Tag: jesus

On The Mamas & the Papas and the Joys and Limitations of Wanting to Change the World

Context: I recently watched the 2005 documentary, “California Dreamin’: The Songs of the Mamas & the Papas.”

When I was attending graduate school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (U.S.A.), there was a Lutheran church a few blocks away from Marquette University that housed “The Coffee House,” a venue for folk music and poetry readings, which, by the 1990s, had been operating continuously since the heyday of coffee houses: the 1960s (well before their reincarnation as Starbucks).  I felt at home with the songs of peace and love, and the message that these qualities, along with humanity’s perseverance, could change the world.

Unfortunately, the realization of a humanly constructed utopia could never happen because we are dealing with human beings, who (if you embrace mainstream Christian theology, as I do) are inherently flawed by a sinful nature.  The apostle Paul, in his many epistles—but his one to the Romans comes now to mind—calls this “sarx,” or our proclivity to sin, that is, if we are left to ourselves, we human beings have a default setting to turn away from God; thus, we need a Savior, Jesus, to save us from our own sinfulness.

Although one would likely assume that the doctrine of “original sin” is a total downer, it actually has the opposite effect, because those who realize their sinfulness, and along with it their inability to break free from that sinfulness on their own, are the ones who more fully appreciate the freedom gained through Christ. That is a core message of the Gospel, and yes, I believe it all.  Which is fortunate, because I’m a pastor. 

However, I still appreciate the optimism surrounding the belief in the possibility of changing the world for the better that the Flower Children of the ‘60s promoted.  Many of them felt something that is indeed true, that we human beings are capable of making the world better, if not in a perfect way all over the world, then at least in a small way in the space around us.  This is “agape” love, doing unto others as you would want them to do to you, by serving others, and caring for the sick, the hungry, the “other,” and the immigrant. I believe that this desire for a better world is embedded in us by a God who puts paradise in our minds, while knowing that we will fail to bring it about in the here and now. 

Nevertheless, we must not give up trying to make the world around us a better place. We must not stop believing that love and kindness and service to others are worthwhile.  Those are messages that I see when I open a Bible, where even the “law” leads us to love which leads us to the desire to help others and to make the world a better place.

This may sound strange, and I hope not blasphemous, but when I hear the music of The Mamas & the Papas, and the Seekers, and so many other folk-inspired bands, I always feel more optimistic about the future.  It is the same feeling I get when I listen to the musical Camelot with its exhortation, “Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment known as Camelot!”

I think when Christians, the humble and helpful kind, talk about “walking with the Lord,” they are in part describing the Holy Spirit’s presence within them, guiding and encouraging them to not only love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, but also to love their neighbors as themselves and work towards making the world a better place.  

And finally, one last Flower Power remembrance: my favorite song growing up was “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” (especially the hilltop Coke commercial version).  It still has the power to bring a smile to my face and hope to my soul😊.  

On John Milton’s Paradise Lost: Book 1—The Invocation of the Muse

The Prologue:

Having read the first four books (of twelve) from John Milton’s Paradise Lost, and having at last begun to feel grounded with it—or perhaps at least gotten used to flights through the cosmos by Satan and the (good) heavenly hosts— it is time to return to the beginning of the poem to re-engage, reflect, and recite.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

As is the convention of the “epic,” Milton not only takes on big topics, but also saves us the effort of discerning those topics by telling us the answer in the opening lines: he will tell of the fall of humanity from grace when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command to stay away from the forbidden tree and its fruit:

Of Man’s First Disobedience, and the Fruit

Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste

Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,

With loss of Eden, till one greater Man

Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,

Sing Heav’nly Muse (1.1-6a)

And so, Milton does as the great writers of epic tales had done before him: invokes his “Muse.” 

For Milton, though, the muse is not Calliope, but the same Holy Spirit who gave inspiration to Moses, writer of the Pentateuch:

That Shepherd who first taught the chosen Seed,

In the Beginning how the heav’ns and Earth

Rose out of Chaos . . . I thence

Invoke thy aid to my advent’rous Song (1.8-13)

And divine aid Milton will need, for he boasts of doing one better—nay, infinitely better—than Homer, Virgil, or the writer of Beowulf, writers who told tales of the origins of a people or nation.  In contrast, Milton shall narrate the event that affected not one, but all peoples and nations: when Satan succeeded in turning our first parents away from God. We await, then, “Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhyme” (1.16)

Milton prepares by reminding himself of the need to be virtuous (“And chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer Before all Temples th’ upright heart and pure” 1.17-18), and thus worthy of receiving inspiration from the Muse, which will enable him to accomplish his task to “justify the ways of God to men” (1. 26). No grander goal has ever been undertaken by mere mortal writers! Note, though, the quid pro quo that Milton assumes is necessary for him to receive this inspiration.  Surely, he must be good enough before the Muse will reward him with its gift. It is ironic, then, that as Milton is about to embark on a tale of unmerited grace given from God to sinful humanity through Jesus Christ, he himself must be good enough to receive the free gift of inspiration.  Is he perhaps demonstrating the same vice that got Adam and Eve into trouble, namely, pride in himself and his own efforts?   

Nevertheless, it is not surprising that Milton cries out to the Heavenly Muse for inspiration, for whom among us have not cried out in hope or anxiousness or frustration for a neatly arranged and quickly delivered package of interesting thoughts and clever words, a package of inspiration that provides us with the material we need to fill up the page?