Singing Our Faith

Perhaps the greatest reformed theologian of the 20^th Century, Karl Barth, wrote that, “The Christian church sings.  It is not a choral society.  Its singing is not a concert.  But from inner, material necessity it sings.  Singing is the highest form of human expression…What we can and must say quite confidently is that the church which does not sing is not the church.  And where…it does not really sing but sighs and mumbles spasmodically, shamefacedly and with an ill grace, it can be at best only a troubled community which is not sure of its cause and of whose ministry and witness there can be no great expectation…The praise of God which finds its concrete culmination in the singing of the community is one of the indispensable forms of ministry in the church.”

Why do we sing?  First and foremost, when we sing, God is glorified.  When the Israelites crossed the Red Sea and escaped the Egyptians, Moses led them in a song to the Lord.  When the temple was built and they brought the ark of the covenant to rest in the tabernacle, they sang and the glory of the Lord filled the Temple.  The prophet Zephaniah describes the day of the Lord and God’s promised redemption as a time when the people and God will both sing.  Zephaniah says,

“Sing, O Daughter of Zion!  Shout aloud, O Israel!  Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O Daughter of Jerusalem!  The Lord has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy.  The Lord, the King of Israel is with you, never again will you fear any harm….The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save, he will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”

God sings.  We, who are made in the image of God, sing.  The Book of Psalms is the hymnbook of the Hebrew people.  There are psalms of joy and psalms of lament that express feelings with no pretense, laid open before God.

So, why do we sing?  To glorify God, and because music has the unique capacity to link our hearts and our minds.  Hymns give allow us to express our emotions and they shape our faith.  John Calvin encouraged those who love the Lord to “sing till we feel our hearts ascending with our tongues.”

Paul knew the power of song, too.  He wrote to the churches he founded about the essential practices of the faith.  Included in those was singing, he wrote much the same instruction that we heard in the Colossians passage this morning to the church at Ephesus, “Be filled with the Spirit.  Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.  Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Singing is one of the ways we are filled with the Holy Spirit.  Jesus and his disciples, as they finished their last meal together, sang a hymn and then went out to the Mount of Olives.  And when we take communion, we remember that God surrounds himself with song, Isaiah and the Revelation of John both describe the throne of God as surrounded by singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might.  Heaven and earth are full of your glory.  Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  Hosanna in the highest.”

And while music glorifies God and connects our hearts and minds to God, it also shapes our faith.  John Chrysostom, one of the church fathers from the fourth Century knew how important hymns were in shaping what we believe, and he often wrote of the church’s responsibility regarding singing psalms and hymns.

The church was facing a theological rift perpetuated by the early Christian theologian, Arius. (His followers were called “Arians”.) Arius disagreed with the church’s teaching of the full divinity of Christ, that is, Christ was “co-eternal with God.” In 323, the Council of Nicea met and overwhelmingly decreed that Christ was “co-eternal with God the Father.” Christ always was and always is God.

Surprisingly, music played a significant role in the conflict. The view that Christ was not fully God was perpetuated by hymns-hymns that denied Christ’s deity and were sung by the Arians! Their music was so popular with “ordinary churchgoers” that they increasingly became ensnared in this heresy.

The Council of Nicea – from which came the Nicean creed that we used to affirm our faith this morning –  had affirmed the truth of the Trinity, but many of the “common folk” liked the music of the Arians and their faith was being misshapen by it.

Thankfully, God raised up a dynamic hymn writer to successfully counter these divisive hymns, Ambrose of Milan; he was a poet, a preacher, and believed in the full divinity of Christ. Thankfully, God used the hymns of Ambrose to help turn the tide against the popular but misguided theology.

In the midst of the controversy John Chrysostom wrote:

Sing! Sing psalms [and hymns] that purify the mind and [allow] the Holy Spirit to descend swiftly upon the mind of the singer. For those who sing with understanding invoke the grace of the Spirit.

I know a pastor who claims that his singing voice is at its best when accompanied by a choir of thousands.  But, he sings.  The focus when we sing is not on us, it is on glorifying God, allowing our hearts and minds to be fully focused on God, and welcoming the Spirit into our lives that our faith might be formed and reformed, shaped into the person God would have us be.

Hear again the words to hymn:

When in our music God is glorified, and adoration leaves no room for pride,

It is as though the whole creation cried, Alleluia.  How often, making music, we have found a new dimension in the world of sound, as worship moved us to a more profound.  Alleluia!  So has the Church, in liturgy and song, in faith and love, through centuries of wrong, borne witness to the truth in every tongue, Alleluia!
And did not Jesus sing a psalm that night
when utmost evil strove against the Light?
Then let us sing, for whom he won the fight,
Alleluia!

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!