The Saving One -- Tim Neufeld, Jon Neufeld, Mia Fieldes

 

They call themselves Starfield, so you might assume that this indicates they want the fans, the ones who attend their concerts and-or listen to the music they make, to look upward toward heaven and where the One about whom they sing is watching. And that sense of their mission is reflected in what they have to say about “The Saving One”, that they are signposts for Him. Tim and Jon Neufeld (founding members of the Starfield band), with probably eager agreement by their collaborator, Mia Fieldes, say that they are worship leaders, pointing people to Jesus and not to themselves, though culture tries to lift up the people who are on stage singing. (Indeed, He’s the one at the center of attention in this reproduction of the painting Ecco Homo (Behold the Man!), by 19^th Century artist Antonio Ciseri, which depicts Jesus preparing to offer Himself as a sacrifice when Pilate asked the rabid crowd what should be done with Him.) The song that Tim, Jon, and Mia wrote was released in Feb 2010, but what they voice in it has been around for centuries. And yet it still needs to be said, because everyone will be heading for a forever place, eventually.

 

The Neufelds are from a small church in Winnipeg, Canada, carrying a big message that they themselves and those who’ve watched them perform say begins and ends with the One about whom they sing. They haven’t spelled out in detail why they wrote ‘The Saving One’, but they really don’t need to do so. In an interview they gave, Tim made it clear that they exist to direct attention to the person who’s the focus of their music: Jesus Christ. That part of themselves in their worship direction is also evident to others, including a reviewer of the album that the song title headlines. They don’t suspend their message by telling only about what Jesus did, but they also want to challenge believers to live like they mean it, to insert themselves into daily living with a purpose. And so, the lyrics of the song state with conviction what the God-Son did, inviting us who believe to also be unequivocal about life through Him. He is synonymous with words they sing, like ‘mercy’, ‘selflessness’, ‘peace’, ‘pardon’, ‘rescue(d)’, ‘bounty’, ‘love’ and ‘glory’. That these contrast so radically from the lyrics that tell of humans without Him – like ‘shame’, ‘slavery’, ‘sin’, ‘grave’, ‘fear’, and ‘darkness’ – is their point. It’s as if they are saying ‘look at the chasm that He’s bridged!’ So, when this group sings ‘Heaven can’t contain…’ Him, what they are suggesting, without explicitly saying so, is that His life and sacrifice for humanity isn’t just for us to applaud because heaven is our future home. We can lift up what He did, who He is, and what that means for us now, while we’re still unglorified mortals. ‘I am redeemed’, they sing, and ‘the grave is overcome’ even before I enter it. That’s a proclamation we who are saved should be wearing on our faces and in our attitudes, so that others can hear about death being defeated, the darkness overshadowed by joy, the fear that is cast out, and ‘the enemy (who is) destroyed’. Who wouldn’t want to be on the winning side in this kind of episode?   

 

Are others not listening, or are we saying too little about what Starfield and the Neufelds have emphasized in ‘The Saving One’? Perhaps it’s a bit of both. There is so much to distract here on planet Earth; even the God-Son saw this phenomenon exert itself right in front of Him, including among those who’d been His most ardent followers. It’s just that the non-believers have travelled further along the path away from Him for longer than those who truly believe Him. But, I have to say that it is not easy some days, even for me as a Jesus-follower. How many emails do I get daily, how many bills must I manage and pay, how many tasks on my calendar? These are just a few. Are you and I really that different? If it’s overpowering some days, just turn it all off, at least for a few moments, and turn on what Tim, Jon, and Mia are saying. The biggest issue for me is one that He’s already solved.     

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=costCQfWZa0 (see the comment at the 3:50 – 4:20 mark)

 

See some comments about the band’s style and purpose when they perform in concert:  https://www.indievisionmusic.com/reviews/starfield-the-saving-one/

 

Read about the musical group that the two principal composers are in here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfield_(band)

 

See information on the image here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ecce_homo_by_Antonio_Ciseri_(1).jpg …The author died in 1891, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1930. The image may be found within this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus

The Power of Your Name -- Lincoln Brewster and Mia Fieldes

 

What they wanted to see was a heartbeat. Lincoln Brewster tells in his remembrance of the development of “The Power of Your Name” that he and Mia Fieldes wanted there to be something of heart in the song in 2008. So, Lincoln actually recorded his son’s heartbeat before he was born, so that it could be inserted as a rhythmic reminder in the song’s recording. What he saw that day in the doctor’s office was probably what you’ve probably seen if you’ve ever had your heart monitored, or have seen a TV show about doctors and hospitals: what’s known as an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) (see the diagram here of one). Lincoln and Mia really wanted to inject Jesus’ ‘kingdom come’ prayer into their musical effort, to make plain from the lyrics’ first few lines that life as God values it is something we cannot ignore when we see how He approached people with compassion. He made us all to reflect Him, so how does it feel for us to see some people in desperate straits, those people to whom social injustice is a daily reality? Lincoln and Mia offer something that is a prayer that we could say every morning, as we contemplate how our days should unfold.   

