I posted the following this past October 6th....and it is still there....under the title....Something In The Air. The post concludes with some comments on the great 1942 film Mrs. Miniver. When our churches open up once again....well....I'll let you read that anecdote to see what I'm getting at....
The following is my Lord's Day post although it will take a while to get to the main point. My habit generally is to listen to a certain type of music in light of what I'm doing at the time. So if I don't really want to be involved in the music....but just relax by it....I tune in Sirius/XM's classical music channel. Such was the case this evening....but within a few minutes I noticed how unsettling what I was hearing was.
Igor Stravinsky's Rite Of Spring is considered one of the most influential compositions of the 20th century as it was extremely innovative in a number of ways. A riot broke out in the audience when it first opened as a ballet in Paris in May of 1913. Some have asserted that it was the famous Nijinsky's odd and disjointed dancing that contributed to the chaos....but the ballet revolves around a pagan sacrifice....so that also may have added to the darkened mood.
The Rite Of Spring later was performed as an orchestral movement only in St. Petersburg on February 18, 1914 in Stravinsky's homeland of Russia. Vladimir Lenin would have been living in exile outside of Russia at the time....waiting to come back to continue to instigate revolution. Four months later World War I would begin. Well....enough of classical music of which I'm just an outside observer. What interests me about this it that there seems to be certain times in history when there seems to be something in the air....(biblically speaking)....and when chaos tends to rule. 1968 was just such a year. It was a terrible year. I was 18 years old at the time.
We are in just such a time period today as chaos seems to be the rule all over the globe. It's a time that I would expect a Rite Of Spring to be composed....or written....or put on film....or acted out on some public stage.
It's at times like these that Christians are supposed to be calm....but as I described in a very recent post....there is a difference between being calm because of the assurance that God has everything under control....and being calm because we just have no idea or even concern about what is going on in the world.
Tomorrow morning men will enter pulpits all over our nation. To put this in very current jargon....it's their job to be up on these things....and to warn us....studying up and in prayer at all times....not to be spending their time painting the sanctuary. This general lack of discernment in the church over the seriousness of the world situation emanates directly from what is today a very weak age for preaching Christ....His gospel...and His cross. Does anyone seriously believe that preaching has generally been the same over all the time periods over the past two millenium? Of course not....so in light of this....would it not be appropriate to at least attempt to see where we fit into the fluctuating points on that graph as it pertains to a strong or a weak age of preaching? (hint: it's near the bottom!)
I'll finish this post with an anecdote that I placed in previous posts. It was on a cruise to Bermuda. There were eight of us....my wife and I and six others.....eating every evening at the same dinner table. This was one of our favorite things about cruises....and bed & breakfasts for that matter.....where we could meet new people. On a short vacation only a few weeks ago we met a couple who were newspaper editors....and a man who worked for the Department of Defense....and we had interesting conversations....anyway....on that cruise and at that table were two English ladies. I attempted to bring the conversation around to more serious topics so I described one of my favorite films.....Mrs. Miniver. (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography b&w) I told the whole story but highlighted two distinct church services....one at the beginning of the film where the people and families were thinking about anything and everything except the gospel of Jesus Christ. (The setting of the 1942 film began just prior to Britain's entry into World War Two) The second church service was at the end of the film. The church had been bombed....and you could see the sky through part of the bombed out roof....a number of the main characters had died in the war....there was a somber but hopeful reverence to God in that service. Did my plan work....did we then have some serious discussion on current events? No....one of the English ladies paused after I finished and began talking again about the different excursions that were available to cruise passengers.
Metaphorically speaking.....we are most likely going to have that bombed out roof experience soon in our nation....but you would have to know the seriousness of what's going on in this world to see this....and that's generally called discernment....and it goes hand-in-hand with....and in response to....hearing Christ preached....His gospel preached....His cross preached....and I'll add to that....His warnings preached.
The following is my Lord's Day post although it will take a while to get to the main point. My habit generally is to listen to a certain type of music in light of what I'm doing at the time. So if I don't really want to be involved in the music....but just relax by it....I tune in Sirius/XM's classical music channel. Such was the case this evening....but within a few minutes I noticed how unsettling what I was hearing was.
Igor Stravinsky's Rite Of Spring is considered one of the most influential compositions of the 20th century as it was extremely innovative in a number of ways. A riot broke out in the audience when it first opened as a ballet in Paris in May of 1913. Some have asserted that it was the famous Nijinsky's odd and disjointed dancing that contributed to the chaos....but the ballet revolves around a pagan sacrifice....so that also may have added to the darkened mood.
The Rite Of Spring later was performed as an orchestral movement only in St. Petersburg on February 18, 1914 in Stravinsky's homeland of Russia. Vladimir Lenin would have been living in exile outside of Russia at the time....waiting to come back to continue to instigate revolution. Four months later World War I would begin. Well....enough of classical music of which I'm just an outside observer. What interests me about this it that there seems to be certain times in history when there seems to be something in the air....(biblically speaking)....and when chaos tends to rule. 1968 was just such a year. It was a terrible year. I was 18 years old at the time.
We are in just such a time period today as chaos seems to be the rule all over the globe. It's a time that I would expect a Rite Of Spring to be composed....or written....or put on film....or acted out on some public stage.
It's at times like these that Christians are supposed to be calm....but as I described in a very recent post....there is a difference between being calm because of the assurance that God has everything under control....and being calm because we just have no idea or even concern about what is going on in the world.
Tomorrow morning men will enter pulpits all over our nation. To put this in very current jargon....it's their job to be up on these things....and to warn us....studying up and in prayer at all times....not to be spending their time painting the sanctuary. This general lack of discernment in the church over the seriousness of the world situation emanates directly from what is today a very weak age for preaching Christ....His gospel...and His cross. Does anyone seriously believe that preaching has generally been the same over all the time periods over the past two millenium? Of course not....so in light of this....would it not be appropriate to at least attempt to see where we fit into the fluctuating points on that graph as it pertains to a strong or a weak age of preaching? (hint: it's near the bottom!)
I'll finish this post with an anecdote that I placed in previous posts. It was on a cruise to Bermuda. There were eight of us....my wife and I and six others.....eating every evening at the same dinner table. This was one of our favorite things about cruises....and bed & breakfasts for that matter.....where we could meet new people. On a short vacation only a few weeks ago we met a couple who were newspaper editors....and a man who worked for the Department of Defense....and we had interesting conversations....anyway....on that cruise and at that table were two English ladies. I attempted to bring the conversation around to more serious topics so I described one of my favorite films.....Mrs. Miniver. (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography b&w) I told the whole story but highlighted two distinct church services....one at the beginning of the film where the people and families were thinking about anything and everything except the gospel of Jesus Christ. (The setting of the 1942 film began just prior to Britain's entry into World War Two) The second church service was at the end of the film. The church had been bombed....and you could see the sky through part of the bombed out roof....a number of the main characters had died in the war....there was a somber but hopeful reverence to God in that service. Did my plan work....did we then have some serious discussion on current events? No....one of the English ladies paused after I finished and began talking again about the different excursions that were available to cruise passengers.
Metaphorically speaking.....we are most likely going to have that bombed out roof experience soon in our nation....but you would have to know the seriousness of what's going on in this world to see this....and that's generally called discernment....and it goes hand-in-hand with....and in response to....hearing Christ preached....His gospel preached....His cross preached....and I'll add to that....His warnings preached.
