Sing!
Sing!
As we come again to Lent and Easter, Seasons in the church that invite us to journey with the God revealed in Jesus Christ who formed communities in the past and present of care, peace and justice, I focus on what our congregation likes to do, sing!
Singing spiritual songs is a way of practising our faith. On reading chapter 13 ‘Singing our Lives’ by Don E. Saliers, in Dorothy C. Bass’s edited book Practicing our Faith, I find treasures to share that invite us to draw closer to God and one another. Saliers was a United Methodist minister and Director of the Sacred Music program in Candler School of Theology.
She reminds the readers that from our early years, in children’s play, that simple songs and rhymes are sung. We sing nursery rhymes or skipping rhymes, sporting songs, school hymns and at church, spiritual songs and choruses. My pre-school granddaughter enjoyed and was amazed that grandma knew all the tunes in her big nursery rhyme book, and that her mother sang these rhymes when she was a little girl.
We have oral traditions that can be lost if we do not sing together. Singing can be a part of work. Many workers sing together at times like harvesting, picking fruit, doing manual labour, sea shanties sung out at sea by fisherfolk, and soldiers have marching songs. Significant also are the communal songs of loss and mourning, folk songs, family songs and national songs, the list goes on. Saliers tells us that “the Christian church was born singing, singing the songs of ancient Israel, the synagogue and the Greco-Roman world. Psalms and canticles formed the heart of prayer and the music of the earliest Christian assemblies” (Saliers in Bass, 1997,183). Saliers claimed that “when we lift our voices to God . . . we sing not alone, but in union with the whole creation and with our brothers and sisters through the ages” (184). Sometimes, I feel this when we worship, that our voices are magnified and join with others across the world in praising God. And with organist Ken’s brilliant accompaniment, our small congregation sounds like a large choir. The hymns and songs we sing uplift our spirits and there is at least anecdotal evidence that singing in churches can extend people’s lives, it builds community and is good for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.
John Wesley called singing “a body of practical divinity”. Our Easter services are a high point in the church’s singing calendar. Belief comingles with depth of feeling as the hymns capture the sombre mood of the crucifixion on Good Friday and the joy and praise on Easter Sunday. Music at these times stirs memories and emotions and weaves our lives together to bring the presence of God alive amongst us. We also sing songs about justice, peace, protest and lament that can affect us deeply. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, twentieth century minister and writer imprisoned during Hitler’s regime, in his book Life Together, said “it is not you that sings it is the church that is singing, and you, as a member . . . may share its song”.
We have in our congregation, a gifted songwriter, and musicians, and we appreciate songs of praise, ancient and modern. Whatever, your taste in music and whether you consider yourself a singer, or not, let us this Lent and Easter, act as the Psalmist in Psalm 100 verse one instructs, and “make a joyful noise unto the Lord all the earth”. And may the songs of our lives join the heavenly chorus of those who sing and play to the glory of God.
Blessings
Lynette