A New Song
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Is anyone else tired of listening to all the religious noise we hear these days? Just scroll through the headlines. It seems like the word “Christian” comes with so much baggage today, it’s hard to know what anyone really means by it anymore.
Now, I’ll be honest, I would call myself a Christian, but hold on, let me clarify. If you heard the word “Christian” just then, and the first thing that came to your mind was hypocrisy, or judgment, or division, or a lot of religious rules and doctrine, or a political agenda, or crazy conspiracy theories, I get it.
Sadly, the term, “CHRISTianity” today seems to have been hijacked, so that now it has come to mean something that bears little resemblance to the CHRIST we profess to follow. Like bad karaoke, what began as a song of “Good News” about God’s restorative love for humanity and for His creation, can be reduced to fearful, condemning bad news. The exciting, joyful, all-inclusive invitation to come as you are to a Father who loves you, can be distorted into a tired, old song of division, guilt, and shame.
Don’t you long to hear a new song? A song that unites instead of divides. One that draws people in, instead of pushing them away. A song of love and healing and belonging and family. That’s the song I want to hear. That’s the song that Jesus sings. He said people would know His followers by the love they show to one another. Love is the “new song” of Jesus.
Whether you call yourself a Christian, or you’re on a different faith journey, or you just haven’t decided what to believe; in fact, no matter what you think about Jesus right now, it’s hard to deny that His words and actions impacted the world in a profound way.
He sang this “new song” as He walked among the people in the first century and it was radically different from the old religious song they thought they knew. Many didn’t understand it, some were offended and angered by it, but those who actually listened to it; who let it sink into their minds and hearts; were drawn to it and transformed by it. It’s the same today.
Jesus sought out those who felt excluded, disqualified, and disempowered by the religious legal system and invited them in. People who were lost and broken; those who were struggling in darkness and losing hope; people who were anxious and weary and burdened; people who knew there had to be something more; came to Jesus to listen and went away changed after being with Him.
Jesus didn’t come to convert people to a new religion. He didn’t come to form a new political party. He came to set us free from all that, and to offer all people an invitation to a relationship, an identity, a purpose, a new way of being human, that is life changing. But, unlike the “old song”, He never forces us. He never manipulates us. He never shames us. He invites us to come and listen, and then asks us to trust Him. How we respond is up to us. We decide whether to believe Him or not. The choice is always ours.
If you’ve been turned off by the hypocrisy and judgment of the old song, or you’ve been turned away by it in condemnation because of who you are, what you’ve done, or who you love; if you’re ready to listen to this “new song”, I invite you to join me here each week, in this SING community vlog, as we engage with the words of Jesus, and seek to amplify His new song of love through our words, our music, our art, or through the many other unique gifts and talents God has given each of us.
We welcome all who want to engage with the message of Jesus with an open mind and heart. We’re a community that values questions, doubts, and dialogue within a culture that respects and honors all people and differing viewpoints and interpretations.
I hope you’ll join us as we learn, experience, and SING the new song of Jesus to a world that has been listening to the tired, old song for far too long.
Division, hate, injustice, violence, and darkness are loud in this world. Together, we can lift our voices and SING love louder.