the mundane out of the way, I’d rattle off those prayers before returning to my seat and before you could say genuflect, I had been cleared of all guilt. No further thought, no remorse, no idea why I had to talk to a priest in the first place. I was done.

But alas, I am an adult convert to Christ who along with the Protestant reformers proclaim justification by faith through grace. Happily, I rest in the finished work of Christ on the Cross for me.

[1 Peter 2:24] He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

As an adult, I find it ironic that I struggle more with confession of sin now (as a believer) than I did when I was a child. One would think it would be simple, believe the promises of Scripture.

But sin is so ugly and as I heard someone say, so humiliating. I see my sin now more than ever. For prolonged periods of time, the light of truth seems to be swallowed up by the black hole of my sinfulness; my failure at trusting Christ’s provisions for me and the direct cause of my transgressions. It’s more than frustrating, it’s agonizing, but even in all my pain I must admit that as I sit here hearkening back to my Catholic School days lamenting the error of the churches teaching, I am gleaning…
“forgive me father for I have sinned, it has been X days/weeks/months/years since my last confession”

Confession, more formally referred to as Reconciliation is one of  the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Sacrament of Reconciliation (also known as the Sacrament of Penance, or Penance and Reconciliation) has three elements: conversion, confession and celebration. In it we find God’s unconditional forgiveness, and as a result we are called to forgive others.

americancatholic.org

Today, I wanted to be broken under the weight of my sin, under the horrible darkness of it.  I wanted to remind myself of how undeserving I am of God’s grace, mercy, forgiveness, and how weak I was, how barely Christian I seem to be at times.  As grace would have it, I confessed my sin and experienced some of this yes, but I also experienced reconciliation and forgiveness and the peace of God’s Spirit.

It’s evening and my morning began with tears and weakness, but as this 24 hour period comes to a close, I can honestly say that what the Catholic presupposes in her confession to a priest with the words, “it’s been 2 weeks since my last confession” – I acknowledge is one of the means of grace granted to Christ’s body/the Church to find her complete dependence on him.  One day, two days, three weeks, is much too long a time to be away from communion with him and confession of my sin.

Today I am more aware of my sin and guilt before God, and I’m grateful for his sacrifice for my sin through Christ.  These dual realities give my heart a reason inspite of my weakness and shame to love confession to him who is able to keep me from stumbling and to present me blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy – to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen [Jude 24]

And indeed he is my eternal high priest to whom I run to for all things…Hebrews 5

The Hook August 8, 2009

A short while ago I responded to a question on Facebook regarding a Christian hip hop artist.  The person wanted to know if the artist was too “raw” in his approach when communicating the gospel in a rap song.  That kind of sounds like a category for an award show. Hmmmm

I’ve begun to digest the theological thought regarding the idea of art for God’s sake.  This is no less art that exists for the glory of God and is the true standard for living and enjoying life.  With that said, I have to wonder about this issue.  What is christian rap for the streets as opposed to christian rap for the church?

My thoughts are based on the notion that there are some Christian MC’s who readily admit that there is Christian music for the streets and if they assume that then I guess it’s safe to say that there is also music for the church. No?

Christian MC’s who rap for the streets (at least as they perceive it) seem to make music that might include content that is less likely to make it into any given Sunday morning worship service.  Why?  Well by their own admission they don’t make music for the church, but also if we were attending any typical evangelical church, I seriously doubt that sordid details about a man or woman’s past would be regular musical fare for offering time.  In all fairness as Christcentered as some artists are, I think they too would run the risk of being manhandled by a zealous deacon or usher in a traditional church just because of the reputation for the medium itself. Still both claim to be evangelistic, so why the differences in venue?

Who or what are the streets?

The thinking seems to imply on a very foundational basis that the streets are the lost.  They are the unbelieving world who have not been regenerated by the power of Christ’s Spirit.  In another sense though, I get the notion that when people use the word “streets” somehow they’re talking about the “hardcore” individuals who maybe have sold drugs, used drugs, grown drugs, harvested drugs, transported drugs, ah what else can you do with drugs?  Wear drugs? Yeah, I remember seeing hemp clothes being modeled on some talk show awhile back as proof that this drug can be used for “all sorts of good.” Please legalize.  Yea, because that’s what people want to do with marijuana, wear it! Or maybe the streets are those who have shot people, stabbed people, robbed, killed, raped, I don’t know, whatever else you can think of bad – just anything unimaginable or imaginable, they’ve done it and now they need to hear a message, but how will they hear it? I get the sense that some believe that you’ve got to come with something really rough and rugged for the streets, something perhaps that the refined church folks could not digest.

Who or what is the church?

The church is the body of Christ.  This is the body that gathers to worship Christ, to receive from its host (Christ) the blessings he lavishes on them through his ministers, through the means of grace he has supplied in not forsaking communion together, partaking of the Lord’s Supper, Baptism, confessing of sins, exhorting one another in the Scriptures, and being equipped to go out and share what Christ has given them to the world in their secular callings.

Are their needs different?

Well, in one sense yes and in another not so much.  Michael Horton in Christless Christianity, The Alternative Gospel of the American Church, put it this way,

Because the believers remain saint and sinner simultaneously, they never outgrow their need to be fed by the gospel through these divinely instituted means of grace.  Not only at their conversion but throughout their pilgrimage the gospel alone is the “power of God for salvation” (Rom.1:16).  If Christ is clearly proclaimed each Lord’s Day from Genesis to Revelation, believer’s will be strengthened in faith and good works and unbelievers will be exposed to his regenerating Word. (p. 252)

Simply put, the unbeliever needs the Gospel and so does the believer.  Neither will outlive their need for the gospel.  The Christian may say, “For with you is the fountain of life.  In your light do we see light,” Psalm 36:9, acknowledging their eternal reliance on the Godhead, but clearly the unregenerate man needs to be born again so that they might drink from that fountain of  life as well.

