Something for Worship Leaders

 Considering how often the choruses and bridges of Christian Contemporary Worship music get repeated, I suggest that worship leaders have a Rosary to count those repetitions.

I'm only half-joking here. How can we Evangelicals criticize the Rosary for being repetitive when we do the same thing with our praise choruses?

THE CHOSEN

Who'd have thunk anyone would come up a dramatization of the life of Jesus that was actually great? 

I ranted before about the movie Son of God, which at the time I gave it a five out of ten; in retrospect I probably should have given it a one out of ten. But I'm not here to rant about a nigh-unholy half-baked piece of junk that insults our LORD by making Him so chill there's no anger in Him at all. No, I'm here to talk about the magnificence that is The Chosen.

The show centers around the life of Jesus, however, instead of a straight-up Gospel retelling, the makers of The Chosen opted for a seven-season TV-show told mainly from the point of view of the disciples. There is plenty of speculation to be sure, but it's done in such a way as to develop the characters of the disciples. Some bits have been telescoped and some original characters were added. The story is supremely realistic, showing how Jesus was seen through people's eyes at that time. 

 

What can I say? This show is superb. I can't really find anything seriously wrong with it. Really, my only quibble with the show is that it skipped over the forty days in the desert where Jesus was tempted by the devil, and there being a few anachronistic jokes thrown in. But the writing and characterization is top-notch. 

        For example, Matthew is portrayed as autistic. Whether this is true or not we don't know, but Matthew had been a tax-collector before Jesus called him. Tax-collectors were Jews who worked for the Romans and were infamous for charging more than was necessary and skimming off the top, and thus considered the lowest of the lowlife despite being rich. Rather than risk Matthew being an unlikable jerk, the writers made him autistic and very good with numbers. He has a tough time understanding other people's feelings and struggles to get along with people. 

      Outside of The Miracle Maker, this has to be the best portrayal of Jesus I've ever seen. Not very many films based on His life are able to capture His humanity along with His divinity in a way that makes Him relatable. Then again, this is a series so there more time to explore the characters. 

       Highly reccomended. 

        

            

  

Mordecai on His Parade

Well, that was interesting. I’d been in mourning clothes since that decree went out, and what happens to me? The king’s eunuchs dress me in royal robes and put a crown on my head. Then the same man who ordered our destruction, puts me on the king’s horse and parades me through the entire city shouting, “Thus shall it be done for the man in whom the king delights!”. This is both a great honor and utterly confusing. Though it was satisfying seeing the enemy so nonplussed. 

Ah well, it’s back to business then. Hopefully some good news will come my way. 

Palace Gossip

 “I ran into Tobias, the kitchen boy, earlier this evening. He looked nervous.”

“Tobias is always nervous, Nathaniel. His first day, he shook so hard he nearly dropped the roast pheasant.”

“Well, then he’s more nervous than usual. It’s his turn to take food up to the king.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Joash, I don’t know what’s come over the king, but…”

“He disobeyed God during the Amalekite campaign, you know that.”

“Well, yes, but still, this is getting out of hand. Tobias said that last night, one of the other kitchen boys—I think his name’s Caleb—let slip some remark about David and got a facefull of lamb stew.” 

“Is he alright?”

“I think so, though Tobias said the guy won’t come out of his quarters. There may be two holed up in there by tomorrow.”

“I don’t blame him. Normally I’d say he’s just shirking, but with the king going mad lately, I’m inclined to be generous.”

“Rebekah said two more servants quit yesterday.”

“That makes, what, five this week?” 

“Six, if you count that one missing guard.”

“He’s dead, remember? He got drunk and fell from a window.” 

“Oh, right.”

“Joash, Nathaniel, are you in?”

“Yes, Reuben. What is it?”

“Do you have the totals for this storeroom?”

“They’re right here.”

“Thank you, Joash. Hey, uh, did either of you see Leah, the washerwoman?”

“No, why?”

