We are What we Sing

We are What we Sing

Good Morning Friends,

Last night as Southwest Florida High School Football teams took the fields of play the Moorings Chancel Choir sang back up for the Getty’s at a concert and hymn sing as part of our Hyacinth Series. The events seem about as diverse as can be, but as I sang about Jesus death on the cross and as Kristyn Getty sang about the birth of Christ (and in a way the contemplation of the birth of her own child now seven month in the womb), I could not help but think of the three youth who died in Immokalee on Halloween and the total of 13 lost in the last two and a half years in this rural community so passionate about football.

I wonder what song was in their hearts and minds. Earlier in the day I had studied with some about the wrath of God being satisfied on the cross and that I would sing about it, which we did in the song, In Christ Alone on All Saints Day. At lunch I heard Keith Getty tell about his ministry of music. He writes about a thousand tunes a year to capture a half dozen that people might actually like to sing and then puts theological poetry to them. The luncheon was an open invitation to people of all denominations in church music ministry to explore next step in how music can become a more meaningful part of worship and as a witness to how songs can be a vehicle for Christ incarnate to enter into our daily lives…how music ministries can grow honoring the past and creatively embrace the future. One of the points Keith Getty made was that We are What We Sing.

Scripture:
 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.

Hebrews 5:13 (NIV)

The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”

Zephaniah 3:17 (ESV)

Message: Calvin’s conviction was that we should only sing the Psalms because singing was so instrumental in what forms our beliefs and it was just too risky to sing anything but scripture. That restriction has thankfully died, for if we had retained it we would never have sung Amazing Grace. We would have denied the creativity of Christ in us. Still it is interesting in music and in the culture around us how death bring us together in life…. Friends, God works through music in praise bands and choral groups alike to form us. But a diet of one without the other is a bit unbalanced and limits the fusion of the two blending feelings and the order and complexity of music matured. I would like to think we are not done yet with growing and creating. I would like to think that singing wholesome, emotional, explicitly religious music with vacuous theology is only an encouragement for people to fill the vacuum with something more meaningful. Like so much of God’s work we learn it is about feeling and theology connected in harmonies and also simple beautiful melodies that the Spirit works. It is not one or the other but always both that is most powerful. So as I contemplate the last 24 hours, as I morn for the youth who have fallen, I also contemplate the words of a song we sang at lunch. It was a song Keith Getty wrote just two weeks ago but it could have been for youth who died in Immokalee. Here are the words but you will have to talk to Keith about the music:

“Good Shepherd of my soul, Come dwell within me, Take all I am and mold your likeness in me before the cross of Christ, This is my sacrifice: A life laid down and ready to follow.

The troubled find their peace in true surrender, the prisoners their release from chains of anger… In springs of living grace I find a resting place, to rise refreshed, determined to follow.

I’ll walk this narrow road, With Christ before me, where thorns and thistles grow and cords ensnare me. Though doubted and denied, he never leaves my side, but lifts my head and calls me to follow.

And when my days are gone, my strength is failing, he’ll carry me along through death’s unveiling. Earth’s struggles overcome, Heav’n’s journey just begun, to search Christ’s depths and joyfully follow.”

Pray that we grow in unity with the mind of Christ. Pray we sing new songs but remember the old as well. Pray the music on our hearts blend our emotions with theology. Pray the music we sing as choirs encourages the congregation to sing to God. Pray we learn new hymns and challenging music as a way of glorifying God…as a living sacrifice. Pray we sing songs for those just beginning on the journey of faith as well as liturgical breath that spans life’s experience with Christ. Pray we lead with love. Pray we follow Christ in joy.

Blessings,

John Lawson