Some New Thoughts on Music

Last Friday evening I attended the closing concert of the Contemporary Music Festival at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana (the whole festival was totally outstanding, by the way). I spoke with one of the organizers of the event. She was surprised that a preacher would be interested in contemporary music. I’ve always been interested in arts, so it’s no surprise to anyone who knows me.

Over the next few days I began to think about music in general and its value and its connection to the spiritual realm.

There is a likeness between music and theological pursuits. Both are focused on ultimate things beyond themselves. While the focus is on the ultimate, it is not ephemeral, but real. Both can be understood directly without knowing a big structure of things ahead of time. They can be experienced through the heart even more readily than through the intellect.

Music, like love, is one of the few things that we’ll take from this world to the next. It’s best to learn them both now.

A Parable

Once upon a time, Jesus did a favor for a saint. He GAVE that saint a great gift, a unique one which was given to no other saint. The saint then built a wall around Jesus’ gift so that no one could steal it from him. People heard him using Jesus’ gift and were drawn to it, so he decided to allow them to use it, but with the full understanding that it was HIS gift and that they had to pay without ceasing to use it. This involved incorporating his gift or else selling it to someone else who was incorporated to profit from the gift. All this so that he could control something which was had freely been given to him.

What will Jesus do with that saint on the day of reckoning? Will He praise him or will He say, “When you required payment from one of the least of these, you required payment of me.”