“I heard the king tried to strangle her.”

“Who told you that?”

“Abigail, one of the serving maids.”

“I wouldn’t trust her if I were you. I know the king’s off his head, but Abigail’s known to twist words around.”

“So, she lied about Tobias getting a black eye?”

TMSR: Baseball Fever

Here is the follow-up to my rant about Promsie U. This time I will be talking about a kids musical that I was in when I was ten. It is called Sermon on the Mound and it was the first musical I had done. And of all the musicals aimed at kids under age twelve, this was one of the better ones.
         Sermon was written by Celeste and David T. Clydesdale and centers around the Eagles baseball team. They are finishing up spring training and the regular season starts that afternoon. Commenting on the action are sports casters Dizzy Deano and Jackie Rawlings*. The new rookie is a young man named Mac Wire. He is thrilled to be on a professional baseball team, but struggles with his confidence. As the story progresses he learns about putting on the Armor of God and leaning on Christ as his "Head Coach", and that the ones God chooses for His team are the ones who know they cannot do it on their own.

Unlike Promise U, Sermon on the Mound does a much better job both story-wise and with what it intends to accomplish. There are four reasons why I say this.

1) The songs fit the theme better and are integrated a little bit more.
     I counted at least three story songs in Sermon and they feel like real encouragement and not just empty platitudes. Some like "Playing Right Field" are sung by the characters themselves, others are sung by the chorus. But they are much more integrated into the theme and aren't just preachy. "If the LORD is our Head Coach" is a declaration of trust and "The LORD's Prayer" is sung by both the chorus and the team. They feel like part of the story. "The LORD's Prayer" segues beautifully into the song "Home Run", which is probably the tensest song in the whole show.

2) The characters feel real.
    For example, Mac Wire is excited to be playing his first major season game, but is also dubious as to whether or not he can do it. His character is very well fleshed out and I find him relatable even after eighteen years. The hot dog vendor is the one who gets to sing "Playing Right Field". He is one of the sorts of characters I love to see in a story; the working-class guy at a low-paying job who is very wise and encouraging. We get a few one-off guys like a lady named Ruth Babe and Assistant Coach Goodman. But even there, they're not just throwing platitudes, they still sound like people.

3) Character conversions are treated with respect.
    "Casey Back at Bat" may be one of the most blatant pieces of fan-fiction ever written, but it is also one of the best depictions of a changed life in any of these kids musicals. We learn that Casey's pride was what caused him to strike out not just once but twice, and evidently  his career suffered after that. Eventually he decided enough was enough and accepted Christ, and now he's making a comeback with the Eagles. He's even seen helping his teammate out. This isn't just a case of everything is hunk-dory, but an example of a changed life. And when you're writing Christian musicals for kids, this is absolutely critical.

4) The overall message is well-handled.
    Sermon's main theme is spiritual warfare using the analogy of a baseball game. Sure, the baseball uniform, glove and bat may be curious stand-ins for the Armor of God, but as a visual aid, it's not bad. In fact, Sermon treats the issue of spiritual warfare with surprising respect, and gives us the lesson that the best players are those who know that they cannot do anything without God's help, and spend the most time with their 'Head Coach". 

So I've shown what makes a Christian kids musical good and what makes it bad. To sum it up, the ones that are good are the ones that treat the chosen topic with respect, have a good story and characters, and make make sure the songs fit. The ones that suck are ones that have little to no story (or turn it boring), lame characters, and are both preachy and disrespectful of the chosen topic. Sermon of the Mound will always be better than Promise U. Although you could just do what Sister Wynona Carr did and just make one song about it.

 ____________________________________________________________________________

 *I don't know if that is a reference to either Jackie Robinson or J.K. Rowling. 

**Something I myself have only come to understand within the past decade.

TMSR: YOU KNOW NOTHING, VAL DICTORIAN!

I am going to rant now about a musical that I was in when I was eleven-years-old. Most people will not have heard about this one because it is written for kids who are either in home-school groups or big church groups.

