09082021 – Mark 7. 24-37
There is so much that is different in the recording of music today.
Microphones are so much stronger and cheaper. They pick up the slightest of sounds and almost every breath. The majority of equipment can be purchased locally at a Radio Shack Store or easily online.
In the earliest days of music recording…
The process was much simpler than it is today.
Entire performances were recorded in single takes, sometimes with just 1 or 2 mics.
Today we use a more sophisticated process known as multitrack recording … Where each instrument or voice is recorded separately and combined later in a “mix”.
There are actual programs that can be downloaded online to assist in the entire process…and every step of the way.
The advent of digital sound recording and later the compact disc in 1982 brought significant improvements in the durability of “consumer recordings.”
The CD initiated another massive wave of change in the consumer music industry, with vinyl records effectively relegated to a small niche market by the mid-1990s.
With noise reduction, you cut all sounds before, after, and in-between each section of audio where the instrument or voice is featured.
This means removing background voices and noises, amp hissing, footsteps, chair squeaks, breaths, or just dead air…or anything that you do not like.
Where once large recording studios were necessary, now it can be done in the house, in the garage, in the basement or in the location of your choosing.
Outstanding music is being produced with greater frequency – often with little more than a computer, a USB mic, and some headphones.
What got me thinking about this whole process is what I am calling “GUTTERAL JESUS” … “BREATHY, JESUS!”
The thought occurred to me that sometimes in the scriptures, Jesus comes across as being THROATY, GRAVELLY, HARSH, and GROWLING…almost a kind of RASPING, DEEP, LOW and with a THICKENED voice.
ALL OF THIS seems to be at work in the Gospel of Mark.
Mark records the compelling words of Jesus but sometimes (I get the impression) – that the microphones are REALLY close to the action, perhaps a little too close for some tastes, and along with Jesus’ teachings and deeds, parables, and miracles, he captures “the brute physicality of the gospel” as it happens, in real time.
Nothing is weeded out. At least, that we know of…
In Mark we hear the TONE OF ANGER rise in Jesus’ voice upon occasion.
We hear him HEAVE A GROAN when he heals a deaf man and A DEEP SIGH when he confronts the Pharisees. “Oh God, here THEY come again!”
At Gethsemane, beneath Jesus’ prayer…there are unmistakable RUSTLINGS of DISTRESS and AGITATION.
On the cross Jesus does not DIE quietly, but with a LOUD CRY and a VIOLENT EXPELLING OF BREATH.
These “GUTTERAL SOUNDS” are evidence of work being performed, of hard physical labor, age, and even frustration.
The ministry of Jesus is NO MERE MENTAL EXERCISE.
Like a carpenter FORCING a plane across a RESISTANT grain of a plank or a mechanic MUSCLING a wrench against a STUBBORNLY RUSTED bolt, or a stone worker, attempting to LIFT a HEAVY PIECE, Jesus GROANS LOUDLY as he throws himself into doing his work.
This Jesus has a LARGER and MORE URGENT MISSION, namely, to do BATTLE with the demonic powers that RAGE against humankind, to DEFANG the snake coiling itself around God’s creation and all of God’s people.
It is CERTAINLY no easy job.
In every encounter Jesus perceives humanity as TERRORIZED by the demonic, and with the GROANS and CRIES of warfare he takes up the cause of FREEING God’s people.
When, for example, the disciples WAKE Jesus to tell him they are FRIGHTENED by a storm THRASHING the sea around their boat, Jesus knows that this is NO MERE STORM, so he does not simply “still the storm”; he “REBUKES the wind,” he EXORCISES the heck out of it.
When Jesus heals a deaf man with impaired speech, he does not caress the man’s face but THRUSTS his fingers into the man’s ears, SPITS, GROANS as he CRIES OUT in Aramaic.
In the story of the Syrophoenician woman …the woman’s little daughter has a demon, the woman BEGS for help, and Jesus is RESISTANT.
Jesus has to first RAP HIS HEAD around what he is about to do. He is expanding his mission to all people, GENTILES included. He NEEDS a PAUSE or a HOLD button.
Jesus is “GUTTERAL,” “BREATHY.” He is masculine. He is WORKING, and he is WORKING HARD to SAVE ALL of humankind.
And the microphone is ALWAYS ON…IF you but listen…
Amen.