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kayreChurch went well, my sermon was well received. I noticed that I was stuttering occasionally but my family says it wasn't too bad. Did lose my place once and had to backtrack, but senior pastor does things like that often enough that no one minded at all. Made considerable progress towards communicating well with the pianist.
Several of you asked, so I'll post my sermon behind a cut.
11th Commandment-- Why We Sing
Children’s story-- Why do we sing? One reason: we sing to learn. ABC song; Jesus Loves Me. (also mention singing to celebrate)
I chose the title “the 11th commandment” for this sermon. Cynics say the 11th commandment is “don’t get caught.” Others remember Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment, “thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican.” But you probably can guess, after my children’s time, what I had in mind. There’s a command in the bible that appears over and over-- Sing to the Lord! This command can be found about 100 times in the Bible. The idea runs all through the Psalms, but the command to sing can be found as early as the book of Exodus and as late as our reading today, from the New testament.
Why? Why sing? Especially today, it’s not something most of us do a lot in everyday life. We might sing along with the radio occasionally, or maybe in the shower, but we don’t sing at most meetings or gatherings. And yet we sing at church. It’d probably feel pretty odd to go to church and NOT sing. Why do we do it? That’s what I want to talk about today-- and we’ll do some extra singing, too, so if you need a cough drop to keep your throat comfortable, go right ahead-- even if it’s in a crackly wrapper!
I told the children one reason we sing-- to learn. That works for adults too. I bet there are lots of Bible verses that you know because you can sing them! “You shall go out with joy”, which we sang recently; or any of the words from Handel’s Messiah. Hymns can also teach theology, as well. John Wesley knew this. He’d ask his brother Charles for a hymn to explain some point, and within days Charles could produce exactly what was needed. Not just the 4 or 5 verses we sing, either-- many of his hymns went on for 20 or more stanzas!
Since today is a communion Sunday, I’ll share a bit of a Charles Wesley text about communion, where he’s responding to people who were arguing about exactly how communion conveys God’s grace:
O the depth of love divine, th’unfathomable grace!
Who shall say how bread and wine God into us conveys!
.....
Ask the Father’s wisdom how: Christ Who did the means ordain;
Angels round our altars bow to search it out, in vain.
Sure and real is the grace, the manner be unknown;
Only meet us in thy ways and perfect us in one.
Let us taste the heavenly powers, Lord, we ask for nothing more.
Thine to bless,’ tis only ours to wonder and adore.
It’s rather old fashioned language, but it amounts to-- why worry about HOW communion works, as long as it does work-- as long as communion brings us closer to god? For early Methodists, singing these words may have helped them get past being hung up on those questions.
============
Another reason we sing is to pray. Of course we can pray without music, but singing has a way of making us focus, concentrate entirely on the words of prayer. Singing prayer involves both our minds and our bodies. St. Augustine said “when we sing, we pray twice.” As the Deer Pants For the Water... Breathe on me, breath of God. So many of our wonderful hymns are prayers! And often it is the prayers we sing that stay with us when we can’t find words, at our times of deepest stress and need. Two years ago I helped to care for David’s father during one of the last weeks of his life. He was failing fast, rarely conscious, and literally without words most of the time-- but at very challenging moments he’d begin to sing, “Jesus Calls Me....”
During World War Two, a group of men began living and worshiping together in Taize, France. As they searched for ways to pray together despite different religions and languages, they began writing simple prayer songs that can be repeated in a meditative way. They wrote in English, which they believed is becoming a universal language, and in Latin, which is basically no one’s language. Today thousands of people gather at Taize daily to worship together, and others share worship in the Taize style around the world. We’re going to sing #2157, Come and Fill Our Hearts, twice, to get just a taste of this tradition of singing prayer.
