The Gospel According to Dave Matthews Band - Bartender

What is life? Not just biological life, with its neurological synapses and hiccuping beats of the heart, but real life, true life, the kind of full life we know deep in the fiber of our beings that we were created to live?  What is THAT and how do we begin to live it?   

What's ironic for many of us is that just when we think we're basking in the fullness of life we begin to experience deep-seated doubt that perhaps we're just great pretenders, pretending to be someone we're not, pretending that the life we're living is the ultimate in satisfaction when in reality, it's not. If we're honest in these moments, we quickly realize that something is out of sorts with the world and we happen to be complicit in its disorder.

In Bartender, Dave expresses doubts about his own life - doubts about his purpose, his desires, his legacy - and offers them directly to God, the bartender. More than anything else, Dave wants to know that the life he is living is the life he was created to live - a life of generosity, not greed; a life of humility, not pride; a life of compassion, not indifference. You can sense he's wrestling with a deeper question, namely am I making a positive contribution to the future of the world? Given his history and the impact of the "industry" on his life, Dave has his doubts. Will he be punished for having too much "gold"? Will the artistic expressions of his gifts and talents be for naught?  Many of us would be kidding ourselves if we don't ponder the very same things.

After some serious wrestling, Dave concludes that what he really wants is a glass of the same "wine" God "gave Jesus that set him free after 3 days in the ground." Or to use biblical language, what Dave wants is resurrection.

What makes resurrection so desirable for Dave? Perhaps it is that resurrection is the only hope for the broken, disorderly, and chaotic world we find ourselves in. The first followers of Jesus, living under an oppressive Roman Empire, held on to such a hope in the midst of the messy world they lived in, and for nearly two thousand years that hope has been passed down from generation to generation, with each one boldly declaring along with one author of the Bible that all of creation is being made new by God - the entire cosmos, including humanity, is being renewed, recreated. And it just so happens that the inauguration of God's renewal project began with the resurrection of Jesus - his historical, bodily coming back to life from the dead.

As the story goes, what started out as beautiful and harmonious has been polluted (both literally and figuratively) by sin and death. But if it's true what the first followers of Jesus believed - that in his crucifixion Jesus pardoned the world of sin and in his resurrection he overcame death - then there exists a hope for us today, not just in the future. Our hope is not in a set of principles or a doctrine of belief. Nor is it in our own good deeds.  Our hope is in the living Jesus and his resurrection, because what God started with the resurrection of Jesus - namely, repairing the world (again, including humanity) to the way it was created to be - he will carry on to completion, which necessarily involves us.

In light of Jesus' resurrection - if indeed we believe it to be true - our big questions about life are shrunk down significantly.  Questions such as how can I get into heaven when I die? and what good deeds can I do to earn God's favor? become secondary, if necessary at all. The greater question we're faced with is how can I participate with God right here and right now in his project of renewing the world? If it's true that one day there will be a new heaven and a new earth, then what can I do to point the world in that direction?

Given such a mission, we need to take on the resurrection life, and in order to do that, Jesus tells us that we must first let go of our former life.  Or to put it bluntly, we must die to all the things in us and in the world (attitudes, thoughts, behaviors, systems) that lead us to work against God's renewal project. This list of things is nearly endless, but the acknowledgment of such things provides the only way to receive and embrace the resurrection life. So stop pleading with the bartender and don't run and hide.  Instead, drink up because the resurrection life is waiting.     

So Much to Say

Remember when we were kids and we wanted nothing more than to grow up? Our 16^th, 18^th and 21^st birthdays were significant markers in our lives because it meant we could do what grown-ups do…legally.  But now after being an adult for a while, there are times when I want nothing more than to be a kid again.

What is it about becoming a child again that is so attractive to us that we seriously contemplate surrendering our adult lives to get it?

In So Much to Say Dave sings about the powerful role our minds can have in determining who we are and, consequently, the lives we end up leading. He describes his mind like a closet he is stuck inside. The whirlwind of thoughts, dreams, and conversations going round and round his head consume him to the point of neuroticism. Even worse, he becomes paralyzed to the degree he is unable to share his creative thoughts and dreams of heaven with anyone but himself. Instead he fills his time with others by chatting about the weather, which is not all that interesting and provides no inspiration or motivation to pursue the life we were created for (no offense Jim Cantore!).  Living life primarily in and through our heads (i.e. being overly self-conscious, even narcissistic) can feel a lot like hell in that our reality quickly becomes inhabited by a single person (ME!), left alone with only our thoughts. Living with an elevated self-consciousness is not the adulthood we wanted as kids and it’s not the reality Jesus invites us to live in.

