Derek Webb is at it again.

Remember back in ’06 when that dude went off the deep end and just started givin’ away his music? Yup – we got the entire Mockingbird album for as cheap as free. Webb is now involved in a similar gambit, and this time has several other artists along for the ride.

On NoiseTrade.com, you can download Webb’s album The Ringing Bell for free by spamming telling three friends about the site. Or you can “pay what you want” – and let the downloading fun begin.

I found the site a month ago, when Webb’s album was available along with one or two other unknowns. When I checked today, however, it seems the download options have expanded to over 25 artists, including well-known artists like Sandra McCracken, Waterdeep, and Sixpence None the Richer.  Looks like fair trade music is catching on. Take a look.

Well, I have finished up what I had proposed to do several months ago. I have thought through and posted commentary on Derek Webb’s album Mockingbird. It was a good exercise for me. As I already make an attempt to listen to lyrics in whatever song I am listening to, this discipline caused me to listen and interact with what was being said. It is easy to hear words and pasively listen. So much of our culture has been shaped by music, it is uncanny. If you look around at the trends in our society, I think you would probably see the music culture blazing the way with either songs or interviews with those artists.

Pertaining to our evangelical context, so much of the music is fluffy and light-hearted. It is like cotton-candy. It is bright and nutrition-less. Sugar no fiber. What I have appreicated about Webb’s music is that he does not shy away frmo difficult topics. He has jumped into the deep end of politics intersecting with theology. Unlike so much of our theology-less music you buy at your local Christian bookstore, next to the Precious Moments Bibles and Veggie Re-Interpretations, Webb has pressed on us and asked us to think about why wevote for who we vote for. It is one thing to be pro-life. It is another thing to know why you vote pro-life. So many have jumped on the bandwaghon because ti is the right thing to do. And it is! But they could not give two good swats at why it is wrong to abort a child. Unfortunately all of our John 3:16 posters will only strike out in the political circle.

On the whole, I really enjoyed Webb’s album. I did not feel like he was ever being a wanna-be prophet. Rather, he challenges us to THINK. Why is there so much confusion as to whether Creed or Lifehouse are ‘Christian’ bands. Could it be that our criteria for music is so low? That is, we hear someone mention “God” and we assume that they are a Christan band. Are we grasping at the wind so that we can be cool in the music arena. And when men like Webb push against the status quo we label him a blemish rather than a friend. At least his music is giving a message. Far from grunting and throwing in some ambiguous statements about eternity, Webb gets in your face and asks you to give a reason for the hope you have within you.

While I disagree with Webb’s proselytizing of pacifism, it is not without warrant. There have been plenty of theologians who have espoused such a view. The main argument I have against Webb’s pacifism is the fact that when Jesus taught his disciples to love their enemies, he was speaking to his disciples, and not the world’s discioples. When we are commanded to turn the other cheek in forgiveness, as a model of Christ who did not revile when he was reviled. One of the beauties of the Christian view of politics is that the government is a gift from God for the meting out of justice in a fallen world. If there were no retributive justice for those who raped, murdered, lied, etc., then the world would implode. The rod of the government is wielded for the protection of the righteous and punishment of the wicked – a foretaste of that glorious day when the saints will be vindicated.

When Webb says he will speak out against a rod not wielded well, he is right. However, governments that are capable will be held accountable for the sin they left unpunished. That’s right. Large, strong governments that look the other way when dictators’ sons rape and burn women will be held accountable for what they did not do. There will be a reckoning. I do believe on many levels that what has happened in the Middle East has been due to poor planning. I am sure that there was plenty of planning, but I don’t think there was planning in accordance to the territory that was invaded. That is, there was a misnuderstanding of Sunnis and Shias. That’s enough for now, I am trying to finish up my interaction with Mockingbird, not give a strategy for bringing about justice per se.

I continue to be amazed at Webb’s vulnerability on the mic. I am sure that even in his vulnerability about pride, he has to guard against the pride in being vulnerable. I know my own heart and am sure it is there for him as well as it would be for me. It is a struggle for those who are in the business of teaching God’s Word (and that is a role I think musicians are in) that sounding provocative and edgy can be a way of ponying up to our own pride and greed.

We are reminded by Webb that Christian love is naything but boring…it can be downright tantalizing.

We are challenged to live a consistent ethic of human life – a reference to a 30 second musical interlude I did not comment on until now. That is, we must be indicted for listening to sermons that give us ten ways to be a more successful Christian when there are ten chapters of Scripture we are ignoring. We will be held accountable for sitting in our newly renovated sanctuary while the inner sanctum of our lives is full of dead men’s bones. While we start the latest building campaign and there are poor men around the corner we are not reaching out to, we will be held to give a reason such oversight happened. May God help us to live such an ethic where the words we listen to and speak are overflows from our lives as a church and Christian.

