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more love, more power, more poetry
My tribe on the Christian landscape, Vineyard, came to be through poetry. A group of burned out believers gathered in a living room week after week to sing love songs to Jesus. One of the early songs of those early days was titled, “More Love, More Power.” It was prophetic, because what the world needs now, and what the church has too little of, is love sweet love.
More love, more power, more poetry. Psalm 148 is poetry. Go ahead, read it. Better yet, sing it. The poem places you in the position of conductor and the world is your orchestra. You tap your baton and begin with the heavens, commanding them as a conductor does, to praise. All that the heavens are–their meaning–is praise.
Then the earth and its creatures, then one’s fellow human beings in all their vast array.
More love, more power, more poetry. What if Psalm 148 is the way, or one of the primary ways, that we are to engage the world around us? You see the heavens and you call them to praise. You see the earth, the trees of the field, the grasses, the creatures wild and tame, and call it/them to praise. You see your fellows as part of this glorious creation and call them to praise with you. Not argue with you to see who’s right, but to praise with you. But only if you are actually praising. More love, more power, more poetry.
Would you read Psalm 148 as science? That would be a mistake. Poetry is not science. You would not say, “Because Psalm 148 says that there are waters above the highest heavens (and we know there is no water above the highest heavens) the Bible is in error.” Neither would you say, “Since the Bible clearly teaches that rain does come from from above the clouds, from the storehouses above the heavens, anyone who says otherwise is a heretic.” And you wouldn’t turn yourself into a pretzel to prove that Psalm 148 is scientifically true because in fact, there are signs that Mars may be hiding water, and see, the Bible is true after all.
We wouldn’t have to do any of that, because poetry can be true in a way that science is not true. (Just as science is true in a way that poetry is not.) It’s a different form of truth, and truth is so big, so vast, so wonderful, that it cannot be contained in one form only. One person, perhaps, as the true Icon, but that’s another discussion, or better yet, another song, like the opening to John’s gospel: “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.” A poem, if ever there was one, to be sung, preferably on one’s knees.
Science can lead to praise, can lead to love, but first it has to be translated into poetry. My friend, Carl Safina knows that and does that. Read his books and you will see how. But that’s another song too.
Is it an accident, a mere randomness rather than a purposeful randomness, that John Wimber one of the early leaders of Vineyard, was first the manager-producer of the Righteous Brothers? Wimber had his hand in the most played radio song of all time, “Unchained Melody.” Perhaps God wants to unchain the church with a new song, so that we can bring more love and more power to the world.
Tags: carl safina, Genesis 1, John 1, john wimber, love, more love, more power, poetry, power, Psalm 148, science, song for the blue ocean, the Righteious Brothers, Unchained Melody, Vineyard
August 21st, 2009 at 5:55 pm
~
And so, I find it well to come
For deeper rest to this still room,
For here the habits of the soul
Feels less the outer world’s control:
The strength of mutual purpose pleads
More earnestly our common needs:
And from the silence multiplied
By these still forms on either side,
The world that time and sense have known
Falls off and leaves us God alone.
- Whittier
August 21st, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Some of my favorite poetic quotes from Brennan Manning.
Speaking of the universe: ‘Magnificent monotony’.
Speaking of himself: ‘I am a saint with an incredible capacity for beer.’
He calls God’s love ‘Furious’.
‘[Be] daring enough to be different, humble enough to make mistakes, wild enough to be burnt in the fire of love, real enough to make others see how phony [you] are.’
August 21st, 2009 at 8:06 pm
There does seem to be a need to praise. Without it-without regular heartfelt praise–I feel spiritually destitute. Desolate. And Psalm 148! Yes. It’s my favorite Psalm. I read it at my father-in-law’s second wedding. He said something like, “Well, that sounded like poetry!”
August 22nd, 2009 at 8:04 am
Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By & by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep & know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow’s springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What héart héard of, ghóst guéssed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.
-Hopkins-
As the earth groans and cries out for salvation. As the children of the earth grown and grieve with it, what do we offer them as they weep for creation, do we realize they weep for their own mortality? The gospel is the hope for humanity and the earth.
