We were at a tapas restaurant, surrounded by many little plates, a dinner built out of appetizers. It’s a rare night out, and expensive. Marinated olives and soft cheeses. Stuffed chicken breast. Flank steak with a balsamic reduction sauce. The menu description on that one alone made my stomach growl. Anything balsamic, and I’m there.
But when the plate comes to the table, I take one bite, and the tantalizing promise ends in disappointment. I know immediately why. Someone in the kitchen wasn’t paying attention, and in that split second, the syrup of all things good in the culinary world went from amazing to bitter. I ate it, because I am a sucker for all things balsamic, but it wasn’t nearly as good as it could be, and the bitter hint of char lingered on my tongue.
*********
It was a Sunday morning, and we were singing. The lyrics, words that matter because we claim belief in them, came on the screen, and they lingered, bitter in my mouth.
‘Without you I am nothing,‘ the chorus said, and we sang it over and over, as if we were stuck on repeat. The song faded into the line, ‘Lord of Heaven, I do not deserve...’
I stopped singing, tangled in thought and confusion.
Did Jesus come because we are nothing? Because we don’t deserve anything? Is this what the gospels boil down to?
The reduction of the sweet message of Jesus has burnt, and is bitter.
When we sing this, what does it say to outsiders? That they are nothing? That they don’t deserve anything?
For a lifestyle based on the imitation of the greatest servant, we do a poor job in considering the impression we make on others.
Jesus did not come because we are worthless.
Instead of telling other people how bad they are, why don’t we tell them what goodness lies underneath?
The message we have to offer is not that we are hopeless, worthless creatures who should be shipped off to hell.
The message we have to give is that the power of sin has been broken. We are free. Set free to sing of freedom, not despair. We are being renewed in the image of our Creator, not wallowing in darkness.
Jesus didn’t die and live just so we could avoid hell, and be grateful for it.
Jesus died so he could rise. So the power of death could be defeated.
Because we are worth being set free.
We are worth freedom.
We are worth the rescue.
We are worth being made alive.
We are deserving of everything God has for us because we are made in his image.
Our approach can’t be to tell the world they are nothing without Jesus. The hope of renewal and restoration needs to be what motivates us. We need to have the vision to see past what is, to what could be, what was meant to be.
We serve people, not because ‘the Bible says to’ but because we have caught a glimpse of the greatness offered to us, and love compels us to share it. We serve because we want to see life grow in people.
If loving God and loving others is the gospel, beautifully reduced, then we have to change how we sing.
Jesus did not come because we are nothing.
Our goal is sacrifice, servanthood, precisely because people deserve it, not because they don’t.
That is something to sing about.
Do we believe that people, trapped by lies, lies that say they are worthless and their pain has no redemption, are nothing?
Or do we believe in the power of redemption, renewal, healing?
If the goal of following Jesus is to combat the lie of worthlessness and brokenness, why do we sing as if the lie were true?
If Jesus came to affirm the dignity of everyone, why do we sing as if everyone else is undignified?
If Jesus came for the least of these, why do we sing as if they are not good enough for him?
If our mission is to love God and others, then by God, we need to love others!
The theology in our songs needs to match up with the reality of Jesus.
We repeat lie after lie after lie to ourselves. We speak darkness to each other when we convince ourselves that we deserve nothing. We offer hopelessness to a world that needs hope, and so we resort to the threat of hell to convince them to join us.
This is not what Jesus came to proclaim.
Does being trapped, bound up, and enslaved, equal worthlessness? Then why do we equate sinning with unworth? Being trapped by sin simply means there is value buried under the darkness.
Are we dividing people into groups of the valued and the valueless, or are we proclaiming freedom for all?
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Good news
Freedom
Sight
Release
Favor
Let’s sing about that.
What do you think? Are there any church lyrics you don’t like?
Caris, YES! I just wrote about this today, for a later blog post perhaps. I discovered that part of the reason I’ve had a hard time dealing with shame and feeling that I’m worthy of love and other good things is partly because of this. My evangelical upbringing said that I deserved punishment, death, hell. Why do we focus on that so much in the church — our sin, our nothingness, our depravity? And why am I just now realizing that it’s completely the wrong focus? Thank you for these words. Especially loved “Being trapped by sin simply means there is value buried under the darkness.”
Oh Kim, thanks! ”
and feeling that I’m worthy of love” – yes, exactly. Every time someone says something like that, I’m like, no wonder, because you think you’re this horrid person. If we were really that bad, why would Jesus even bother with us?? I don’t shed a tear over a spider that I kill because it is nothing to me. If we were nothing, why would he bother? It means a lot that you like this! It took me forever to write this…2 solid days before I got it to where it was halfway decent. I think just b/c this whole topic is so frustrating to me because it’s everywhere, and it’s so damaging. I can’t wait to read yours when (if) you post it!
And I’m so excited about your book! I sent your post to a friend of mine who just did an adoption from Ethiopia, and just seeing glimpses of it through her, was just fascinating and heartbreaking.
Wow! I had never thought of it like that before. I think you’re right, and this is really really good stuff I should think through too.
Would you say that people’s worth is NOT from anything good we do to “earn” it, but because God gave us worth, intrinsically, by making us in his image? Because I think the idea of being “worthless” comes from “on our own, we’d never be able to earn God’s love”- but yeah, I agree that it sends the wrong message when that part gets emphasized.
”
but because God gave us worth, intrinsically, by making us in his image?” – exactly, yes. I get what you mean with the ‘on our own’ idea of it. I had a friend yesterday say how she doesn’t deserve anything she has in her life, it’s all a gift. And I get that……but I would say, on our own we couldn’t create ourselves. Because once we’re created; once that divine spark is in us, there is no ‘on our own’. Once we come into being, we are inextricably linked to God, therefore immediately deserving of love, filled with worth.
Yes- what you said makes a lot of sense. I’ll have to think about this a lot more. ^_^ Anyway, thanks for posting this.
“Our approach can’t be to tell the world they are nothing without Jesus. The hope of renewal and restoration needs to be what motivates us. We need to have the vision to see past what is, to what could be, what was meant to be.”
I could have clipped any number of other excerpts from your post, because you’ve expressed yourself very well here. Yes, yes and yes, let us sing of renewal and redemption and being set free, of seeing God’s image fully realized and released in us.
So my question to you, what are you doing when these songs are sung in your church? Do you sing along anyway? Do you not sing those phrases that distort the message? Do you say something to your pastor and/or worship leader? I’m curious because I’m asking myself the same questions and I’d love to hear how others are handling them.
Usually I’ll sing along. There are a few lines that I really don’t like, and I won’t sing those, but I try to remember that all aspects of Christianity have something to teach me. A couple of my favorite worship cds are from Indelible Grace and Red Mountain Church. I don’t think I agree with much of them theologically, but their music is so beautiful and historical, that I can sing and respect the tradition behind it. But sometimes – especially if I’m more emotional or dealing with something, and the words are just almost offensive to where I’m at, that I can’t sing along.
So I guesd I’m hit and miss with how I handle it. I’m not brave enough to say something to the worship leader, haha.
I’m not either, so you’re not alone. I don’t have the sense that the leaders would welcome a discussion of the theology of our worship songs. Or maybe I just lack the courage to initiate such a conversation… The first step is beginning to think critically ourselves and I think you’re on the right track in that.