THE TOTEMIZATION OF JESUS

(link to audio sermon) - for November 29, 2004 but posted on December 4, 2004
[Yahweh playing on Archos]
Because I was a little late getting to church, I ended up sitting near the front. Particularly in a movie theathre this isn’t always the most desirable. But one actually doesn’t realize what a different perspective that one misses when up that close. Certainly, when just strictly there to watch a movie, one does have to crank their neck in order to see the centre of the screen, and I had to do some of that today for the message. However, the other the experience of the other elements was quite cool being that up close. Here are some things that I noticed:

- I could feel the kick drum, an experience that can only happen when one is within 20 feet of the bass drum; otherwise, you get the artificial thud reproduction of it through the sub, speaking of which..
- I got to see where the subwoofer was placed; not a very big one but placed very discretely at the foot of the stage; generally the incline of the auditorium seats hides this box from most view
- The electric guitar today was playing a Gibson (I could only have guess if I was sitting where I normally sit) and he was pumping it through quite a nice Mesa/Boogie head/cabinet setup; again, being able to here the sound directly from the cabinet is much more gratifying than hearing it muddied in the mix through the mains
- During one song, the drummer was using an egg shaker; he didn’t have any overheads over his kit, so I totally would have missed that if I was sitting back
- It’s very loud sitting this close, which forces one to sing louder; I’ve always had a more uplifting experience whenever I could just belt out my singing; of course, when you’re sitting further back, loud bellowing would just stick out or be met with a lot of strange, disapproving looks – so that was definitely cool to be able to sing that intensely

Yes, my neck is a little sore from having to turn my head to see the screen properly for the message, but this wasn’t an issue during the worship, as we were standing up. Yes, I’m probably very geeky for being excited over such things, but it’s more of having this different perspective, which absolutely enhanced my worship today. Which was a really good sermon today (not heart stabbing like last week’s, but definitely very meaningful). At some point, I’ll link this blog to the sermon.