August 23rd, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Ken, I believe there are two types of people in this world. Those who talk or write about change and those who do something to make change. I believe as Christians we can talk about the bible in terms of science–saving the environment and taking care of the environment. But what are we really doing to make a change? I bet that not to many of us know about harmful chemicals in our home (household cleaners), how toxic they are for our families (#1 cause of asthma,allergies, and several cancers), our water supply being contaminated by these, the environment, then the containers they come in sit in landfills release harmful emissions. We talk about this, but for many of us we still run out to the store to purchase Windex, Pinesol, Pledge, etc. It just seems to me that there is an awful lot of talk and not a lot of action.
August 24th, 2009 at 6:54 am
the weight of love’s dilemma:
gazing into the light
of daybreak’s panoramic height
i recognize the outline, a work of art
initiated by an ancient Artist
emerging from the weight of love’s dilemma
like the strong, safe arms
of a Father reaching to encompass
the menace that has burdened my soul
throughout the nightwatches
yet the light now shed from above
perceives the shadow of consequence
as this illuminating Artist enfolds my body
alighting my spirit within to rhapsody
casting me into His masterpiece
with tenderness amidst my perplexity
and while radiance rises within
to meet the dayspring without
i discover myself clothed
in the cool of mornings’ gentle breeze
but my lips burn nonetheless
while my eyes manifest
as renewed witnesses
even as awe
(lightly holding my breath)
beckons me to wonder at
the spectacle of the will to love
so reminiscent of
the life of God and the tree of pain
borne along upon strong shoulders
just like the day you took my hand
and beckoned me to stand
then dance within sight
of a wondrous and glorious plight
beauty for ashes
and the budding of aaron’s rod
a soul summoned to behold
the ache of our God
then the ebb of darkness
let’s loose the crashing wave
of new mercies
running from morning’s horizon
to meet this prodigal
drawn by loving cords
to his Eternal Father’s
Divine Embrace
August 24th, 2009 at 11:17 am
cassady,
it seems to me you are suggesting that those two types of people (those who talk and those who act) can not be one in the same? I don’t think this holds up as many who have acted also talk/write. and in fact, most wouldn’t know of thier actions without thier talking/writing. For example, Dr. MLK would have had far less of an impact if he had not talked about the change he hoped to accomplish or the implications of his actions.
and in terms of your assumption that many christians talk but still by windex, well, i’m sure that may be true, but i would also venture to guess that some of that talk has also produced action. I for one have changed my behavior becuase of Ken’s talking/writing…God has used these discussions to convict me in some area’s such as recycling, the type of car I purchase, the way I drive, etc. So all this to say that I think this talking/writing is very good and does lead to action…and that one particular action (purchasing of cleaning products) can not be used as a litmus test of the efficacy of talking/writing.
August 25th, 2009 at 11:16 am
I think everyone’s unchained song can be what they want it to be: Slam poetry of the new millennium or the disguised guise of Emily Dickinson. It can be in the purchase of a car or the careful investigation of a cleaning product. If we all sang the same song, we’d be banging our heads (and not in the Quiet Riot kind of way). The end result though needs to be love and potential for transformation.
August 26th, 2009 at 8:07 am
Cassady,
There are two types of people who fail in this world:
Those who think but never do,
and
Those who do but never think.
August 26th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Creation has inspired many poets to craft worshipful songs to God, based on their understanding of how it all works and how God’s hand shaped and shapes it, from the psalmists forward.
I’ve started wondering what it would look like to see modern poets and songwriters in churches beginning to craft poems and songs for worship that praise God for the wonder of Creation, using terms that assume our mainstream scientific understanding of how it all works, eg. an evolutionary perspective… Or is it too soon to force such a juxtaposition of worship and contemporary science upon those in our churches who would have alternative perspectives?
September 20th, 2009 at 9:37 am
@Tim….it’s all you man. Try it. Don’t wait for the songwriters and the poets to do something you came up with. It’s a great idea!