Music
Psalm 100
For nearly 2,000 years, those of us who have committed to the way of Jesus have been engaging in particular customs week after week…generation after generation…but why? For the most part, we do these things because we’ve always done it, but how much do we know about the “why”? That’s what this series is about. Today, we’re going to talk about something that has played a huge role in the life of the church: music. Everyone has some sort of appreciation and affection for music. We may not agree on music styles or volume level, but we all share a love and appreciation for music. We see this throughout history. Every known society and culture has had some form of musical expression. Music is the great uniter, across generations and cultures. But it has also become the great divider. For the last two decades, music has also been at the heart of what has become affectionately known as “the worship wars,” the struggle within churches between traditional and contemporary music. The problem is that what helped people connect to God in one point in history may not connect everyone to God today. And yet our worship styles become ingrained us and they become preferences dictatating what we feel is appropriate worship or not. Here are two letters written from individuals complaining about the song selection and music in worship.
"I am no music scholar, but I feel I know appropriate church music when I hear it. Last Sunday's new hymn - if you can call it that - sounded like a sentimental love ballad one would expect to hear crooned in a saloon. If you insist on exposing us to rubbish like this - in God's house! - don't be surprised if many of the faithful look for a new place to worship. The hymns we grew up with are all we need." This letter was written in 1863 and the song was "Just As I Am".
Another letter said: "What is wrong with the inspiring hymns with which we grew up? When I go to church, it is to worship God, not to be distracted with learning a new hymn. Last Sunday's was particularly unnerving. The tune was unsingable and the new harmonies were quite distorting." This letter was written in 1890 about the hymn "What A Friend We Have In Jesus".
In the 19th century, there was only one style of worship, traditional, but these letters reflect the rise of new styles of music in worship beginning in the 1800’s and continuing through today. When I was at Rayne Memorial in 1990 and leading the early service, I chose a new hymn from our just released hymnal called, “Here I Am, Lord.” As I stood at the door at the close of the service to thank people for coming to worship, one elderly woman said to me in a very stern voice, “I didn’t realize we’re singing pop songs in church these days.” Music unites and divides.
When you study history, you realize that forms and expressions of worship and music have always changed to reach the culture in which the church is ministering. Culture influences worship, music and ministry. Even practices within the first century church borrowed from the culture around them. Sunday, our day of worship, was chosen to draw a distinction between Judaism and Christianity. But Sunday as a day of worship was borrowed from the Roman day of worship of the sun, hence the name Sunday. In our own Methodist tradition, John Wesley’s brother Charles, who wrote over 5000 hymns in his lifetime, borrowed the tunes from bar songs and put Christian text to them so that the unchurched they were trying to reach would be able to sing in worship. So when you’re singing a Charles Wesley hymn, you’re singing of a Top 40 song of the 18th century. Even today, much of what we do in worship stems from a specific point in time and what was happening in culture then. At Boston Avenue UMC where I served as an intern pastor, their website proudly states they have “historic” Christian worship, but when you look at what they do in worship, it dates back to the 1938 merger which brought the Methodist Church into being. “Historic Methodist worship” could well have meant the more pentecostal expression of Methodist worship in the early 1800’s when we were affectionately know as the “Shouting Methodists.”
So why are there so many styles of worship music and worship? First is the diversification of people. For the first time, the church is faced with the challenge of ministering to 5 living generations and two of those generations were not raised in the church. That in and of itself means people will be different. Demographers say there are now more than 70 different lifestyle groups with their own cultures, lifestyles and music preferences. In the 19th century, people were pretty much the same. They liked the same music, held the same values, and believed the same things. But after WW II, we began to see a greater diversity appearing among newer generations. Another contributor is the speed with which the world is changing. Sociologists says that our culture completely reinvents itself every 3-5 years! The second reason is new instrumentation has arisen through the birth of rock-n-roll and with it new styles of music. This is not the first time for this. There was a time when the introduction of the organ was considered blasphemy by many, as it was an instrument used for entertainment in the theaters of day, whose content was anything but in line with the values and beliefs of the faith. Many threatened to leave the church, if the organ wasn’t removed. Obviously, the organ and the church survived!
In this message today, we’re going to take a look at music in the life of the church, particularly when it comes to worship. Scripture is clear that we are supposed to sing songs of praise to God. There are over 400 references to singing in the Bible, and 50 direct commands to sing songs to God. Why does music play such a unique role in our worship? Let’s be honest, fundamentally singing together is a pretty strange thing to do. When do you sit around with people you don’t know and sing songs? Imagine being in a crowded restaurant and standing up and saying, “Why don’t we sing a couple songs together?” That probably wouldn’t be received very well, would it?