My question is, if Christian hip hop for the “streets” claims to be evangelistic, why would outreach to them when using the medium of rap look any different than that music that is done for the saints of God? [see 1 below]

Is Jesus Christ the hook?

Soul Food is one of my absolute favorite Corey Red & Precise joints.  I don’t think it’s on any album though.  I remember hearing it at Christ Tabernacle back when they didn’t even have an album yet.  I like it because it’s so filled with Christ exaltation and if there was going to be a street attempt at presenting the gospel through music, this has to be it!  What I love is that there is no hook in a formal sense, but then at the end of the song they start saying,

We need no hook/food for thought/ Jesus Christ on the Cross is the Hook/food for thought/On the third day he raised from the grave/that’s the hook/food for thought/Jesus Christ with the crown of thorns/that’s the hook/food for thought

I thought it was a brilliant attempt pointed at a culture inundated with hooks for so many stupid songs to say, hey the best hook I can give you to suck you into the reality that God is holy and you are sinners who need to repent is in the person of  Jesus Christ himself and that ain’t nothing to scoff at.  They say, this ain’t a song/this is a rescue attempt, it is in fact a presentation of the gospel.

But what about the hood?

The hood: a bit of a menacing suffix until you remember it’s friendlier whole – neighborhood, it’s a community or group of people who need to hear the gospel.  I think people forget that Nazareth was as insignificant (in size) to some folk like Nathanael (John 1:46) as places today would be, but I don’t remember Jesus switching up his message or purpose when he returned to his hometown of Nazareth.  In fact, the Scriptures attest to his being rejected because people took offense at him.  So, we have hoods today in places like Spanish Harlem or BedStuy that are typically of no significance to people and its residents are often marginalized and thought of in less than gracious ways, people to be forgotten, pushed from one place to another, people to be displaced and discarded, but none of this means that the gospel is irrelevant or that the gospel needs accompaniment as though it lacks power or that the hearers need something more.

Moreover, let us not forget that sinners are like people from Brooklyn, they’re everywhere! In the streets and in the churches and they’re sinners because of who they are not simply because of what they do/did.

I like rugged beats, it reminds me so much of what hip hop used to be earlier on, but just because it’s wrapped in that boom bap sound does not mean it has to share the platform with a rapper who is more concerned with talking about himself or his past to be viable to unbelievers.  The gospel is still the power of God to salvation for all who would believe even the brother who was just paroled – even the prostitute with a grammar school education.

Jesus Christ is the hook for the streets cats with murder reps and the saints with zero street credibility!

Believe it!

[sidebar/this is not about who uses Jesus' name most.]

[1] I’m aware that some artists probably wouldn’t necessarily say, their music is done expressly for Christian people, but rather to exalt the name of Christ thus giving him his props or glorifying him before saint and sinner alike.

This August 5, 2009

this is for the little girl longing for her maturity to bloom.

this is for her adulthood marred by what her childhood could never bring – safe/ty – and for every time she heard that word whispered softly by the wind.  A word with no potential for meaning in her world.

this is for her reflection in the mirror and the desperate gaze she gives searching for divinity

her palpable disappointment at what she does not see

for the faint patter of her heart and the death pangs she feels

this is the incoherent murmuring of her soul with a few words that make sense

this is how she was taught to mourn for her youth and despise her present

her hope for the future too much and too far to grasp

for the little girl with brothers and no brother to bother to love her

this is the little girl searching for her papa and takes a trip to find him sleeping in his grave

this is her energy spent her longing longing her tears crying and her eyes seeing that some pain is worth sharing especially when her closet has become cluttered with emotions that threaten to suffocate her while others watch

her star gazing on cloudy days and smog filled evenings

for dreams chased away by reality

this is her head hung low in shame and face cupped in her tired hands praying for rest praying for peace

I don’t know what this is I guess this simply is…this is mostly for

me

The Tragedy of Stumbling June 19, 2009

This is a Muslim Christian Dialogue that took place in Knowledge Village, Dubai on the topic, “Who is God and How Can We Be Saved?” The speakers were, for the Christian perspective, Thabiti Anyabwile and for the Muslim perspective, Bassam Zawadi.

I’m warning you ahead of time, this is not for the faint of heart.  This debate is broken up into 22 parts and I’ve posted only part 1…the rest is up to you, but one thing is for sure, you will be thoroughly engaged, so don’t stop at 1 or 2, pleaseeee…

The year prior Thabiti Anyabwile had been invited to Dubai to answer the the question, “Who is Jesus Christ in light of the Holy Bible and Qur’an?”  This too was lengthy, being broken up into 16 parts on Youtube, but again well worth the time watching.  Don’t sleep, you will not be guilty of wasting your life on this one!  Last year, Thabiti countered A.A. Hamed’s view of the Christ of the Scriptures with such grace – I was more blown away by that than almost anything else.   Interestingly enough, Mr. Zawadi was moderating the event.  This year Hamed is sitting front row watching Zawadi and Anyabwile dialogue…

After watching both debates, I began to notice a gnawing pattern in the Muslim debaters as well as the audience who were allowed to ask questions later.  Their demeanor (especially Zawadi’s), cadence in their question, and the questions themselves begged the obvious point…Jesus Christ is a rock of offense – he is a stumbling block!

The picture that comes to mind for me when I hear the word stumble is that of an individual being very near to an object that causes him to trip and possibly fall.  I suppose one could stumble without actually tripping over anything too, I mean we do stumble over words at times, that’s understandable, that can be pardoned, but there is a profound tragedy of stumbling over ideas or truth itself especially when we’re talking about absolute truth.  In this sense, I’m invoking the definition of stumble that means, “to come to an obstacle to belief” or “to make an error.”

Stumbling Is Not So Minor

The major argument made by Thabiti is that Jesus Christ is God and that it is only by faith in him that one can be saved.  The Muslim says, Jesus Christ; “peace be upon him”  is not God, he is a prophet and that salvation comes by good works and the favor of Allah.

