Sing & Make Melody to the Lord: A Sermon for Proper 15
In our reading from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians today, Paul exhorts his fellow Christians to a higher standard of living. For Paul, this includes joyful singing. He urges them to “… be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
One of the biggest blows to churches during the covid pandemic was when we were notified that it was no longer safe to sing as a congregation. Thankfully for us here at Christ the King, we were able to have our soloist – Peter – sing at a safe distance from the balcony. And that indeed was a joyful noise.
But as lovely as Peter’s – or anybody’s - individual voice may be – Christian hymns are primarily to be sung communally. Whether we are trained or untrained singers – and the vast majority of us are untrained – the combination of our diverse voices harmonizes into a joyful noise unto the Lord.
So, I’ll never forget how liberated and joyful I felt when we finally were permitted to remove our masks and let loose over a year’s worth of pinned up singing. And the newfound, positive energy was not only audible - it was also visible. It indeed was a moment of spiritual, emotional, and physical liberation for us.
And this is not just my opinion – science tells us that this is true. Studies have shown that singing can improve your mental health and mood and be helpful during times of grief. It also stimulates the body’s immune response, improves lung function, and helps relieve stress.[1] One of the cruel ironies of the covid virus is that one thing that has been proven to help in times of depression, stress, and poor physical and mental health was also proven to be unsafe for unmasked crowds to partake in.
But the benefits of singing are not only physical and emotional. One of the greatest Christian theologians and practitioners of all time – St. Augustine – said, “He who sings, prays twice.” Reflecting on this quote from St. Augustine, Roman Catholic Bishop Columnas Conley notes that, “singing adds to our praise and worship of God—that our voices are gifts, with which we can make music to the Lord. Sung prayer expresses the joy of the heart, the happiness resulting from one who has encountered Jesus Christ and experienced his love. Sung prayer reminds us of the choirs of heaven, with whom we are called to praise God eternally in heaven.”
So again, one of the great tragedies of the covid pandemic has been the arguably necessary silencing of the singing. And perhaps my greatest hope as it pertains to public worship as the covid numbers have spiked again is that we are still able to safely sing. Fine, I’ll wear a mask and stand behind this plexiglass. But I pray to God that it remains safe to sing.
One thing that I think oftentimes gets overlooked in our worship experience is the opportunity for hymns to spiritually form us. We place such an emphasis on the scripture lessons and sermon, that I think we can tend to overlook how the Holy Spirit might be working through the words and music of the hymns. They too are our “texts” for the day.
The opening processional hymn is almost always found in the “Praise to God” section of the hymnal, as that is what is prescribed for the opening section of our worship service. For today, David chose hymn # 423 – “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise” – one of the great hymns of the Christian tradition. In a world where people hardly read books or hand write letters anymore, and instead communicate primarily through brief, incomplete sentences made up of acronyms like OMG and LOL, where else can we not only read but also sing phrases like:
“Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
thy justice like mountains high soaring above
thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.”
In a time of fear, anxiety, and political division, how nice is it to come together and put power, glory, and justice in healthy theological perspective, and to do so with such lovely poetry and music.
Our Offertory Hymn today comes from the “Christian Life” section of the hymnal, which is appropriate for the Offertory, as a primary component of the Christian Life is offering back to God and God’s people the gifts we have been given. The offertory immediately precedes the Holy Eucharist, where we literally consume Christ’s body and blood, taking them into our bodies. By choosing Hymn #700 as our offertory hymn, David brilliantly helps us make this connection to partaking of Christ’s Body in the Holy Eucharist by having us sing, “O love that casts out fear, O love that casts out sin, tarry no more without, but come dwell within.” Through the great mystery of the Eucharist, Christ indeed dwells within us.
Our Communion Hymn today – Hymn # 652 - gives us an opportunity to lyrically express the benefits of receiving Christ into our body through the Eucharist. Given the context of the anxious world around us, stanza 4 is especially meaningful:
Drop thy still dews of quietness
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of thy peace.
What I am trying to do is to help us make the connection between the lyrics of the hymns and where they fall in the service. These hymns are not chosen randomly – they all serve to support the theological or liturgical theme of where they fall in the service. So, we should be able to make the connection between the Offertory Hymn and the Offertory, and the Communion Hymn and the Eucharist.
Our last hymn - Onward Christian Soldiers (#562)- is another one of the all-time greats of the Christian tradition. David chooses this hymn as our closing processional hymn from time to time because of its clear missional directive. Having been inspired by nourished through God’s Word and Sacrament, we are being sent out into the world “with the cross of Jesus going on before.” This line is crucial because we are being reminded that the symbol that we are following – the cross – is a symbol of self-sacrificing, self-emptying love.
And the last stanza speaks to what I began with – the power and joy of communal, congregational singing:
Onward then, ye people, join our happy throng;
Blend with ours your voices In the triumph song:
Glory, laud, and honor, Unto Christ the King;
This through countless ages We with angels sing.
I pray that we will continue to be able to sing as a congregation, and to do so safely. Our hearts, minds, and souls need to be able to lift our voices and sing.
[1] https://www.healthline.com/health/benefits-of-singing#benefits