Why do we have music and singing in worship? First, music helps us proclaim who God is and what God has done. Throughout scripture, and particularly in the book of Psalms, we see this affirmation that it is good to sing songs of praise to God. The Book of Psalms was actually the Jewish people’s hymnbook for the temple in Jerusalem. Psalm 71:14-19. Throughout the Psalms, we have songs that declare who God is and what God has done. They celebrate God’s faithfulness and remind us of who God is and what is true about God. That being said, we should be careful to not sing these songs flippantly. We should really take the time to reflect on what we are singing. We should reflect and digest what we are singing so that when the song is over we are different and something has changed.
Second, music connects us to each other. Nothing has the power to unite like music. It bonds us together in the act of worship and connects us to certain memories or experiences. Music has the power to take us back to significant places and times in our lives and helps us remember in vivid detail. Have you ever noticed how certain songs are attached to particular memories and experiences? They remind you of high school or college or a first love or a crazy road trip you took with some of my friends. When that song comes on the radio, it brings about the memory and the feelings attached to it. We can share those memories with others and it connects us to significant shared experience with others.
Third, music moves us. In our Scripture today it says, “Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs” and “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise, give thanks to him and praise his name.” Music engages and moves us emotionally. This is why movies have soundtracks. The music in a movie heightens the emotional impact of a scene and gets us interested. For instance, take a look at this lovely scene. (scene of a beach) That looks nice, right? Who wouldn’t want to be there? But what happens when you hear this? (Jaws music) Everybody out of the water now! Music has the power to engage us and move us emotionally, to be fully invested in the moment and express our worship of God.
Fourth, music enables us express ourselves. It has the power to transcend our thoughts and our feelings, Have you ever heard a song that says more than just words, what you have been feeling or thinking but been unable to say because you didn’t know how? Then, you hear that song, and it’s like someone was speaking for you. It’s like, “That’s it, that’s how I’m feeling.”
Fifth, music brings us into the presence of God, so God isn’t just some idea we think about, but is a living being we experience. Psalm 22:3 says, “But you are holy, O you that inhabit the praises of Israel.” It is so important for me to remind myself during worship that God isn’t somewhere else. God is very much here, with us; He is as close as our next breath.
Sixth, music gives us hope a better tomorrow. We see this in the power of the African American spirituals. These songs were born in slavery. While they express the sorrow and the pain of a life in slavery, they also look upward and point toward a brighter future. Musician and educator Joe Carter says of these songs, “It’s a religious idea that there is a better life after this one, that death doesn’t have the last word. There is something so miraculous that happens when you are hearing or singing this music. It’s as if for that moment, you’re transported to that better life. It makes you strong for a while. It’s almost as if the eternal becomes part of the present and you actually get down into that stream of living water.” Music has this ability to move us toward a picture of a better tomorrow.
Psalm 57 is a psalm that David wrote when he was on the run for his life. All kinds of people were trying to kill him. In verse 4 he says, “I am in the midst of lions; I am forced to dwell among man-eating beasts, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.” But in the midst of all that, he says in verse 7, “My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music. Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.” Even in the darkest of times, music gives us hope for the future.
There is this incredible scene from the movie, “Shawshank Redemption.” Andy Dufrain is in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. He has been put in charge of the warden’s office. One day, he is rummaging through some old stuff and comes across a record. He starts to play it, and then locks the guard in the bathroom so he can’t get out. He then turns on the PA, so everyone in the prison can hear it. Let’s watch this scene….Did you hear what the narrator says. “For the briefest of moments everyone in that prison felt free.” That’s the power of music that it can free us from the darkest of circumstances. Music helps us hold on to a better picture of tomorrow, and gives us hope. It empowers us to believe that things can change.
Don’t be ashamed to sing because there are people that come to worship every single week and it may have taken everything they had inside of them to drag themselves into this place. For them, asking them to find the faith and strength to sing just might be too much. For them…you are their voice. Hearing you sing songs and mean them, could be the first step in them claimer hope in the midst of darkness. But here’s the other thing: doesn’t God deserve our very best in worship. Some of you may be saying, “I can’t sing. I have a horrible voice!” That’s why the Psalmist says, “Make a joyful noise.” It’s not what you sound like to your ears, it the act of giving yourself completely to God in song and what that sounds like to God’s ears.
Music is a gift from God allowing us to connect, to be moved, to communicate that whicn we cannot on our own and to be lifted into the throne room and very presence of God. It’s allows us to receive hope in the darkness and to give thanks to God. When Adam meets Eve he sings the first love song. After God delivers the Israelites through the parted Red Sea, Miriam, Moses’ sister, sings. When Mary gets the news from an angel that she would give birth to the Savior, she responds with a song. Music enables us to experience and express the words of our heart and our soul. It speaks to our hearts. Music is a gift that allows us to interact with a God that is way bigger, that is way more than we can possibly do on our own. It has the power to connect us and to emotionally engage, and actually feel and experience God. Ultimately, we all need music because we were created to worship a God that is way bigger than we can understand. Music is one of the things that allows us to do that. Thanks be to God. Amen.