I found it utterly amazing to watch Bassam and others stumble over the beauty of Christ! Over and over and over again.  They found the idea that Christ would take upon himself the form of a man and die for our sins to be aberrant, scandalous even.  You could tell that for the Muslim, this was the most incomprehensible of realities to imagine.  It left a bad taste in their mouths, but for the believer it is just this type of scandal that we rejoice in!

I don’t want to say too much because I’m hoping you will watch, but one thing I would love to leave you with is this one defining moment for me.  Thabiti and Bassam are given the opportunity during the debate to ask one another questions.  They are not allowed to make statements or comments, but simply to ask their questions…shortly after they are asked questions by the audience.  A Muslim gentleman stands up and asks the same “how” question [in my mind at least]…who is God?  You say God exists in three persons and that Christ became man, how? how? how?

Here is that portion of the dialogue,

Thabiti responds with a question that loosely paraphrased went like this, If I were to answer your question satisfactorily would you bow down and worship Christ?  The Muslim, including Bassam who was sitting across from Thabiti on the podium answered, No…it’s more complicated than that.  Thabiti responded, there’s nothing more complicated or less complicated than knowing who God is. ..Thabiti was attempting to get at the heart of the matter.  Was this an honest question?  Had the debate or dialogue, been an honest one?  If so, then he’s right?  Why wouldn’t a Muslim or anyone for that matter be satisfied with an answer to the question “Who is God?” when shown clearly in the Scriptures, that Christ is God?

My heart sunk within me because it said to me that for all the mechanics of apparent open-mindedness and peaceful dialogue, many will continue to stumble at Christ.  The tragedy is that he is the very cure.  The obstacle is the answer to your questions.  The very man who you claim to bestow peace upon has been given for you because of your sin, to set you free from your sin, Matthew 1:21.  Were you truly wise, you would rejoice because he has come, Matthew 2:10, but instead you stumble.  It’s frustrating because they are so near the object of true faith, yet so far because of their blindness.  The Scripture reads,

The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.

Proverbs 4:19

How sad, how tragic…to be fooled by lies and empty deceit as it is referred to in Colossians 2.  Paul tells us that we ought to be captivated by Christ because it is he who the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.

For the Muslim, yes, true peace be upon you in the name of Jesus Christ who is God and who alone has purchased the salvation of many.  Would that you will come to true knowledge of him and rejoice as the wise men of Matthew did at beholding God with us…

Amen

Why Holy Hip Hop Is More Than An Alternative Music Form: June 9, 2009

A precursory thought about the nature of alternatives:

An alternative asserts two or more possibilities, one of which will be true.

HHH is the alternative to secular hip hop.  It is one of two musical possibilities, if one considers that an individual’s worldview intimates genre, though it does not have to necessitate it.

For example, one may be a Dawkinian [see #1 below] atheist and find absolutely no inconsistency with bangin’ Jadakiss in his ipod or mp3.  On the other hand, a Christian pricked by the Holy Spirit and with any sensitivity to God’s will would not comfortably be able to endure a Dead Prez album that assaults the faith of believer’s and renders the existence of God unintelligible.   If there were a possibility that existed in between these extremes, that one would be able to listen to either of these artists and for good measure, throw in an HHH artist like Evangel or Shai Linne.  A basic part of this individual’s theology is that art transcends life and for her all music is useful.  She is not truly interested in knowing Christ, as much as she desires to fill her “higher consciousness” with great moral teaching, and in this case, it is my belief that she has simply misappropriated the clear Christological truth of what  Evangel or Shai is saying and made it very loosely applicable to her life without obtaining the better thing; acknowledgment of and repentance from her sin.
Further, all hip hop regardless of its content will fall into the genre of hip hop or rap in record stores, bookstores, etc., but HHH seems to become yet another possibility distinct from the rap genre in general, creating at least for arguments sake a cultural schism in the hip hop community.  Most people, if they are not given to intellectual dishonesty, see the contrasts that exist between HHH and other forms of rap music.

Another thing; to assume an alternative, one must assume a standard.  This is not necessarily a negative thing because objective truth declares that there is indeed a standard, by which we can safely conclude all other good derives.  By design, where a standard exists and where something outside of that standard begins to exist and is presumed to be normative for the culture or the world, it is thought to be an alternative.

To be sure, there is a sense in which HHH is an alternative form of music when compared to the world system and the prevalent anti-Christ sonnets in rotation on airwaves the world over.  It is clear that HHH is markedly different from gangsta rap, and miraculous in that it is conscious without lacking the true solution to depression, the marginalization of the poor, the outrageous hypocrisy of the political process and the human heart; that solution being namely the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is familiar to the culture, agreed, but only in its form (it still sounds like hip hop). It appears that it goes unrecognizable (at times) as “real rap” or “normal rap music” because of its redemptive nature.  HHH proclaims Christ as Lord and in its evangelistic and didactic nature calls men and women to repent and become disciples of Christ, even while embracing hip hop culture with its distinctives as long as those distinctives do not offend a holy God.

I had the very strange experience of riding from Detroit to Nevada with a friend and her two teenaged cousins.  We had been exposing them to HHH for the entire trip.  The 17 year old boy asked, “don’t ya’ll listen to hip hop?”  I was dumbfounded.  “Weren’t you listening?” I responded.  “What do you call, what we were just playing?”  He called it “church music.”  Point? Unrecognizable.

This doesn’t mean that I buy the notion that he knew what he was talking about of course.  In its 35 years of living hip hop has already produced as all cultures have, a remnant of snobs that I occasionally happen to pay membership dues to, i.e., I do not typically entertain the young and uninformed about their tastes or views regarding hip hop. They just don’t know enough.  However, it became apparent to me that there is a disconnect somewhere.

