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February 29th happens
once every 4 years. Sunday, February 29th
happens only once every 28 years. The next time will be 2032.
One generation will be gone; another will be in place.
February 29, 2032? I’ll be 92
years old. But if I’m alive, I will still be singing. Not
well, perhaps. Not on key, perhaps. Probably not with the
Wesley Singers. Maybe I’ll just be humming. Someone said that
hummingbirds are the ones that forgot the words. But I will
still be singing inside.
A Christian friend who was in a
terrible automobile accident years ago, and who then
contracted Parkinson’s disease as an added insult, said
publicly, “I am determined that nothing will ever
take away my joy.” I have never forgotten his words. They
are true for me as well.
Music is indigenous to a living
faith. It’s true whether you are a good singer or not! I
recall a camp song from Jumonville in my childhood that goes
something like this:
All things shall perish from
under the sky.
Music alone shall live, music
alone shall live,
Music alone shall live, never
to die.
We
celebrate the gift of music today at Christ Church. Music has
always been a part of worship. In the Old Testament period,
people from the community were chosen to live in the Temple
and sing the praises of God on a continuous basis. In the
early church, hymns were created that became liturgy. Scholars
tell us that some passages in the New Testament were first
hymns of the church.
Martin Luther loved singing, and
composed one of the greatest hymns of all time: “A mighty
fortress is our God; a bulwark never failing.” The Wesley
brothers sang and taught music to the common folks.
The vision of John of Patmos in
the Book of Revelation tells us that heaven is a place of
great singing. That may disappoint some of you who can’t sing,
or some of you who don’t like to sing. Tex Sample says, “I
have a singing voice like a hardware store washing away.”
I love the story of a
grandfather that I read, which could easily happen to me. The
grandfather loved to sing, but he didn’t have a very good
voice. So he sang mostly in the shower or in the car. However,
one day he was sitting on a porch swing with his 9-month-old
granddaughter. He was singing to her. She was watching him
with her eyes wide open. After a little while she reached up
and pulled the pacifier out of her mouth and put it into her
grandfather’s mouth.
Music lives. Faith-forming music
lives. All types of music are important: classical, gospel
music, contemporary music, country music, folk music from the
African-American or the Appalachian tradition.
Kathleen Norris writes, “I
value music over theology. We go to church in order to sing.
Theology is secondary.”
Certainly that is true here
today. This is a very special Sunday—this fifth Sunday of
February 2004. We gather here today to sing, and to listen to
many forms of sacred music.
I for one am enormously grateful
for the music ministry in this community of believers over the
years. And so now, for the 24th time in my tenure
here, the combined choirs will sing—music that is both
beautiful and deeply theological:
Surely it is God
who saves me;
I will trust in
Him and not be afraid. |
