Friday, March 9, 2012

Dry Bones: Gungor and Lenten Worship

Lisa Gungor, vocalist in the innovative and mystical band, Gungor, said in a recent interview with Relevant Magazine (Mar/Apr 2012):
"'The one place you should be able to come and be vulnerable is your community of faith and your friends. it should be family. And for some reason it turned into this thing where everybody's fine and shiny, so I think us looking face-to-fac e with the pain in our own lives and sharing that with our friends made us realize how this needs to be said in songs, this needs to be shared in worship.'" *

In a word- YES!

I have struggled in much the same way with the absence of lament and grief in contemporary Christian worship (at least the "industry" that it has become)...and Christian posture in general. In other words, despite the biblical witness' direct encounter with sorrow and distress, Christian culture tends to run from and ignore it.
And yet we cannot run from the season of Lent that forces us to embrace and confront these harsh realities.
And so does the entirety of Gungor's recent album, Ghosts Upon the Earth, which journeys through the biblical narrative and tackles these very raw experiences typical of the Christian story and life.

However, even before that, their song, "Dry Bones," from their album, Beautiful Things, does much the same:
"My soul cries out
My soul cries out for you
These bones cry out
These dry bones cry for you
To live and move
'Cause only You can raise the dead
Can lift my head up"
I am grateful for the contributions Gungor has made to modern "hymnals" utilized within contemporary worship. Their creative, honest, and thoughtful lyrics, accompanied by sheer brilliance and innovation in instrumental and vocal melodies, gives the Church fresh opportunities to journey through even faith's darkest moments.

This is precisely why "Dry Bones" is this week's pick for Modern Psalms for the Lenten Journey. Actually, their whole album, Ghosts Upon the Earth, made the list, too.



* To read the full article, "The Evolution of Gungor," subscribe to Relevant Magazine.