This musical was written by Kathie Hill and is titled Promise U. Ms. Hill's work tends to be okay at best (at least from my own experience), and at worst it is simply glurge. And Promise U falls hard into that second category. What a piece of drek! There are five reasons why I say this:

1) The plot does not exist.
    The setting is at a college called Promise University and the whole student body has gathered for a pep rally/study hall Cram n Jam. They are learning about "Precious Promises to Famous Followers of the Past 2,000 Years" or P2F2P2K. Leading the group is the cocky DJ Stan "The Man" and a sexy nerd of a cheer captain Valarie Dictorian. They go through seven so-called Famous Followers, do a cheer after every song and it all culminates in Stan becoming a Christian with everything all hunk-dory at the end. 
    That's it, there's no conflict or anything. All it is is just talking about various people from history and a promise that applies to them. There's no beginning, no middle, and no real end either.

2) The characters are shallow.
     They are little more than cartoony mouthpieces uttering platitudes in stained glass attitudes. A new character comes in every time another "Famous Follower" (oh, give me a break!) is introduced. These characters are not really given a personality so much as they are given a quirk, and these quirks get old really fast. For example, Dee Caffeinate's only trait is her coffee obsession, and Val Dictorian comes off as a condescending know-nothing-know-it-all. 

3) The evangelism is all too easy. 
    Stan admits he's in over his head at the end, but it comes out of nowhere and doesn't feel real. All he has seen and heard was what everyone else was chanting. His character is so flat that I do not believe his life has been changed after accepted Christ. No one talks about dying to yourself and giving up whatever idols are in your life, something that is essential to the Christian life.

4) THE Promise is left out.
    The "Precious Promises" are true, but no mention is made at all of the promise that was made in Genesis Chapter 3 and continues through the end of Revelation; the promise of Christ's sacrifice and resurrection and the hope of eternal life with Him in Heaven. The promises are reduced to cutesy sentimentalism that do not require sacrifice of anything. This is a big "No" when writing Christian pieces. 

5) The Followers were treated without respect.
     If you're going to do a case-study of various Christians throughout history, then the topic needs to be treated seriously. This is not the case in Promise U, instead the Followers are treated with more sentimentality than respect. This is particularly bad with the case of Pocahontas. I'm not going to knock her faith just because it sounded it like the writer was merely speculating. But if she was in fact a strong woman of faith, then she needs more respect than just the Christian version of a Disney Princess!

 In short, Promise U was garbage. It is disrespectful towards Christians of the past, is insulting to kids' intelligence, and it had nothing to offer but preachy nonsense. 

Church Music

My church has two different kinds of services on Sunday. One does contemporary styles, the other is more traditional; while it does not have a choir, does do the older hymns that (mostly) everyone knows and loves. I prefer the more traditional service, and I have been singing for it for the past few months.

The reasons why I prefer the traditional style are as follows:
1) Being a soprano, I am most comfortable when I can use my range. Granted most hymns don't go higher than "E" Natural, but the hymns allow for more freedom of range than the more contemporary styles of music. The latter usually features sudden octave jumps that tax my upper register. When it's not that, it's taxing on my lower register.

2) I can hear the congregation singing in the traditional service. I don't get that in the contemporary one. The music for contemporary service is too overpowering for me, I can hardly hear myself during worship! But there is only one piano in the traditional one, plus whatever other instruments people on worship team bring (we've got our own brass quartet!). 

3) The contemporary style makes worship feel less like worship and more like some popular concert, especially with the loud drums and emphasis on emotion. Making things worse is when worships leaders decide to to jazz up old hymns. Now that in itself is not bad, but the congregation has to be able to sing along. I remember getting so frustrated when the worship team did funky things to the notes and rhythm of a particular hymn that I shouted at them to leave the coloratura to Joyce DiDonato.
           With the traditional style, there is less noise to distract me. Maybe the occasional guy clapping on the off-beat, but that's only during the refrain of "Standing on the Promises" and that's only one guy.

