Re-Visioning Worship: Music to Pray By
Posted on 12 July 2010
Table of contents for Re-Visioning Worship
- Re-Visioning Worship: Music to Pray By
Sufjan Stevens’ perfect weirdness may help us to recapture some of the mystery, the delightful, enchanted strangeness, of living life God-wardly. In these songs (along with many others), Stevens helps us to feel our sin — but without shaming us; he moves us toward God’s presence — without in any way derailing into sentimentalism or the hyper-spirituality that encloses us on ourselves. In these ways, and others, Stevens provides us with a model for selecting, performing, participating in worship musically.
Confession of Sin: ‘I Can’t Even Lift My Head’
I love how Stevens brings us — me — face to face with the realities of my sin, my inevitable, imminent death, and my inescapable neediness, and he does it all with such a light touch. So much of our contemporary worship music simply can’t get at these realities without being heavy-handed and clumsy.
This song, in my opinion, helps us to pray, and so serves our worshipping, because it helps us put good words to the facts of our existence in the presence of God. It lets us feel creaturely, I suppose. I like, too, that it doesn’t try to say any more than it says, doesn’t try to bring ‘resolution’ to the feelings of guilt and unspeakable smallness before God. Sometimes, oftentimes, it’s good for us to be left with that weight on our shoulders.
Promise of Pardon: ‘How Can the Stone Remain’
Is God addressing us in this song? Are we addressing God? What is the stone that does not remain? Christ’s tombstone? The stony heart that makes me insensitive to God’s touch? It’s good for us to experience this uncertainty of meaning. Our spirits need the up-in-the-air feeling from time to time!
Holy Communion: ‘To Be Alone with You’
Like the Psalms, this song moves back and forth, sometimes Christ is spoken for, and sometimes, spoken to. That dialogical movement is essential to Christian worship, for obvious reasons. And that one line - ’I'd give my body to be back again/in the rest of the room’ -- shows that even though this is a song about personal intimacy with Christ, it isn’t individualistic or pietistic. It is an intimacy that takes place with and in the church, and in the world, fractured as it is.
Benediction: ‘God’ll Never Let You Down’
My favorite of this selection; musically, lyrically, vocally, ‘God’ll Never Let You Down’ manages, somehow, to be hopeful without being in the least escapist, to be happy without being frivolous. It stirs in me a kind of cheerful, quietly confident excitement to be claimed by a God like this God; leaves me glad to be able to sing about it -- the being claimed -- and him, the God who does the claiming. This song makes me feel like I think I should feel at the end of a worship service, at least much of the time: assured of God’s promises, but not without being reminded of my need for forgiveness and constant, prevenient grace.
5 responses to Re-Visioning Worship: Music to Pray By
I remember the first time I heard Sufjan. I was setting up the sound system for the college-age group and a friend of mine popped it on, right to the song “Chicago.” I had to stop what I was doing to hear it and I said, and I quote: “This is the kind of music I’ve been waiting for.”
I agree with all of your analysis. The “Seven Swans” album is so theologically astute that it literally embarasses me, a theology student. His ponderings over Abraham and the Transfiguration are second to none.
I am so excited for his upcoming album.
I believe ‘Chicago’ was the first SS song I heard, as well; I remain convinced that it is one of his best (but there are many in this category), and one of the best songs I’ve ever heard, period. There’s something holy in his work. I think it says so much that I am able to find songs that fit the liturgical movement from confession of sin, through Communion, to benediction.
Check out The Reign of Kindo – a little more existential perhaps but also very good. I love the continuity they achieve between lyrical content and the tonality and dynamic. There’s something very honest but also very truthful, told in a very identifiable way. Great musicians, deep feeling, great perspective.
sample:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUPILO5ycqg
I really liked that. I’m going to check out more of them.