[todaysdate]
By Eric Blauer
I’ve heard Angels sing, well maybe not heavenly beings, but earthly ones for sure. I heard one the other night when I watched Carrie Underwood sing her new song: “Something in the water” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. It’s a passionate song of faith, baptism and life change. I’ve seen her official music video but I prefer the live version on The Tonight Show. It’s no easy task singing pregnant and live, but even with those challenges, she delivered an amazing vocal performance that moved me.
I’ve had to contrast that experience with my recent reading of the conflict of music and some branches of the church.
Canon 15: Synod of Laodicea (363A.D.) the Apostolic Constitutions:c
“No others shall sing in the Church, save only the canonical singers, who go up into the ambo (pulpit) and sing from a book.”
This prohibition that came out of one of the early church councils. I am sure there’s a load of historical context that brought about this injunction but as a Protestant, I celebrate the gift of music being taken from only priests and given back to the common people.
Martin Luther, Catholic priest turned reformer, had this to say about the power and piety of music:
“There are, without doubt, in the human heart many seed-grains of virtue which are stirred up by music. All those with whom this is not the case I regard as blockheads and senseless stones. For we know that to the devils music is something altogether hateful and unbearable. I am not ashamed to confess publicly that next to theology there is no art which is the equal of music. For it alone, after theology, can do what otherwise only theology can accomplish, namely, quiet and cheer up the soul of man, which is clear evidence that the devil, the originator of depressing worries and troubled thoughts, flees from the voice of music just as he flees from the words of theology. For this very reason the prophets cultivated no art so much as music in that they attached their theology not to geometry, nor to arithmetic, nor to astronomy, but to music, speaking the truth through psalms and hymns.” -Martin Luther quote from his letter to noted Catholic composer, Ludwig Senfl
During the Advent/Christmas season we are given the wonderful opportunity to listen to traditional and contemporary musical reflections on the coming of Christ to earth. So far this year I’ve sat in the Bing Theater listening to local choral high school students sing beautiful praises to God. I’ve witnessed singers and musicians like my wife and Angela Hunt, my sister-in-law, gift our neighborhood with renditions of “Holy Night” that would resurrect the coldest heart of faith. I know of Christmas carolers that will visit one of our neighborhood assisted living homes to sing and make merry with those whom may need some extra cheer.
If you are familiar with the Christmas story, you know that it’s not the first time praises have been sung on Late Night:
Luke 2:13-15:
“Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying: “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.” When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
I pray you will be able to hear the praises of God this season and draw from them the peace, strength and joy on Earth as it is already known in Heaven be it in church, civic hall, school, tavern or even on late night TV.
I completely agree about the importance and power of singing. I also see a trend in congregations that I think relates to American Idol and other competitive singing on TV, which is that folks don’t sing unless they are singled out as extremely gifted and given solos. It’s a less canonical version of the edict you quoted above. The best of congregational music undoes this, and puts song back into the people. I give thanks for the voices of Salem, and yet when we host a funeral with many guests, we come to the time for a hymn and its only a handful of us opening our mouths. While Carrie’s offering is lovely and true, and a part of the media world in which she exists, we need still other influences to bring the song back down to average, everyday folk.
I get what you are saying Liv, but I don’t want to live in a world where best has to be dumbed down to average for everyone else. I don’t think the glory of the sun is diminished by the glory of the stars. I do think that we are overexposed to the cream of the crop in every area and that makes most commoners like ourselves feel ‘less than’ but I think there’s more ways to lift up all, instead of bringing down others. just my two pence.
This is beautiful Eric – thank you for posting. I’m afraid I am one of those people who has begrudgingly suffered through the music portion of the service, just waiting for the intellectual challenge that comes from a sermon. It is how I lean. I know I need to work more on opening myself up to the emotional part of worship if I am to truly grow and connect with Christ. This post has given me a lot to think about, as have your words Liv.
Thanks for reading and commenting Patty. I think music is the most difficult aspect of gathering people together. So many likes, dislikes, tastes, ages, complexities of musicianship etc…it’s why they designate this stuff in some circles as ‘worship wars’. But I still deeply value the arts and the practice of learning to tell story and proclaim truth in song as a community. There’s a place for this inside and outside sacred gatherings and there is many roles for different levels of musicianship too. I love it all, even when it’s a pain to figure out.
Thanks Eric and all. I love the singing and agree, we need to open our mouths. Think God cares how bad we are, compared to Carrie? I tend to draw the line, in worship, at praise songs, which I see as over done and a poor substitute to worship. To me, songs tell a story. Emoting one emotion – praise, is very minor. They can be beautiful music, but leave God separate and removed from history. Take Silent night, has praise, but in a story context.