The Call to Care: Worship and Music
A Sermon by Brent J. Eelman
March 19, 2006
Abington Presbyterian Church

Acts 16:16-34
    One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. ¹⁷While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, ‘These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.’ ¹⁸She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And it came out that very hour.
    ¹⁹ But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market-place before the authorities. ²⁰When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, ‘These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews ²¹and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.’ ²²The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. ²³After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. ²⁴Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
    25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. 27When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. 28But Paul shouted in a loud voice, ‘Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.’ 29The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30Then he brought them outside and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ 31They answered, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ 32They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. 34He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.*

When I was first starting in the ministry, I spent a good amount of time with more experienced ministers, listening to them and learning from them. I truly valued their advise and wisdom, but I will never forget what one veteran of the pulpit said to me. "Be careful with the music department. It is misnamed. It is the war department." Some of the bloodiest church conflicts occur around music. Most people have strong feelings about music in the church. It has always been that way. The philosopher, Plato, was suspicious of music because it had the ability to arouse passion and thus negate reason. I suspect that any discussion of music within the church soon leaves the realm of reason and crosses into passion and argument. Yet, most of us would agree that music is a gift; a very special gift. I have often joked that my job as minister is to keep us all singing from the same hymnbook, but that can be taken literally. Our hymnbook represents three thousand years of faith, from the psalms of the Hebrews to the modern folk tunes and spirituals. Worship is at the heart of what we do as a community of faith, and music is at the heart of our worship. The psalmist asks the question: "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" That is the challenge that all of us have... expressing our faith in this world... and the first expression of that faith is song.

In the next few moments I want to look at music and worship from two perspectives. First, I will look at it in terms of Paul and the early church. Then, I will look at our experience of music here in Abington and the challenges that we have.

One of my favorite little children's books is about the horrible, no good, terrible day. The little child telling the story describes all the disasters that befall him and concludes by saying: "I think I will go to Australia." His day was nothing compared to Paul and Silas. They ran into conflict while preaching. Paul heals a woman who is possessed, but then is sued by her masters. They haul Paul into court, because they have lost their investment. Paul and Silas are then flogged and beaten and then shackled in the bowels of a prison. Australia was not an option! What would you do? How would you feel? My guess is that most of us would be pretty depressed and would feel utter despair. We might give up and say, "Woe is me!" What do Paul and Silas do? "About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them." They were singing!!! It is rumored that Caruso could break glass with his tenor voice, but Paul and Silas could destroy prisons with their song! Song is the source of freedom! What do you do when you are in trouble? What do you do when you are depressed? What do you do when things don't go your way? You sing to the lord and pray.

There is a temptation today to think that music is an extra. That it is icing on the cake and something nice to have when everything else is taken care of. Music in our culture often takes a back seat. It is the first thing that is cut from our schools. Most of us regard it as merely entertainment, something extra, but not essential. I believe that Paul and Silas would disagree with that evaluation. They were beaten and bloody and shackled to a wall, and they sang hymns. Music transcends chains!

In the early 1960’s my father’s younger brother, Neil, died of cancer at Temple University Hospital. My father told the story that at his funeral there were a number of nurses and employees present from Temple. They shared with my father that my uncle spent his last days of health, going from room to room on the cancer unit, singing hymns with other patients and praying. Singing is at the heart of our faith. The one who sings, can face death with courage, and triumph. Music is essential.

II

Here at APC we are blessed with music, shared by people of all ages. From the little ones to the adult choir, from the hand bells to the orchestra, music is at the heart of our ministry here. I remember when I accepted the call to come here, one of my colleagues said to me, “I know that church. It has a great music program.” We are blessed with that reputation and we need to continue to nurture it.

But we have a few challenges. First, I fear that at times we look at music, even in the context of worship, as entertainment. It isn’t. It is an offering to God and of course we want to offer our best. Music is participatory. A number of years ago, I was visiting a shut-in. At that time we would take tapes of the worship services to the shut-ins, and Irene, the woman I was visiting, was telling me what a wonderful service that was. Then she said: “But I wish you wouldn’t sing the hymns….because I can only hear your voice.” It was a humbling comment, but my response was “no”. I would sing the hymns, because God created me and all human beings to sing, and I felt at my best when I was singing. I still do.

Our challenge here is to sing: all of us! There are no bad voices or wrong notes when they are offered to God in song! Hymns are not merely for choirs. They are for all of God’s people. To stand and sing requires our entire body. When we sing to God, we literally embody the Word! Our challenge is to sing!

It is related to our second challenge. I believe that most of us would be happy with a thirty page hymnal. We like variety in most things, except hymns. Most members of the church will forgive a sub par sermon every now and then, but pick one hymn that is new and whammy….! Our challenge is to expand our repertoire. Singing hymns binds us to Christians of other generations, of other cultures. Our hymnbook needs to be a living book. We need to be adding to it.. The psalmist wrote. “Sing a new song to the Lord.” He didn’t say, “Sing the same old hymns each time!” That means learning new hymns. Our challenge is to learn the hymns of the ages, but also the new ones that are being written and sung and capture the faith of younger Christians. Once again I will say: music and singing is not something extra. It is essential.

The music departments of churches may be called the “War Department.” And yet scripture and history tell us that soul that knows peace, genuine, peace,… the peace that passes all understanding, the peace that triumphs over chains and slavery, illness and death… is the soul that sings. This is the good news. Amen.

*The New Revised Standard Version Bible, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.

Abington Presbyterian Church, Abington, Pennsylvania,  www.apcusa.org