Category: Music

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Three Virtues of Lion-Hearted People

We were doing our Brito dance this morning to the melody of a contemporary song written in 1712 called “Rise Again, Ye Lion-Hearted.” The boys joined for all stanzas ’cause they’re lion-hearted and all and they have sung it enough that it flows through their blood.

Singing it again this morning reminded me of the forcefulness and necessity of this song for our day. Following are three needed virtues for our day.

Hear ye:

“Honor, gold, they laugh to scorn…”

Lion-hearted men and women scorn the world’s riches. When the naked emperor offers wine, women, and song to any who would forsake Messiah Jesus, the saints mock their offers. He knows that there is no earthly wealth that can surpass the glories and abundance of heaven. When elites offer us a seat at the table with their six-course meals and galas and flatter us with empty words, and “honor” us with prestigious job offers if only we would leave out one of our convictions at the table, lion-hearted children laugh at their contracts. We refuse to be Peter Enns for a chance at notoriety.

2. “Songs of praise outpouring…”

When you put several naked Christians in the arena, taunt them, ridicule their God, and open the gates for ferocious lions, there is only one logical thing to do: we sing.

Our age is completely ripe for the kind of singing I have been advocating for a long time. You cannot face the arena with songs about a secret and a quiet place; that kind of pious gush may scare away kitties, but not hungry beasts. Arenas are made for Athanasius figures, Elizabeth Elliot, and bold singers. The arena is the place for practicing warriors who have been trained to use their voices to fight demons. From the lips of children, God uses our music to frighten foe and avenger; lions and leftists.

3. “Loyal, staunch, and true to Thee.”

This glorious hymn closes with a vocal call to faithfulness; this hearty theology of perseverance that grabs us by our baptisms and releases us at death. If we have learned anything, it is that the greatest threat to the Church today is the allures of the world, the flesh and the devil. And these temptations come in all shapes and sizes.