Studies in the field of early childhood development have demonstrated that children under 2 years of age display no hint of being self-aware or self-conscious. When placed in front of a mirror, a child under 2 will typically smile or coo, freely and playfully embracing her reflection, whereas a child between 2 and 3 years old will often demonstrate signs of embarrassment at the sight of himself, such as by placing his hands over his face or burying his head in his chest. And so from age 2 onward, we live and view our lives through a lens of self-consciousness.

 I can’t help but wonder if the free, joyful, and unassuming posture with which an infant interacts with the world is what Jesus was getting at when he taught that unless we change and become like little children, we will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:3).

There’s a story of a religious leader in the first century named Nicodemus who hears Jesus teach (or at least hears of his teachings) and is curious to learn more. So Nicodemus seeks Jesus out, and what’s interesting is that Nicodemus comes to Jesus alone and at night. Alone. At night. Now I interpret this to mean that Nicodemus is trying to hide something, not from Jesus, but from someone else. And I would argue that Nicodemus, being a self-conscious adult, is fully aware that meeting with Jesus is not going to earn him any points with his colleagues, who just happen to be the same people about whom Jesus has already said some harsh things. In fact, if Nicodemus’ colleagues found out that he was meeting with Jesus he would be at risk of losing his reputation, his position, and perhaps even his life. Meeting with Jesus at night by himself was a strategic move by Nicodemus. He definitely has his lens up.   

So the two begin to talk and it doesn’t take long for Jesus to get to heart of the matter. He knows why Nicodemus has come: to find out what it takes to live in the Kingdom of God. Now if you’re in Nicodemus’ sandals, you’re probably looking for a list of do’s and don’ts that, with strict adherence, will guarantee your place in the Kingdom and keep you in good standing with your peers. Jesus, however, doesn’t offer him that list. Instead, Jesus tells Nicodemus that he has to be born again. This completely throws Nicodemus for a loop. He can’t fathom the thought of a fully grown adult re-entering his mother’s womb to be born again.  It doesn’t fit inside his mental paradigm. How is being born again even possible?

For Nicodemus, his hang up is not a lack of desire to become more like Jesus (he has already sought Jesus out!), rather it is the lens through which he has been viewing himself and the world. As a Pharisee (Jewish religious leader), Nicodemus would have been subject to the many Jewish laws and rituals for keeping oneself pure and holy.  And not only that, he would have also been responsible for seeing that others followed the same laws and rituals.  From his perspective, one’s status with God was dependent on one’s adherence to a particular set of laws and rituals. 

But here comes Jesus, teaching people about how they can enter the Kingdom of God by becoming like little children, being born all over again. I can imagine Nicodemus thinking to himself, “Where are the laws in this?  If only there were a few additional laws to follow then I could do it.” And that’s precisely the problem for Nicodemus. His self-conscious lens is looking for a way to make sense of this invitation, but being accepted into and participating in the Kingdom of God is not dependent on his usual strict adherence to religious rules and laws, rather it is dependent on loving Jesus and trusting him in every moment of life, much like a little child trusts her parents without being taught to do so.

So Jesus offers Nicodemus life in the Kingdom of God by becoming like a little child, being born again, and changing out the lens through which he previously saw himself, others, God, and the world. For those of us who thought at one time or another that all the rules of following Jesus were just too much, there’s good news!  Life with God in this world and the next is available to us through the surrender of our old lenses and the acceptance of new ones, namely those of Jesus. In doing so, we give up much our self-conscious approach to life, and in following Jesus we develop an “other-consciousness”, seeking out ways to love others and serve them as we participate with God in re-making the world as he originally intended it to be. Leave those trodden trails behind!

Ants Marching - Part 3: Questions

As exhilarating as the song is, Ants Marching highlights a dangerous side effect of being human, which is that if we choose to live our lives without an awareness of God's presence in the present, we run the tremendous risk of falling prey to either the fear that resides in us or the systems we knowingly or unknowingly participate in, or both. Many of us have lived this way so long that it seems to be the most natural way of living out our humanity, but it's not! 

To break the pattern of monotony in our lives we often opt for a greener grass approach, thinking that if we only lived there or had that job or became famous for something, ANYTHING, then we would really experience life to the fullest. However, that's not the reality Jesus lives in. His reality is one where the loving, joyful, and accepting presence of God is with people right here right now, smack dab in the middle of the ups and downs of life. God doesn't seek to remove us from our reality, rather he joins us so that we're not alone in it!

Our job, then, is to learn to become more fully aware of the presence of God. Here are some questions to get us started down the path of awareness:

• How will you interpret the most life-taking moments of your day differently knowing that God is right there with you in them?
• What reminders can you put in place that help you to pause and acknowledge the presence of God throughout the day?
• In what way(s) can you vent your deepest fears to God?
• Who do you know that could use the gift of presence?  How might you go about giving them that gift? 

