W W W. H I G H E RT H I N G S . O R G
/ WINTER / 2003
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The cover for this issue was designed by Mr. Ed Riojas of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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Together Again
T A B L E
O F
Contents
By Dr. Arthur A. Just, Jr.
God created us to be in relationship with Him and with each other. That relationship was shattered in the Fall. But Sunday after Sunday, God restores our broken relationship with Him and with each other in the Divine Service.
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Out of Sync By Dr. Barbara J. Resch
What type of music do teens really want in worship? The answer may surprise you.
10 Faith in Fairy Tales By Audrey Riojas
What is the “happily ever after” story you are hoping for in your life? Audrey Riojas explores our fairy-tale expectations in her article about faith and life.
12 Something Funny in the Vestry By Kathy Luder
Kathy discovers more than just pastor’s vestments in the vestry.
14 An Empty Sack
By Rev. Matthew Harrison
What do we get out of church? Much more than you may realize.
17 Finding Christ in Middle Earth By Rev. Bruce Keseman
A pastor reflects on biblical images and allusions in the tales of J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings.
22 Leading the Blind to Higher Things By Pam Knepper
A group of teens assist in bringing Higher Things magazine to the blind at the largest Christian library serving blind people in North America.
COLUMNS 7
Letters to the Editor
20 MINING THE RICHES: A Mountain in Iowa? By Rev. David Fleming
A deeper look into Revelation 14 and worship.
26 Pulse: Cartoon Reviews By Rev. Eric Andrae
SpongeBob, the Simpsons, and more – oh my!
28 E-mail Information and News and Notes 29 Ex Cathedra
Advice about dressing for church and youth Sundays, plus...will there be animals in heaven? Get ready to fire off those e-mails to Ex Cathedra.
30 The Catechism: God as Man to Serve Men By Rev. David Petersen
HigherThings Volume 3/Number 4 Winter 2003 Editor-in-Chief REV. TODD PEPERKORN Assistant Editor JULIE STIEGEMEYER
Editorial Associates REV. TIM PAULS REV. DAVID PETERSEN REV. ERIK ROTTMANN REV. SCOTT STIEGEMEYER DR. GENE EDWARD VEITH Art Director STEVE BLAKEY
Business Manager LYNN FREDERICKSEN
Bible Studies Editor REV. TIMOTHY SCHELLENBACH Subscriptions Manager CYNTHIA HALL
Marketing and Grants Director PAM KNEPPER
HIGHER THINGS, INC. BOARD OF DIRECTORS President REV. KLEMET
PREUS
Vice President REV. MARCUS
ZILL
Executive Director REV. DANIEL WOODRING
Secretary SANDRA
OSTAPOWICH
Treasurer LYNN FREDERICKSEN
REV. BRUCE KESEMAN SANDRA OSTAPOWICH REV. TODD PEPERKORN REV. KLEMET PREUS JEFF SCHWARZ DR. GENE EDWARD VEITH MOLLIE ZIEGLER REV. MARCUS ZILL Higher Things Magazine ISSN 1539-8455 is published quarterly by Higher Things Inc., 2026 22nd Ave., Kenosha, WI 53140. No portion of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the editor-in-chief of Higher Things Magazine. Copyright 2003. Printed in the United States. Postage paid at Fort Wayne, Indiana. For subscription information, write to: Higher Things Magazine, P.O. Box 8098, Fort Wayne IN 46898 or e-mail to Subscriptions@higherthings.org. For general information about Higher Things, Inc., please e-mail info@higherthings.org.
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Out of ou have probably had this experience, either in real life or in a bad dream: you arrive at some gathering and discover that your interpretation of “casual dress” is radically different from that of everyone else at the party. You’re in your favorite faded shorts and tee shirt, and the rest of the room looks like they just stepped out of the show window at Banana Republic.
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Life is full of instances like this, when something that we really like and are comfortable with—clothes, music, food, even vocabulary—is perfect for one occasion and just not right for another one. Placed in the wrong context, the item ends up drawing attention to itself in a negative way, because it’s out of sync with the situation. It seems as if it belongs somewhere else! Questions about this kind of “belonging” are often a part of the discussions concerning music in the church. What kind of music is fitting for church services? Does every kind of music we like and are comfortable with also fit into the context of the Divine Service? A research study I conducted a few years ago gave me the opportunity to ask a large number of teenagers, almost 500 kids from high schools around the country, what kinds of music they thought would be appropriate for worship. I played lots of choices for them, from traditional hymns to praise choruses, Gregorian chant to Christian rock music, and asked how “right” it would seem if they heard it in their church. Researchers begin with a hypothesis—how they think the study will turn out—and mine was that I thought teenagers would consider all of their favorite musical styles to be acceptable for worship. After all, most high school students stay current with popular music and will choose to listen to those styles over anything else. It would stand to reason, I thought, that they would want to hear that kind of music wherever they were, including worship services. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Even though these kids told me that they liked rock music and other pop styles, a huge majority thought that those musical styles didn’t belong in church. So what prompted these teens to decide that the music they really liked and were comfortable with didn’t fit in a church service? A lot of them told me that they had never heard the specific musical examples I
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By Dr. Barbara J. Resch
Sync
played for them, but that the music reminded them of something else they had heard, or of a place where they had heard it. Many of them wrote on their survey forms the situation that each piece would be appropriate for: brunch at a nice restaurant, a movie soundtrack, Grandma’s bridge club, a relaxing walk in the woods. Some even described a church setting that would fit the music: “This wouldn’t work in my church; it sounds too Catholic,” and “This would be good in a big stone church where it could echo, but it would sound silly in my little church.” One example I played was a jazz setting of “O Lamb of God,” sung in a sultry alto voice with piano and trap set accompaniment. A number of students thought that the words, taken right from the Communion liturgy, were fine but that the music was “cool, but too sexy for church.” Because music is both intellectual and emotional, it has a mysterious power to stick in our memories and transport us to another place. This kind of mental journey can be enjoyable, relaxing, or exciting. But when the music takes us somewhere that is opposite of the place where we are—we’re in the presence of God, in His own holy house, and we start picturing a lounge singer—that’s when it starts to feel out of sync. Some students pointed out that congregations gathered for worship included people of all ages, and that not everyone in that group would react positively to some musical styles. As one girl said,“I think the old ladies in my church would get upset if they heard this (Christian rock music), and people shouldn’t be upset by what they hear in church.” Martin Luther said that church music should be “the servant of the Word.” This girl realized that for some people, the music might contradict rather than serve the Word, actually distracting from the message and getting between God’s Word and the hearts and minds of the worshipers. In one group of students I interviewed, a girl explained that her church offered three different services each Sunday morning. Each one offered a different musical style, so she attended the one with the music she liked, and her parents went to another with the music they liked, which she described as “easy listening.” From across the room a boy said “I like reggae; you have a service for me?” His friend joined in:“I like hip-hop; you have a service for me?” In the wake of the many other suggestions that followed, the first speaker responded in frustration “Well, you can’t please everybody!” The choices that pastors and musicians make about church music are not based on pleasing everybody by trying to include all of the musical styles that they like. Appropriate church music is probably different from the music people like to hear when they hang out with their friends or let off steam at the end of the day. In worship we are gathered in the name and the remembrance of Jesus, and the music for that time and place needs to flow in sync with that high and holy calling.
