Day: March 4, 2014

Saving Rock and Roll | God is a “Wild Old Dog” | First Things Reblog

Saving Rock and Roll | Web Exclusives | First Things.
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Peanut Gallery: I doubt if this music will show up any time soon in your local church, but the imagery is riveting and the tune haunting. Stephen Webb places Patty Griffin’s song “Wild Old Dog” within a framework of faith. And it’s given me a lot to think about as I approach the Lenten season.

I’ve included a YouTube version with words below so that you can judge for yourself. I’d love to hear your comments.
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SAVING ROCK AND ROLL

by Stephen H. Webb;

Rock and roll has a rebellious sound. I write that hesitantly, because there is really no such thing as rock and roll, in terms of having a permanent nature or ongoing essence. Speed, loudness, and distorted acoustical effects do not a musical genre make. Rock is a mishmash of various musical traditions — Gospel, blues, jazz, folk, country, swing — rather than a tradition of its own. When bands began using string instruments in the late sixties, for example, they changed the way most people hear classical music, and classical music, to the extent that it is still culturally relevant, has had to adapt accordingly. Even calling rock rebellious is a dated description. Like a vampire, rock needs fresh blood to survive, and it leaves its victims forever altered by draining their lifeblood. But what will happen when all music becomes, to one degree or another, rockified? Can rock be, musically speaking, everything and still be rock and roll?

Monopolies have no competitors, but there is a competing brand to rebellious rock, and that is contemporary Christian music. Once derided not just by traditionalist Christians but also by rock devotees, Christian rock has come of age. Precisely because it tries to sound different from the rock mainstream, much of it is as good as or better than secular rock — although it is still tightly segregated, like Christian fiction, from the mainstream markets.

patty griffin

If I were a trend-spotter, I would wager that secular rock will increasingly look to its Christian rival for new infusions of creativity and power. Take, for example, Patty Griffin’s “Wild Old Dog,” an intensely meditative song that gains in theological power with each new hearing. It begins:

God is a wild old dog

Someone left out on the highway

I seen him running by me

He don’t belong to no one now.

The song tells the story of a family that pulls over on the side of a highway in order to abandon their mangy and nearly blind old dog. When they set out for the ride, one of the family members tries to kick him into the car, but “He just climbed on in just like he knew.” He is a willing victim. Indeed, his destiny is to have his broken bones crushed and whittled down to nothing.

The pathos in this song is heavy, but it is redeemed from its own melodrama by the soaring quality of Griffin’s voice. She can be uplifting even when the words are driving you down, while the gracefulness of her singing sounds utterly forlorn. I know nothing about Griffin’s religious beliefs, but she has written a great religious song that begs to be interpreted theologically.

When the dog is let go, to the surprise of the singer and against all expectation, he tears “off runnin’ like we set him free.” The dog is not running away from the family, nor is he blindly running around, with no direction. In fact, with bad hips and knees, it is a miracle that he is running at all. It is uncertain what this does to the singer’s faith. The dog disappears right in front of her and leaves her thinking about how

Sometimes a heart can turn to dust

Get whittled down to nothing

Broken down and crushed.

The dog’s fate deeply wounds the singer, and this song is her attempt at healing.

But what about the dog, who is, after all, identified with God? The dog never loses his dignity. In fact, his sudden running seems to be telling the family that it is all right that they have kicked him out. The dog is old, but by embracing the wildness they have forced on him, he takes away the consequences of their cruelty. The dog is not just any kind of God, but the God who died to set us free.

We live in a world where sound has become a salvific commodity. Plugging in is how many people escape the drudgery of the ordinary and everyday. Favorite songs provide three minutes of transcendence. Nevertheless, rock is so ubiquitous that it is in danger of becoming musical wallpaper, with one style looking like another and none looking all that interesting, which leaves you wanting to tear them all down just to see the wall again.

Music lets us hear ideas that can be hard to grasp on an abstract or conceptual level. Griffin’s voice in this song, for example, makes the sadness of her words come alive in a way that expands our theological senses. We can hear in her voice the sound of the loss she is describing. More specifically, we can hear in her song the hard truth that Jesus Christ was never more like us than when we abandoned him.