In short, I find the traditional style of church music easier to sing. I know others will have differing opinions on this, and that's fine. I just find that contemporary music in worship gives me a major case of sensory overload, and that is not something I want in worship.

Morgado's Misstep

Two years ago I wrote a rather scathing review of the movie Son of God, and one of negative points I listed was having and attractive actor play Jesus as though having Christ look attractive was bad thing.  In retrospect this was unfairly harsh as Christ has been portrayed as beautiful for centuries.  
      I now recognize that this has more to do with reverence for His deity more than anything else.  Even if Isaiah did prophesy that Christ would "have no beauty that we should desire Him", we still want to be reverent in how we depict Him.  And portraying Him as looking rather plain just wouldn't fit.  Also, Isaiah's prophesy refers more to a flash-and-bang style of charisma than physical appearance.

I guess what bothered me about Diogo Morgado's portrayal of Christ in Son of God was the fact that he looked too handsome.  This wasn't the reverent beauty so often found in art, this was the Hollywood-It-Guy variety.  And having Jesus look like the hottest male celebrity distracts the audience and takes away from our LORD's deity.  
     And the performance was too soft.  There was no righteous fury evident in the Cleansing of the Temple scene, nor did Morgado seem to show any real emotion other than hippie-style tranquility, the only major exception of course being the crucifixion.  Heck, he even smiled after turning the tables over, whatever happened to, "IT IS WRITTEN, 'MY HOUSE IS TO BE A HOUSE OF PRAYER', AND YOU HAVE TURNED INTO A DEN OF THIEVES!"?  Yes, Jesus would have roared those words at the top of His lungs.  The veins in His forehead would have been popping.  He was literally flipping over tables and driving the thieving merchants off the premises!  He was releasing animals out of their cages and out of the temple.  He. was. furious.  And to not see that present was a major misstep. 

To make a long story short, irreverent Hollywood good looks and a Nice-Guy portrayal of Jesus Christ derailed the film Son of God. 

THE GREAT DIVORCE: Number Three On My List Of Best Allegories Ever!

Ah, The Great Divorce; one of my favorite C.S. Lewis novels!  I have been reading it for the umpteenth time for the past week or so.  This story is one surreal adventure involving a bus that goes between Heaven and Hell.  The title is a reference to William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.  Lewis is writing of their divorce, which makes sense as sin cannot exist in Heaven.  This novel shares a lot in common with Dante's La Divina Commedia, in particular the presence of a guide (in this case George MacDonald), how sin and salvation are represented allegorically, and a surreal setting. It shares a lot with John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (spoiler alert: in this case, it all being a dream).

 The story opens with the narrator standing in line at a bus stop at dusk in a miserable grey town where it is always raining.  The town goes on for miles on end and doesn't seem to stop.  The narrator gets on the bus and is taken to a spectacularly gorgeous natural landscape, but finds that he can't even so much as bend the grass.  In fact, it goes right through him and causes a lot of pain; he's a Ghost!  As is everyone who got off the bus.  There are radiant Solid People (most often called Shining Ones in the novel) coming to convert these souls, and one of them leads the narrator as he helps him understand the respective natures of Heaven and Hell.

One thing stands out is how so many of the Ghosts will not accept Joy because it means giving up their quirks, such as saying mean things to their loved ones or lording superiority over other people.  There is one character who always considered himself to be a good man and can't understand why a convicted murderer is in Heaven whereas he is not.  Another man used other people's pity as means to blackmail them in life and won't let go of that power in Heaven.  And a possessive mother will quite cheerfully drag her son to Hell to her if it means she will keep him.  They would much rather cling to their sins than accept God.  There's a lot of insight as to how sin works and how grace works, and how ultimately there are only two types of people in the world: those who submit to God and those who don't.  
      And there is also quite a lot of talk about how hard Heaven is to those who are not saved.  The Ghosts are insubstantial and just walking on the grass feels painful.  But they can become solid by accepting God's grace and letting it change them.  This is a very interesting concept.  

