What Stands When Everything Shakes
Think back to 1991, if you can. Without looking it up, could you say what song is number one on the top one hundred list for the year? Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” is on the list. Is it number one? “Losing My Religion” by REM was very popular that year, and I still hear that played on the radio today. It’s a really great song. “Gonna Make You Sweat” (aka “Everybody Dance Now”) was incredibly popular even into the next decade. I remember growing up hearing the opening lines from that song enough that it became a meme. Some heavy hitters were making music at the time: Amy Grant, U2, Mariah Carey, Guns and Roses, and more. Metallica made the list with their iconic song “Enter Sandman.” Was this the year that the metalheads got mainstream enough to take the top spot? So, which of these songs was number one, or was it a different song altogether?
As you can probably predict by how these things go, none of these songs were the top. The actual top spot belongs to “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” a power ballad by Bryan Adams, written for the Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves soundtrack. I hardly even remember that song in the movie, and I actually like that movie. Can you remember the last time you listened to “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You”? It’s not a bad song, but it didn’t have the staying power of the other songs on the list. Nevertheless, in 1991, it was America’s favorite song.
People often look back at music from thirty years ago and complain about how music today just can’t compare. Thirty years ago, every band had great songs with great lyrics, interesting chord progressions, and creative melodies. Back in the day, people were actually good musicians. Now all the skill that characterized music has been replaced by studios overproducing songs until nothing is left of the human character. Of course, thirty years ago, people were dreaming about the quality of music thirty years before, and so on for as long as we can remember. Music historians have documents written by late Medieval or early Renaissance music critics arguing that the new music being produced lacked the quality and character of music of the previous generation. Some things never change. The wheel of the nostalgia cycle keeps spinning faithfully.
The problem that we have when looking back with rose-tinted glasses on the past is that we don’t remember how much of the art at that time was forgettable. Some people call this phenomenon “the sieve of history.” As time passes, we forget most of the cheap, low-quality productions. Sometimes we even cut out things of substantial quality simply because, as a society, we become overwhelmed with too much art. Shakespeare wasn’t the only great playwright in history, but you’re not likely to see even some of Shakespeare’s less popular plays being studied in a high school literature class, let alone the plays of Becket, Moliere, or any of the ancient Greeks. As time passes, each era gets simplified. Mozart comes to exemplify the Classical era, and we forget about Antonio Salieri and Joseph Bologne.
The sieve of history cuts through the past and passes us only what we most cherish. Looking at the unfiltered mess of today, we can easily find things to complain about. There has been no time to clean. The creative, virtuosic projects of today are lost in a mess of work that will eventually be strained out. Today isn’t worse than any other period. History just hasn’t sorted it yet.
Hebrews 12 talks about everything being shaken, and the kingdom of God being unshakable. Everything else that we take for granted will pass away when God reforms the world. A greater version of the sieve of history will filter out not only music and plays but entire systems and structures. In the new world God establishes at the end of the age, we should probably not expect to find wealth inequality, racism, exploitation, deception, discrimination, and disregard for others and the well being of the world. The political and economic systems that result in the poor being crushed and pushed away from those who take all power for themselves will not survive the sieve of the kingdom. Though the world may be filled with such a mess in this present age that it is hard to tell what God wants and where God is at work, in the future things will be cleaner. All the junk and debris will be removed. All that will remain is what God intends.
As we cling to the brighter vision of the kingdom in faith, we may be able to apply the sieve of the kingdom to our lives. There are many methods of determining what the right thing to do is. Should we consider how many people will benefit or suffer from a decision? Should we consider how this impacts our own personal moral standing regardless of the impact on others? Should we consider the value of personal virtue or a society that prizes virtue and live toward those virtues? Do we hold up freedom as the highest possible value and all our decisions should strive to support and defend it?
If all of those options aren’t enough to dazzle and confuse, I propose adding another one to the mix. We can make decisions both for our own personal lives and for how we want to structure society based on how it would pass through the sieve of the kingdom. Whatever characterizes the kingdom of God and would survive the great shaking should be cherished and defended above all. We must see the hungry fed, the afflicted comforted, the oppressed liberated, the sick healed, and the Gospel preached to those who most need it. A world in which none are poor and needy and no one suffers at the hands of another, is a world that has been shaken and emerged with God’s kingdom dominating the domain of sin, death, and evil.
By Christ’s righteousness, we may remain unshaken. With this confidence, we can commit ourselves to clinging to that which will not be shaken in this age, and letting the rest of the mess pass through the sieve and be lost to history.
