con ed clips - jeremy begbie

{UPDATE: I added two clips from Saturday morning}

I am attending a continuing education event in Grand Rapids, MI, entitled the Calvin Symposium on Christian Worship. One of the speakers was Dr. Jeremy Begbie, formerly a professor at Cambridge and now teaching at Duke Divinity School in the area of theology and the arts. I heard him some 10-12 years ago at my church in Lenoir and was thrilled to hear him again at the symposium.

He spoke Friday morning on the structure and nature of music as a metaphor for understanding God's revelation and redemptive history. Sometimes it makes sense in the moment; sometimes not. But there is always hope, for there are larger over-arching stories and a grand meta-narrative arching over all time and creation.

In this first clip, Begbie is speaking (sorry, very short clip) of the power of music to shape, move, and change us (and that before even considering words!). Likewise, God's Word and Spirit re-time and re-shape us.




The next clip is Jeremy playing a Schumann piano piece to illustrate all that he lectured about. There is no explanation in the clip - it's just a beautiful and poignant performance of this piece.




This is a clip of Jeremy's Saturday morning lecture, which was on our future being brought into our present through the work of the Holy Spirit. This clip is a segment about Jesus Christ as our "worship leader" - perfectly and eternally presenting redeemed humanity in his person before the throne of God. We (and our earthly worship) are united to Christ and that Heavenly worship through the work of the Holy Spirit. This also has the memorable line, "I wish for once there was a worship band with one ugly person... so I could relate."




Jeremy ended the Saturday presentation with an exceptional performance of a Bach violin piece arranged for piano. The performance is supposed to illustrate a number of the musical-themes-as-theological-metaphor of the two days of lecture. It also stands on its own as a memorable piano performance.



And yes, I sat VERY close to him. :)