A good song is always a good song no matter when it was sung.
All week the media has been abuzz with the AC/DC tour which played to a capacity crowd at Homebush stadium on Thursday night. I was surprised by the number of young people who flocked along in their droves to hear a band whose heyday was before they were born.
I heard several interviews with parents who were taking their primary school children along and one woman complained that the non-alcohol, family seats for under age kids was sold out months ago leaving her to deal with a heartbroken ten year girl.
On Thursday night I caught the tail end of the Elvis Costello show whose special guest was Tony Bennet. The camera frequently scanned the studio audience revealing a crowd of people whose parents weren’t even born when Tony Bennet, now 83, was on the hit parade. I suspect he even predates most of their grandparents. His final song had them all on their feet in tears of adoration.
I’m not big on AC/DC or Tony Bennet, so I’m not promoting them in any way but I do find it fascinating that they have such a following among young people. It shows that humans are fundamentally the same—what one generation likes can be liked by another no matter what the fashion pundits and mind controllers say.
Good music is always good for those that take the time to listen. When we push aside the pressure to conform, our natural prejudices and preconceptions we can find something we like in all kinds of places. As a product of the Beatles and Rolling Stones, I learned, to my great surprise, to appreciate Frank Sinatra when I used one of his old records to test a stereogram I was building.
If , in a world where music tastes are so heavily dictated by the media, a good song can bridge the generation gap and unite the passions of our hearts, how much more should a good God bring unity to his people.
The world always tells lies and its most recent whopper is that we are victims of an unbridgeable generation gap. Sadly this attitude has also infected God’s people. Ironically the source of the division in the church is often the very thing he gave to unite us—the music we use to sing his praises to.
Jesus said that the distinguishing feature of Christians would be their love for one another. He was particularly keen for grown ups to have patience with children so I can’t imagine he’d be pleased with a generation gap in his church.
I suspect the reason we don’t try hard enough to bridge the gap is that we’re afraid that we won’t have anything to say, that our views will be misunderstood and we’ll be rejected. However we need each other so we really have no option but to reach out across the divide.
We reach out best when we listen rather than speak, ask rather than tell, seek to understand rather than demand to be understood. The culture of one generation is no better or worse than that of another when everything is considered. In any case we are meant to create culture not adopt what’s already there.
Our young people need to hear the wisdom of God, not the wisdom of our age, no matter what age that may have been. The world has always been wrong and those who have been serving God the longest should be the most aware of it.
Young people are trending towards a desire to connect with the older generation. They are looking for answers, for stability and they want to hear the stories—they need the wisdom, the support the encouragement and the acceptance, they need to be heard and taken seriously.
It takes a tribe to raise a child and every tribe needs its wise, active elders to do it well.
