Fearless Worship

 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. II Timothy 1:7

I hope you have been as excited about our worship services of late as I.  The integration of additional instrumentation, in my opinion, has brought a new energy and spirit to the services.  This has not come about as simply a whim or a passing notion.  For quite some time now pastoral leadership, the session, and other concerned individuals have been discussing, debating, researching, and praying about worship music. At the same time we have been hesitant to take any actions for fear of alienating any segment of our church family.  I suppose we were fearful of collateral damage from a worship war. 

All of us are familiar with the worship wars.  We have witnessed with horror the degeneration of worship music in many congregations.  Fearful that traditional worship practices were becoming irrelevant in the modern world they have moved from the singing of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs into stage band performances.  Not long ago I read an article complete with an accompanying photo of what appeared to be a very modern and upbeat worship "stage" with the theatrical lights and the praise band in casual attire.  But a closer look at the photo and the caption underneath revealed it was actually a photo from a popular night club.   Assured that the slippery slope of contemporary worship will lead to such compromise others would like to see worship music remain familiar and unchanged. Yet congregations who choose that route continue to shrink in number and in their effectiveness to minister in the community.  Obviously, neither of these options are desirable for our congregation.

As a remedy, there are churches in our area who have chosen to hold two different styles of service:  one, a traditional service, and the other a contemporary.  I hope it works for them, and I wish no ill will on any churches or their leadership who have chosen that route, but I strongly question a program or a plan that by definition of itself divides a church rather than unifies it.  Should not a family of Christ come together in some form of unity? Life and its struggles bring with it a plethora opportunities for division and divisiveness within the church.  We have no need to make division part of the logistics of our worship.  I do not believe this is a desirable option for our congregation.

As I have stated before in other articles, I believe it is possible to worship God in a style and manner that is not limited by the words,"contemporary," or, "traditional."  I believe we can worship without fear using the full heritage of our reformed faith, and embrace the modern world of song at the same time.  I don't care if someone is compelled to label that as blended, eclectic, or schizophrenic.  I call it real people worshiping their Savior with all that is available to them.  In fact, I once heard of a group of radicals who saw so great a need to update their worship practices with a brand new set of contemporary Christian hymns and songs that they resorted to writing them themselves.  Today we refer to those fearless worshipers as the reformers.

The integration of the flute, guitar, violin, and cello with piano is something very new for us.  Quite honestly, we are still finding our way with it.  I have never had the opportunity to work with this combination of instruments.  I believe this will give us a unique sound, a desired flexibility, and the essential confidence so that whether we are singing an original composition, the latest product from Gettymusic, or a Bach chorale, we will do so with joy, energy, and daring.  My prayer is that we will come to be absolutely fearless when we approach any psalm, hymn or spiritual song.

Bach to Christmas

 As I told you last month, my favorite and I believe most Biblical based holiday time for Christians is Thanksgiving.  Although the advertising and marketing arm of every retailer has been here well ahead of us, we have finally arrived at the Christmas season.  While historically Christmas has, at best, a checkered past I can't ignore the potential for ministry inherent in the Christmas season.

True, there is no command to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  There is nothing linking the birth of Christ with the week of the winter solstice.  There is no Biblical basis for the trappings of the season.  If you want to get down to the truth, there is a very messy and embarrassing history behind everything from caroling to those gingerbread man cookies.  There are even a number of famous historic incidents in which the season and antisemitic actions were linked together.  It is no wonder that our Puritan forefathers banned the celebration.

We live in a world that has become increasingly ignorant of its own history.  The season, though pagan in its origins has, for most of our population, transcended most of its dark roots and is recognized either as a time to celebrate the birth of Christ, or a time to indulge in materialism.  Admittedly, for most of us modern Christians, we do a little of both.  The season is a time in which the secular world notices the Christian world. We have reached a point now in which I believe we are better served to not only celebrate the season, but to celebrate it in the extreme when possible.  Entertainment media, proponents of other recently made up holidays, influences from the Mideast, and others would like to erase Christ from Christmas.  Retailers instruct sales staff to wish patrons, "Happy holidays," rather than, "Merry Christmas."  One could argue quite easily that the best thing for believers to do is separate ourselves from the pagan celebration completely as the Puritans tried and ban all vestiges of it from our churches and our homes. I believe, however, that more good can come from a pagan celebration that has been "salted" with Christianity.