That kid and 11 more like him in a dozen, could easily see that somehow christian people had gotten a hold of rap and made some cute church music to worship Jesus with.  But I can’t help but to wonder if he ever thought that maybe what the Christian rapper presented was more standard than alternative.  Did he just hear imitation or did he ever consider that although Lil Wayne is normative for some hip hop heads, the true standard for normal living and being is found in Christ and that that is possibly what HHH mc’s were boasting and exulting in?

The Measuring Rod

Consider being.  What or better asked, who is the standard of being?  The Christian answers that God is the ultimate being, for he is the very essence of being and further, there is none to be compared to him.  Is God then the alternative to ???
I’m stumped there because as I attempt to form an alternative for God, I know that logic and his supreme nature make it impossible to create a possibility that would make anything else a true and viable option.  God is the standard.  In fact, the words of Christ in the New Testament declare, I am the way, the truth, and the life.  Where and who are the way, truth, and life? Christ.  Is there life outside of Christ?  Is there an option for life outside of Christ?  Sure…used very loosely, the alternative to life is death, but is that a real option?

False gods or idolatry equate to no god,
“we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.”  For although there may be so-called “gods” and many “lords” – yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” 1 Corinthians 8:4-6

Is idol worship an alternative to worship of the triune God?  A dehumanizing one in the least and a detestable practice in God’s eyes to be exact, but in the eyes of those who do practice worship of other gods beside the God of the Bible, it is clearly seen as an alternative.

Within the Biblical framework however, life in Christ is the standard because Christ is life and outside of him, men perish without “that light,“ John 1.  That speaks volumes to me, but it sums up my point of progression.  Christ is more than an alternative to dying in sin.  He is the standard in life because he is life and the giver of life.

Unrecognizable At Times, But Never Irrelevant

In much the same way, HHH is the standard for hip hop inasmuch as it continues to boast in the cross of Christ while exulting in the glory of the cross in the lives of its redeemed mc’s and those bought by the work of Christ (even through that medium) on the cross.  The Christian MC is not just offering in his music an alternative way to live, but he is saying that to live is Christ!  This is complete or full living, everything else is an illusion.

The world’s first gangsta rap, believe it or not did not come from the mouth of Eazy E.  It came straight outta Cain’s seed,

Genesis 4:23-24

“Lamech said to his wives:

“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say; I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me, if Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.”

Lamech hosts a concert [see #2 below] of sorts and his wives are the attentive audience made to give ear to his boast of revenge.  If you thought my grandpa was nasty, you just failed to ask about me.  I’m all about revenge and murder.  That’s my weak paraphrase for Lamech’s rhyme.  The text does not tell us if his wives were waving their hands in the air at his claim to fame or whether they booed him or not, but I can’t imagine that someone didn’t think  “this dude is ill!”  or that one of these women didn’t feel with sinking heart, a tinge of fear that said, this is not normal.

Lamech was not only the first to pioneer gangsta rap, but he is, in my estimation the true daddy of alternative music.  Lamech broke the standard, which came from the holy and predeterminate counsel of an all wise God.

I know it’s popular for (even) Christian mc’s to say to crowds of parents, please give your children our music as an alternative to the godless insanity disguised as music today, but has anyone ever thought to say, “that song that you’re listening to is not a normal way to perceive life?  I cannot even begin to unpack the ways in which it dehumanizes you and attempts to rob God of his majesty and glory, but really that is not the standard.”

I am a huge believer in protest and in the spirit of the flatulent reformer Martin Luther, I think it is the duty of the Christian to rebel, subvert, and to excise a sort of spiritual coup de tat even in the way music is understood in our culture.

Would we consider the possibility that Common, 50 cent, Young Jeezy and Lil’ Wayne postulate an alternative form of music that is not normal, not a true and viable option for our sons and daughters?  Or will we continue to squeeze HHH on the shelf at Walmart as just another genre to keep your options open?

HHH is the standard because it proclaims Christ who is the standard, not the alternative!  Let God be true and every (apparent option of man) a lie.

[1] Richard Dawkins is a noted atheist of our day, but rather than promote his work, I’d rather point you to an interview (http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=6474278760369344626) he conducted with Alister McGrath, Professor of Theology, Ministry and Education at the Head of the Centre  for Theology, Religion and Culture at King’s College, London.  McGrath who is also a former atheist was asked hard questions regarding the faith by Dawkin’s.  McGrath authored, “Dawkins’ God: Genes, Memes and the Meaning of Life, (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004)

[2] It is quite fascinating that Cain’s progeny though responsible for leaving the world with the arts (musicians, bronze men, ironsmith’s) were duly cut-off by God from continuing on the earth.  Gifts do not imply God’s blessing

Perfecting Love April 10, 2009

But whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.  By this we are in Him; whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. 1 John 2:5-6

“Perfecting Love” has become a major theme in my life over the past three years.  What is it?  1 John 2 describes it clearly.  It is the love of God the Father, made possible through God the Son, and preserved by God the Holy Spirit made perfect or complete in me.  It is the love of God accomplished in me now, today, at this very present moment.  Paradoxically, it is contingent upon something in me.  Again this passage in 1 John 2, states that this love of God is evidenced by our walk.  If we are truly in Him, then “we ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”

I have struggled with the reality of the darkness of my soul, that quite frankly appears impenetrable at times.  I find it difficult to believe what the Scripture says about me at those times and am sure I’m not alone when I say this!  In this day of internet questionnaires that ask you to tell a little about yourself, have any of you ever gotten the nerve yet to write, I am “holy, blameless and above reproach”?  Well, what sort of freak would write something like that?  Perhaps the same person who dared to write “follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”  That’s a tall order to fill, but aside from following the pattern, that one would actually fix his mouth to say to many, “follow me”, is a huge responsibility that not many solid teachers and pastors of today would want.  It’s so much easier to say to people, don’t look at me, or the church, look to Jesus!  Perhaps it is this attitude that causes us to either marvel at the apostle Paul’s leadership example, shrug it off in aloof indifference, like that was back in the Bible days plus Paul was different, or feel a slight tinge of hostility, like who is this dude?  Doesn’t he mean follow Christ?

