Soft Edges

"Soft edges" is a feature on one of my computer programs I use. With a few clicks of the mouse photos can be edited to look like a real professional had produced the work. In my opinion the "soft edges" makes for a more attractive presentation.

While driving home from this morning’s errands, I was reminded of "soft edges." As my little Ford pick-up used for errand-running bounced along the radio was tuned to a station that plays Christian "Golden Oldies." Anyone younger than 50 years-old wouldn’t even hesitate at the radio’s frequency. I listen to some great preachers, Erwin Lutzer, pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago, if the timing is right. After Dr. Lutzer signed off the sounds from a recording of a musical artist playing a pipe organ filled my truck’s cab.

The speakers aren’t too good and the sound bounced around for a few seconds before I was able to identify the melodies. I knew the tunes, but they were tucked far away in the recesses of my memory. The first tune in the medley was "Stand up for Jesus." It must be at least twenty years or more since I heard the tune, 30 years since I sang the lyrics. Peddlers of political correctness would never allow something so edgy to sneak into the contemporary church’s repertoire. "What would people who have never been to our church think?" Could they wrap their minds around such demanding orders?
Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross;
Lift high His royal banner, it must not suffer loss.
From victory unto victory His army shall He lead,
Till every foe is vanquished, and Christ is Lord indeed.
Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the solemn watchword hear;
If while ye sleep He suffers, away with shame and fear;
Where’er ye meet with evil, within you or without,
Charge for the God of battles, and put the foe to rout.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the trumpet call obey;
Forth to the mighty conflict, in this His glorious day.
Ye that are brave now serve Him against unnumbered foes;
Let courage rise with danger, and strength to strength oppose.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus, stand in His strength alone;
The arm of flesh will fail you, ye dare not trust your own.
Put on the Gospel armor, each piece put on with prayer;
Where duty calls or danger, be never wanting there.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the strife will not be long;
This day the noise of battle, the next the victor’s song.
To those who vanquish evil a crown of life shall be;
They with the King of Glory shall reign eternally.
Militancy is passe, unless one is motivated by right wing ideology. Being well prepared and engaged in spiritual conflict has been moved just outside the viewable Gospel picture presented. Has the message been "soft edged" a bit too much? "Till every foe is vanquished," is as quaint as a visit to an apothecary!

The second tune in the medley is filed in the basements of musical museums, well out of hearing range. It is less familiar than Sousa’s "Stars and Stripes Forever," in a White House gala which features raucous rock themes. The organist segued into "Onward Christian Soldiers!" Of all the audacity, a suggestion of military-like preparation for the most demanding vocation in life!

Some of my readers may have a hard time relating to the martial theme and hard-edged call to action.
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
with the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
forward into battle see his banners go!
Refrain:
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
with the cross of Jesus going on before.

At the sign of triumph Satan's host doth flee;
on then, Christian soldiers, on to victory!
Hell's foundations quiver at the shout of praise;
brothers, lift your voices, loud your anthems raise.

Like a mighty army moves the church of God;
brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod.
We are not divided, all one body we,
one in hope and doctrine, one in charity.

Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane,
but the church of Jesus constant will remain.
Gates of hell can never gainst that church prevail;
we have Christ's own promise, and that cannot fail.

Onward then, ye people, join our happy throng,
blend with ours your voices in the triumph song.
Glory, laud, and honor unto Christ the King,
this through countless ages men and angels sing.
Think of the hard edges of "Marching off to war!" Or, "Hell’s foundations quiver," and "One in faith and doctrine" have to be at the very top of soft-edged relevancy’s list of "no-nos!"

Saint Peter apparently didn’t know how to create "soft edges." After spending an evening in jail and being threatened by the religious establishment, Peter’s filled-with-the-Holy-Spirit, hard-edged response was, "Rulers and elders of the people!
⁹ If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, ¹⁰ then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. ¹¹ He is "'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone'. ¹² Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

Thomas Carlyle believed that people become what they sing. Generic, "soft-edged," lyrics touting a nameless god (Every culture has at least one god.) may generate warm, nonthreatening responses, but the Name of Jesus presented as the only Name that saves has a very hard edge.