3 December 2009
Group three: Bible
The Bible was implicitly and explicitly present in the song selections for this week’s focus situation. As we listened to the songs and read the lyrics, biblical passages and biblical metaphors became apparent. Music lends itself beautifully to telling the biblical story.
Song – Ordinary Miracles – Biblical metaphors: The creation story and many examples of miracles throughout the Bible. We take ordinary things for granted and fail to recognize how truly miraculous they are. Biblical texts: The sky knows when it’s time to snow. Ecc. 3:1-8 – “to everything there is a season and a time to…”. Birds in the winter have their fling, but always make it home by spring. Matt. 6:25 “Do not worry…look at the birds of the air, they do not sow or reap or store away Birds in winter have their fling in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.”
Song – Where is the Love – Biblical metaphors: sin, suffering. Biblical texts: Where is the love – 1 Jn 4:8 “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” But if you only have love for your own… Matt. 5:44 Jesus said, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” With the ongoin’ sufferin’ as the youth die young – Genesis 3:16-19 – consequences of sin leads to sorrow and death. People killin’, people dyin’ , Children hurt and you hear them cryin’ Rev. 21:4 “…he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more.
Song – My city of Ruins – Biblical metaphors: Grief over losses, mourning tragedies. God is with us in our grief – Lamentations. Jerusalem restored – Nehemiah. Biblical texts: Resurrection of Jesus – “Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days.’” John 2:19.
Song – God’s Song – Biblical metaphors: “Cain slew Abel, Seth knew not why” Genesis – children of Adam and Eve, “I recoil in horror from the foulness of thee” God’s reaction to sin? “You really need me” – Throughout the Bible we are continually reminded of how much we need God!
Song – Jesus Walks – Biblical metaphors: Present Jesus – Lives today. Surprising associations in Gospel (prostitutes, tax collectors). A reminder that God is there for those who are struggling and low. Biblical texts: All of god’s soldiers – OT concept – Judges 6:12 “Gideon a mighty warrior”. I walk through the valley of the Chi where death iz – Psalm 23 – “walk through the valley of death.” My momma used to say only Jesus can save us – Rom. 5:6 “Christ died for the ungodly.” There’s nothing I could do now to right my wrongs – Ephesians 2:8-9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this not from yourselves it is the gift of God – not by works, so no one can boast.” Ephesians 5:2 “…just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us.” 1st Cor. 15:3-4 “Christ died for our sins.” Rom. 6:23 “for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The Story – Biblical Metaphor: Telling the biblical narrative is foundational to our Christian faith. God interacts with our lives through story. We use stories to pass on our faith to the next generation and to non-believers. Biblical texts: Mountaintop experiences – Moses( Ex. 34:29 – 35) and Jesus (Luke 9:28 – 36)
Other Biblical Texts and Metaphors found in the songs: Humankind has has messed gthings up and we need God to intervene because we are unable to fix it on our own. We can’t love like God Loves. God is beyond us, beyond our knowledge, and beyond our comprehension. The songs gives us a way to talk about God like David did with the Psalms.
Problematic songs: God’s song was problematic. How despairing to think that man “means nothing” to God or that God takes our children from us and burns down our cities. This song paints a terrifying picture of an evil God. The song makes it sound as if God really didn’t care about humankind and really didn’t need us at all. We appeared as nothing more than puppets in his play and nothing we did mattered to him.
Important Learning Goal: Our group identified several important learning goals. The first goal is to actually read the Bible and look at what the Bible is saying and what the songs are saying. An equally important goal is to make the Bible part of our prayers in more ways than just repeating them or singing the liturgy. Another important goal would be emphasizing to children that prayer can be in many forms, including movement, dancing, hand movements, chanted verses, or spoken prayer.
Engaging in the biblical text through song: Two effective ways to approach the biblical texts through song would be in a literary reading or devotional reading manner. Helpful questions for literary reading from Book of Faith might be: What is important about the setting? Who is the main character? What themes are highlighted. Helpful questions for devotional reading might be: What does this passage say to our world…?, What images come to mind? What feelings did I have?