Whatever our response, it is clear that even in the face of powerful Christian living, few stand up as models of this pattern and even fewer hold out hands to those drowning in swamps of sin and despair.

SOME POSSIBLE REASONS WHY WE DO NOT MODEL

Some of us feel we have nothing to offer, some fear being shot down by the hyper reticent personalities that pervade the church, some are far too busy or absorbed in their own lives to create opportunities to reach others, and some never considered the possibility to model their lives at all.

THE SWAMP

For many of us who are in the swamp life is hard enough without complicating matters by letting others in.  Who wants to be misunderstood, scoffed at, or rebuked?  Often we are distrusting of the very people we claim to be in community with and while some of the reservation we have for others is necessary, there are times when we are on a basic level, nursing pride in our hearts.

THE OLD WAYS

Colossians 1:21-22, “And you, who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.“  In view of the old ways we once lived and our redemption, wouldn’t it be wise to put away selfish attitudes and examine who we are in Christ?  The Scriptures admonish us to live out a more complete picture of love.  Earlier I spoke about what Scripture makes of the believer.  We are holy, blameless, and above reproach, but the flip side of enjoying that reality now is tied up in the contingency clause that follows, Paul continues, “IF indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard,” (v.23).   This is the “already but not yet”, tension typically present in the gospel.  Although it is present and accomplished by Christ through his death, which we had nothing to do with, we must fight the fight of faith, continuing in it the way Paul tells us to.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR UNMARRIED WOMEN?

The point of all this was to say, that I believe the Lord desires for women to know him, love him, and worship him completely.   We are to recognize the extent of his love for us in that we are lacking absolutely nothing in regards to love.  I feel that this is important in our times because so many of us who are wanting to be loved by a man feel incomplete until we have found one to thrust our affections on whether he is worthy of our love or not.  It’s a heartbreaking reality.  What’s worse though is the irresponsible way in which we nurture our own hearts as women.  If we say we are Christians and yet cannot say for certain that we have known love, then it might be true that we do not know God or that we do not know him as we ought.

The Lord has according to these two Scriptures done FAR more than any man will ever do in a million lifetimes for YOU, in that he gave his very life for you to the praise of God the Father.  He might promise you the moon and stars, but just as he is incapable of accomplishing that feat, likewise, he is also incapable of laying down his life for you in a redemptive way.  Recognize a man’s love for what it is and worship God for his sacrifice for you, not the other way around.

Before any woman engages in a relationship she should take time to consider the ways of her Father and live as though HE lives in her and she in HIM.  She should be looking for models of women who love God and are faithful, stable, and steadfast in the faith.  She should live her life always before the face of God and those women who disciple her.  She should not neglect the younger women who are eagerly watching in the wings, waiting for the day that they too will be courted and loved.  She should hasten to run to those little girls because as they eagerly await…sin lustfully awaits to mold their dreams and defer every hope, tearing them apart in the process.  Read the Scripture, read your heart, acknowledge your sin, believe the Scripture, repent, be thankful, live it out, and model it.  That’s it!

Finally, this brings me to why I even bothered to write this, I pray that the following will admonish us to take responsibility for our relationship with God; this is particularly in regards to dating or courting or whatever its called now, but of course this responsibility need not exclude all of life.  One of my dear sisters in the faith sent me a link to a blog that another sister wrote where she gives wise words of caution to women about courting (It’s actually 3 parts).  I found it thorough, insightful, well written and quite simply a huge blessing.  I humbly offer this as a companion or compliment to what she wrote.  My aim was to compile a list of ways for us to take responsibility for our own sin while also watching for the “red flags” mentioned  in Tish’s blog,   http://liliesamongstthorns.wordpress.com/2009/03/31/sisters-in-christ-cautions-part-ii/

The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.  Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her.  She will place on your head a graceful garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.

Proverbs 4:8-9

In no particular order:

• Guard your heart because you’re supposed to.

• Read the Scriptures daily.

• Engage in Fellowship with faithful women of God:Let them into your heart, your plans, and quote your beau often when sharing how all together lovely he is.  Your friends are not in love with him, you are, so the opportunity to see through the cracks is seen more clearly by them.

• Say goodnight at a reasonable hour, not when your mind is drifting into sleep and warm thoughts of being alone with him.  That’s especially for the long distance sisters…

• Be honest with your self and share your observations about him with others. It’s a lot more difficult to shirk the responsibility that comes with those observations (as ugly as they are) when you’ve opened up about them.

• Stay accountable!  When your “person” calls you, “pick up the phone!”  Let your “person” know what your plans are, I used to say, “no plan is a plan to fall or fail”, it’s true.

• Plan every detail because in the moment you cannot trust that you will do what is right.  Do not underestimate the deceitfulness of your heart.  Rescue stories from fiery furnaces are great, but why does it always have to be about living on the edge? Is this not making provision for sin?

• Staying the night, but not sleeping together? Have you lost your righteous mind? Exhibit self-control, call someone, and leave.

• Staying the night and doing more than sleeping together? Really, have you lost your righteous mind? REPENT!

• This may seem odd, but your deep study of God’s word should happen alone, with other women of God, at church bible studies, anywhere, but not with him.  Why?  Your heart thinks, “oh, look how he’s leading me and pouring into my life, my husband, er, ah, boyfriend.”

• For goodness sake, to borrow from Maya Angelou, “when someone shows you who they are the first time, believe them.”  Forgive them? Absolutely.  Engage or encourage the same sinful patterns?  NO. Do not make excuses for his sin or yours.

• If he seems reluctant to have deep one on one transparent conversations with a mature brother in the faith concerning his own particular patterns of sin or struggles, it’s a BIG red flag!

• In general, when there are blatant issues/problems in the relationship and he is either denying there’s a problem or reluctant to reach out for help and counsel, this is not good!

• He’s suggesting friends for you?  Note it, he might be making you into his ideal image of a godly woman.

