Sound Theology by Colleen Butcher

Last week I encouraged you to think about immersion: being so engaged, enveloped, and engulfed in the song of Jesus-God-Spirit that everything you know and do echoes with the song of eternity.

Immersion is our reality. We are already embraced into the joyful, loving dance of the Trinity. Richard Rohr, in his weekly reflections on the Trinity, affirms this idea of immersion. “… Thomas Merton’s primary philosophy teacher, says he’s not sure if the human person can even legitimately be called a creation, because we are a continuance of, an emanation from, a “subsistent relation” with what we call Trinity. Wow! This is getting very wonderful and also very dangerous. He taught that the human person must see itself in continuity with God, and not a fully separate creation. We are “chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world” (see Ephesians 1:4).” read more…

iˈmərZHən, noun: the act of being so completely involved in something that you forget what it’s like to be outside of it.

You have heard the quip that a fish doesn’t know that it’s immersed in water, because it has never known anything else. This is often applied to culture: the social or business environment that we cannot clearly identify or extricate ourselves from because we are so intricately intertwined with it. read more…

Last week we considered the fact that Jesus is always surround sound. The foundational reason for this truth is because the Trinity is never a two-channel, dual sound, static experience. The continual movement, giving and receiving, and interaction of the Trinity among themselves and with creation, defines both the nature of the surround sound, and the specific sounds of each member. The three each contribute their own dynamic melodies and harmonies to the music, combining and enhancing the music of the others. In a similar manner, the surround sound speakers each project a specific combination of sounds that combine to create the multi-channel experience of 5.1 Dolby. read more…

You might be surprised to know that as early as the 1940’s, movie producers were talking about surround sound. The first feature-length movie to specifically use this “surround” technique was Walt Disney’s Fantasia, which used three speakers in front and two in the rear. The system was so expensive that only two theatres actually installed the required equipment: The Broadway Theatre in New York, and the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. Now, surround sound is ubiquitous – every movie goer is familiar with the rising pitch testing sound, proving that your movie is going to be using the latest and best technology! read more…

I’ve been thinking about the key of Jesus since I wrote about it here. If there is a “key of Jesus,” what does it sound like, and how do we listen for it? The music that flows from the Trinity and holds all creation together has many melodies: countless phrases and motifs that recur over and over. Being able to recognize these melodies takes practice. Practice involves different strategies at different times. An early strategy is the simple practice of repetition; listening consistently and repeatedly as an experienced guide points to the important melodies. As we become more familiar with the themes, the practice involves intentionally listening for the core melody’s variations. Variation is melody’s wardrobe: any color, fabric, shape, or style you can imagine can adorn the melody. When you can recognize variation, you begin to hear the connections that weave themselves throughout the music. Recognizing variation opens your listening to creativity that goes beyond the main themes to sense how phrases and motifs are transformed into new melodies.

Repetition, variation and transformation are foundational elements of the key of Jesus. Tuning in to Jesus is an adventure that always holds something surprising if you are listening well. Just like listening to this week’s Mahler Symphony – when you think you’ve consistently caught the falling “cuckoo” motif, suddenly there’s a variation and then a transformation, and the music takes a twist into uncharted territory. read more…