Yesterday, I started reading a fantastic new book,
With One Voice, by
Reggie Kidd. Mr. Kidd unpacks a theology of Song that is rooted in biblical theology, supported by rigorous exegesis, and communicated in reverent playfullness. I'm only on p. 54, but I totally resonnate with the author's premise: the missing element in both our corporate and private worship (i.e. our life!) is that we don't factor in the role of the Singing Savior. "For the Bible says that in the church Jesus is singing hymns to the Father (Heb. 2:12) and that, in fact, he is our Worship Leader (Heb. 8:2)" (p. 21). This is liberating stuff. I mean, how many times do we throw it all on ourselves to conjur up the right feelings of devotion, praise, passion, and repentance towards God? Or maybe we think it's the so-called "worship-leader's" job to get us excited about singing so that we can really "worship" God. This is not only self-defeating, but it gospel-defeating. Jesus has not only died for us, he lives for us, he intercedes for us, he SINGS for us! Check out this quote:
Here in a nutshell is the entire glorious mystery of the New Testament. By virtue of his resurrection, Jesus is alive in such a way that he can be both “with us” and “for us.” Simultaneously he is “in the midst of the assembly” and in the heavenly Jerusalem ever interceding for us. A permanent Singer has been installed. From one perspective, he sings with us in the church; from another he intercedes for us in heaven. When the church gathers in worship, earth and heaven converge. When we sing we are not singing by ourselves. There is a higher song going on above ours and a deeper song going on beneath ours.
Reggie Kidd, With One Voice: Discovering Christ's Song in Our Worship (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2005) p. 115.
The author also has a website with lots of helpful resources on worship, biblical studies, music, and a blog.
Link:
Reggie Kidd
3 comments:
AWESOME! i will pass this onto our worship (l)eader at CC
thanks josh
Josh,
Back to BT in the local church. This Sunday I am trying something new. Pray for me. As I have preached at CC and through Colossians I have done my best to preach BT without overwhelming the church. So far, the response has been good, maybe too good. Anyway, it just so happens that Pauls prayer in 1.9-14, which I have already preached two sermons on, is loaded with lexical and thematic allusions to creation and Israel. Thus, I am pulling up this week to do a sermon on "The Stories of Scripture and the Kingdom of Christ." The plan is to identify the key words/phrases in the text and work out to the larger story, e.g. the story of creation. As you know, the stories of Scripture overlap and shade one another giving the whole Narrative meaning, purpose and direction.
So, I will introduce them to the BT of the Bible through a sermon on metanarrative, contrasting it with Postmodern approach to metanarrative (Lyotard). As a result, we will cover the stories of creation, Israel, Christ and Paul/NT/Christians. Here's the link to our MP3s if you get a chance to hear it:
http://covenantchapelct.com/downloads/sermon_audio/
Thanks for the link. I'll have lots of fun checking out your church's website. I can't wait to hear your sermons! I commend you for your faithfulness in preaching the whole counsel of God. It takes discipline and wisdom to preach biblical theology without showing your exegetical underwear, so to speak. So I will continue to pray for you.
Col. 1.9-14 is such an overwhelming prayer. I can see how you've already preached a few sermons on it.
One way that I've found helpful to draw in OT words/phrases/concepts into NT preaching is to have those pertinent texts (that you will be addressing in the sermon)read either in the Scripture reading or other relevant parts of the service. This might be particularly appropriate if you have already read the text or preached on it the week before. You might even consider preparing a collage of texts that could be read.
Post a Comment