Tag: Spilling Hope – Volume 2

  • Jesus Knew . . . And We Are Made New

    06.10.11 | Comment?

    by Chris Gough

    I have been a Christian my entire life, and I am starting to come to an at least hazy realization that Jesus actually knew what he was doing.

    I am not referring to the part where he would have preferred a different path than the cross, or how he had some sort of special understanding of the women at the well or even the foreknowledge of Judas and Peter’s denials. I am talking about his revolutionary conquering of the world through service.

    Galatians 2:10: “Do not forget the poor!” Peter says to Paul as they part ways. It is his one piece of advice, but Paul doesn’t need it. His response: “This was the very thing I was eager to do.” Somehow, Peter, the rock of the church, and Paul, the first and probably greatest theologian, understood that service to the poor was mission critical.

    What wasn’t said by Peter was, “Do not forget the poor, they really need our help.” Hmmm. I suppose he also didn’t say lots of things . . . but this particular hypothetical is something I have been thinking about. After all, there a lot of poor. A majority of the world’s population land below the international poverty line of $1.25 a day. Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats clearly implies that those who care for the poor are caring for Jesus and are saved, but the very next story in scripture implies that that is not the whole picture. A woman pours expensive perfume over Jesus’ feet, and the disciples remark that it could have gone to feed the poor (They remembered the parable!). But Jesus responds, “The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.” John 12:8.  Poor disciples . . . they almost had it! Do we get it? Do I get it?

    It’s easy to get discouraged or disoriented in our faith; probably because faith requires testing. When we do not face tests, we question the value of faith, and when we question the value of faith we question its surrounding principles. And pretty soon we are in the massive flow of the world’s typical flimsy wisdom.

    I haven’t fully grasped scripture’s implication that Christ is seen clearest among the poor. It is all over God’s Word. So when Jesus’ own example was one of service, we find an unconventional, revolutionary worldview of service.

    “Do not forget the poor!” Peter got it, and so did Paul. So, put your faith to the test. Step out and see if God’s hand will transform. We could see this with the rich, but it is cloudy; credit could always go to their network, their resources, their education. The poor are clearer. In their stories God receives full credit, and the presence of His hand is unmistakable.

    So when Jesus proclaims that he has come to set the captives free, and then washes the feet of a “nobody,” we have to stop and acknowledge that this is an eternal wisdom at play. As we serve and care for the poor, we encounter God; and we will find that in it all, our own poverty is revealed and WE are made new.

    Jesus knew what he was doing.

    Note: Chris Gough is a worship leader at Bethany Community Church and taken a lead role in creating the Spilling Hope Compilation Volume 2, available for FREE download here: http://www.spillinghope.org/compilation-2. So check it out! Also, Spilling Hope Compilation Volume 2 artists will be performing a variety of live shows around Seattle in the coming weeks. Seryn will be at Sunset Tavern next Wedneday June 15 (http://www.serynsound.com/), Jubilee will be playing TONIGHT (Friday) at Skylark (http://livejubilee.org/calendar/), and Cahalen Morrison and Eli West will be at The Tractor Tavern Sunday, June 12 (http://cahalenandeli.com/).

  • Spilling Hope’s Soundtrack

    04.29.11 | Comment?

    by Chris Gough

    My wife and I just saw Paul Simon at the Showbox in Seattle. It was amazing . . . but funny (ok, maybe scary) what people like me are willing to pay for an hour or two of live music. After all, there are only twelve notes to choose from; instruments and vocal chords are made of physical/non-magical substance; sound is really only waves of different heights and lengths; rhythm can be easily measured by a metronome; and all of it can be transcribed to paper with musical notation.

    Of course there is something intangible about experiencing music. When the bass and drums lock together, even the most reserved listener will tap their foot and smile. Advertisers know this and place just the right string part behind a car commercial, or an energetic pop song for some “fun” beverage.

    This immeasurable aspect of music is where its real value resides . . . when the listener allows the music to do its job of ushering: into celebration, or regret, or comfort, or any form of the human experience. Armies used to have drummers lead them in a march; funeral songs ease loss and encourage healing; weddings celebrate love and hope with Pachelbel’s canon; babies are whisked to dreamland with a lullaby; and football locker rooms pump up players with 80′s double-necked guitar. We can accentuate the spirit of nearly any occasion with song. It is like an outlet for the soul . . . ventilation for the heart.

    When reaching out to bands to ask them if they wanted to be a part of the Spilling Hope campaign, no one balked at the idea. Not all artists had a song they could donate or the bandwidth to join the project, but those thirteen artists who officially offered music for the project seemed to grasp the spirit behind the project, and seemed to understand why Spilling Hope matters.

    If we think we are simply providing people with physical water, we will miss the real substance of Spilling Hope. It is true (of course!) that disease-free, clean, potable water is an absolute basic requirement for life. Without acknowledgment and response to this need, it is impossible to unlock the greater resource collected and distributed after the 50 days. The intangible, immeasurable, supernatural additive to that gift of pure water is hope.

    Someone cares!

    Intangibles are always tied to tangibles, because we are both physical and spiritual beings. It is not enough for God to announce that he loves us; he came physically to display his love. In some way beyond my comprehension, the act of deliberate care from one actual person to another unleashes, in both parties, a restoration of existential value. You can make a difference! You are not forgotten! Once a person’s value is grasped (even partially or for a moment) they see the world rightly, perhaps even as God sees them through Christ, and “Life to the full” (John 10:10) becomes a possibility.

    So if 150 beats per minute can inspire you to the end zone . . . perhaps a glass of water, in Christ’s name, can awaken two lives.

     

    Be sure to download Spilling Hope – Volume Two, and if you’d like to read Chris’s interviews with each of the artists, visit his blog, where he will be posting throughout the 50 days.