The words of Christ teach us to be the salt of the world.  We know that salt influences flavor, acts as a preservative, and is a purifier.  But for salt to work it has to come into contact with what it is affecting.  Kept in the shaker, salt has not influence or affect.  We too have no effect on the world unless we contact it. Christmas, however tainted it may be, is one of the key contact points we have with the world.  If we remove our influence from the holiday, what would be accomplished?  I believe the work of the church, and the spread of the gospel is better served by claiming what we can of the holiday and keeping it as ours.

Now, like a long winded preacher (which I am actually guilty of having been), that was all introduction.  What I really want to tell you about is how we in the adult choir intend to claim the season through music this year.  First, as your choir provides leadership and encouragement to worship in congregational song I hope you will join your voice singing the familiar songs of the season.  Second, as we sing the various introits and anthems celebrating the coming of the Savior into our world, I hope you will not view them as elevator music or filler time. These are not performance pieces for your entertainment, but are songs of worship being lifted up to the Lord that you can participate with in your heart.  Instead of checking your email on your phone, let the words and the music lift your heart and encourage your spirit and help you tune your mind onto the things of Christ rather than the things of the world.

Our Christmas season begins officially on December 1, the first Sunday in the Advent Season.  The choir will share, "Air for Advent".  "Air" is a music term that means melody or tune.  This particular piece is an arrangement by Tom Fettke that uses the melody from J.S. Bach's (1685-1750) Overture No. 3 in D major,BWV 1068, more commonly known as the "Air on G".  Fettke took the various melodies of this instrumental piece and assigned text from the Hymns, "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus" (written by Charles Wesley 1707-1788), and "Come O Come Emmanuel" (an ancient Latin hymn translated b John M. Neale 1818-1866).  The result is a beautiful haunting call pleading for the Jewish Messiah to come and make His appearance in the world.  What a way to prepare your heart to hear the message that will be delivered following the offering that Sunday!

Next, we will share on December 8, a favorite of the congregation, "In the Bleak Midwinter" by Gustav Holst (1874-1934) with text from a poem by Christina G. Rossetti (1830-1894).  While the text of the poem is in error in its attempt to present the nativity in a winter setting, poetically it accurately describes the cold harsh world Christ was born into.  It paints a most wonderful and artistic word picture of the humility of Christ's birth, and the wonder that the simple stable held He Whom neither heaven nor earth could possibly contain. I have been told on more than one occasion by individuals in our congregation that Christmas has not come until we sing this song.

The following two Sundays Bach will provide brief chorales for our introits. Our anthem, "A Joyful Noel" utilizing Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", and the text of "The First Noel" will be sung on the 15th of December. Finally on December 22 our anthem will be a Lloyd Larson arrangement of "Angels We Have Heard on High".  The resounding, "Gloria in excelsis Deo" is of course the famous Latin phrase that means, "Glory to God in the highest!".  As an old preacher once told me, "Singing that gets me so excited it makes me want to charge hell with a water pistol!"

What our choral music is all about is worshiping God through song.  It is about getting excited about the things of God.  It is about lifting your heart high and expressing genuine joy for the Creator of all things who chose to take upon Himself the cruel punishment that was due His creation.  He did so by coming into this world through the indignity of human birth.  Fittingly, we will end the season with the prayerful anthem by David S. Gaines and Ruth Elaine Schram, "Be Born in Us."  Even as Christ changed the world by being born into it, living a perfect life, and dying on the cross, so this song lifts a longing prayer that He would do the same thing in our hearts as individuals.

As the retail world, the secular world, the world that hates us, and the world that tolerates us all vie to keep the season of Christmas in their way, I pray we, like the reinvented Ebeneezer Scrooge will know "how to keep Christmas well" in our lives and our church. In closing I would like to quote from that final planned anthem mentioned above, "Be born in us, O Prince of Peace, let the hope You bring this world be born in me."  God bless you as you keep the season.  Yes, I think it is a good idea, let's keep the season.