A GROOVY KIND OF LOVE

 

A groovy kind of love

Photo from Web

Vinyl records have come and gone and have come again. The disc spins on a turntable. A needle is then lowered into the groove on the outer edge which works its way into the middle. The needle picks up whatever is inscribed in the vinyl groove and plays it through an amplifier. As kids back in the day, we would have fun playing the records faster or slower than the artist had intended. Apparently, Dolly Parton heard her 45rpm single “Jolene” played at the slower 33 1/3 and preferred it! Be that as it may, in the 60s we heard terms such as “groovy!” I imagine this had to do with records.

Speaking of which, we heard things like, “you sound like the needle’s stuck” or “you’re sounding like a broken record.” Sometimes the problem was with the record, maybe a dent in the vinyl causing the needle to jump grooves. However, sometimes the trouble was with a defective or worn-out needle. If we were to view the human heart as the needle, and the groove in the vinyl record as our life from beginning to end, surely, we would conclude that there is something wrong with our hearts or with the world or with both!

Phoro from Web

The heart/needle has the five senses with which to pick up the information from creation and has those fifteen irreducible “modes of meaning” [Herman Dooyeweerd] with which to make sense of it. However, the question is: By what standard? How do you know if all the equipment is operating in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions as per the manual? Perhaps you’ve been messing around by playing things at the wrong speed? Backwards? Has your needle been damaged? As a stylus is a dust and fluff magnet, so the heart is a magnet for sin (Job 5:7).

Though dwelling for a time on the same planet together, the Christian and the non-Christian have antithetical views of creation. The former, because he/she is born of “the water and the Spirit” (John 3:5), can see the kingdom of God. The latter cannot. The former, as Jesus says, is to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Mat. 6:33). The things that shall be added are the basic things the non-Christians are seeking, such as food, drink, and clothing etc. – life’s necessities.

So, though, as we see, Christians and non-Christians share many things in common while living together on Earth, only the former has been given a new heart/needle. Only the Christian is able to obey the command to be about the business of “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).

The difference between the Christian and the non-Christian is that the former seeks to understand and apply the knowledge of God by taking every thought captive to Christ, while the latter “suppress[es] the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:18b). However, though the Christian has been given a new heart (Heb. 10:16), a residue of sin remains. Therefore, we must constantly keep on checking that we are operating according to the Manufacturer’s instructions. This is where the checks and balances of sphere sovereignty helps. Are we making an idol out of any or all of the fifteen law spheres? Are we involving ourselves in bibliolatry? Are we worshipping theology instead of God?

Darkness and light are antithetical. Like one who has lost their sense of seeing, the non-Christian operates in darkness and under its power. The Christian has been rescued. “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Col. 1:13). If we are to speak of two kingdoms, they are these: the kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of Light.

The songs of “the kingdom of the Son of His love” cannot be fully appreciated unless and until the Manufacturer by His grace gives us a new heart. 

ART

                                                                                    Art

Image from Internet

Surely art, like beauty, is iin the eyes of the beholder, kind of like, one man’s trash is another’s treasure. Of course, it has a lot to do with perspective. If you’ve ever walked around an art gallery, you’ll know exactly what I mean. You wonder sometimes if the ‘artist’ is taking a lend of you. Is a banana gaffer-taped to a wall art? This is where you get a lecture from the art ‘experts’ on what you, the philistine, are missing! I remember flicking through a magazine in a doctor’s waiting room and seeing a picture of a Pablo Picasso painting. Disjointed, fragmented, disconnected, distorted are some of the words that came to mind. Then I read the painting’s title, The Weeping Woman. It was only then I felt the pain and sorrow Picasso was expressing! Sometimes a little hint helps.

As I strolled through the Kelvngrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow I saw exhibits from Darwin to Dali. The latter has a famous painting hanging there: Christ of Saint John of the Cross. On the cross, floating against a black sky, darkness, Christ is looking down at a boat and fishermen. The whole perspective of the painting is that of looking at Christ from above as He, in turn, looks down at what is below Him. You get the impression that while on the cross, Christ was dangling between His Father in heaven and His people on earth; neither quite here nor there. Yes, the art experts will supply the minutiae, but that’s the big picture of what I saw as I viewed this intriguingly moving work of art. Art is all about perspective.

Christ on the cross is all about perspective. ‘Those who passed by hurled insults at Him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save Yourself!” In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked Him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but He can’t save Himself! Let this Messiah, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with Him also heaped insults on Him. At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon’ (Mark 15:29-33). The scoffers and blasphemers saw a dying deluded man. Then came the darkness, Dali’s night sky darkness. What did Christ on the cross see? ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’ (Mark 15:34b, Psa. 22:1). ‘All who see Me mock Me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads’ (Psa. 22:7). ‘Dogs surround Me, a pack of villains encircles Me; they pierce My hands and My feet’ (Psa. 22:16). Christ also saw His people, ‘I will declare Your name to My people; in the assembly I will praise You’ (Psa. 22:22). And He saw His Kingdom, ‘All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before Him, for dominion belongs to the Lord and He rules over the nations’ (Psa. 22:27-28).

So, art is about perspective. Christ on the cross is about perspective. Salvador Dali gave his perspective – Christ on the cross with no nails in His hands or feet, no crown of thorns on His head. Why no blood? We’ll leave that for the art experts to explain. But what is your perspective of Christ on the cross (i.e., the real thing, not the Dali painting)? Blasphemer or believer? Is it trash or treasure? Is it someone taking a lend of you or was it done by the very hand of God?

One Christian wrote, ‘The cross was not merely an act of compassion and mercy directed toward mankind; it was a cosmic event in which God demonstrated who and what He is before all the universe.’ (Jay Adams).