Read it.   

TANNHÄUSER: When Someone Doesn't Quite Grasp The Difference Between Love and Lust

How do you handle love when you want both the whirlwind of lust and the calm of real love at the same time?  

No that wasn't a stupid question, it's a very legitimate one.  Yesterday the Metropolitan Opera did its third simulcast of the regular season, Richard Wagner's religious drama Tannhäuser.  Tenor Johann Botha, whom I last saw three years ago in the title role of Verdi's Otello, sang the title role of the minstrel torn between love and lust.  Soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek made her fourth Live in HD appearance as Elisabeth, the pious maiden who loves and prays relentlessly for Tannhäuser's soul.  Peter Mattei, who sang the Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro last season, was Wolfram, another minstrel who is loyal to the core.  And Michelle DeYoung made another Live in HD appearance as the Greco-Roman goddess Venus.  

It's a Wagnerian opera, so I'll try to keep things short here.  Tannhäuser has spent who knows how long in Venusberg, Venus's underground realm of sensual delights.  He wakes one day and longs for home.  Venus protests and tried to prevent him from leaving.  He rejects her and finds himself back in the mortal realm.  He is found by Wolfram and his friends and is told that Elisabeth has suffered in his absence.  At the mention of the maiden's name, Tannhäuser follows them to the castle.  Elisabeth rejoices at his return and he returns her affections.  But his time in Venusburg has not left him unaffected, and so he joins a band of pilgrims in hope of seeking redemption.  Suffice to say, redemption for Tannhäuser comes in a very peculiar way.  

 I last saw Johan Botha three years ago when he sang to title role in Verdi's Otello.  So seeing him as Tannhäuser was very interesting.  His voice is very strong and very big; so strong in fact, I swear it may have gotten to overpowering at times.  Botha brought out well the indecisiveness of the character.  Tannhäuser cannot tell the difference between love and lust.  He has spent a very long time in Venusburg, and longs for both the sensual delights of Venus and the faithfulness of Elizabeth, and he knows he can't have both.  This causes trouble for him, it breaks Elizabeth's heart and that of Wolfram, and it frightens his entire circle.  And he doesn't quite grasp the purpose of pilgrimage either; it's not what you do to earn Salvation that matters.  A pilgrimage is a road trip with God.  It's the time you spend with Him that counts, and poor Tannhäuser does not fully understand it. 
    
This simulcast was the fourth time I saw Eva-Maria Westbroek perform.  Elizabeth is a young and idealistic woman who falls head over heels for a guy who charms her, and is unfailingly faithful to him even when he turns his back on her.  Westbroek is perfect for this sort of role; I saw her earlier this year in the role of Santuzza in Cavaleria Rusticana.  She has the roles of women who are luckless in love down to a science.  

I know I heard Michelle DeYoung about six years ago when she sang the role of Brangäne in another Wagner gem, Tristan und Isolde.  I knew she was good, but didn't know just how good until she sang the role of the Queen of Hell herself, Venus.  I'm thinking specifically of her vocal abilities, which may as well be a heavier version of Joyce DiDonato's voice.

Peter Mattei, whom I last saw as the Count Almaviva last season, was Wolfram, the poet.  I love this character, and Mattei did a superb job with the role.  For someone who didn't quite understand Christianity, Wagner created in Wolfram the character of a Christ-follower.  Wolfram is loyal and pious, loving Tannhäuser as his friend, but also caring very about the man's soul.  It is Wolfram who brings Tannhäuser back to his senses and helps him avoid falling again for the charms of the demonic Venus.  

The only quibble I have with the production was the ballet sequence.  Yes it's depicting an orgy, yes the characters are meat to be sylphs and other sprites, but can they please give the men a bit more clothing?  

Lovely production, and quite an interesting cast of characters.