THE MUSIC ISSUE BY Leke Alder (CAN A CHRISTIAN ARTISTE SING SECULAR SONGS?)
A few days ago, there arose a Twitter storm of apocalyptic
proportions over news that a young “secular” artiste was invited to
sing during a church service. The young artiste is a Christian and the
song performed was from his title album, God Win. One must
assume that a song titled “God Win” sang in a church setting seemed
most appropriate, but these are curious times.
There are many choruses that echo the same sentiment, some using
exact same words yet there were a lot of issues raised. The very
notion that a non-gospel artiste had been invited to “minister” in
church consternated many. And not a few were peeved that the
artiste in question performed from the “altar” - a most holy place.
And how can an “entertainer” be invited to minister to “the people of
God”, some wondered, with righteous and not so righteous
indignation.
Even the Pastor was not spared. What was his motivation? There was no shortage of opinion, aspersions and castigations. And there was no shortage of exegetes misquoting scriptures. Were Jesus on Earth he would have had to up his signature command of nature to calm the storm. He couldn’t do a reprise. This was no watery issue. But lurking somewhere in the sea was the leviathan of the fundamental challenge as to whether a Christian artiste can even do secular music. It’s not exactly a new issue. The Amy Grants of this world faced that same challenge in the 80s. It’s as if someone somewhere is instigating topical conundrum in generational cycles. An analytical perusal of the issues however shows a confliction in knowledge on many levels. The idea for example that the “altar” is “sacred” betrays a mix-up in understanding between the concept of the temple in the New Testament and the concept of the temple in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament the temple was a building. It was basically partitioned into two parts - the Outer Court and the Tabernacle. The Outer Court contained the Table, Lampstand and Altar of Incense. The congregation could enter here. The Tabernacle was in turn divided into two parts by a heavy hanging curtain - the Holy Place in which only priests from the tribe of Levi could enter; and the Holy of Holies in which resided the Ark of the Covenant. Only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies and he did so once a year, on Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement. The High Priest must make atonement for himself before he entered the Holy of Holies. He would die otherwise. The sacrifice was his life insurance policy. And since no one can enter the Holy of Holies to retrieve his body, tradition says a scarlet rope was tied on his ankle. Small bells were also sewed around the helm of his robe. A priest in the Holy Place tended to the other end of the rope. He would drag him out by the rope in case something went wrong. If the bells stopped jiggling the priest knew something was wrong. You served God with your life as High Priest. But something curious happened when Jesus died on the cross. As soon as he gave up the ghost the Bible says the thick curtain separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies was ripped from top to bottom. Paul would later explain to us the significance of that momentous event. He says we have boldness to enter the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus in consequence. That the curtain was figuratively the flesh of Jesus. And so as they tore into his flesh with those horrible lashes they were ripping apart the curtain in the Tabernacle, in a manner of speaking (Hebrews 10:19-21). That curtain-ripping incident would usher in a new dispensation. It was a formal signification of a change in the order of priesthood, something Jesus had been working on. He had appointed apostles without consideration of tribal identity. Only Levites could be appointed priests in those days but Jesus appointed non-Levites as apostles. Jesus himself was not from the tribe of Levi. He was from the tribe of Judah yet he became our High Priest (Hebrews 4:14-15). Indeed, perhaps only Matthew was a Levite. We know Paul was from the tribe of Benjamin (Romans 11:1). The priesthood thus changed from the Levitical Order to the Melchizedekian Order. This Order of Melchizedek is a curious order. Unlike the Levitical Order it is a priest-king equation. It takes its name from Melchizedek, the priest- king who received tithes from Abraham in the Old Testament (Hebrews 7:1-2). Jesus belongs to this order, and he initiated us into the order (Revelation 1:6). It is because we belong to this order that we can “minister” to God though not full time priests, and not belonging to the tribe of Levi. It is why we can be priests though with secular callings. We are priest-kings. And so we have priest- politicians, priest-lawyers, priest-engineers, priest-fashion designers, priest-models, priest-footballers, priest-computer scientists, priest- accountants, priest-doctors... And of course priest-musicians.......to be continued.
Even the Pastor was not spared. What was his motivation? There was no shortage of opinion, aspersions and castigations. And there was no shortage of exegetes misquoting scriptures. Were Jesus on Earth he would have had to up his signature command of nature to calm the storm. He couldn’t do a reprise. This was no watery issue. But lurking somewhere in the sea was the leviathan of the fundamental challenge as to whether a Christian artiste can even do secular music. It’s not exactly a new issue. The Amy Grants of this world faced that same challenge in the 80s. It’s as if someone somewhere is instigating topical conundrum in generational cycles. An analytical perusal of the issues however shows a confliction in knowledge on many levels. The idea for example that the “altar” is “sacred” betrays a mix-up in understanding between the concept of the temple in the New Testament and the concept of the temple in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament the temple was a building. It was basically partitioned into two parts - the Outer Court and the Tabernacle. The Outer Court contained the Table, Lampstand and Altar of Incense. The congregation could enter here. The Tabernacle was in turn divided into two parts by a heavy hanging curtain - the Holy Place in which only priests from the tribe of Levi could enter; and the Holy of Holies in which resided the Ark of the Covenant. Only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies and he did so once a year, on Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement. The High Priest must make atonement for himself before he entered the Holy of Holies. He would die otherwise. The sacrifice was his life insurance policy. And since no one can enter the Holy of Holies to retrieve his body, tradition says a scarlet rope was tied on his ankle. Small bells were also sewed around the helm of his robe. A priest in the Holy Place tended to the other end of the rope. He would drag him out by the rope in case something went wrong. If the bells stopped jiggling the priest knew something was wrong. You served God with your life as High Priest. But something curious happened when Jesus died on the cross. As soon as he gave up the ghost the Bible says the thick curtain separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies was ripped from top to bottom. Paul would later explain to us the significance of that momentous event. He says we have boldness to enter the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus in consequence. That the curtain was figuratively the flesh of Jesus. And so as they tore into his flesh with those horrible lashes they were ripping apart the curtain in the Tabernacle, in a manner of speaking (Hebrews 10:19-21). That curtain-ripping incident would usher in a new dispensation. It was a formal signification of a change in the order of priesthood, something Jesus had been working on. He had appointed apostles without consideration of tribal identity. Only Levites could be appointed priests in those days but Jesus appointed non-Levites as apostles. Jesus himself was not from the tribe of Levi. He was from the tribe of Judah yet he became our High Priest (Hebrews 4:14-15). Indeed, perhaps only Matthew was a Levite. We know Paul was from the tribe of Benjamin (Romans 11:1). The priesthood thus changed from the Levitical Order to the Melchizedekian Order. This Order of Melchizedek is a curious order. Unlike the Levitical Order it is a priest-king equation. It takes its name from Melchizedek, the priest- king who received tithes from Abraham in the Old Testament (Hebrews 7:1-2). Jesus belongs to this order, and he initiated us into the order (Revelation 1:6). It is because we belong to this order that we can “minister” to God though not full time priests, and not belonging to the tribe of Levi. It is why we can be priests though with secular callings. We are priest-kings. And so we have priest- politicians, priest-lawyers, priest-engineers, priest-fashion designers, priest-models, priest-footballers, priest-computer scientists, priest- accountants, priest-doctors... And of course priest-musicians.......to be continued.
Comments
Post a Comment