A slightly pointless piece on some contemporary Christian praise.
Is it just me or have others noticed a trend in contemporary praise songs to present Jesus as ‘Lover’? That is, love for Jesus and relationship with Him is increasingly expressed in almost romantic terms. Of course, I’m inevitably being selective but consider the following lyrics…
Hold me close, let your love surround me,
Bring me near, draw me to your side…
You are the love song we’ll sing forever…
Like a rose trampled on the ground,
You took the fall and thought of me,
Above all.
Lord you have my heart
And I will search for Yours…
Your love is better than wine,
Your name like sweetest perfume.
Oh, that You would kiss me
With the kisses of your mouth
And draw me, draw me after You.
And like a moth to the flame
I fly into the fire of Your intimate love
As You draw me, draw me after You.
The simplest of all love songs
I want to bring you
So let my words be few
Jesus, I am so in love with you
Here in your arms,
I am lost in your love.
Holding me close,
Never let me fall.
My lover’s breath is sweetest wine,
I am His prize and He is mine;
Now this ‘two lovers together’ imagery is not unbiblical. The Song of Songs is a book full of romantic and passionate expressions of love between two lovers – and a book which has been understood to express (among other things) a picture of the love between Jesus and the Church. So expressions of romantic love (as pictures) are not inappropriate in this context. However, like everything in the Christian life they need to be held in balance with all the other Biblical data. Because there is just the danger that a pre-occupation or over-emphasis with this expression of how we relate to Jesus could have negative effects. Such as …
1. Further feminizing Christianity. Now I say this acknowledging that I probably stand on the ‘pathologically independent - left brained – repressed – West of Scotland Man’ end of the emotional spectrum. But I suspect that the above lyrics will resonate and sit much more comfortably with women than men (in the same way I suppose lyrics about Jesus as Conqueror and Warrior may connect more with men than woman). So again let me stress this is not an argument to ‘ban’ such lyrics but to raise the concern that at a time when men are often struggling in our churches we may risk further alienating them by too much emphasis on presenting relationship with Jesus as something gushy and romantic.
2. Suggesting that such romantic feelings represent true spirituality and love for Jesus. That is, if I, as that ‘football watching – heterosexual - West of Scotland’ male, find that such romantic lyrics about another man leave me slightly cold is that because of a spiritual deficiency on my part ? I might think so – surely if I really truly loved Jesus then these sentiments would naturally pour out of me. But I wonder if I’m not being intimidated by a definition of love which is actually too narrow.
For example, take my father (passed away but supposing he was still alive now) – you might say to me, ‘Do you love your father?’ My response would be, ‘Yes, of course I do’. ‘Ah, but do you really love him in deep rooted way?’, you probe. Again my response would be, ‘Yes, I have a profound love, gratitude and admiration for my father’. BUT that love does not lead me to imagine or desire that he would draw me close or put his arms around me in some romantic sense – or indeed kiss me on the lips. Likewise, my love for Jesus – deep, profound, grateful – is man to Man, brother to Brother, friend to Friend, servant to Master, saved to Saviour. That is, my love for Jesus is not undermined because it is expressed differently from my love for my wife.
I state above that this is ‘a slightly pointless piece’. Because my point is not to rubbish the above songs (I actually like most of them individually), nor is it to deny they draw on Biblical imagery, nor was it because of any problem I have with the praise in my own church (quite the opposite). It is just to emphasis the need for Biblical balance in every part of our Christian life and to reassure (myself!) that love for God is not defined by romantic feelings but by a whole orientation of heart and life.
2 comments:
Andy
Just to clarify (publicly what I said to you privately). Readers may get the impression that these are songs which are sung in Greenview. The first four are. The remaining four are new to me (where did you get them?)The lyrics which you quote would quickly eliminate them from any list of songs I would wish to introduce at the church.
"WHOLE ORIENTATION LOVE FOR GOD"
I would like to respond to a couple of the points raised by Andy in this article.
My first observation is that the issue under discussion may not be as postmodern as presented in the introduction. Ideas and images of Jesus as "lover" in hymnology are by no means a late 20th Century phenomenon. Consider the following, included here after the swiftest trawl of my ageing memory banks: "Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly" Wesley, C (1707-88); "My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine... if ever i loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now" Featherstone WR (1846-73); "Now I belong to Jesus, Jesus belongs to me, not for the years of time alone, but for eternity." Clayton, NJ (1934) "Thou hast bid me gaze upon thee, and thy beauty fills my soul... Yes I rest in thee Beloved..." Piggott, JS (1845-82) "My heart it doth dance at the sound of His name" wesley, C (1707-88); "Ah! how long I've panted, and my heart hath fainted, thirsting, Lord, for thee!" Franck, J (1618-77) "His forever, only His; Who the Lord and me shall part?" Robinson, GW (1838-77); As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after you..." Nystrom, MJ (1985) after Ps 42:1.... etc. etc.
The language of love, even verging on romantic love (for some of the above expressions would be found within the romantic literature of their day in similar expression), has been utinlsed by hymn writers throughout church history. It is interesting that Wesley makes 2 appearances in the above list, in that his hymnology is generally more emotionally engaging than many of his contemporaries dry factual renditions!
In my opinion, there is another danger facing churches like Greenview today - possibly a greater one than singing overly romantic songs. It is the danger of a passive intellectualism that is theologically impeccable, but emotionally bankrupt.
For although I share Andy's concern to the degree that I am always less comfortable singing about the certainty of my love for God ("forever I'll love you, forever I'll stand"; "Lord these words are true, so is my love for you"... etc etc) than His love for me, I still desperately need a "whole orientation love for God" experience when I meet together with his people. I need to have my mind AND my emotions engaged when I am singing God's praise AND when I am hearing His word.
Strikes me that this debate boils down to striking the balance. Stuart Townend (quoted by Andy from the second verse of his great song "The King of Love" as one of the overly romantic examples "My lover's breath is sweetest wine, I am his prize and He is mine") goes on to contextualise this love relationship in terms of the cross by continuing "How can a sinner know such grace? Because of Jesus. The wounds of love are in His hands - the price is paid for sinful man, Accepted child, forgiven son, because of Jesus...." Nothing schmultzy there.... simply a love response within the context of impeccable Christology - often a feature of Townend's work.
I contend that in churches like Greenview we need to be encouraged towards MORE emotional engagement with God - not less.
In terms of hymnology, this requires a skilful balancing act on a number of fronts:
1) We must retain and protect the best of the old hymnology in order to give our people a sense of Christian heritage whiolst embracing the best of the new material as it becomes available, recognising the transient nature of much of it.
2) We must balance Christian poetry to music with "Scripture in Song" material.
3) We must balance long thelogically packed hymns like "And can it be" with shorter pieces.
4) We must balance "response" songs/hymns with "didactic" material.
This will not be easy in terms of planning public praise programmes, any more than it is to balance exegesis with application in a sermon. What is for sure is that overemphasis on any end of these scales tips the balance away from any sense of meaningful, balanced Christian growth.
We owe it to each other to fight for the incredibly elusive middle ground.
This response comes with an Eph 4:3 cover note! "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace."
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