Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.
Luke 15:25
I wonder if I spend more time listening to music than not. I don’t listen to music while I sleep, so that’s a huge chunk of “not” time, but most of my waking hours are spent with music playing in the background. Still, I bet the majority of my day is spent without listening to music. Unless, that is, “listening to music” includes listening to music that I’m creating. I’m that annoying person who’s always humming or whistling whatever song happens to be stuck in my head. Often the notes pouring out of me are subconscious. I guess I’m so accustomed to hearing music that I create my own in the absence of another source. That’s just how I work.
I wonder if Jesus was musical. As far as I know, we don’t have evidence pointing in either direction. If I had to guess though, I’d say that Jesus was not musical. From the Gospel accounts, we don’t see music playing any size role, considerable or not, in his ministry. He and his disciples didn’t attend concerts or form a band to rock out in their garage. They probably heard a bit of music at religious feasts occasionally, but that’d be it.
Don’t you feel kind of bad for people in the 1st century Palestine? They didn’t have most of the instruments that we take for granted today. They had voices, percussion, and harps. I guess there were shofars too, but weren’t they more for communication than music? Music wasn’t a staple of their society. It didn’t define them, or give them an identity. It didn’t entertain them or touch their emotions. It wasn’t a way to escape life or bring meaning to it.
Unfortunately, music isn’t all good though. I’m pretty critical of music. Jesus doesn’t necessarily back me up on this, but from what I know of Jesus I imagine he’d be critical of some music we listen to. The diversity of styles and genres would excite him. Jesus loved people universally, so perhaps he’d love music universally too. But, just as Jesus was critical about the inward motives of people, I imagine he’d be critical of the meaning of songs too. The music—the rhythms, pitches—would be lovely to him, but the lyrics and deeper messages might not be.
That’s where I think we could afford to bring a little more consciousness to our lives. Music is powerful. Even background music has impact on us. Stores attempt to control your mood with music. Elevator music tries to make you more relaxed, and therefore, more patient. How many songs can bring back memories to you? How many songs can completely change your mood the instant they start playing? Even if we don’t give music our conscious attention, it’s influencing us subconsciously. That’s kind of scary and I don’t want to leave what I hear up to chance.
So I’m picky when it comes to music. I don’t want to fill my life with hate or violence or unfaithful relationships, so I try to avoid those things in music. I want to fill my life with encouragement, motivation, and praise. And there is plenty of music that emphasizes those things. I have a feeling that the content of music has a much greater impact on our lives than we’ll ever know. I want music to make me live more like Jesus instead of less and I’m grateful that my parents chose that kind of music for me long before I could make the choice for myself.
Christian music isn’t all good. And secular music isn’t all bad. I would never tell someone to cut out secular music from their lives because that’d mean throwing out many songs that are lovely. I don’t agree with all of the music that falls under “Christian” labels either. There are some songs on the local Christian radio station that cause me to turn off the radio. In general though, I feel better listening to Christian bands and radio.
I wish I had more to say on this topic because it’s extremely important to me. Alas, I have no more to say. Maybe someone else does . . .
I just have to agree with you that I am also very thankful to my parents for what music they had us listen to as children.
ReplyDeleteI also think it's cool that you pointed out that "christian music isn't all good, and secular music isn't all bad". That took me a few years to learn :)
Genesis 4:21 His brother's name was Jubal, the first musician -- the inventor of the harp and flute.
ReplyDeleteI personally think that music may have been a very big part of Jesus life. Musicians and instruments are mentioned in Genesis. Growing up in an African village where people couldn't read, stories and music were very important. I may be wrong but I imagine music was a large part of their lives. Music is something that is found in every culture as far as I know. It may be the more formal music in the temple where there were choirs of singers or musical instruments used. Or the music of celebrations like weddings. Many people like you Daniel make their own music. We may not call another culture's "noise" music, but we do have the verse that says "make a joyful noise" hopefully not to many people have to listen to mine. So I do think that Jesus had music in His life.
We find the story of the Jews in Babylon not being allowed their music which I think was a thing of repression. Psalm 137 talks about them not wanting to make music
1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
2 There on the poplars
we hung our harps,
3 for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
I feel that there was a lot of music in Jesus time. The Jewish culture has a lot of music in it.
I agree with you that the words are very important. That is why I like classical music with on words. But there are times when music with words can describe what I feel better than I can put into words. Music is a way for people to express their emotions which is probably why there is so much disagreement about it.
These "Living Consciously" posts are coming so fast I haven't even read them all yet. But I will! (Have a response to the first one still percolating.)
ReplyDeleteThis one especially resonated with me.
For me, it's not only the words but the spirit or mood of the melody. My hunch is that the composer's -- as well as the performer's -- spirit is communicated in the music; if they are positive, whole, joyful, then that comes through. Same with a sense of restlessness or rebellion or melancholy. And that spirit comes over me as I let the song go deep into my being.
I keep being amazed at how central music was to the temple. This morning I read the end of Nehemiah and was struck by all the music going on as they dedicated the Wall of Jerusalem. The Levites who were musicians "were brought to Jerusalem to celebrate joyfully the dedication with songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals, harps and lyres" (Neh 12:28). Two groups of people each walked half the length of the wall, both accompanied by choirs. The next chapter Nehemiah rebuked the city leaders because the musicians had not been given the portions of the offerings assigned to them and so all musicians had gone back to their own fields (Neh 13:10).
I agree with Harold: these posts are coming fast, and with lots of meat to chew on!
ReplyDeleteGood thoughts in this one, and in the comments. I had something on this topic simmering for use on my blog too, but it's not done cooking yet. Something about how we do more listening to music now, than making music. And that something has been lost in that transition.