• Don’t tell him about every little sin you’ve ever committed, especially if you’ve been sexually immoral in the past.  There is a huge danger of creating intimacy by sharing our deepest darkest secrets or sorrows too soon.  When and if the relationship ends, you’ll feel devastated, embarrassed, and empty.

• Stop lying to yourself.  If he really wanted to speak to you he’d have called you.  If you were his best friend, he’d have answered the 90x you rang his phone.

• Confront the sin in you and the sin he ignores or sweeps under the proverbial rug of his heart. Invite other older married women and men of God into your relationship.

• Repent of your sin often.

• Don’t say “yes” if you’re not sure he loves you. Are his expressions of love more evident in the company of others than in practical ways, like being on time, returning your call, keeping appointments? Deal with these issues. Deal with all of your issues honestly and yes according to Scripture without being impractical. Remember you have to be able to trust him with your heart.

• If you did say “yes” it still ain’t too late to think less romantically about the future and more soberly about the consequences of your decision before the “I do.” It hurts, but it’s real.

• Oh yeah, it’s not always about you. Get a life. Pray for him outside of a “you and me” context.

• Engagements need not be long or extravagant, but by all means they should be planned, thought out and an extension of the determined love he has for you. If it looks haphazard, that’s because it is even if you added to the “plan”

• Listen to the concerns of male friends. Even the questionable ones who may be unregenerate can see what you don’t want to see. Some things are really just a lot more plain to a guy cuz guess what, they’re men too.

• Listen to your dad even if all you have are the memories of his words and not his bodily presence. At the end of the day, he was a man observing a man.

• Look to the other models of godly relationships around you.

• Does he show real concern at the appropriate time or is he MIA? Are you placing him in a part of your heart your dad left void? Is he emotionally aloof and have you endured this in an unhealthy way as YOUR pattern? In other words, have many of your interests shared this same sense of aloofness? Pray and seek godly counsel about your heart because something is off.

Further reading, http://www.credenda.org/issues/11-5femina.php?type=print

Thank you to all my sisters, you make it a joy to be a woman of God (some of you helped in the process of compiling this list).  Listening to you, watching you, and being in fellowship with you is truly shaping how I value my femininity in Christ.

The Departed April 7, 2009

Probably saw that movie and know almost without thinking that I’m going to talk about death here and while that isn’t entirely wrong, it isn’t entirely true either.  I’m actually thinking through a status update I wrote here and while I was severely convicted by one of the Don’t Waste Your Life videos (Tedashi’s in particular), I know I probably will keep my facebook account alive for awhile cuz while those status updates can get a little addictive, I love that you can keep in touch with virtually everyone you know…

The Scripture that prompted the entitled is actually found in Proverbs 2:18-19, “for her house sinks down to death and her paths to the departed; none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.”
I had a moment inspired partially, but hopefully not totally by a Jay-Z & Sasha Fierce moment.  Nah, I’m not a fan of either, but I was moving my head to some song of theirs that came on at a restaurant and was struck by the idea that the wicked will perish and be left with absolutely nothing…

Since my father’s death, I do believe I have had many isolated moments that stop me in my tracks and cause me to think about the present and future reality of hell.  Presently, I know someone who is in hell suffering unthinkable torment and in the future I will know (of) many more, we all do!  But while I have been rocked by that thought, I don’t know that I’ve ever truly considered the finality and extent of what separation from God means.  Have you?
Let me rewind just a bit to that restaurant where I heard a song I was sort of beginning to enjoy.  I had started to say, ‘I like what Beyonce did with that note’ or something similar to that, but my banal pleasure was deferred before it formed itself in a complete thought to be spoken.  I had a ‘wait a minute’ moment and instead of saying what I preferred, I thought, you know what, there will be no music in hell.  Everything from here on that I write is an extension of that thought.

Every now and then when I feel like fooling myself into thinking that there is a little something view worthy on television, I end up watching a crazy documentary on, of all things, prison life, and not just some ol’ Riker’s Island holding cell stuff, but you know the kind of tell-all things that remind you of how much you really love life on the outside and how even though sometimes all you have is 75 cents to your name, you’d so much rather have that than to be stabbed in the throat by some rival who paid someone 8 packs of squares to kill you with a weapon made out of a blasted  styro-foam cup!  Thank you Lord! Not Laughing (is there a internet acronym for that yet?).  I wrote that to say, that God’s judgment and penalty for sin is never more sinning in a maximum security pit.  It can’t be.  Have we forgotten the Cross?  Punishment for sin is final, eternal, and agonizing.  If God is holy and the Scripture attests to him being holy and we believe it to be true, then we can also believe it when it says, that he must and will punish sin.  But how?  By sending people to hell so that may continue sinning?  Is hell like the maximum security prisons that hopefully none of us have experienced first hand, but watched in horror while some dude is knifed 81 times by another inmate (in a separate facility no less, for repeat offenders or those who are incapable of living among the general population)?  If so, does sin continue in hell like it does here on earth simply because it is away from the apparent law abiding citizen or the righteous who dwell with God?  It appears contained and as long as they’re only preying on one another all is well goes the thought.  Further, will the wicked continue to possess gifts?  The skill to sing, dance, play musical instruments, etc.?