 

The purpose of the Lincoln-Mia composition was to spur its hearers to deal with social injustice, to see people in the church ‘take a stand’ and make social injustice something that is resisted and reversed. The in-the-womb heartbeat was Lincoln’s way of inserting some special and intimate feeling from himself and his family into the song, and to say in an audible way that every person is a life that is unique and valuable, particularly to God, even before any of us were born. God has conceived what the life of each human will mean on this earth, so Christians who believe and live life at His direction will try to make certain others’ lives are not demeaned, but rather counted as precious and meaningful. To have the opportunity to live and experience life as God intended is what Lincoln and Mia felt was the message of the song they co-wrote. That means especially, as Lincoln shared in a video message, that God-followers should make sure they pursue life-affirming actions outside of the church buildings where they mouth belief in His way of life every Sunday. That means ‘comfort zone’ is excised from the people’s vocabulary, because so many people live in circumstances that are difficult, and which cannot be repaired easily. It’s hard work, and challenges will undoubtedly threaten the commitment of God’s people to endure in His work to make social justice a reality, and not just an aspiration. I should take the words and phrases that Lincoln and Mia have put to music – like ‘compassion’ that is expressed explicitly (in the chorus) and otherwise in many other words -- and internalize them. That would be the way to make ‘the power of (His) name’ consequential.

 

It really needs to be ‘in my heart’, as the words of Lincoln and Mia say at the end of verse two. If I really intellectually accept that Jesus’ Matthew 6/Luke 11 prayer is an action plan, then I will seek out ways to make His kingdom more real to the hurting. You don’t have to look very far to find opportunities to make social justice yours and my way of life, and there are literally hundreds of ways to do this. The first few words of the Lincoln-Mia song use the phrase ‘made for the streets’ to admit that some children are actually in that condition -- a place where far too many homeless find themselves, including in very prosperous nations and poorer ones too. I cannot help every child in the streets, but there is a group that does help give kids like this a brighter future in Nairobi, Kenya. It’s called Made in the Streets (see a link to it below), and is just one that you can join. Just listen, see, and have a heart.     

 

See the song story told here: the power of your name brewster fields lyrics - Search

 

Read about one way to change the lives of children in one social justice effort in Kenya here: MADE IN THE STREETS | Serving street-connected youth in Kenya

 

See information on the heartbeat image here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SinusRhythmLabels.svg ... Re: the copyright the following statement is associated with the image: I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so: I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

Christ Is Risen -- Matt Maher and Mia Fieldes

 

It might have been an Easter Sunday, but as easily could have been any Sunday that helped Matt Maher and Mia Fields generate a song that proclaims “Christ Is Risen”. But since the song was inspired by a 3^rd Century sermon by John Chrysostom (see image of this Archbishop of Constantinople here), which was prepared for an Easter celebration, we can feel certain that Matt and Mia were also focused on Easter, even if the premier of the song did not actually fall on that day in 2009 when this contemporary hymn was introduced. Matt relates that this was an extraordinary sermon, not necessarily because of the preacher’s skill, but instead because of the great truths he communicated that day. And so, this 21^st Century music-writing pair wanted to echo what John had said some 18 centuries earlier. One doesn’t need to embellish the events to underscore the gravity of what Jesus accomplished. Instead, Matt and Mia seem to want us to revel in what happened to Him. Experience the overflowing joy, while gathered with the church, that we will all one day heed His call to mimic this resurrection.  

 

Matt relates (see video link below, in which he talks about the song’s meaning) that his ancient brother’s words said much to encourage the believer, including that Jesus used ‘death to destroy death’; that ‘Hell was fooled when it swallowed Jesus’ – it thought it had a mere man, but instead ‘encountered God’. Hell ‘took in earth and encountered heaven’. And so, there are echoes of these stunning realities in the words that Matt and his collaborator Mia have composed, including the defeat of death’s sting that the Apostle Paul used in his own words (1 Corinthians 15: 54-55, which were, in fact, echoes of what Isaiah [25:8] and Hosea [13:14] said, centuries before him). And, by accessing a 3^rd Century sermon to spur their own lyrics, Matt and Mia have reminded today’s Christ followers that we can celebrate now, but also be struck that we’ll one day rejoice with those of John’s era – in fact all of the saved from all time. ‘Come and rise up from the grave’ is a refrain that is paired with the words ‘Come awake!’ throughout the song, as if we who are still alive are calling out to those who’ve gone on before us; or, maybe we’re all just previewing words that we will long to hear in our own futures – words that Jesus will proclaim in a loud voice, and which no one will be able to resist. When one ponders that all of the human race, from all the millennia that will have lived by Judgement Day, will be there to ‘come awake’, is a ‘Wow!’ really sufficient to express what we’ll all be experiencing? Matt says that the thoughts of Easter cannot be limited to just that particular Sunday, but that all Sundays are opportunities – mini-Easters – for the church to gather and remind each other of this hub of our faith. Indeed, the potency of Easter is so great, that it cannot, and should not be confined to one Lord’s Day of the year.

 

If Matt and Mia have it correct, perhaps we should be singing Easter-like songs every Sunday! (And, in fact, I think we do where I worship – how about you?) But, just on Sundays? No, every day of the year, even 24/7 would probably not be really enough to tell how important this Christ-rising actually is. One cannot get in touch with this completely until one approaches his own crossing over. Funerals have a unique way of bringing me as a mortal to this unavoidable reality, and they happen to take place on all kinds of days of the year, not just on Sundays. So, if death invades my existence on whatever days it wants to, I need Easter every day on the calendar to counter this. Keep a copy of an Easter song, like this one Matt and Mia have given, nearby. That’ll be my strategy, along with a bookmark to John Chrysostom’s words. As John said from Constantinople to complete his message all those years ago, For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first-fruits of them that have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.

 

See the song’s story here: Bing Videos

 

Read about the 3^rd Century church father here: John Chrysostom - Wikipedia

 

Read about the sermon that inspired the song here: Paschal Homily - Wikipedia

 

See information about the image here: File:Johnchrysostom.jpg - Wikimedia Commons …This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1929.