Thought for Today
1 Chronicles 15:22 Chenaniah, leader of the Levites in music, was to direct the music, for he understood it.
1 Chronicles 15:28 So all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting, to the sound of the horn, trumpets, and cymbals, and made loud music on harps and lyres.
Luke 15:25 "Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.
Ephesians 5:18 Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts,
“One of the world’s most beloved music festivals, Tanglewood is the famed summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and its training academy, the Tanglewood Music Center, as well as the Boston Pops. It’s also the year-round home of the Tanglewood Learning Institute. In a typical summer, Tanglewood welcomes more than 350,000 visitors to performances, recitals, and seminars across 500 acres nestled between Lenox and Stockbridge.” (www.bso.org)
This past Friday, Greta and I drove to Lenox to attend a performance at Tanglewood. We met our daughter and son-in-law there. We all had tickets to sit on the lawn where we enjoyed a delightful picnic and listened to the great music. I did discover that my own understanding of what constitutes a picnic is woefully outdated. Our daughter and son-in-law do have a wagon to carry all of their picnic accouterments. Their wagon even has a collapsible wooden tabletop. Their wagon was not the most elaborate one we saw, and our picnic was far from the most elaborate one. We did not even have candles, much less a candelabra. I’m considering whether I might want to look online for a portable fountain which we could give to our daughter and son-in-law for Christmas. Folks at Tanglewood really and truly go all-out in picnicking.
More than anything else, however, Friday reminded me of the incredible power of music. The performance we attended was not religious music. The featured performer was a popular Broadway singer and actress. She had a powerful, lyrical voice and offered a great show. The enthusiasm of the crowd was palpable. People clapped, cheered and sometimes stood up and waved. During more than one song, people turned on their smartphones and waved them in the air.
Hopefully few attend worship services merely for the music. From my personal bias, I would like to think of the sermon as the most important element of every worship service. Certainly everyone is hanging on every word, every idea in each sermon I preach . . . certainly! Surely we could have a powerful, meaningful worship service with only my sermon. Aren’t all of the other elements of worship there to enhance and complement the sermon?
Occasionally reality does penetrate my perception of our world. I do know that every element of every worship service is there to enhance and facilitate worship of our Creator God. I even remember that in the church of my youth, where we took communion each Sunday, there were those who discretely left after communion and did not even stay for the sermon.
Interestingly, neither of the seminaries I attended offered courses on the organization and composition of a worship service. Neither did they offer any instruction on coordinating the music with the message. Possibly, since so many of my classmates were musicians, no one ever imagined a seminary student who could not even read music.
I did learn in seminary, however, about the lyrical and poetic composition of the psalms and certain other passages in the Bible. Having served now for more than 10 years as an ordained minister, I recognize the importance of every element in our worship service. Several very talented musicians have helped me to understand what I now recognize as the critical importance of music as an element of worship. Each week, I coordinate the hymns I choose with the sermon I preach. I send my hymn selection to our music director and solicit any comments or suggestions that music director might offer.
Our Order of Worship and every element in that order are coordinated to make our worship service more meaningful for the worshipers and to be a more powerful act of worship of our Creator God. That is a part of our response to Luke 10:27.
Sing joyfully, savor every element of your worship service, trust God,
Pastor Ray