Build Your Kingdom Here -- Rend Collective Experiment

 

Northern Ireland…historically not really a place of peace, especially for those who’ve been around more than two or three decades (see one flag here, sometimes called the Ulster Banner, that is often used to publicly represent Northern Ireland). And could that have helped spur a group of young people at a church in the Bangor area (a part of the larger Belfast metropolitan area) to form and call themselves the Rend Collective Experiment (now known as the Rend Collective)? The band’s members tell of trying to ‘figure out life’ amid a palpable hostility from their surroundings toward the Christian hope they espoused when they formed in 2002-03, about ten years before “Build Your Kingdom Here” was written – something that you could interpret is rather like the band’s anthem response to their world. You might also guess that these ‘experimenters’ were reading of a powerful promise from one ancient writer, when you watch one of their music videos of the song. This underscores how they feel about their God, and what they yearn for Him to do where they live.

 

There is a story that the Rend Collective tells about what sparked ‘Build Your Kingdom”, and it apparently is available to those granted access to it (see the link below to a facebook page.) Without that, a researcher could alternately surmise what they were thinking via this 2012 song’s lyrics and by reading about their formation as a group. They quite candidly admit that they sought to counter their culture’s antipathy about Christianity with their music, hoping its message would act like a magnet for unbelievers. One of their videos contains the words of Isaiah (9:7), a prediction that one often hears around Christmastime – that He will bring a government committed to everlasting ‘peace’, implemented through ‘justice and righteousness’. So, what this group of over 15 people (it tours and records its songs with just six musicians) was aiming to do in 2002-03 was still on their minds ten years later. The poetry they crafted is rich in its passionate desire for his power to impact their world. And, it’s not just the words that demonstrate this appeal, but also the videos that reveal an energy among the group’s members that you can imagine is infectious. Words like ‘ablaze’ and ‘wildfire’ (v.1); and ‘hunger’, and ‘thirst’ (v.2); and ‘fire’ (chorus) inhabit their verses to attest to their fervent objective. This Isaiah message also must have helped stir the words about God’s character – that He has ‘power’ (vv.1,3), is ‘mighty’ (chorus), and has ‘strength’ (v.3). And yet, He is also One who defines ‘beauty’ and ‘love’ (v.3). The Rend people don’t call for God to intervene on His own, however, but with their active participation. They ask for ‘unveil(ing)’ and ‘invad(ing)’ by the Spirit, so that humanity will know its purpose (v.1); and they seem to expect that they will play the earthly role in helping the ‘hurt’, ‘sick’, and ‘poor’ (v.2). ‘We are your church’, they declare repeatedly. There’s more in their poetry, and when it’s fused with the vibrant energy they bring to the performance stage, you can imagine that onlookers would want more of a God they represent. This God is not here to spectate, and neither are the Rend Collective.

 

From where does the ‘Rend’ originate in the band’s name? Joel (2:13) and Isaiah (64:1) are two Old Testament prophets on whom they lean for their identity…they seek to be authentic, not showy, in ‘rending their hearts and not just their garments in worship’ (Joel); and they appeal to God to ‘rend the heavens’ and show His potency as the ultimate force in the universe (Isaiah). Thus, the Rend Collective wants to connect their own rending with His. They felt they were an experiment at first, as they tried to ‘figure out life’, which also seems to further bespeak of a genuine quality in the band’s nature – that they admit they haven’t got it all figured out. But, they seem to know where to look for the One who does. Do you?

 

See information about the source of the song here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Build_Your_Kingdom_Here

 

Read here about the band that wrote the song: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rend_Collective

 

Read some more about the band here: https://www.crossrhythms.co.uk/articles/music/Rend_Collective_Experiment_Bringing_a_fresh_approach_to_worship_music/38854/p1/

 

Facebook page that shares the story to those granted access: https://www.facebook.com/rendcollective/posts/the-story-behind-build-your-kingdom-here-httptcoscozl2i1g0/10151547692831832/

 

See this video for song’s performance and for scripture that band shared at end of song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcSWpVKKMcs

 

See a really spirited rendition of the song by the band here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbdJXKqVgtg

 

Information about the album on which the song appears: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homemade_Worship_by_Handmade_People

 

Read an interesting review of the song here: https://www.thebereantest.com/rend-collective-build-your-kingdom-here

You Have Been Good -- Twila Paris

 

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.” Then the very One who dismissed the compliment from a rich man told him that, besides keeping the commandments, he needed to part with his money (Mark 10:18-22; Luke 18:19-23). Oh, that one smarts, Jesus! Perhaps Twila Paris would have been caught off guard as much as the rest of us, when Jesus said these words. First, He says something puzzling, and then He issues a really challenging footnote for us followers. Nevertheless, you could imagine that Twila understood what Jesus was saying, when she declared that “You Have Been Good”, and that probably she would be as confident as the rest of us in picking out the Good versus the Evil in this 19^th Century work of art (The Temptation of Christ, by Ary Scheffer). In this artwork, Jesus is just beginning His earthly ministry when He confronted Satan (Matthew 4); Twila reminds us that all He accomplished after this wilderness clash with the enemy is why we now can say ‘Good’ when we call out to Him.