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Dr. Barbara J. Resch is Director of Music Educator at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne and a member of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
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“... So the handsome prince took the beautiful girl by the hand, and he led her to his shining castle, far away; and there they lived, happily ever after. ...”
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s little children, many of us loved to live in the dream world of fairy tales. We watched countless cartoon adaptations and listened to bedtime stories of damsels in distress, rescued by handsome princes from vicious monsters and certain death. Begging to hear the stories over and over again, we held our breath until all the loose ends in the story had been tied up, and the characters rode off into the sunset, where a blissful future awaited them. Inspired by fairy tales, children’s Christmas wish lists featured pink princess gowns and shiny plastic shields and swords, essential elements in the neighborhood reenactment of fantasies. Not frightened by the comparative monotony of real life, little children held high expectations for the future, dreaming of the day they could defeat monstrous dragons, or when a handsome prince would triumphantly come to their rescue. As we grew older, the fairy tales and fantasies began to lose some of their charm; we understood that these myths could not possibly be true. Still longing for a sense of perfection in our lives, we traded the “little-kid stuff” for dreams of career, family, wealth, and suc-
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Fairy
cess. Perhaps Prince Charming would not charge in on his noble steed, but a handsome, rich, and otherwise perfect young man would do just as well. Invented beasts and dragons might not need conquering, but the battles of society and environment would be worthwhile, honorable causes. Unfortunately, these world-view fantasies, realistic and exciting though they may seem, are rarely fulfilled and are sometimes frivolous expectations. Trouble stands in our way, and disappointment blinds all sight of hope, as these efforts for personal gain crumble like dust through our fingertips. We are dragged, kicking and screaming, to the realization that there are no victorious battles or fairy tale princes in this sinful world, and we can only dream of “happily ever afters.” Despite this feeling of worldly failure clouding our thoughts, as Christians we can know that a “happily ever after” ending does exist and is awaiting us. The battles and trials in this fairy tale have already been worked out for us. The Church, the “damsel in distress,” was held captive by the evil dragon, Satan, chained in fetters of sin. We were rescued by Christ, who with His death and resurrection defeated the deceitful monster down in his terrible, burning pit. In Holy Baptism, the “spell” of sin and death was broken for each one of us; we no longer have to live in fear of the temporary troubles of this world, or in despair of eternal death. In his hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” Martin Luther describes this victory we now have over Satan. “This world’s prince [the devil] may still/ Scowl fierce as he will,/ He can harm us none,/ He’s judged; the deed is done;/ One little word can fell him.” Of course, wanting to feel “grown up” and “mature,” we don’t always trust this promise of a better day. In today’s world, it appears there will never be an end to the pain and suffering that surrounds us. It becomes even more difficult to have hope when our non-Christian friends mock the story of
salvation as just another fairy tale—one that could never really be true. We become weary of waiting for the end of a story that we’ve heard about for so long; we don’t seem to have even a tiny glimpse of evidence to prove it will come. We imagine the wait isn’t worth it; perhaps we dare to think we can take our salvation upon ourselves, either by works, or by an attempt to reach heaven sooner by ending our own lives. Despite these doubts, we have the assurance that our hope of heaven is more than an invented fable. Little children accept the stories they hear because they trust the grown-ups who tell them, and often because they are too inexperienced in the ways of the world to know what truly exists. As children—God’s children—we can believe simply and without doubt that our Savior, the Prince of Peace, has indeed rescued us from the dungeons of death. As Jesus says in John 6:47,“I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.” Here and now, we already have God’s gift of eternal life, along with His incredible mercy, grace, and forgiveness. We don’t have to wait for heaven to receive these wonderful blessings from God, and it is often that we can see outward evidence of them. Every time we see a tiny baby marked by God’s name in Holy Baptism, whenever we read or hear the Word of God, as often as we taste the true body and blood of Christ, we are receiving or being reminded of God’s precious gifts. And it gets even better than that. In heaven, we will spend eternity with Christ, where Satan’s claws cannot reach us, and all the loose ends will be tied up. This perfect ending will be even better than “happily ever after.” Audrey Riojas is a member of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and is a freshman in college at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids.
by Audrey Riojas
Tales
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