============
Singing together builds community, brings people together. Remember how it felt to sing your high school or college alma mater or fight song? Or Sweet Caroline during the 8th inning? When people are singing together, they ARE together in a special way, sharing the same aim, connecting with each other. Spirituals are a wonderful example of that. Slaves could support and encourage each other while working in the fields or in the kitchens, and sang together in their worship as well. After slavery ended, spirituals were still a source of encouragement, and connection with each other and with God, as former slaves and the children of slaves worked to build new lives. Generations later, some of those spirituals became anthems of the civil rights movement, as black and white people worked together to bring true justice at last. “We Shall Overcome” grew out of several spirituals. It’s #533 if you need the book, but I’ll tell you the verses as we go (1, 2, 4) We shall overcome.. We shall live in peace....
----------------
One last reason we sing-- to celebrate! Happy birthday! Maybe that fight song again at the end of a game! In the church we celebrate God’s goodness especially at our holidays-- Joy to the world! christ the lord is risen today! Some of the oldest words recorded in the bible are a song of celebration-- MIriam’s song after god saved the Israelites from Pharoah’s army. People still sing musical settings of that-- I will sing unto the Lord for He has triumphed gloriously...” centuries later! And we sing new songs about God’s goodness and greatness -- Shout to the Lord, How Majestic Is Your Name.
Maybe this is a good time to talk for just a moment about WHAT we sing. That scripture that we read at the beginning mentions “hymns, songs and spiritual songs.” To the people who first received that letter, “hymns” would have made them think of the songs sung to the Greek gods-- maybe Greek Christians were setting new words praising Jesus to those hymns. “Songs” probably meant the Psalms still being sung by Hebrew Christians. Spiritual songs? maybe these were the entirely new songs being written. Could it be that the community at Collosae was arguing about what to sing? And Paul’s answer is-- sing everything! Just sing and praise God! You don’t have to be a great singer, either.. it’s about heart, not talent.
So we’re going to close this part of worship with a song of praise-- He Has Made Me Glad. This joyful song was written by a woman who didn’t seem to have much reason to be so happy. She was a single mother who worked various odd jobs to support her children one of whom was a polio survivor. And yet her joy in her relationship with God was so great that she’s most remembered for this song, he has made me glad, I will rejoice for he has made me glad. It’s #2270 in the black book; we’ll sing it twice.
Several of you asked, so I'll post my sermon behind a cut.
11th Commandment-- Why We Sing
Children’s story-- Why do we sing? One reason: we sing to learn. ABC song; Jesus Loves Me. (also mention singing to celebrate)
I chose the title “the 11th commandment” for this sermon. Cynics say the 11th commandment is “don’t get caught.” Others remember Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment, “thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican.” But you probably can guess, after my children’s time, what I had in mind. There’s a command in the bible that appears over and over-- Sing to the Lord! This command can be found about 100 times in the Bible. The idea runs all through the Psalms, but the command to sing can be found as early as the book of Exodus and as late as our reading today, from the New testament.
Why? Why sing? Especially today, it’s not something most of us do a lot in everyday life. We might sing along with the radio occasionally, or maybe in the shower, but we don’t sing at most meetings or gatherings. And yet we sing at church. It’d probably feel pretty odd to go to church and NOT sing. Why do we do it? That’s what I want to talk about today-- and we’ll do some extra singing, too, so if you need a cough drop to keep your throat comfortable, go right ahead-- even if it’s in a crackly wrapper!
I told the children one reason we sing-- to learn. That works for adults too. I bet there are lots of Bible verses that you know because you can sing them! “You shall go out with joy”, which we sang recently; or any of the words from Handel’s Messiah. Hymns can also teach theology, as well. John Wesley knew this. He’d ask his brother Charles for a hymn to explain some point, and within days Charles could produce exactly what was needed. Not just the 4 or 5 verses we sing, either-- many of his hymns went on for 20 or more stanzas!
Since today is a communion Sunday, I’ll share a bit of a Charles Wesley text about communion, where he’s responding to people who were arguing about exactly how communion conveys God’s grace:
O the depth of love divine, th’unfathomable grace!
Who shall say how bread and wine God into us conveys!
.....
