Song for My Family: Güngör as Modern Psalm for Lent

A few weeks ago, Michael Güngör led a few songs as closing set for The Justice Conference 2013. Most attendees were able to sing along with "Beautiful Things," a fresh reminder that a world flooded with injustice is also in the process of being made new. However, his opening ballad, "Song for My Family," was not as easily recognized. The closing track to The Michael Gungor Band's (now simply Güngör), Ancient Skies, was a provocative melody for all of us who were wrestling with the tension between what goes on within the walls of the church often at the expense of what is going on beyond the walls, in the real and broken world. (full lyrics here)

Please forgive our ignorance

In looking down on you

Please forgive our selfishness

For hiding in our pews while the world bleeds

While the world needs us to be what we should be

I could not help but add this older lyric to my 2013 Lenten playlist, a humble confession of the body of Christ's negligence and confusion in regards to where the concerns of the church really should hinge. It is reminiscent of both the prophet Amos and Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan.

Read Amos 5:21-24 and Luke 10:25-37

Thoughts to Ponder:

1. In what ways has the church, to include you as an individual, mistaken the things of the church for the mission of the church?

2. How would you respond to Güngör's charge to the church, "be what you should be?" What is the church called to be?

3. How have we been "hiding in pews while the world bleeds?" What does this mean for the church locally and globally?

4. How do both the prophetic words of Amos and the parable of Jesus in Luke pertain to this modern psalm by Güngör?

Close with a prayer of confession and invite God to confront you and call you to shift your eyes and ears to the concerns of your neighbors near and far.

Maybe invite those outside the walls of the church to participate within the walls.

Even better, go beyond the walls of your church and enter into community with your neighbors.

Consider what it would look like, and then embody it, to serve alongside the most vulnerable of your town, city, community, etc.

After all, we are all a part of the same human family.

 

Related Post: Dry Bones: Güngör and Lenten Worship

Also check out Homebrewed Christianity's Interview:

The Crowd, the Critic, and the Muse with Michael Gungor