Now go and live your life knowing that God is with you and continue growing in the awareness that in the darkest or most mundane moments of life you are not alone.  

Ants Marching - Part 2: Waking Up

In Ants Marching - Part 1 we discovered that what holds us back from so much of the life we desire is a resistance within us – a resistance that each and every one of us must identify and wrestle with if we are to be free from the human version of an ant's life.  And if we follow the stem of this internal resistance to its root, we will likely find mixed into the soil of our resistance perhaps the single, most powerful contributor to our resistance:  fear. 

Fear shows itself in a myriad of ways. For example, when we complain about how lame our job is the fear underneath our complaint is that of finding another job that better utilizes our talents but that may not pay as well, which means we’d have to make a sacrifice. And who’s not afraid of sacrificing themselves?   Fear also shows up in our superficial conversations with one another. While we know there exists a plethora of insightful stories and encouraging words that, if spoken, can propel us forward, our stories go untold and our encouragement remains mute not because the weather is so interesting to discuss but because we’re afraid – afraid of exposing ourselves to people we may not fully trust.  So we settle for an existence of shallow conversation and unfulfilled dreams, and our “chances” Dave sings about remain in a box.        

It’s at this point of realization that conventional wisdom suggests all we need to overcome our fear is to envision a better future, break down the path from where we are to where we want to be into small, achievable steps (S.M.A.R.T. goals anyone?), and discipline ourselves to stay on track. Proponents of this approach state in one form or another that if only we commit ourselves to this process we can conquer fear and arrive at the life we’ve always wanted.  And yet, so many of us have failed in our attempts at utilizing this approach and we have collectively ended up in a more depressed existence because we feel like we only have ourselves to blame.    

I find time and time again that the issue with us as human beings is not that we are unable to envision a better future or even develop a strategic plan for stepping into that future. Rather, the issue is that we’re alone in our journey and we desperately want to have someone alongside who knows us, accepts us, cares for us, and loves us exactly as we are. 

In the various accounts of Jesus’ life we find him encountering people who are just like us: feeling downtrodden, inauthentic, without a purpose, and alone.  And what Jesus offered them then - and what he offers us now - is not a vision for a better future or a strategic plan for escaping the monotony of daily living. Rather, what Jesus offers is a presence, namely his [God’s] presence, and that always seems to be enough for people. 

How liberating would it be to know that we are not alone as we go about our day, or to grow in our awareness that at any particular moment the loving, gracious, comforting, accepting, and forgiving presence of God is right here with us? Perhaps we would awaken each morning with a renewed sense of life, being full of joy, compassion, and generosity. And imagine how contagious and life-changing such an existence would be in the world!  

Our daily lives do not have to be the grind we’ve come to think they are. Together let’s take the risk of waking up to the reality that God is with us right here, right now.  Perhaps that’s all we really need to take some of our chances out of the box before it’s “lights down, you up and die”.

Ants Marching - Part 1: The Resistance

“Most men die at 27, we just bury them at 72.” - Mark Twain

In Ants Marching, we find ourselves at the intersection of Life and Main and it’s here that Dave inherently asks a significant and profound question: What does it mean to be fully human?  Throughout the song, generic snapshots of a person’s life are taken, such as one’s morning routine, commute, severed relationships and regrets, and the very purpose behind those everyday life experiences is questioned.  What is the purpose behind the cycle of getting up, brushing your teeth, grabbing a bite to eat and rushing off to work 5 (or 6 or 7) days a week?  Dave is not alone in his wondering. 

Let’s be honest and confess that most of us unintentionally live a life of conformity and compliance.  We didn’t necessarily choose it; it’s more like it chose us.  Going to school, graduating, and entering the workforce seemed like the only path to follow, and yet after years of walking this path we’ve discovered that this journey is not all that life-giving.  Where’s the joy?  Where’s the significance?  Where’s the sense of transcendence?  What we find after traveling this path for any considerable length of time is that the path is very much life-taking, not life-giving, which helps us understand why Mark Twain quipped what he did.     

The reality highlighted by Ants Marching is that as much as we want to live a different life, we find it incredibly hard to do so.  It’s as if a resistance exists in each of our lives, one that influences our daily habits and routines, squelching our dreams and ambitions for the life we could have and desperately want, leaving us to long for “someday” but someday never comes.  On the surface, this resistance appears to be external.  For some, the resistance appears to be an overly-demanding job.  For others, it appears to be an addiction.  And for others, the resistance appears to be a past experience that just won’t release its claws.

