Brief lecture given at Vespers

I thought that it would be helpful as a kind of interlude into our own acapella time to entertain an integral distinction. Essentially, it is one of nature and the spirit, the natural and the spiritual. Sure, the interconnectivity and relatedness of the two makes the tension of distinction a rather difficult thing. You might think what does this have to do with singing and worship. Its my argument that without a sense of the distinction unconsciously or consciously, we risk worshiping the True God, wrongly.
Theologically, we have the terms General graces and Special Graces. General graces are those graces given to all mankind “The rain falls of the head of the unjust and just alike.” Creation articulates something about God as it is His Art giving a standard for beauty in general even as it serves as a type and shadow of the “spiritual.”
So we appreciate the noise of someone singing on the toilet in a different way than we do Bach... we appreciate the smell of the same toilet signer in a way different than a rose... We have a framework from which we can describe and define good from not so good...
That said, this is something distinguished though not unrelated to those Graces specially given by God to His people. Remember the Church is given the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God does not abide with all men. You are privileged and this should induce humility and earnestness, not egotism and pride. Without time to tease out all the implications of the distinction, it fits our purposes in this respect.
The distinction has everything to do with the components of that in which we hope to participate, because if all we are concerned with doing is singing we will miss the special reasons why we gather. This may very well be a principal reason we are so disenchanted with church gatherings. If all we see in church gatherings is singing, a lecture, and a social hour, we miss the larger reason why we have gathered. We have gathered because we believe certain things are true. We have affirmed things with our minds and hearts about reality. We have gathered because we believe in Christ's work in Living a life of obedience to all the positive and negative proscriptions of the law in our place, his death for our sins, his resurrection to conquer the last enemy, even death and his ascension... This is not all we believe but we have our grounds and these grounds for gathering are bound up in a perception of God informed by His Word that by the Hearing of the Word the Spirit given by the Father and the Son may act out a sanctifying grace among us and in us to the praise of God alone.
Ultimately, we gather as an act of obedience to God and for God. And He promises to participate with us and bless us in grace as we bless him in praise. With not even a hint of tit for tat, we gather interested in making a joyful noise unto the Lord obeying his command to sign songs of hymns and spiritual songs. Of Consequence, the benefit is two fold: the general thrill and beauty of song singing and the special wonder of participating in an act of worship with God and for God. We are interested in general beauty because it is bound up in an extension of God's own being. And we are interested in the spiritual because of the relationship we have to God in Christ.
This ought to liberate us out of the idiocies of indifference and preference that so often accompany “worship.” Whatever tool that we use in the practice of the presence of God in song, it appropriately is an instrument. An instrument for a practice chiefly interested in affirming things with our minds so that our affections might be rightly informed. Without affirming true things, we invite illusion and the appearance of blessings.
This doesn't mean, “Oh my gosh, I really cannot sing so I cannot participate.” Do we say this about babies who cannot yet walk? Do we say this about our child who does not yet know how to ride a bike? Granted, it may be that a child may never learn to walk or ride a bike but this is in a way unnatural.
Honestly, do we say this kind of thing in any other domain? In our classes, what is our standard? Obviously, the teacher or his expectations provides a standard for the student because the one who knows the most has the best grasp on how little it is he really knows. The best signer too has the best grasp on how much it is he has yet to appreciate about voice in general.
A general concession may then help us, we are all learning and with learning comes the wear and tear of misunderstanding, and mistakes and tension. This is normal and natural. The music elite like to refer to it as dissonance. That said, part of signing involves listening, intentional listening. The kind you exert when you thrust your feet into movement attending to the instructions given by the one who knows how to ride a bike.
Note, that as we sign together corporately there is a real sense of community. It may very well be that through an exercise like this where a sure goal is in mind that we profit one by affirming things together with our minds, and two by participating in the awkwardness and thrill of melody, harmony, and dissonance in song to the Glory of God alone.

Not totally sure what to think about this

avatoln
dusis
aprktos...
mesembria..

notice adam
in 2 Enoch 30. 1of
Sib Or 3. 26

Ac 8.26
mesembria
Cosmic adam...

The transliterations are estimates at best... These are the designations for north, south, east and west.

Art speaks

Beauty is deceptive, defined by lines of gray
where dissonance and color seem to fade away

beauty cuts the deepest better in the back
while decency avoids it by experiential facts

The lines of better find us under water and reverb
without a line to save us from the wells dry earth

A sight will save the blind man from hearing
and feet will free the footless from seeing
Better save the dead man from belief in
something bigger than himself?

the fanciful resentment, of hanging on too long
affirming strange conclusions now appearing to be wrong

the verdict has a jury, the jury has a judge
the judge has his appearance, appearance is as it does..

tattle tale will tell us that beauty has a name
the name is what you make it and making its a game

A sight will save the blind man from hearing
and feet will free the footless from seeing
Better save the dead man from belief in something bigger than himself

...
the debtor knows himself, the judgments are his own

Lewis "Four Loves"

Man approaches God most nearly when he is in one sense least like God. For what can be more unlike than fullness and need, sovereignty and humility, righteousness and penitence, limitless power and a cry for help? p.14

Lewis "Four Loves"

We had better not follow Humpty Dumpty in making words mean whatever we please. p.12