07 January 2012
Have you ever thought
how weird it is that we Christians get together and sing? I mean, humans used to do a lot of singing all over the place. But it sure seems like in recent years just getting together to sing has dried up a bit in our culture. Singing is something you LISTEN to (with your private ear buds solidly in place or with your ghetto blaster screaming from your car), but something folks seem increasingly uncomfortable doing. I'm so glad that St. Paul's is a singing place - folks of all sorts there are not afraid to belt out music. And as Christians we know the secret joy that is ours: belting out that music in praise of the Blessed Trinity and joining with angels and archangels and all heaven's hosts to sing to the Lamb. Our Lutheran Church has an astonishingly rich heritage of music - of singing praises and proclaiming the great things our God has done to save us and sanctify us - may it grow ever stronger into the next generation!
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7 comments:
Even songs have less singing these days. (Rap music -- "music" without the music, fairly often.)
Way back when, the elementary teacher did everything, including music. We all sang because nobody told us we "couldn't" sing.
Now, apparently, if there isn't a "music teacher" nobody gets to sing. And if there is, it's like sports teams, the good are trained to do better, and the rest can watch. Music should be for all the children!
I wonder if we sang in church because we sang in school, and vice versa?
Too true, WF.
Helen, I LOVE hearing the children belt out the music at St. Paul's - more often than not they put the adults to shame. Wish you could have heard their Latin piece this Lessons and Carols: Gaudete! Gaudete! Christus natus est...
A congregation not far from me has the rap of being a "non-singing" congregation. Many do not sing out. Some do not sing at all. Their day school children, OTOH, are SINGERS. They put the adults to shame. One wonders what happened that made two or three generations of Lutherans into non-singers.
I just wish that people who are tone deaf and have no business signing wouldn't. At the same time, if you don't sing, that doesn't mean you're not praying. How does the old adage go? He who sings prays twice? So, why not be content to pray once?
"I just wish that people who are tone deaf and have no business signing wouldn't."
This is one of the reasons that I think too much emphasis on singing is problematic. Such emphasis is not inclusive and in a way is a bit elitist. Not everyone can sing and the ones that can, really don't want the ones that can't to join them. (Heck, no one, even non-singers, wants to hear loud off key singing.) Singing is a wonderful addition to our liturgies and we commend this activity to those that can.
Silent lips, however, do not mean no participation or that no praise is going on. Those of us who can't sing...we sing beautifully in our minds, fully praying twice, and we fully expect our voices will be better when we join the choirs of angels in the kingdom to come.
Not everyone has the same gifts and that is OK.
Rev Weedon,
Love your rhetorical question, no it’s not weird at all that Christians get to sing praises to our Lord. What is weird in recent years is what has made its way into Lutheran Worship in some of our parishes. The Lutheran Church do have an astonishing rich history of sacred music – “of singing praises and proclaiming the great things our God has done to save us and sanctify us”. Amen to, “ may it grow ever stronger into the next generation!”
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