The Full Series:

Mockingbird: The Album & A Dialogue
“Mockingbird”: A Dialogue
“A New Law”: A Dialogue
“A King & A Kingdom”: A Dialogue
“I Hate Everything But You”: A Dialgoue
“Rich Young Ruler”: A Dialogue
“My Enemies Are Men Like Me”: A Dialogue
“Zeros & Ones”: A Dialogue
“In God We Trust”: A Dialogue
“Please Before I Go”: A Dialogue
“Love Is Not Against the Law”: A Dialogue

This is a powerful song. We have just moved from the love expressed between mutual friends and lovers, and now we are in the harder place of loving our enemies. The main reason I am not a pacifist has to do wth my distinguishing between private and public life. While I know that you cannot separate the two – they will alwys be intermingled – we still need to distinguish between the cords that are tied together. Teh command that Jesus gave to his discples is that they love their enemies. When someone slaps you, you do not return in kind. You replace a curse with a blessing. This is the freedom the Christian has from the way the world operates. We are not slaves to avenge ourselves and our rights/rites. That’s right, I said ‘rites.’ As Christians we cannot expect to have our convictions embraced ni a culture that worships the creature. When we decry the injustices of being made fun of – some of it is rightly deserved mind you – we look more like a pagan than a Christ-follower. “Hey, you can’t do that to me.” Why not? How soon we have forgotten our Lord’s words when he told us that we will be persecuted. Paul’s words to Timothy, “All those who desire to live a godly life will undergo suffering.” The righteous shall enter the Kingdom of God through violence, that is as through fire. 

So we must have an uncomfortable tension. We do not rock the vote for a Christian nation. It will never happen this side of the consummation. Nor do we sit on our backsides talking about how awful the world is. We have to get our hands dirty if we are to be light in the darkness. We are going to have to get fleas when we play with the dogs. Who ever said that the most righteous thing was to be flea-free?   

 (vs. 1)
politics or love
can make you blind or make you see
make you a slave or make you free
but only one does it all
and it’s giving up your life
for the ones you hate the most
it’s giving them your gown
when they’ve taken your clothes
it’s learning to admit
when you’ve had a hand in setting them up
in knocking them down

(chorus)
love is not against the law
love is not against the law

The Church’s politics must be martked by love. However, we don’t turn a blind eye to sin. We shine light upon it and call people to repent – even as we kneel in repentance. Unfortunately love for man alone will set anyone free. It is love for God that will free men from sin. It is a dissatisfaction for the injustice that rides people’s backs. The last stanza, for me is the most convicting. How many times I am slow in admitting I am wrong or have had a hand in unrighteousness. The things that I have propagated the most may be the things that I am most unaware of. That is, as a middle class white man I have so much more privilege than a man or woman of another race. By virtue of my parents and circle of friends, I will not have to worry about things if my world crumbles. 
 
I am not advocating scoffing at said blessings. Rather, I thank the triune God for them.However, I am also sobered by the fact that I should give my unrighteous manna to those who are hungry. I Rather than being content with the obesity of blessing I find the blessing of the wealthy man who gave away twice of what he had taken. One of the things that we, the materially blessed ones, must remember is that everything we have received is a gift. We did not earn these things.

Whether we like to admit it or not, and it may make a puddle in your march to glory, we need to look out for those in need. Too mnay times we have bought into the lie that the government and social welfare is the replacement for the church. Instead, of just ladling soup and patting people on the back, we need to re-adjust our vision of ministry to the poor. We need to think through how we might be able to bless the poor.

(vs. 2)
are we defending life
when we just pick and choose
lives acceptable to lose
and which ones to defend
‘cause you cannot choose your friends
but you choose your enemies
and what if they were one
one and the same
could you find a way
to love them both the same
to give them your name
(chorus)

This ‘privilege’ is what Webb is keying on when he says we can’t choose our friends…But we choose our enemies everyday. On second thought, perhaps Webb is saying that all men are supposed to be our friends. In this way we cannot choose them.Either one works nicely. Too many times in the name of social justice for the unborn we have forgotten social justice for the less fortunate who have had their voices muted. That is, if both parties were pro-life it should be harder than we assume on who to vote for. What if the one issue were gone? How would you vote? Have you thought of all the implications of a libertine or minimal government? Do we blanket common grace on humanity without relaizing that without proper governors, the rich will eat the poor? Just questions…

But the Christian life is more than just pursuing social justice isn’t it? Isn’t it the ability to love the one who ignorantly hates you? Isn’t it being able to bless the cursing asses (for those who are taken back by my language, see Num 22.23-34). To give our name is to share with those around us that we have long looked past. It is breaking bread and calling our neighbor friend. It is sharing the Gospel with our neighbors intentionally so that they, too, will be called friends by our King Jesus.