Do You Hear What I Hear?: Music, Film and the Bible

By Anthony Monzo

God speaks to us in many different ways. The Bible, of course, is His primary source; but if you focus on what you are seeing and hearing in the world around you, you can find spiritual messages in so many different sources, as God uses us as vessels to convey His message of salvation to the world. This includes through the visions of creation, the fragrances of nature, the sounds of the singing birds, the thunder of the clouds, the roars of the oceans, the amazing sunsets, the glorious sunrises, and even in the quiet and dark star-filled nights. As Paul wrote in Romans 1:20 (NIV), "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." He also speaks to us through music and film, in ways that we don't realize unless we are really paying attention. This book presents a taste of how popular music and movies, and even art as displayed on the cover, can convey a message of hope and love to all those who have ears to hear and eyes to see what God is trying to tell them. Some of the interpretations are based on what I perceive these songs or movies to be about, which may not necessarily be what the writer intended. Yet if you open up your heart, you can find a message of love and hope in so many songs and movies, and this message is what the gospel is all about. Jesus gave a new commandment when he said in John 13:34 (NLT), "Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other." And the hope that we have is the confident anticipation of spending eternity with the Lord in His eternal kingdom, and not just wishful thinking which is nothing but a worldly hope.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9798886853285

Book preview

cover.jpg

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Music, Film and the Bible

Anthony Monzo

ISBN 979-8-88685-327-8 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88832-362-5 (hardcover)

ISBN 979-8-88685-328-5 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by Anthony Monzo

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

All references are New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

About the Cover

Preface

Through the Sixties

Chapter 1

Get Together

Chapter 2

Try a Little Kindness

Chapter 3

People Get Ready

Chapter 4

Turn! Turn! Turn!

Chapter 5

Crystal Blue Persuasion

Chapter 6

Bad Moon Rising

Chapter 7

Signs

Chapter 8

The Sound of Silence

Chapter 9

Listen

Chapter 10

Welcome to My Word

Chapter 11

When the Saints Go Marching In

Chapter 12

Rags to Riches

The Seventies

Chapter 1

I Write the Songs

Chapter 2

How Can You Mend a Broken Heart

Chapter 3

Lonely People

Chapter 4

Into the Mystic

Chapter 5

He Ain't Heavy. He's My Brother.

Chapter 6

Lyin' Eyes

Chapter 7

Love Is the Answer

Chapter 8

American Pie

Chapter 9

Time

Chapter 10

Dialogue

Chapter 11

How Deep Is Your Love

Chapter 12

You're the Best Thing That's Ever Happened to Me

Chapter 13

(I've Been) Searchin' So Long

Chapter 14

Country Road

Chapter 15

Stairway to Heaven

Chapter 16

Starry, Starry Night

Chapter 17

Hotel California

Chapter 18

And I Love You So

The Eighties and Beyond

Chapter 1

Small Beginnings

Chapter 2

Trial by Fire

Chapter 3

The Wall

Chapter 4

These Are the Days

Chapter 5

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Chapter 6

Dweller on the Threshold

Chapter 7

Where the Streets Have No Name

The Beatles and Dylan

Chapter 1

Forever Young

Chapter 2

Let It Be

Chapter 3

I, Me, Mine

Chapter 4

Act Naturally

Chapter 5

The Times They Are A-Changin'

