Monday Morning Music Ministry

9-24-18

It occurs to me more and more, lately, that we – all of us; not only Christians or Westeners; but everyone with a pulse these days – should be a heck of a lot humbler than we are. In fact, not too many residents of the 21st century are humble at all, so we all have a long way to fall.

We have gone, over the past 500 years, from pre-modernism to modernism to post-modernism. From the Age of Faith to the Age of Reason to the Age of Skepticism to the New Age of Personal Inventions of Belief. From Agrarian to Industrial to Post-Industrial Virtual Reality. From the Gothic to the Renaissance to the Enlightenment to.. confusion: societal anarchy, cultural nihilism.

All of human history is characterized by evolution and change, but it has never been this radical, or, actually, as sudden when considered in the arc of human history.

There are many social scientists – probably a majority of “experts” and faculty members dealing with such things – who view all this as perhaps inevitable, but certainly welcome. I believe they feed the cancer that is devouring us in myriad ways. The arcs I described, and many similar ones that can be limned, are not evidences of progress.

Rather the opposite. “Progress” is the meme of our time; the secular religion; the brand-identification of contemporary life. Progress, whether contorted to define a political commitment, or as the assumption behind everything that changes or is new in our lives, encourages us. Forgives us. Animates us.

Not only is Progress a false god – is it really inevitable that everything gets better, is better, will be better, as the globe spins into the future? But Progress is frequently corrosive. Not merely false in its promises and scenarios, but cruel.

Humankind “advanced” to the 20th century, achieving, yes, many industrial marvels, medical breakthroughs, and economic blessings. At the same time – and partly assisted by these very tools of Progress – the 20th century saw more slaughter (wars and oppression) than all previous 20 centuries, combined. More torture, displacements, death, than in all previous 20 centuries. Humankind has developed means to live healthier and longer… and invented more efficient means of killing and ending life.

We have fooled ourselves into believing that, in the name of Progress, killing babies is life-affirming. That euthanasia is not killing but is “mercy.” That slavery is obsolete but sweat-shops around the world, keeping WalMart shoppers in cheap sandals, is… Progress. (By the way, more people around the world are in literal slavery today than during the “slave trade of the 18th and 19th centuries.)

We have progressed to the point where we cringe at the thought of skinning baby seals or hunting rhinoceros tusks. Yet aborted babies are not merely ignored but celebrated in some quarters. We have “progressed” past pagan societies of the past, that practiced infant sacrifice. Yet today, babies are slaughtered to the gods of Pleasure and Convenience or (if you don’t like my one-note sing) – we have sacrificed a generation of children to the hells of broken homes, acceptance of drugs, the corruption – theft of their innocence – of awful music and movies. Progress.

With so many things swirling about us – the thick fog of sensations, pleasures, and diversions – is it possible, actually, that we are missing something in contemporary life?

Yes. We are missing God.

Oh, He is still there, still here. But at one time – the grandest time and times of human history – we were dedicated to Him. Humankind was sold out to God. Painted for Him. Wrote music for Him. Worked, or worked extra, for Him. Wrote poetry, served, wove, sculpted, carved, built, for Him. Lived for Him. Lived for God.

Today we live for ourselves. We eat, drink, and be merry. Even our politics (and I balefully expect revolution in the streets of America within the decade) about which we think we serve the Lord with such fervor, is empty and futile. The same for the “other” side.

Psalm 127 begins: “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord inhabits the city, the watchmen are useless.”

The Monday Morning Music Ministry blog’s catch-line is “Start the week with a song in your heart.” This essay, today, is not of cheer. But the truth seldom is, except for the promise it holds. A remedy for our parlous times is to keep the songs of the Lord in our hearts first. That – and true repentance for what we have squandered, where we have strayed – will restore real Progress to humankind.

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