Recently a friend of ours bought us tickets to hear Handel’s Messiah at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. I have lived near Atlanta all my life, I am familiar with the content and Scriptures of the masterpiece, and I even have an appreciation for such music. But this was the first time I heard the oratorio in person.  As Henry Suso said, “It is one thing to hear for yourself a sweet lute, sweetly played, and quite another thing to merely hear about it.”

Hearing and Hearing About

I suppose the superficiality that fills the church is rooted in the same …