Chapter 6

I Was Young When I Left Home

Chapter 7

Gotta Serve Somebody

Chapter 8

The Long and Winding Road

Chapter 9

The Fool on the Hill

Chapter 10

Mind Games

Chapter 11

Help

Chapter 12

Imagine

Chapter 13

Blowin' in the Wind

Chapter 14

Pressing On

Chapter 15

All along the Watchtower

Country Music

Chapter 1

Rocky Mountain High

Chapter 2

Believe

Chapter 3

Me and God

Chapter 4

In This Life

Chapter 5

Live like You Were Dying

Chapter 6

The Long Black Train

Chapter 7

Redemption

Chapter 8

I Know Where I'm Going

Chapter 9

Red Dirt Road

Chapter 10

Me and Bobby McGee

Chapter 11

Simple Man

Chapter 12

Trouble

Chapter 13

Changed

Chapter 14

Thank You for a Life Worth Living

Chapter 15

There Will Come a Day

The Movies

Chapter 1

To Kill a Mockingbird

Chapter 2

The Caine Mutiny

Chapter 3

Wizard of Oz

Chapter 4

Rocky

Chapter 5

A Christmas Carol

Chapter 6

Pinocchio

Chapter 7

Miracle on 34th Street

Chapter 8

It's a Wonderful Life

About the Author

About the Cover

There is a chapter in this book titled Starry, Starry Night. It is about the famous painting by Vincent van Gogh, which was written about by Don McLean in the song Vincent. What most people do not realize is that Van Gogh was a spiritual person, as described in more detail later in this book.

When you look closely at the painting, you see a large elm tree in the foreground, a village below with a church steeple, eleven stars, and the moon. This could very well have been a self-portrait as it was painted from his room at a mental institution to which he had been committed after cutting off his ear. He had a feeling of betrayal and abandonment as did Joseph, the youngest son of Jacob, when his brothers had sold him into slavery. The story of Joseph, his dream and the jealousy of his brothers, is told in Genesis 37:1–10 (NIV):

Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. This is the account of Jacob's family line.

Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate[a] robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, Listen to this dream I had.: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.

His brothers said to him, Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us? And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. Listen, he said, I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.

When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?

His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

His brothers wanted to kill him but, instead, sold him into slavery to a group of Egyptians without telling their father, who thought he had been killed. Van Gogh, likewise, was despised by his critics and peers, probably out of jealousy, and could relate to the feelings of Joseph as conveyed in this painting.

The spiritual meaning behind the painting, story, and song is just one example of the many devotionals that I have written over the past few years and which are compiled in this book. Part 2, chapter 16 of this book reveals more of my thoughts about Van Gogh and his masterpiece Starry Night as also reflected in McLean's song about Van Gogh.

Preface

Since my childhood, I have always loved music and movies, especially the classics. As I got older, I found a greater love than any song or movie could ever bring to me. It was the love of Jesus that came from the realization that notwithstanding all of the sins I have committed in my life, He was always there for me in times of trouble. But I never had a relationship with Him. So at around the age of fifty, I started to read the Bible.

As someone brought up as a Roman Catholic, the Bible was not foreign to me. I served as an altar boy, went through the sacraments, got married by a priest in a Roman Catholic church, had our children baptized as infants, had them make first Holy Communion, and had them confirmed as young teenagers. My wife, Kathleen, and I would never miss Sunday mass, and we thought we were living the dream. But we, like everyone else, have had some hard times and started to look for answers that we had never sought before. Like what do we need to do in order to understand God's purpose with our lives? And how will that equip us to better cope with the difficulties of this world?

Out of frustration, we ventured to other churches, and during the few years we spent at a Presbyterian church, I realized that the Bible was more than just a weekly passage read at church and then explained by the priest or pastor. So I started at Genesis 1 and read through the entire Bible over the course of a year, started attending a Bible study, and became a facilitator of many of the studies. I now spend about two hours every morning studying His Word, in prayer and in sending spiritual messages, like the ones in this book, to my friends via email and social media.

Getting back to my love for music and film, this shift in my faith life has totally transformed my way of thinking. My senses are now always focused on what God is saying to me in the many ways that He speaks to us. This includes through the visions of creation, the fragrances of nature, the sounds of the singing birds, the thunder of the clouds, the roars of the oceans, the amazing sunsets, the glorious sunrises, and even in the quiet and dark star-filled nights. As Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse (Romans 1:20).

He also speaks to us through music and film, in ways that we don't realize unless we are really paying attention. As the Bible says in Romans 10:17–18, So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: ‘Their sound has gone out to all the earth, And their words to the ends of the world.' Throughout the world, people are deprived of the written Word of God, yet He still communicates to them in very different ways, and one of the ways that this book focuses on is through popular music and movies which continue to tell God's story.

