What We Sing and What We Do

(NOTE: If you haven’t read yesterday’s blog, please do that first. Today’s will make more sense in light of yesterday’s.)

Picking up where we left off, here’s Dan’s prescriptive advice, with my highlights. My personal Commentary then follows, again in italics. —

The music at General Conference indeed has charms to soothe the savage breast, but only for a time.  Perhaps we should be required to sing our legislation and our plenary floor speeches?  “I rise to move interpretive dance!”  Singing and dancing, we model something lovely and wonderful.  In worship and praise, we are the people of God at our very best.  Our witness in music is consistent and unified.  We raises our voices as one, seemingly, only when we sing.  Is there a lesson here?

Music is transformative.  It is wonderful to see the convention center rock, sway, boogie, and shimmy to a rousing contemporary rendition of “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing” or “Great is the Lord.”  It is in our music that we experience joy.  It is through our singing that we move out of our heads into our hearts and souls.  It is when the building buzzes with the bass beat and soaring chords that we are a harmonious and unified body.  I do not understand how we can give ourselves to such abandonment to Spirit and to give voice to such gracious words, then continue in our division and contention when the music fades.

— I can only add this delightful prayer from our current hymnal, the Prayer for True Singing, that has us asking God for some serious stuff:

Glorious God, source of joy and righteousness,

enable us as redeemed and forgiven children

evermore to rejoice in singing your praises.

Grant that what we sing with our lips

we may believe in our hearts,

and what we believe in our hearts

we may practice in our lives;

so that being doers of the Word

and not hearers only,

we may receive everlasting life.