Everyone, I think, loves to
sing. It is part of who we are as human beings, as children of God, really. There
is always a song in our heart that is waiting to be sung. That fact that some
of us can't sing all that well or at all is beside the point. It simply may be
God's way of keeping us humble. We all have felt the power of a song sung so
well whose words meant so much at a certain moment in time.
I have always dreamed of
being able to stand in front of a congregation and sing, maybe even sing a song
during a sermon to help convey the message. But if I could, and I know me, my
head would swell to unbearable proportions and I would be impossible to live
with. So I sing in the car to the radio, when alone. And when I must sing, like
in church, I don't belt it out lest I get belted in return.
There are those who don't
like to sing but I don’t know anyone who actually represses the song that is in
his or her heart. I suspect that part of
the reason many people like the early Service is that there is no music. It's
not that they don't like to sing. It is that they don't like to sing at 8:00 in
the morning. Okay, I'll buy that – reluctantly.
Part of the joy for me of the
Advent-Christmas Season is being able to sing the songs of the season. Now I
know that some object that we should not sing Christmas songs until Christmas,
like we shouldn't sing "Happy Birthday" to a person unless it is that
person's birthday. Maybe so, but Christmas is not the birthday celebration of
Ordinary Joe either. And so our celebration of Christmas should not be limited to
just one day. And so we sing the songs of Christmas as a way of preparing our
hearts and minds and souls for the celebration of Christmas.
And we sing when the Spirit –
and it is the Spirit – moves us. We sing to celebrate life, to celebrate love,
to celebrate. We sing to bring life out of death or life to death. We sing. And
when we sing, our song becomes infectious. It gets under our skin and into our
pores, into our very being. And it infects others and affects them as well.
Music is what brings a community closer together, more than dinners or bazaars
or anything else. It’s the power of music.
Why? Because it is in our song,
in our music, that we are of one voice, of one accord, of one mind. Nothing
else is on our mind or in our hearts except to make music. We can truly get
lost in song. We should sing together more often. We may not be making good
music when we do because we are not all good singers, but what we will be doing
is making good community
As the hymn says, God is
glorified in our music – most of the time. No, all the time, if it is truly
music. Even my children and grandchildren who listen to it would be hard
pressed to say that some of the stuff that passes for music these days is a
glorification of God. But that's another issue. When our music is a
glorification of God, when we are singing, we are often the most alive and the
most at one. And when we don't feel like singing? That's when we need to most.
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