So without any preconceived notion, I started to hear things in some of the songs I have listened to since I was a young teenager and see things in the movies I have watched for many years that I never heard or saw before. Some of these things were also brought to light in some of the Christian books that I have studied. And what is truly amazing is that many of these songs and movies convey a Christian message in either an unidentifiable way or without directly promoting a Christian message. These songs range from classic songs of the '50s to the rock and roll era of the '60s, '70s, and '80s, to more modern-day country western songs, and now to a new wave of Christian songs. The movie messages range from The Wizard of Oz and The Caine Mutiny in the '40s to Rocky in the '70s and to some of the classic Christmas movies like A Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34th Street, and It's a Wonderful Life, and even the Disney movie Pinocchio.

This book of pop culture devotionals is a taste of how popular music and movies can convey a message of hope and love to all those who have ears to hear what God is trying to tell them. Some of the interpretations are based on what I perceive these songs or movies to be about, which may not necessarily be what the writer intended. Yet if you open up your heart, you can find a message of love and hope in so many songs and movies, and this message is what the gospel is all about. Jesus gave a new commandment when he said in John 13:34 (NLT), Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. And the hope that we have is the anticipation of spending eternity with the Lord in His eternal kingdom, not just wishful thinking which is nothing but a worldly hope.

I would like to give a special thanks to my wife, Kathleen, for being my inspiration, sounding board, critic, encouraging spirit, and best friend through this journey.

Part 1

Through the Sixties

The sixties represented a transition period from life as our parents knew it to a life in which teenagers and young adults felt liberated. This was reflected in the music which conveyed a message of love in so many good ways, notwithstanding the sexually explicit messages in many of the songs. We started with bands like the Beach Boys, followed by the British Invasion, Bob Dylan, Motown, Tommy James and the Shondells, the Summer of Love, and Woodstock. But we still had some artists that recorded more traditional music for the older folks, including Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Tony Bennett. Yet with this cultural revolution, we also saw a revival led by Billy Graham, which I believe was the inspiration of many of the spiritual messages that came out of some of the music from this decade as well as the seventies:

Get Together

Try a Little Kindness

People, Get Ready

Turn! Turn! Turn!

Crystal Blue Persuasion

Bad Moon Rising

Signs

The Sound of Silence

Listen

Welcome to My World

When the Saints Go Marching In

Rags to Riches

Chapter 1

Get Together

Come on, people, now.

In the days of the early church just following the Pentecost, all of the believers met on a regular basis to fellowship with one another. They shared meals and resources, prayed, worshipped, and basically hung out with like-minded people. As Luke records it in Acts 2:42–47 (NLT),

All the Believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord's Supper), and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the Believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

Bob Goff also writes about this in Everybody Always by saying,

They made their own economy by making themselves and their resources available to everyone. They did this because they were becoming love.¹

They were anxiously waiting for the return of Jesus two thousand years ago, but God is patiently waiting for the fulfillment of His eternal plan and for the completeness and unity of the church before He returns to take us all home.

In the song Get Together by the Youngbloods, the message is also one of becoming love, unity, and patient in our hope (expectation) for the return of Jesus. But while we are here, we need to become love because our moments are fleeting and fading, so we need to make the most of them. The lyrics say that even though some may come and some may go, we will all pass away. Yet the One who left us here (Jesus) will return for us at last.², ³

We are just passing through on this journey we call life, and our purpose in this physical life is clear and broken down into the two simple commandments that Jesus stated—love God and love others. In doing this, we need to be strong in our faith and be the church. By our fellowship with other believers, sharing, worshiping, and praying as a body united in Christ, we will become love and fulfill God's holy plan.

As the song says, everybody should get together and try to love one another right now.

Chapter 2

Try a Little Kindness

Narrow-minded people on narrow-minded streets.

In Matthew 22:37–39 (NLT), Jesus stated what He considered to be the two most important commandments, quoting from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. He says, You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, a lawyer who would have been an expert in the Mosaic law asks Jesus, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life (Luke 10:25 NLT)? So Jesus, using the Socratic method, responds with a question: What is written in the law? What is your reading of it (Luke 10:26 NLT)? The lawyer gives the correct answer: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and Love your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27 NLT).

Jesus then used this opportunity to define who his neighbor was. In Greek, a neighbor is someone who is near, and in Hebrew, it means someone you have an association with. But with Jesus, it took on a totally different meaning. The full text in Luke 10:30–37 (NLT) is as follows:

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw