Thinking of Easter Song and the bells got me thinking about Keith Green and the songs that he sang, in general. Keith Green’s theology came out of the old Pentecostal Holiness tradition. Many forget that the early Jesus People movement was not simply reacting against what they saw as sterility in worship and/or dress, but to sterility in the Christian life. In fact, it is hard to call it a movement at its beginnings, because it had many beginnings. The Jesus People movement exemplifies as much as anything else I have seen in my lifetime, an untameable explosion of the Holy Spirit, which led to much good fruit at that time. It critiqued the Church and called it to account for its sterility.
Many of the songs that Keith Green sang were actually songs that called to account. He did also write worship and rejoicing songs and songs of personal salvation, of course, but one has to look at some of his “prophetic” songs to realize just how much Keith Green was reacting against a sterile certainty in the Christianity of that time that allowed people to attend worship while blinding their eyes to those around them and their needs. One of his strongest calls against that type of thinking was his song, “To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice.” The lyrics say:
To obey is better than sacrifice
I don’t need your money
I want your life
And I hear you say that I’m coming back soon
But you act like I’ll never returnWell you speak of grace and my love so sweet
How you thrive on milk, but reject My meat
And I can’t help weeping of how it will be
If you keep on ignoring My words
Well you pray to prosper and succeed
But your flesh is something I just can’t feedTo obey is better than sacrifice
I want more than Sunday and Wednesday nights
Cause if you can’t come to Me every day
Then don’t bother coming at all
La,la,la etc.To obey is better than sacrifice
I want hearts of fire
Not your prayers of ice
And I’m coming quickly
To give back to you
According to what you have done
According to what you have done
According to what you have done
The final words are what clearly place Keith Green in the Pentecostal Holiness tradition. “To give back to you according to what you have done.” Though Keith Green had an assurance of God’s love that would get him through anything that life would throw at him, yet he had the Pentecostal’s (and Orthodox) appreciation that we are saved unto obedience not simply unto worship and prayer. Both the Holiness people and the Orthodox insist that your behavior, your works also matter, and that obedience is a choice. That is, sing “Awesome God” all you want. If you are Orthodox, attend Great Vespers, Orthros (Matins), and the Divine Liturgy. Throw in a mid-week meeting. But, obedience is better than sacrifice. Keith Green correctly reflects the Fathers on this. It is a good thing to attend worship and be in the presence of God. But, to obey is better than sacrifice. That has not changed from the Old Testament until now.
“For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.”
They also will answer, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?”
He will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”
I love Keith Green’s music! He said it like it is…. plain and simple. A true prophetic voice.
To obey as and within Worship is ultimately, to sacrifice. Self-sacrifice.
It’s to choose the Lord over oneself. It’s to choose Worship over the seemingly endless amount of things the world will tempt the “self” to do…other than Worship. Externally and Internally.
Divine Worship and the Liturgy is self-sacrifice at it’s purest form. They go hand and hand. One cannot “claim”obedience without self-sacrifice and vice a versa.
…and for one to “claim” as their own has choosen their reward, here and now. It’s a way of being in and through the Lord, not something that is necessarily understood in discussion.
Remember that “to obey is better than sacrifice” is a phrase that comes from the Scriptures. And it is Our Lord himself who says that at the judgment those who have not been involved with the sick, those in prison, etc., will end up in problems. While there is indeed the “sacrifice of praise” that comes from our lips and that it is indeed a sacrifice of our personal time and preferences, nevertheless the point of St. Matthew 24 is precisely that attending the Divine Liturgy, by itself, is not all that God requires of us.
I heard his music when I was a new baby Christian born again in 1978… His songs Pierce my heart and soul today…
Both Catholic and Orthodox people think that scripture ought not to be “self interpreted” but they seem to interpret scripture all the time and in varying ways. Take the Genesis account for example, you have priests saying all sorts of things about Genesis.
This is why I can’t really take churches seriously.
I would assume that since your comment does not actually pertain to the post, that you are engaging in just a bit of trolling. If you wish, I can write an article on “self-interpreted.” If you are willing to engage in discussion, then we can do it in that venue, or in the context of a theme on which you wish me to write so that you can comment.
Uh, I’m posting a thought. I’m not trying to trigger people are start a quarrel. Keith Green was influential and I care a lot about how he tacked the high church, though it be Western.
Don’t bother making a post if you’re going to call that musing trolling.