Griffin is not Christian rock. But secular rock will increasingly look like Griffin, or it should. The future of rock is either to suffer a slow cultural death or be saved by more satisfying sounds by rebelling against its original rebellion and becoming more explicitly spiritual. Even if I am wrong about that prediction, the possibility that the best popular music can carry rich theological themes is something to celebrate.

Stephen H. Webb is a columnist for First Things. He is the author of Jesus Christ, Eternal God and, forthcoming, Mormon Christianity. His book on Bob Dylan is Dylan Redeemed.
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God is a wild old dog, / Someone left out on the highway. / I seen him running by me, / He don’t belong to noone now.

They dropped him out on 93. / Mange was setting in on his hips and on his knees. / Between the highways runnin north and south / They pulled on over and put him out

Willie said he was old and goin blind. / Momma told me how she didn’t mind. / When Willie kicked him with his shoe, / He just climbed on in just like he knew

God is a wild old dog / Someone left out on the highway / I seen him runnin by me / He don’t belong to noone now

It’s lonely on the highway / Sometimes a heart can turn to dust / Get whittled down to nothin / Broken down and crushed / In with the bones of wild old dogs / Wild old dogs

They dropped him out on 93 / Tall grass was waving there just like the sea / He tore off runnin like we set him free / Just disappeared right in front of me

God is a wild old dog / Someone left out on the highway / I seen him runnin by me / He don’t belong to noone now / He don’t belong to noone now.

Morning Prayer, 04 Mar – John 11:45-57 ~ one for all

Morning Prayer

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Opening sentences – Brigid of Kildare (c. 450-523)

Christ in our coming and in our leaving, the Door and the Keeper; for us and our dear ones, this day and every day, blessing for always. Amen.

Morning readings

John 11:45-57 ESV:

chief-priest

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.

Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and there he stayed with the disciples.

Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?” Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.

Reflections:

faith and fear

There are a variety of responses to Jesus’ raising of Lazarus – many put faith in him, but others inform the authorities. The report alarms the Pharisees, and so the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.

Like many religious leaders since, Jesus is accused of being a threat to national security. Jesus’ popularity could look like a popular uprising that would require calling in the Roman legions destroying both their religious positions and the entire nation. The irony is that they do destroy the temple of Jesus’ body, but this does not prevent the Romans from destroying their temple and their nation, nor does it prevent increasing numbers of people from believing in Jesus.

Their plot prevented neither of the things they feared, even though they succeeded in getting Jesus killed.

atonement and oneness

Caiaphas unwittingly prophesies that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, but John sees the divine intent that Jesus die in place of the nation for their sin… and for the sin of all humanity. Jesus’ death is also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. Jesus’ work as the Good Shepherd is accomplished through his death.

The oneness with God that the atonement accomplishes is complemented by the oneness of the people of God drawn from the whole of the human race. They are already referred to as children of God since each one who enters Christ’s community has been given to him by the Father and has responded in faith and has been born again. It is Christ, especially Christ crucified, that unites the people of God.

seclusion and speculation

Jesus goes back into seclusion because of the increased danger. His movement in and out of seclusion shows him working around the intentions of his enemies as he works out the intentions of his Father. There is a similar pattern in his work in the lives of his followers today. He moves in and out of seclusion in our lives, not because his life is threatened but as part of his love for us, to wean us from false attachments, even false views we may have of God himself.

Meanwhile, as Passover approaches, friends and foes speculate whether or not Jesus will come to the feast, aware that the chief priests and Pharisees are seeking his arrest. But Jesus has already departed from the temple and will not be standing where they are standing as they ask such questions. He will come up to this feast, but he will not be coming to the temple. Rather, the one true sacrifice is about to take place in the temple of his body.

The IVP New Testament Commentary Series

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Canticle:

Christ, as a light… illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield… overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.

Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

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Peanut Gallery: A brief word of explanation – the general format for Morning Prayer is adapted from the Northumbrian Community‘s Daily Office, as found in Celtic Daily Prayer (see online resources here.) The Scripture readings are primarily from the Gospel of John, with the intent to complete the reading by Easter. Other Scriptures which illuminate the Gospel of John will be included along the way.

Reflections from various saints will be included as their memorial days occur during the calendar year.

On Sundays, I’ll return to the USCCB readings (see online resources here) and various liturgical resources in order to reflect the Church’s worship and concerns throughout the world.

Photo illustrations and music videos, available online, are included as they illustrate or illuminate the readings. I will try to give credit and link to sources as best I can.