While My Sitar Gently Smiles


Isaiah 44:3

Sing, O ye heavens, for Jehovah hath done it; shout, ye lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for Jehovah hath redeemed Jacob, and will glorify himself in Israel.

Saturday night I had the joy of being brought into a musical experience that was transcendent. Transcendent in a couple of ways. There was a distinctive presence of the holy (vertical) as well cross-cultural (horizontal). The band Aradhna was in Lancaster. Their music is a fusion of Eastern and Western. Most of us in the West, if we have an awareness of South Asian music (India, Nepal), it is typically through George Harrison and the Beatles, but it is only a smattering. We might overhear sitar songs while at the nearby Indian restaurant.

To get myself in the mood, I dined at Tulsi, and Indian food establishment, up the road from the venue and got stoked on some Chicken Marsala. The place seems to be getting better, which is great. I was not too impressed a couple of years ago when eating there. I told the server to not make it just white boy spicy. Make in Hindi spicy. And, they did. I was warmed up for the show. The evening of song was cooked up by the Rowhouse Forum where "Nothing Is Not Sacred."

Hinduism, for all of its pantheistic oddness, does see all life as sacred. It can get quite out of hand with the veneration of cows and the like, but a purely materialistic view of the universe (which is Western), drains the holy nature out of the sacred to the point where a gross consumerism quenches the Spirit. Aradhna are Christians who are building bridges between East and West, allowing the cultural forms of Indian music to be incarnated with the message of the Gospel. Not your typical CCM leftovers. God is at work in other  cultures, and it takes wisdom to not throw out the meat with the bones when doing ministry. Too often we want to bleach culture out of the fabric of faith, not just destroying culture but also fraying the faith. Only God can cleanse without the caustic effect of weakening the strands of culture that interweave with the Gospel.

Perhaps the most powerful moment of the night was when an Indian of Nepali man danced joyfully in the front of the sanctuary during some of the songs when the Spirit moved him. It was an exuberant expression of joy and an indication that the band was nailing it authentically. As wonderful as it was to see the man dance, probably the only time anyone has danced in this Presbyterian church ever (besides an unruly child) was the joy of the sitar player watching the man dance. He was gently smiling and taking joy in another man's joy of something God had given him to share. It was a beautiful moment. His eyes were kind, while his sitar sang praises to the Lord of the heaven and earth. For a time, the two were one.  
     

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