While considering these things I was brought back to God’s Sovereignty and the nature of his wrath.  But before I lay out my feeble thoughts on such a matter, I must say that I am not being dogmatic about my conclusions and I’m not even pretending to know more of God’s wrath than he has laid out in Scripture.  I’m simply making some logical deductions from the word that I would love the opportunity to talk about with anyone who is willing otherwise I am gladly imposing on the facebook audience and all my lovely friends here (smile) my views*soapbox*

God is Sovereign and the Lord’s supremacy is clearly taught throughout the Bible.  Colossians 1:16-17, “for by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him.  And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” This includes the wicked and even the very gifts bestowed upon them, to be sure, however not only is he the giver and sustainer of these gifts, but Christ is also the reason for them, i.e., “all things were created for him.”  To me this implies, that if an ability or gift were not for him, then he either would not truly be supreme or the gift or thing itself could not exist.  But what about the verse that says, “for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable”?  I say Amen to that and pass the communion bread.  Praise God for that.  God’s free gift of salvation through the electing work of the Father, atoning work of the Son, and persevering work of the Holy Spirit are absolutely unconditional and unchanging.  I don’t know when that verse ever became an excuse for people to pardon so called secular artists to use their talents for something other than God’s glory AND in this context to assume that they will have it for always and all time.  Better to think on the verse that says, “the plowing (lamp) of the wicked is sin.”  That puts the work of the wicked into sharp vision.  I like Lorraine Boettner’s writing on the total depravity of sinners.  He compares sinful, unregenerate men to pirates who though they may have a law unto themselves that they keep, to the prevailing powers or government, they are still in wicked rebellion.  In fact, he says that while the pirates “continue their sailing, rigging, or mending the vessel, and even their eating and drinking, (these) are all sins in the eyes of the government, as they are only so many expedients to enable them to continue their piratical career, and are parts of their life of rebellion.  So with sinners, while the heart is wrong, it vitiates everything in the sight of God, even their most ordinary occupations.”  He goes on to say, that “even the virtues of the unregenerate man are but as plucked and fading flowers.”  I agree and would only add to this that not only virtues, but talents.  So much for gifted musicians and vocalists who have not reconciled with God.  The singer and his talent are a sin in God’s eyes and all sin will perish in the coming wrath of God.
I considered destruction in the Biblical sense:

Psalm 21: 8-9, “your hand will find out your enemies; your right hand will find out those who hate you.  You will make them as a blazing oven when you appear.  The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath, and fire will consume them.”

2 Peter 2:4-6, ” for if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them into extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;”

Luke 16:22b-26,  “The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.  And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame’.  But Abraham said, ‘Child remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.  And beside all this, between us and you a great chasm has  been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us’.”

Note how final the italicized and bolded words are; they speak of the nature of God’s wrath and while this is an awesome time to be thankful for the particular atonement that Christ’s sacrifice made for the elect, it is also a time to behold the reality that if sinners die not having had their sins absorbed by Christ on the cross, then they will suffer the coming wrath of God in hell, for the Scripture says, that “he will by no means clear the guilty,” Exodus 34:7.  Further, consider the Psalmists musings about the grave.  “like one loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand.  You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep.  Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all of your waves…Do you work wonders for the dead?  Do the departed rise up to praise you?  Is your steadfast love declared in the grave or your faithfulness in Abaddon? Are your wonders known in the darkness or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?…O Lord, why do you cast my soul away?  Why do you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 88:5-7, 10-12, 14)  Heman is not saying that he is in hell, but that he is so troubled that he likens his situation to someone who is in Sheol.  Again, the language he uses speaks of a an eternal torment and separation from God.  Hell clearly is a place of destruction and punishment by fire, torments, anguish, and complete separation from God.  If singing were even possible, would the tormented even want to sing and really what would they have to sing about?  What glory would their singing bring to God as they are crushed by this eternal state of agony?  The only singing I can imagine would be a cry for help or a second chance, but we already know that “none regain the paths of life.”  Much more, all things are his and like the fate of the pirates, the only hope they have against the government is to give up their rebellion and repent of their sins.  Ultimately, the government would assume all that they had wrongly stolen, I am sure, but God in his Sovereignty does more because he controls everything.  What he decreed in his sovereignty he brings to pass for his glory.  Although the wicked enjoyed their talents on earth and used them to their own gain (and yet God was still glorified), much like the rich man in Luke 16, they will no longer have the ability to pervert his gifts, revealing the intended purpose for them, which is to unfold the truth, beauty, and goodness of his Son or more clearly, to offer praise and expressible joy to him and in him forever.

Indeed the wicked are cut off and the cord severed forever…

The Use of Grotesque in Holy Hip Hop April 7, 2009

I’ve been wanting to write this for soooo long.  [That spelling of  'so' took me back to elementary school when I would watch in horror as dudes would hand in book reports that were about a paragraph in length.  At least two out of the four sentences used a phrase like, I found this book very very interesting...It seemed funny then, but not so much anymore.  Has anyone been appalled by the literacy rate in this country?]

Getting back: I’m geared up to write about hip hop, but I’m terrified too because I love it so much.  I love it, so I fear that somehow I’ll mess it up.  I don’t wanna do that, but be forewarned, if I do, blame my nerves and pray I get it right the next time.

I’ve always been enthralled with language.  The context of language, the particular tones and passion that is communicated with its usage, the ability for it to nearly take on wholly other worlds when a certain Scottish theologian puts a delightful twist on the name Isaiah; I love it seething or sweet, polite and painful, docile and deep.  I love it when it’s used a lot or a little and before I go completely Dr. Seuss here, I’ll wrap it up by saying, I love it most when it’s grotesque.  I love the head bangin’ rhythms of thoughtful discourse and prose about life, death and everything else we know and don’t know about living and dying between the dashes.  Further, I love when all of this finds itself wrapped up in a song.  This is contemplative music at its finest and more appropriately Holy Hip Hop as sublime aesthetic.

The Grotesque

In literature, characters in a fiction who are referred to as grotesque usually are those who the reader finds repulsive or one with whom we feel empathy towards.  They are the hunchbacks, the  beasts as in Beauty and the Beast; they are often scorned and regarded as disgusting, yet they exist to show us something about the darker side of our human nature.   I maintain here, that the best use of grotesque shows us our darkness, not merely for the sake of exposing our black hearts or frailties, nor to as one (developing) theory I read argued, “to show the corruption or terror of life, the violent assault upon the reader’s sensibility, the ripping of the veils of illusion from our eyes, not for a vision of God’s grace, but of the devil’s dominion.” Rather, similar to the goal of grotesque in literature, which intends to show how a character can conquer his dark side, grotesque can best be used in pointing to the sinfulness of man while pointing to and celebrating the triumph of the one who bore our sin, the God-man Jesus Christ.  This literary device is arguably one of the most valuable means of displaying truth, beauty, and goodness in art and further in the world.