 

Twila Paris had been singing and worshipping the Good One for over 20 years when she penned ‘You Have Been Good’ around 1988. She was truly ‘Little Twila Paris’ when she’d first started singing as a youngster, all of seven years old, and so by the time she was 30, the faith with which she’d been raised was deep within her. You could guess that she thought this faith was worth spreading, for this song she wrote is part of the 1988 album named For Every Heart. What was motivating Twila in 1988, after she had already cut six albums, including five as an adult in the early to mid-1980s? Today, she’s written so many songs and produced so many albums, that maybe even Twila might not be able, with pinpoint accuracy, to remember what brought about her personal address to this Good God. But, the crucial part of this episode in the late 1980s was that she enumerated a number of good things in His relationship to us. Indeed ‘all generations’ can applaud His faithful goodness. His ’steadfast love and tender mercy’ are at the root of the ‘salvation’ He has purchased for each of us. Being ‘fed’ by Him and led by His ‘Spirit’ are the ways He continues to care for those He has called. And finally, Twila zeroes in on this God’s character, that this ‘Almighty’ is ‘unchanging’, ‘upright’, and ‘holy’. What could be better and more reassuring than following someone you’ve identified as perfect, and knowing that He’s not going to become anything else but the good that you’ve already learned to appreciate and trust? And so, Twila wasn’t really trying to offer a lot of deep theological rationale for sticking with Him. She just wanted to tell of her own feelings for Him after two-plus decades within His shadow.

 

It’s like a love song that Twila was singing to Him, when she offered up ‘You Have Been Good’.  A couple in love, when they make their vows at a wedding, really are saying that they want to grow old together when they promise to forsake others, and ‘till death do us part’. Have you ever wondered what would either party say during those nuptials if they could actually see each other’s visage 40-50 years hence? Wrinkles, extra weight, receding hairlines, bodies potentially weakened by disease – not a pretty physical picture, is it? Consider that our groom (spiritually speaking – Revelation 18 – 22) will not change, and that He’s looking at us (His bride) with a different set of glasses than you and I might use. Kinda seems like Twila was still, in her mind, standing at the altar with Him in 1988. Actually, let’s never leave that place and time!       

 

 

See here for information on the composer/author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twila_Paris

 

Read about the author here: Welcome To TwilaParis.com (archive.org)

 

You can find the reproduction of The Temptation of Christ here (source of picture -- Good and evil - Wikipedia)

Whom Shall I Fear (God of Angel Armies)--Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash, Scott Cash

 

Does a sleepless, middle-of-the-night prayer of desperation sound familiar to you? Have you ever looked with your bleary eyes out of a bedroom window, seen the moon (perhaps one that looked like this), and wondered if the Creator of the universe was really listening, that He might not intervene to rescue you? Chris Tomlin and his two friends, Ed Cash and Scott Cash, would raise their hands and say ‘yes’; but, they’d also follow up that first answer with their own question: “Whom Shall I Fear?” After all, once you have discovered that He’s the “God of Angel Armies”, any fear only threatens a person whose vision is restricted to the typical physical-visual evidence. Is a challenging present or an uncertain future your enemy, or is the One who holds both those time periods – and you and me, by the way – in His hands, greater than that which makes you so anxious? Turn that dim moon into bright sunlight, these song composers advise.

 

Chris Tomlin relates the story of ‘Whom Shall I Fear?’ in a video discussion (see the New Song Café link below), and in a Worship Leader article; it was a prayer of an urgent moment, around 2013. Chris says his friend Ed Cash called him in the dead of night, with a request that only a close friend can make of another at that hour: ‘I need prayer’, he uttered, or probably more accurately, he and his wife needed Chris’ prayer on their behalf. Lots of anxiety had backed up on them, making rest impossible. So, what do musicians do in such a circumstance? They pick up their guitars and start talking to the One above as their fingers wander over the strings. Neither Chris nor Ed understand how the chorus tune thus emerged – it just did. They remember that it was also true that a story of an ancient prophet named Elisha had given them much-needed strength as they considered the situation. This prophet reassured his servant (2 Kings 6) that his fear was because he couldn’t see what was really going on. An enemy, perceptible to everyone who looked about themselves using the normal visual spectrum, had them surrounded. But, Elisha prayed his own prayer, asking God to open the eyes of the servant so that he’d see the Lord’s army of horses and chariots of fire, poised for battle in the hills. Elisha utters two other prayers in the succeeding episode, which the Lord also answers to provide protection and victory. But, it’s really the first of Elisha’s three prayers that Tomlin and the Cashes use to great effect. See that angel army, and be confident that He’s not content to stand by and watch His people suffer. Chris says fear is really the enemy (a la what a president once said), and not what the people of God are about. Instead, people of faith in Him should speak hope to a world filled with worry – about the future, unsteady finances and relationships, emotional and physical maladies, and really everything. So, take a page out of Elisha’s playbook – pray to Him for true sight.

 

Has it ever occurred to believers that even Jesus was not immune to the effects of worry? In the garden, anticipating what was to come, Jesus prayed and sweat poured off of Him like never before (Luke 22:41-43). But, He didn’t remain in that state…He prayed, as every account of that time tells us (Matthew, Mark, and John also). And, from that point on, after praying three times, his demeanor was one of stoic resolve, even while knowing what was coming.  And, an intervening angel strengthened Him (Luke 22:43); a short time later, He said many more could have come if He’d needed them (vv.52-54). Another episode versus the devil likewise showed Jesus could count on angels, if necessary (Matthew 4:11). Jesus had contact with His Father. And, you and I have contacted Him. Is this equation too hard to follow, to see where it leads? How’s your eyesight now?

 

See the following site, which indicates the three songwriters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whom_Shall_I_Fear_(God_of_Angel_Armies)

 

See the site here for details on song’s development: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/chris-tomlin/whom-shall-i-fear-god-of-angel-armies

 

See here a video (New Song Café) in which one of the songwriters explains the song story: https://www.worshiptogether.com/songs/whom-shall-i-fear-chris-tomlin/