(published by Mary for group three)
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3 December 2009 at 4:41 pm
I thought that I could add a few verses to “Where is the Love” that you didn’t site. The main chorus is
People killing people dying
Children hurtin you hear them crying
Can you practice what you preach
Would you turn the other cheek?
Father Father Father help us
Send some guidance from above
Cause people got me got me questioning
Where is the love?(where is the lovex3)(the love2x)
For the childern hurting — I thought of Matthew 18:10 where Jesus talks about how we need to not treat his littlest ones badly. It also reminds me of all the other times Jesus calls the childern to him.
Can you practice what you preach? — This is through out Jesus’ teachings but I was reminded of Jesus saying about the Pharisees in Matt 23:3 that they don’t practice what they teach.
Would you turn the other cheek? — from the sermon on the mount 5:39 turn the other other cheek.
Father , Father, Father — reminds me of the Our Father from the sermon on the mount in Matt ch 6 and Jesus’ talk about “your heavenly father”
Where is the Love? — Jesus talks a lot of love. Especially in the sermon on the mount.
I just thought it was cool to see all of these parellels in such a small chorus with the sermon on the mount which I’m studying in a different class.
3 December 2009 at 10:33 pm
After reading your post I was thinking about God’s Song and perhaps what Newman is showing us is a God who is devoid of the very essence of who God is – love. And because of that – I really do believe this song is satirical – one that makes us take a look at God, what we know explicitly about God (God is love) and how ridiculous it is for us to think about God as defined in this song.
4 December 2009 at 9:42 am
Great work group three! I am amazed at all the scripture references you found in Jesus Walks. I also thought of Deuteronomy in reference to the song The Story. In Deuteronomy there is an emphasis to pass down the story to the next generations.
I appreciate your learning goal of making scripture part of our prayers. I tend to forget that there is more than the Lord’s prayer in the Bible and how powerful it can be for people to hear scripture in prayer. Even if you don’t verbally reference your prayer it back to scripture, the hearing of scripture repeated in prayer connects us to past generations of God’s children.
Just curious, did you intentionally leave out song one? or just forget it? Our group found this song to be of great discussion, so I am curious to what other groups thought of it.
thank you
4 December 2009 at 2:42 pm
Thanks, group three! I will echo Rebeca in saying that I too am impressed at how many Bible verses you were able to reference in respect to the songs. It looks as if your group gave quite a bit of time, thoughts, energy, and research into this week’s assignment.
I’m wondering what to do with Randy Nemwan’s “God’s song.” You note it as problematic, and I’m wondering what that means for you. You wrote, “This song paints a terrifying picture of an evil God. The song makes it sound as if God really didn’t care about humankind and really didn’t need us at all. We appeared as nothing more than puppets in his play and nothing we did mattered to him.”
I’m wondering how Newman’s depiction of God is problematic for your understanding of who God is and how God works in this world. I, too, am troubled by Newman’s lyrics, but I think he raises an interesting challenge to Christians who profess a loving God. If there is evil and suffering in the world, how is there also an active, loving God? I think it’s an interesting point to discuss. Thanks for your contribution!
4 December 2009 at 9:54 pm
I will echo the sentiments above by several other classmates – group 3 did a great job of compiling the list of Biblical references. These are quite helpful in examining the songs in a different light. In my group stories I saw them as mostly secular, but trying to be used in a church setting. However, that view was greatly changed as I read through your posting and all the potential Biblical references. I also appreciate how you stated your learning goals included ACTUALLY reading the Bible to see what it says and what the songs say. I think it’s important as we analyze and critique these songs that we do take a look at them in several ways, including the Biblical aspect.
I think too often we get into our Sunday morning rituals of singing and praying the liturgy and not worshipping God with our whole-heart and mind. I think its important to realize that we as adults should remember and teach children and others that prayers can occur in many different ways. Just last week I observed a confirmation class that looked at praying in three ways – through coloring, meditation and ACTS. It was quite a learning experience for me as I watched how the students were participating and learning from the prayer experiences. Blessings!