Community Church Sermons
June 29, 2008
Pentecost
7
Colossians 3:15-17
Listen to this Sermon!
Our annual Music Sunday will be celebrated during today’s 10:30 worship service. Every year - from the end of August until the end of June - our very talented musicians work extremely hard to bring the gift of music into all our worship services. They awaken our senses, deepen our spirits, and lift our thoughts to the magnificence of God and His love. And today, before they take a well-deserved hiatus to rest and renew themselves, we turn over the 10:30 service to them for a musical worship celebration that has become one of our most treasured traditions.
But here WE are, at the 8 AM service! And we’ve been blessed already with some wonderful music – some peppy hymns that you surely noticed were all about singing – and the wonderful “Creation Will Be At Peace” presented by our handbell choir with Ed Adams and Renee Anderson doing the vocals. It was beautiful! Thank you!
And lest you think that is the end of the music theme at this service, let me assure you it isn’t because I want to preach about music and singing today!
I believe that singing is the most basic form of worship. In fact, the Bible starts off with a magnificent song - the great creation hymn of Genesis 1. And as each verse draws to a close – each one telling of some new expression of God’s creation – light, sun and moon, dry land, fish, insects, birds, cattle, human beings – the chorus rises up with full voice: “And God saw that it was very GOOD!”
It is a song that expresses – among others things – the joy God finds in YOU, and me, and all that God has created! Sometimes words alone cannot express the experience of joy, and so we just have to sing a song!
Just a few verses later in the
book of Genesis there is another song – this one about a man falling in love
with a woman. It’s the first love song! Adam takes one look at shapely, sultry,
seductive Eve and sings, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my
flesh!” which, if it was translated into modern English would go, “There
she was just a walkin’ down the street singin’ Doo-wah-diddy-diddy-dum-diddy-doo!”
Love at first sight! How do you express that? How do you articulate love?
With a song!
Let me ask you to help me out here. Do you have a favorite love song? (Get responses)
How about a favorite patriotic song? (Get responses)
How about a favorite children’s song? (Get responses)
My favorite parent/grandparent song is “I’ve Got a Song That’ll Get on Your Nerves.” (Sing)
How about a favorite hymn? (Get responses)
You see, what people of faith have known in every generation is that the most basic means of communicating with God is not through prayer, not through listening to a sermon, not even through silent meditation.
No, it is singing a song!
Some of you have seen the YouTube video that’s been going around about the hymn “Amazing Grace.” It’s called “Amazing Grace – Just the Black Notes.” The fellow on the video explains that the musical scale of African slaves contained just five notes. We call it the pentatonic scale. On a piano these five notes are the five black keys of which there are seven sets on a keyboard like our grand piano. And you can take almost any Negro spiritual and play it with just those five black notes. For instance, “Jesus Walked That Lonesome Valley” can be played in just the black notes. And “Amazing Grace” can be played with just those five black keys, too.
If you were to look in many hymnals, you would see that the tune for “Amazing Grace” is said to be a traditional American melody. Not so. The tune for “Amazing Grace” is actually of unknown origin. But there are some intriguing clues that lead us toward a possible source.
Do you know who wrote the words to “Amazing Grace”? Right. John Newton. And do you remember what John Newton did before he came to Christ and became a minister? He was the captain of a slave ship. Some say that the tune of “Amazing Grace” sounds strikingly similar to a very old traditional African song of lament – a tune that expresses the deep anguish of broken hearts and grieving souls. Do you think John Newton might have heard that song of lament coming from the bowels of that slave ship of which he was Captain – out of the terrible pain and fear of men and women who had been forcefully taken from their land and their homes and their families to become the slave property of others? Is it possible, do you think, that when we sing the song “Amazing Grace” what we are doing without even knowing it is joining the sorrowful music of the slaves to the lyrics of God’s grace in a song-prayer that could never be expressed through words alone?
Music. Singing. It is the language of God.
Now I know that some of us do not sing, and in many cases that’s a good thing! There are people who just can’t sing a lick. Please don’t feel that you have to try! You will be doing us – and even God – a favor by not singing!
But you can still participate in the language of song. You can LISTEN! Let the tune come into you. And you can READ. Read the lyrics of the song. And maybe you can even become so adventurous that you are willing to try something that a girl in my last church told me about. She belonged to the Catholic Church just up the street, but came to our Sunday night Youth Group because it was the best one in town! And that brought about a conversation one day between this girl and her priest who somehow found out she was attending our Youth Group. He was a pretty progressive and ecumenical guy, but there was still a lot of misunderstanding between Protestants and Catholics in those days. He asked her why she liked our group and she said we had a lot of fun, and sang some really great songs. He was concerned that she would get caught up in the culture of our church and leave her faith behind. So he told her it was okay for her to attend the Youth Group, but she was not to sing the songs!
She told me, “So I came to Youth Group every week and I didn’t sing the songs.” Then she paused and whispered, “But I hummed them!”
If you are not a singer, maybe you want to try humming – quietly – without injuring the people around you! Take a song like “Amazing Grace” and just hum it – in the car – in the shower – on the golf course after you’ve sunk a long birdie putt… and see what it does to your soul!
Music is the language of God, and God has programmed all creation to speak that language. Listen to Psalm 148:
Praise the Lord
from the heavens, praise God in the heights above.
Praise God, all
the angels, praise God all the heavenly hosts.
Praise God, sun
and moon; praise God all you shining stars.
Praise God, you
highest heavens, and you waters above the skies.
Praise the Lord
from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
Lightning and
hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do God’s bidding,
You mountains and
all hills, fruit trees and all cedars,
Wild animals and
all cattle, small creatures and flying birds,
Kings of the
earth and all nations, you princes and rulers on earth,
Young men and
young women, old men and children.
Let them praise
the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted;
His splendor is above the earth and the heavens.
At any given moment on any given day, you can open your ears and hear creation singing – in the sound of raindrops – in the roar of ocean surf – in the whistling of wind through the trees – in the symphony of crickets, and peepers, and even cicadas!
All creation sings to God the hymn of creation.
And you are part of the choir!
Praise the Lord!