Christians, however, ought to be masters of repentance and turning their heads away from enslaving rituals. These enslaving rituals keep us away from the battle, and we need to be so daring that the battle is always coming to us, which means that we must keep the devil and his nephews fully aware of the threat we pose to them.

~~~

We take our stand joyously because our scorning of evil, our songs of praise, and our vibrant loyalty will determine whether we will rise again, or whether we shall be content in our slumber.”Joyously they take their stand on the arena’s bloody sand.”

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Singing from the Saints in Wichita, Kansas

This growing and bold church in Wichita, Kansas, pastored by Derek Hale, is a great example that a congregation does not need high numbers to sing strong and courageously. If we encourage our men to sing, then the rest follows. A small flock can surpass the volume of a larger congregation if the emphasis on corporate singing and the life of singing is central. These guys show us a way forward! Well done, saints!

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Bonhoeffer on what to do in tumultuous times

Bonhoeffer takes the occasion of his godson’s baptism to offer a short treatise on Christian faith and the ways of the world. In it, he expounds on the benefits of a stable family life providing shelter in the midst of a tumultuous and unpredictable world: In the coming years of revolution, the greatest gift will be to know that you are protected in a good home….In the general pauperization of intellectual life, you will find in your parents’ home a palladium of spiritual [geistiger] values and a source of intellectual [geistiger] stimulation. Music, how your parents interpret and cultivate [pflegen] it, will bring your confusion to clarity and purify your character and outlook, and in the midst of worries and sadness will sustain in you a Grundton of joy. It is the practice of music, a prominent element in little Dietrich’s home, that will animate and sustain within him a “Grundton of joy.” The phrase itself is a musical metaphor. Put simply, the Grundton (in English, “tonic” or “key note”) is the “first degree of a major or minor scale”24 or “the main note of a key…after which the key is named.” -Quoted in Robert Smith’s Bonhoeffer and Musical Metaphor
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Music Camp and Psalm Tap

Dear friend,

I will be traveling tomorrow after worship to Monroe, LA to attend the Jubilate Deo Summer Music Camp. The week functions like a training camp for young musicians from 1st-12th grades. I will be teaching theology of music for the high-schoolers, which is always one of my highlights. I have been teaching some of these students for several years now and always relish our reunions.

Everyone plays a part in this great musical composition. They will train all week in music (in addition to art and dance) and on Saturday they will offer a performance to the community. It is truly a magnificent sight to behold and hear. We have for too long minimized music education in our youth treating it as an elective when it is should the norm for a Christian community. This camp is a noble attempt to bring back musical literacy not only to the church but to the household and schools as well. Thanks to the tireless Jarrod Richey for his efforts and friendship over the years.

The Lutheran pastor, Bonhoeffer, spoke to the need for singing in our communities as that which diminished our fears and “lifts us about our personal concerns.” Bonhoeffer understood well the role of singing as he sought to form young pastors fighting for their lives in an underground seminary. Even amidst confusion and a maniacal dictator, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was not content to live in fear, but he pursued the committed task of singing together. In fact, in singing together the church spoke for the world n “vicarious representation.”

Our mission has not changed. We teach and encourage one another with psalms, hymns and Spirit-songs in all seasons knowing that our God sings over us (Zeph. 3).

For anyone interested, I will be also speaking at the first Psalm Tap Colloquium along with Theopolis Institute president, Peter J. Leithart and others on various topics related to music and its role in the church (you can see the link below).

An entire week of teaching and communion with gifted musicians and eager singers will keep me relatively away from my daily missives here. As a side note, I do want to thank those who have sent me kind notes about these daily posts. I do try to be intentional about them, and in a social media platform made for the mundane, I try to offer a substantive outlook that helps form ideas and visions about the world with as much biblical zeal I can muster.

Hearty cheers and solid joys,
Pastor Uriesou Brito

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Johnny Cash and the Call to Break Bread Together

This entire season reminds me of the need to break bread together. Certainly in the eucharistic sense, but also in the hospitality and communion with one another. Last night, we had someone over for a meal for the first time in over a month. There was a certain unease and awkwardness, but the joy exceeded the whole adjustment. We hope to begin slowly and cautiously having folks over again. It’s certainly one of the most urgent needs of our time. It’s part of a larger concern I’ve expressed elsewhere.

The inimitable Johnny Cash recorded a great piece that encapsulates this sentiment. He did not write the original words, but like many songs Cash sings, they just become his. I did a little recording of it a few years back and recently the song came to my attention again.

The striking line in the song speaks to what breaking bread truly is:

It’s not the barley or the wheat

It’s not the oven or the heat

That makes this bread so good to eat

It’s the needing and the sharing that makes the meal complete

There is something happening in the practice of breaking bread that takes us beyond the mere description of the elements. It’s not the tastiness of it that makes it complete, but the ritual of sharing and desiring it.

The Table of Fellowship, as Bonhoeffer describes is a rich table meant to satiate our spiritual needs and bind our wounds. When we eat bread together, we are becoming more and more human in our appetites and affections. Bonhoeffer notes in his Life Together:

The table fellowship of Christians implies obligation.  It is our daily bread that we eat, not my own.  We share our bread.  Thus we are firmly bound to one another not only in the Spirit but in our whole physical being.

May we all eat again as one soon. May we all break bread!

I hope you enjoy the tune:

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Music Conference in Pensacola on April 17-19, 2020

In an attempt to musicalize our culture and to encourage musical literacy in the Church of our Lord, we are proud to announce our first music conference led by Mr. Jarrod Richey.

JARROD RICHEY has been teaching K4 through 12th-grade general music and choir classes at Geneva Academy in West Monroe, LA since 2008. He is the founder and music director of the Delta Youth Chorale, a children’s community choir that promotes music literacy through singing, folk dance, and activities in northeast Louisiana. Additionally, Mr. Richey previously taught voice, choir, and music appreciation classes at the University of Louisiana Monroe. He received his bachelor’s degree at Louisiana Tech University before completing his Masters of Music at the University of Louisiana Monroe. He also completed his national Kodály music teacher certification from Wichita State University. He is visiting music faculty for the Chenaniah Summer Music Institute at New Saint Andrews College in northern Idaho each July-August where he teaches solfege musicianship, folk-dancing, and folk song research and analysis courses for their Kodály music teacher training program. He is also an active elementary and middle school choir clinician and serves on the executive board of the Louisiana chapter of the American Choral Directors Association. He is the founder of the Jubilate Deo Summer Music Camp, a week-long choir and music camp open to kindergarten through college freshmen each June. He is the author of “BACH to the Future: Fostering Music Literacy Today” (2016) and general editor and contributing author to “Raise the Song: A Classical Christian Guide to Music Education” (2019). Jarrod and his lovely wife, Sarah, have six choristers in training ranging from ages two to twelve.

Schedule:

NAME: Resounding Thankfulness: Our Glorious Musical Inheritance

April 17-19, 2020

Friday Night:

Lecture #1 – 5:30-6:30p – “Every voice in concert ring: A Call to Sing”

(Break)

Family Folk Dance – 7:00-8:30pm

Saturday:

Children’s Singing School: “Let their guileless songs reecho” – 2nd-6th graders- 9:30-11am

(Afternoon Roundtable Discussion with Musicians)

Saturday Night:

Lecture #2 – 5:30-6:30 – “Through the Church the song goes on: Reviving Joyful church music literacy”

(Break)

Lecture #3 – 7:00-8:00 – “Repeat the Sounding Joy: Listening through new ears”

Sunday Morning Worship at Providence Church on 3301 E. Johnson Avenue, Pensacola, Fl 32514

9-9:45Am – Sunday School Hour – “Hymn and Chant and High Thanksgiving: Practical approach to better singing and musicianship” –
10Am – Covenant Worship
11:30 – Fellowship Meal