NUTS AND BOLTS III: ALL THINGS MUSICALLY RELATED
1. I NTRODUCTION
Worship is a living tradition, a dynamic process that moves between received heritage and the realities and challenges of the present world. It is a conversation that began long before we were born and will continue long after we are gone. Music has always been an integral expression of the proclamation of the Word, of prayer and of the incarnational mystery in worship. The Psalmist proclaims, “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall be continually in my mouth” (Ps. 34: 1 RSV). As musicians working in the church, our calling is to be creative facilitators and conduits that articulate and offer praise to God; to be, in the words of the poet George Herbert, “secretaries of God’s praise.” Augustine writes in his Confessions, “ ... even now as I am moved not by the song but by the things which are sung, when sung with fluent voice and music that is most appropriate, I acknowledge again the great benefit of this practice. Thus I vacillate between the peril of pleasure and the value of the experience, and I am led more, while advocating no irrevocable position, to endorse the custom of singing in church so that by the pleasure of hearing, the weaker soul might be elevated to an attitude of devotion.” Thirteen centuries later, John Wesley wrote these instructions for Methodists, “Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing God more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this, attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with sound, but offered to God continually.” 1 It was his brother Charles who interpreted John’s theology in verse:
Still let us on our guard be found And watch against the power of sound, with sacred jealousy; Lest haply sense should damp our zeal, And music’s charms bewitch and steal our heart away from Thee. 2
A church’s music ministry should be a life-affirming experience of thanksgiving to God, a dynamic stewardship of God’s gifts and a vital, energized engagement with the world. In the words of the well- known hymn by Fred Pratt Greene: “Let every instrument be tuned for praise! Let all rejoice who have a voice to raise! And may God give us faith to sing always Alleluia!
______1 Kenneth Cain Kinghorn, The Heritage of American Methodism (Strasbourg, France: Éditions du Signe, 1999), 126 2 Quoted by A. S. Gregory, Praises with Understanding ( London: Epworth Press, 1949), 109