Holy Hip Hop

So, what’s so grotesque about HolyHip Hop?  Well, before I answer that, I want to make a distinction between rap that merely, talks about an mc’s former life and rap music that uses the distorted images in life to point to the God who is so other than, that is the God of the Bible who is the very essence of being, “I AM that I AM”.

Back Down Memory Lane

The stroll down memory lane is futile and just plain distracting, even when it comes from the most well intentioned artist.  No one is trying to take away from the authenticity of this kind of testimony, but endless bars about all the grimy things that one “used to do -  that you don’t do no more” reveal more about the sinner than they do about the God who delivered him from sin.  This sub-genre in HHH has as its parent mainstream evangelical thought though.  Many of us might recall being asked by an unbelieving person, “so, what don’t you do, that you used to do before you got saved?”  That question comes from a theological worldview that places emphasis on the sins that we do rather than the big fat sinners that we are.  It’s also moralistic and ineffective when trying to reach the stony heart of a man or woman who says, “well, I never do any of those things, I’m basically a good person then, in fact I find drinking, cheating, lying, etc. to be reprehensible!”  This form of rap fails to demonstrate the holiness of God and the fact that his word, i.e., his rules are his  just decrees and as such are both good and holy.  In fact, if the mc has only succeeded in taking us back down memory lane where he describes his former devious ways and nothing more, I would surmise that although it may be hip hop, it isn’t holy at all.  Holy Hip Hop is holy insofar as it is used as a tool to declare the holiness of God.  It should also articulate the great chasm that exists between God and man because of our sin as well as unfold the redemptive plan that the Father, Son, and Spirit determined for man.  If it isn’t doing any of these things then I would strongly doubt whether it were truly sacred music.

Sacred Hip Hop & Grotesque

Clearly, one can be a HHH artist and not use grotesque.  However, I am choosing to display one kind of  HHH that uses it with excellence:

I realize something drastic is happening that shapes my attractions and fashions my actions/I died with Christ and rose with him/so now I have dominion over sin

This line makes me think of Marvel Comic Book characters who seem to always be facing some wonderful, yet omnious possibility taking over their nature.  Usually that is the case and while Gotham City or some other place in the world of Marvel is wowed by the supernatural ability of their dark hero, the sandwich of our dreams is wrestling with the awful reality of being man and something else.  That might be where the similarities end though.  In reality man must face the reality of having two natures that are at extreme odds.  One must die as the Scripture gives the believer one clear command, ”Kill sin!”  On the one hand, the Christian enjoys a new life and status as the redeemed, and as we are counted as righteous because Christ justified us through living a perfect and sinless life, (a life that he laid down for us) we believe that he has made us holy, blameless, and above reproach in the sight of the Father, Colossians 1:22.  YET, sin is still  is alive and though destructive, quite well!  Romans 6:12-18, admonishes the believer, (v 12) “do not let sin reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.”  This implies that sin is living within us and that it yields a certain power to make (if it could) you obey it to do what you want (noting that what you want to do is contrary to God’s decrees) or to be more clear, the power of sin is not merely external, but internal as he acknowledges that the enemy of his soul lives within him.  This is worse than Sigourney Weaver playing host to an alien.  This is the enemy is everywhere, this is I am the enemy too.

Timothy Brindle aptly describes the state of the believer in the song Pressing Into the Kingdom, which is on his sophomore release called Killing Sin.  If you’ve never heard of it, invite yourself over to a friends house in a show of Christian tact, rummage through their cd collection, pop it on, and give it a listen.  For now, consider the way he describes this monster,

I soon fell into a sloth of slime/ at this sight of my sin I almost lost my mind/ and starting spittin’ up at this sickenin’ stuff /it was the sin that easily trips me up/ these slivery cords started bringing me towards/ the bottom of the swamp/ I was swingin’ my sword/ to slice ‘em off of me/ now I feel trife and sloppy see/ and this sight’s exhausting me/ so I ran to a mountain of  love/ and dove head first in this fountain of blood/ after being renewed and cleansed/ I realized it’s better to run with a crew of friends/plus I realize I’m my worst enemy/it’s my own sinful nature that hinders me/on top of solid rock /I’m runnin’ again/and not on soggy slop/ I’m shunin my sin

The monster is sin, but as stated above the Christian desires to shun sin and more, to kill it.  No one in their righteous mind is desirous of seeing sin show us a vision of  Satan’s dominion.  To be sure, it already does that.  In fact, so much secular hip hop does that, it’s called conscious rap.  The problem there is, the vision is shown while the solution is commonly rejected.

Although Brindle does an amazing job at showing the frailties and corruption of our sinful hearts and world, i.e., the “terrors of life,” instead of being oppressed or feeling defeated by this reality, he uses those same tools to point to the reason for our militant stance against sin.  The picture of a fountain of blood does not come from a fascination with vampires, this isn’t Blade rising out of a bloody pool to slay his enemies, but instead this is an illustration Christ being made a propitiation for our sin and of the believer being cleansed by his shed blood.  This is why Brindle comes up renewed and cleansed, able to see the means of God’s grace in this world to destroy particular sins, namely accountable fellowship and personal responsibility (it’s my own sinful nature that hinders me) here.

I could go on here, but I don’t want to belabor my point.  Grotesque need not be limited to the stingy world of literature as I hope I’ve demonstrated by briefly stating its usefulness in hip hop that is used for the purposes of glory and beauty in Christs’ kingdom.

Thank God for every mc and producer who creates music of artistic as well as eternal significance:

Lampmode, 116 Clique/Reach Records, Christcentric, CrossMovement Records…