Ask the Father’s wisdom how: Christ Who did the means ordain;
Angels round our altars bow to search it out, in vain.
Sure and real is the grace, the manner be unknown;
Only meet us in thy ways and perfect us in one.
Let us taste the heavenly powers, Lord, we ask for nothing more.
Thine to bless,’ tis only ours to wonder and adore.
It’s rather old fashioned language, but it amounts to-- why worry about HOW communion works, as long as it does work-- as long as communion brings us closer to god? For early Methodists, singing these words may have helped them get past being hung up on those questions.
============
Another reason we sing is to pray. Of course we can pray without music, but singing has a way of making us focus, concentrate entirely on the words of prayer. Singing prayer involves both our minds and our bodies. St. Augustine said “when we sing, we pray twice.” As the Deer Pants For the Water... Breathe on me, breath of God. So many of our wonderful hymns are prayers! And often it is the prayers we sing that stay with us when we can’t find words, at our times of deepest stress and need. Two years ago I helped to care for David’s father during one of the last weeks of his life. He was failing fast, rarely conscious, and literally without words most of the time-- but at very challenging moments he’d begin to sing, “Jesus Calls Me....”
During World War Two, a group of men began living and worshiping together in Taize, France. As they searched for ways to pray together despite different religions and languages, they began writing simple prayer songs that can be repeated in a meditative way. They wrote in English, which they believed is becoming a universal language, and in Latin, which is basically no one’s language. Today thousands of people gather at Taize daily to worship together, and others share worship in the Taize style around the world. We’re going to sing #2157, Come and Fill Our Hearts, twice, to get just a taste of this tradition of singing prayer.
============
Singing together builds community, brings people together. Remember how it felt to sing your high school or college alma mater or fight song? Or Sweet Caroline during the 8th inning? When people are singing together, they ARE together in a special way, sharing the same aim, connecting with each other. Spirituals are a wonderful example of that. Slaves could support and encourage each other while working in the fields or in the kitchens, and sang together in their worship as well. After slavery ended, spirituals were still a source of encouragement, and connection with each other and with God, as former slaves and the children of slaves worked to build new lives. Generations later, some of those spirituals became anthems of the civil rights movement, as black and white people worked together to bring true justice at last. “We Shall Overcome” grew out of several spirituals. It’s #533 if you need the book, but I’ll tell you the verses as we go (1, 2, 4) We shall overcome.. We shall live in peace....
----------------
One last reason we sing-- to celebrate! Happy birthday! Maybe that fight song again at the end of a game! In the church we celebrate God’s goodness especially at our holidays-- Joy to the world! christ the lord is risen today! Some of the oldest words recorded in the bible are a song of celebration-- MIriam’s song after god saved the Israelites from Pharoah’s army. People still sing musical settings of that-- I will sing unto the Lord for He has triumphed gloriously...” centuries later! And we sing new songs about God’s goodness and greatness -- Shout to the Lord, How Majestic Is Your Name.
Maybe this is a good time to talk for just a moment about WHAT we sing. That scripture that we read at the beginning mentions “hymns, songs and spiritual songs.” To the people who first received that letter, “hymns” would have made them think of the songs sung to the Greek gods-- maybe Greek Christians were setting new words praising Jesus to those hymns. “Songs” probably meant the Psalms still being sung by Hebrew Christians. Spiritual songs? maybe these were the entirely new songs being written. Could it be that the community at Collosae was arguing about what to sing? And Paul’s answer is-- sing everything! Just sing and praise God! You don’t have to be a great singer, either.. it’s about heart, not talent.
So we’re going to close this part of worship with a song of praise-- He Has Made Me Glad. This joyful song was written by a woman who didn’t seem to have much reason to be so happy. She was a single mother who worked various odd jobs to support her children one of whom was a polio survivor. And yet her joy in her relationship with God was so great that she’s most remembered for this song, he has made me glad, I will rejoice for he has made me glad. It’s #2270 in the black book; we’ll sing it twice.