So while upon first glance the resistance seems to be “out there” or “back then”, the truth is that the resistance is really within us, right here, right now.  This internal resistance is what keeps us up at night or turns our stomach when entering a meeting.  It’s what prevents us from leaving harmful and destructive habits and relationships and yet it's the same thing that makes us run away from those we love (and who love us). Essentially, the resistance is the thing that ties a leash around our necks to keep us from stepping outside the perceived lines of life. In Ants Marching, Dave sings pointedly about the various effects the resistance has on us, such as:

• driving us into a monotonous life of numbing and unfulfilling work
• allowing conflict to fester and isolate us from our most treasured relationships, and
• never fully realizing or even attempting to pursue our dreams and ambitions. 

The truth is that the resistance is quite subtle but very powerful, and until we identify the resistance in our own lives, it will continue to have a stranglehold on the good life we are created to live. How would you describe the resistance in your life? What form has it taken and what effect has it had on you?

Intro to the Gospel according to Dave Matthews Band

I remember as if it was yesterday. It was Friday afternoon. Classes had wrapped up for the week and I was sitting around the dorm with my two roommates and a few other friends. Amidst the celebration of making it through another week of college life one of my roommates, nicknamed Bus, pulled out a CD (yes, a Compact Disc. Remember that ancient piece of technology?).

“You guys have GOT to hear this new band” Bus announced to us all. Upon hitting the play button the sound of what I thought was a clock ticking started pulsating through the speakers. Tap.......tap…….tap…….tap. After several taps I started to wonder if Bus had gone off the deep end. What did he find so inspiring about this tapping that he wanted to share it with all of us? It sounded like a leaky faucet! Yet there he stood, eyes closed, fist raised in the air as if he was jamming on his very own snare drum 6 inches above his head, when suddenly a deluge of harmony and rhythm poured out into the room unlike anything I had heard before. The blend of crisp violin strings with the savory staccato of the saxophone grabbed hold of me and from that moment on I was forever hooked on what I soon learned was the music of the Dave Matthews Band.

Over the years, I’ve taken in as much as I possibly can of the Dave Matthews Band, or DMB. From their recorded music and live concerts to their charity work all around the world I’ve been enthralled with the depth of creativity and generosity flowing out of this small group of talented musicians. And over the years I’ve come to believe that Dave and his band are striving for more than to be extremely successful musicians, which they are. Beyond achieving musical and financial success, it seems to me that DMB is pursuing something larger than themselves, something that points beyond them and their music to the way the entire universe is meant to be, a different reality than the one we tread through day in and day out, a reality filled with compassion, forgiveness, justice, beauty, truth, peace, hope, and love.

Whenever I listen to DMB, the various aspects of this alternative reality sink into my brain, into my heart, and into my soul. Or perhaps those aspects are already there, it’s just that DMB’s music does something to awaken them inside me. And when I reflect long enough to articulate exactly what I’m feeling, I can’t help but think that the alternative reality DMB is after is the same alternative reality that Jesus lived and taught two thousand years ago.

Jesus called this alternative reality the “Kingdom of God” or the “Kingdom of Heaven” as a way to describe the present rule and reign of God. According to Jesus, the Kingdom is a reality that is here and now, and one’s inclusion in it is not determined by one’s social status or ethnicity or even good deeds. It’s like the Kingdom is a condition of one’s heart more than a geographical location.

For many who heard Jesus teach about the Kingdom, they received his message as good news because it brought about healing and liberation in their lives and, in turn, the world. In fact, one of the people who wrote about Jesus’ life (Mark) called the life and message of Jesus the “good news”, which is translated “gospel” in English. So Jesus both lived and taught the good news/gospel and his life and teachings have since become known as the good news/gospel for the world.

I was introduced to Jesus at a fairly young age and ever since then I have been fascinated with him and his teachings. I’ve always wondered that if Jesus is indeed the good news for us and the world and if his message has something to say to us all today, then shouldn’t the world be on track for becoming a better place for all to live rather than one that's worse? Shouldn’t we be experiencing more peace rather than more war? Shouldn’t there be less homelessness and starvation in the world? Shouldn’t there be less slavery today than there was a hundred years ago? Shouldn’t more and more of our environment become beautiful each and every day?

It’s these issues that get under Jesus’ skin and it’s these issues that DMB seems to care deeply about, which comes through loud and clear in both their music and their work. Perhaps they wouldn’t say it this way, but DMB seems to be fascinated with the good news of Jesus, just as I am, and perhaps you are too.

In the weeks ahead I’ll be posting my thoughts on where I see the gospel of Jesus coming through the music of DMB. This endeavor is sure to spark some intriguing conversations and I would greatly enjoy hearing what you have to say, so feel free to follow along and even leave a comment or question to push the conversation forward.  Enjoy!