Loving Wings (Dave Matthews Band)

Scripture Readings

WWTW- Me?

Finding God in the Music- My Favorite

As I mentioned, this year for Finding God in the Music, we’re sticking with J’s favorite bands, because I totally skipped them last year!

Each week I’ve preached, I’ve thought about opening the same way.

The Beatles! They’re my favorite band ever!

Death Cab for Cutie! They’re my favorite band ever!

Dave Matthews Band…they’re my favorite band ever!

They were among the first CDs I ever bought from one of those skeezy CD subscription services back in the day.

Their drummer, Carter Beuford, is the best drummer currently playing and I will hear absolutely no argument for anyone else.

He’s very much the reason that I got in to playing the drums, and if you ever listen to me play, I’m just a cheap facsimile of Carter.

And truth be told, there are a lot of songs that we could have picked from the DMB to look at how they point to God, but I’m going to go WAY off the beaten path for this first effort.

This is a song called Loving Wings.

They’ve never actually recorded this song, the only way you can find it is on live recordings.

In fact, the version I’m going to show you today includes the song itself, which is about 4 minutes long, and then I had to cut (no joke) 12 more minutes of jamming off the end of it.

(I’ll send you the link if you’re in to that kind of thing!)

But in this song, I really can’t tell who the audience of this song is.

On one hand, sure, it could be a cutesy little love song.

But there are a few lines in here that make me think Dave’s actually singing to someone else (point up)

Tell you what? You decide! Here’s Loving Wings by the Dave Matthews Band

Angels Getting Close

No matter who you think he’s singing to, there’s an element of this song that I absolutely love.

The Bands at RAGBRAI

Last week when I was on my bike trip called RAGBRAI, my friends and I agreed that it was really more of a state fair on wheels than it was a bike ride.

Every time we got to an over-night town, we would be greeted with vendors and food trucks and games and prizes.

And in most of those towns, there were a few stages with a few musicians.

And every now and again, there’d be a band so good that we would just have to stop whatever we were doing, sit down in the lawn, and listen for a while.

Have you ever had that experience?

Where something so outrageously beautiful, something so wonderfully good, just captures your attention to the point where you have to stop what you’re doing and listen in?

Angels Peering in to see what we’re up to?

In this song, that’s what Dave imagines the angels are doing for us.

Angels have all gathered ‘round, to hear me sing my love out loud.

Can you imagine?

Can you imagine the angels of heaven bending down toward earth because what they heard, the songs we sing those songs were so beautiful that the angels themselves just had to stop and take notice?

I love that image!

“Wow! Look what they’re up to down there!”

“Let’s stop and bask in it a little bit!”

But then the song that Dave sings, the one that they’ve gathered around to hear, has no words!

Woah woah woah woah…

It’s almost like those songs, the ones that are most beautiful, are sung with our lives.

Those are the songs of action.

Those are the songs of love in motion.

Those are the songs that make us say “How beautiful are the feet that bring this song to our ears!”

And so that kind of begs the question:

What would the angels hear us “singing?”

Would the angels hear us singing the song of good news? Or would we be overheard singing the song of judgement and condemnation?

Would the angels hear us singing the song of hope, or would they catch us singing a durge of pessimism?

Would they hear us singing a song that lifts up the least of these, or would they observe a song of pulling others down?

Would they hear us singing a song of love, or would hate be the tune in our mouths?

Would they hear us singing over a single mother in need of support and company, or would they hear the worn out tune of “pull yourself up by your bootstraps?”

Would they hear us singing a song of unity, or would they catch us singing a song that divides the culture into us versus them in an alarming number of ways?

Would they hear us singing the song of feeding the hungry, or would they discover a song where children go to bed with empty bellies?

Would they hear us singing songs over the incarcerated through our ministry efforts, or would they hear the deafening silence of our indifference?

Would the angels gather around to hear the song we’re singing about our nations politics, or would they like so many others rather change the channel?

Would they hear us proclaiming Christ’s message of grace and forgiveness and freedom, or would they hear us blasting our own noisy gong of moralism on our own terms?

Would they see us blessing our neighbors, those who actually live right next door to us, or would they hear us only through the headphones of our own isolation?

Would they pull up a chair to hear our love for the least of these? Or would they pull stakes and run at our own selfish ambition?

Would they recognize us, literally know us Christians by our love, or would they fail to recognize our cheap cover band of social clubs disguised as Christianity?

Would they hear the song of triumph of forgiven sinners, or would they hear a cacophany of self-loathing after every single mistake that we make?

Would they hear us confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, or would it be drown out by the noise of our actions?

Would they hear us believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead, or will they be repulsed by the toxicity our hearts hold on to from refusing to forgive?

The angels have all gathered ‘round my friends.

Are we singing our love out loud?

Beautiful Good News

None of this is to suggest that we have to sing any of those songs to earn our salvation.

Christ has (to use Dave Matthews image a little bit in the place of scripture, forgive me) already given us our loving wings.

You already have the grace you need to be saved.

You already have the love of Christ in your heart.

You already have the time honored story of God’s mercy and redemption.

It’s already yours.

You can’t earn what you already have.

But you sure can sing a song, or live a life, of celebration and gratitude for it all.

How beautiful it would be if we were the ones to bring that good news around the world.

What honor we would carry to be the reason someone who was hopeless came to find some hope because of the songs we are singing in this place.

What a privledge it would be to be able to use our resources to lift up the least of these so that they could sing their own songs of God’s provision through us.

You already have your loving wings.

God has already given you all the grace that you’ll ever need in this life.

What kind of song will the angels hear you singing?