HELLO!

As many of you know I write sermons, create bulletins six weeks ahead. In case you worry the sermons get stale written that far in advance know I often change large portions of the sermon as the week before its delivery advances. I tell people, better to worry a preacher is “winging it” the night before than worry the sermon researched and written in advance might grow stale. Today I spent time with the lectionary readings for Reign of Christ Sunday (formerly Christ the King Sunday) on November 22. For 35 years I have selected Matthew 25:31-40 as my preaching text: “As you did this to the least of these, you did it to me”. In 2008 I even dressed as Elvis and compared one definition of “King” (Elvis) to that of Jesus of Nazareth. In this photo Debbie, known to some of our Coffee House families, is telling me Elvis was her hero. But this year I have opted for Psalm 95:1-7, “Come, let us sing to the Lord”. I read no fewer than ten commentaries on this Psalm of re-orientation. In each case the scholarship is clear, this is a Psalm that equates singing with faithfulness.

This led me to the book, “The Singing Thing” by John Bell, a member of the Iona Community in the UK. Below is a list of his reasons for singing (and reasons why some of us don't sing).

1) We sing because we can, because it is a uniquely and essentially human thing to do. “Music is as physical as it gets: We’re walking temples of noise, and when you add tender hearts to this mix, it lets us meet in places we couldn’t get to any other way.” Anne Lamott

2) We sing to create and reflect our identity. “Singing is the moment when we encounter God. We taste God, we touch God when we sing. It is a profound spiritual experience”. Marlene Kropf and Kenneth Nafziger

3) We sing to express emotion. “Music is to be praised as second only to the Word of God because by music are all the emotions swayed. Nothing on earth is more mighty to make the sad happy and the happy sad, to hearten the downcast, or mollify the vengeful.” Martin Luther

4) We sing to express language. “What language shall I borrow to thank Thee, dearest friend, Make me Thine forever. Should I fainting be, Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to Thee”. Bernard of Clairvaux, 1153

5) We sing to remember our past (and shape our future). “We are creatures of our past. We cannot be separated from it, though we cannot always remember it, songs will unexpectedly summon portions of it into mind. What we learn in childhood we retain all our life, the images of God we receive from songs determine our faith and theology”. John Bell

6) We sing to tell stories.

7) We sing to shape the future.

8) We sing to enable work.

9) We sing to exercise our creativity.

10) We sing to give of ourselves.

Four Reasons Why Some of Us Don’t/Won’t Sing*

1) Vocal Disenfranchisement “When God asks us to sing a new song, it is because God believes that we can”. John Bell

2) The Fallout from a Performance Culture “Congregational song is a gift of God, with power to uplift, transform, refresh and recreate the heart and soul. As good stewards of the musical gifts God has given us, we sing with energy and vigor. Our music-making uses the talents, skills and resources of the congregation. Worship is a participatory activity, a congregational activity, not a performance.” Heidi Regier Kreider

3) Places and Spaces “When people are encouraged to sit close to each other and sing together, they will make a good sound but where they loll in splendid isolation they cannot fulfill the mandate to praise their Maker as the community of God has chosen.” John Bell

4) Planning “Our job is to get the distortions out of the way and to plan worship that is authentic, indeed that magnifies, those aspects of true worship that draw people yearning to be whole”. Thomas Long