I love music. Most people I know love music. This church loves music. Music is a universal language understood by the masses. Author Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, “Music is the universal language of mankind.” There is not a day that goes by in my life in which music does not fill some part of it. Often, I wake in the morning and there is music in my mind . . . a song echoing through the rock garden of my mind . . . or my wife, Dana, humming a song. I love music and value its presence in my life and world.
Here are some quotes about music I would like to share this morning:
“As long as we live, there is never enough singing.”
(Martin Luther)
“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
(Friedrich Nietzsche)
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”
(Friedrich Nietzsche)
“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.”
(Albert Einstein)
“If I should die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC”
(Kurt Vonnegut)
I kind of think all of us have a soundtrack that plays as we live our lives. On television there is a show called Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. On this show, Zoey, has this ability to hear the innermost thoughts of people . . . in songs. She hears the soundtracks of other people’s lives . . . including her own. Through songs . . . through music . . . she comes to understand the people around her, understand her relationships she has. It is all expressed in music. Surprisingly I think we all do that . . . that we all use music to associate moments and people in our lives.
Music is powerful stuff.
When I was doing a lot of mental health counseling, I would ask those who visited me what they were listening to when it came to music. In answering the question about the music these individuals would reveal a lot of about their state of mind. Their answers would reveal a lot about where they were mentally. Take country music—the crying in your beer kind. If a person told me that they were listening to a lot of country music it was safe to bet that they were on the depressed side. Usually, it was safe to suggest that to them. The music would reveal this.
As I said, music is powerful stuff.
I find it interesting this morning that the Apostle Paul is talking about music: “. . . speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord . . .” I think the apostle understands the power of music . . . especially as a sign of one’s faith. It is no wonder that he encourages those in the church in Ephesus to sing. Music is of the Spirit and reveals the heart.
As usual, Paul is encouraging the people to live in the Lord. And, as usual, the greatest example of that is Jesus. Sing the Lord’s song.
In the first church I served as a “real” pastor in southern Indiana, there was an elderly homebound couple who lived out on an isolated farm. They had lived a hard life. Early in their marriage her husband had been bit by a rabid dog and it changed his mental health. The state ended up sending him to the state institution leaving the woman alone with small children and a farm to take care of. It was hard living, but she always knew her husband would come back. As she waited, she played her piano each day. She said it was music that got her through those difficult times.
Eventually her husband returned, and life went on even though it was difficult. As age crept up on them and isolated them on the farm, she continued to play her piano daily. It was a part of her spiritual discipline . . . her way of praying. As she explained it to me, she had a hymn chosen for all the people in her life . . . for the members of the church. Each day, twice a day, she would sit at her piano and play those hymns . . . one for each person. It was her way of praying for them. Music was prayer. As Paul said, “. . . speak[ing] to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
And so, she did.
Music is powerful.
It did not take me long to figure how important music was to this congregation . . . after all, many know us as the “singing church”. I know that there will always be three things in our worship service and probably in this order: music, communion, and prayer. Everything else is nice, but not essential. Without those three things it is not worship at Joliet Christian Church. Though I understand, it still stings that the sermon didn’t make the top three.
Music expresses what we often cannot express in any other manner. It expresses our moods, feelings, and mental state. Music is often a release. Music can pick you up. Music connects us when nothing else can. Music can set us free. Music is celebration . . . thanksgiving. Music can be prayer.
Music is powerful.
Life is not always so wonderful . . . sometimes it is difficult to sing or hear the music because of the difficulty of life. There are days when we can barely speak because of the heaviness of life upon us. One of my favorite psalms is Psalm 137. In that psalm it speaks of the children of God as captives of the Babylonians being made to make the trip to Babylon . . . a land strange to them leaving behind all they had known of life. In the psalm they stop beside a river to rest before moving on. As they are sitting there the Babylonian captors demand that the children of God sing to them a song . . . a song of Zion.
In their despair they respond: “How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137:4, N.I.V.)
You just do it. Emory Austin writes: “Some days there won’t be a song in your heart. Sing anyway.” In the singing faith is discovered . . . faith is built. It is the giving of thanks to God in the bad and in the good. It is prayer. As author Frederick Delius says, “Music is an outburst of the soul.” It is life itself.
As the followers of Jesus . . . let us sing. In the good of life . . . let us sing. In the difficulty and hardship of life . . . let us sing. Let us sing in joy and thanksgiving. Let us sing in our sorrow. Let us sing the Lord’s song. Let us sing together as the children of God. For in our singing . . . in our music . . . the Spirit soars and connects. Connects us to one another, connects us to God. This is the way to live.
“. . . be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord . . .” The heart knows and so will God.
Music is powerful. Amen.
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