I
have been looking forward to this sermon series for a really long time, and I
think it’s because like many of us here, I can’t even begin to imagine my life
without music.
And I
think what I really like about music is that regardless of the type of music,
even though I have my personal preferences which I’ll get to in a moment, music
has a way of speaking to our deepest desires and longings.
There’s an entire book of the Bible, the Book of Psalms that has served
as one giant song book for God’s people.
We don’t have the music for each of these Psalms, but originally they
were put to music to help the people of Israel sing their faith which included
songs of praise and songs of thanksgiving, but they also included songs that
helped them to express their deepest longings, their fears, their frustrations,
and even their doubts.
In
one of the churches I served, our church partnered with an inner city church
that wasn’t able to conduct their own summer vacation bible school, and
different volunteers would drive our church van to pick up the children each
night and bring them to our church for vacation bible school.
Well,
I volunteered to drive the van for two of those days. Our church gave each child a CD which had the
vacation bible school songs so they could listen to the songs at home. They loved the vacation bible school songs so
much that they wanted me to play the CD the whole way back in the van. And these kids would sing out like there was
no tomorrow.
They
kind of reminded me of the early Methodists who were known to sing out their
faith whenever they would gather.
Over
these next four weeks, we’re going to look at how music can be an important way
for us to be in concert with God. And to
help us do this, we’re going to focus on four different types of music and how
they might help us grow in a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.
A few
years ago, Pew Research, conducted a survey involving almost 2,000 people of a
variety of ages, the youngest people who participated were age 16.
Of
the following musical categories including classical, country, rock, R&B,
Hip-Hop which includes Rap and Jazz, here is the ranking of the musical
preferences according to the survey.
Rock was the favorite music category. 35% of people said they listen to rock music
often. I would fit into that category. I
like to listen to different kinds of rock music. Country Music comes in as the
2nd favorite music preference in the survey. 27% listen to this type of music often. R&B is #3 with 22%. Hip-Hop/Rap is next at 16%. Classical music falls in at 5th
place at 15%. And jazz comes in at 12%.
Rock,
country, R&B, Hip-Hop/Rap, Classical, and Jazz. That’s the order in terms of what people
listen to most often.
If
you look at the research by age and they have four age groupings. 16-29, 30-49, 50-64, and 65 and older, here
are how these music preferences break down:
The
youngest three age groups chose rock while the 65 and above age group chose
country as their favorite. And looking
at classical, country, and jazz, which we’ll be covering in this sermon series,
the notable statistic is that jazz music ranks pretty low in all of the age
segments. But we might end up changing that
when we focus on jazz next Sunday. You won’t want to miss next Sunday. You’ll really
appreciate it!
And
if you’re interested in who our favorite performers are from the survey
regardless of music preference, the top ten performers include, The Beatles
(they’re #1), The Eagles, Johnny Cash, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, The
Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Frank Sinatra, Carrie Underwood, and Garth
Brooks.
So
that’s enough of an introduction for this sermon series. We can debate and
discuss the results of that survey after worship, but what I want to do now, is
have us focus on how classical music can help us grow in our faith with God.
Like
I said, classical music doesn’t rate too highly as far as what most people
listen to the most, but there are some important connecting points between
classical music and our faith.
Johann Sebastian Bach, the great German classical composer from the 18th
century, once said,“Music was God’s
greatest gift to God’s sorrowing creatures, to give them a joy worthy of their
destiny.”
Bach is known for writing two musical
masterpieces based on the passion narratives, the crucifixion narratives, from
two of our New Testament Gospels, Matthew and John. These musical pieces are
often performed during Holy Week, the last days of Jesus’ life including his
crucifixion. Some have claimed that his
“Passion of St. Matthew” composition is the supreme cultural achievement of all
Western civilization.
Even
the radical skeptic of the Christian faith, Friedrich Nietzsche admitted upon
hearing it, “One who has completely
forgotten Christianity truly hears it here as gospel.” Interestingly enough, after Bach’s death in
1750, his music, as wonderful as it was, went largely unnoticed for the next 80
years until another brilliant composer, Felix Mendelssohn arranged a
performance of Bach’s “The Passion of St. Matthew,” and a larger audience was
finally able to appreciate the incredible beauty of Bach’s music.
Nearly 75% of Bach’s 1,000 compositions were written for use in
worship. 75%! Between his musical
genius, his devotion to Jesus Christ, and the effect of his music, he has come
to be known in many circles as the “Fifth Evangelist” just after the four
Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, doing in music form, what the
Gospel writers had done in written form.
A
couple of Bach’s favorite passages of scripture are from I Chronicles and II
Chronicles in the Old Testament. The I
Chronicles passage is from chapter 25 which wasn’t familiar to me. The sub-heading for this chapter in my bible
reads, “The Temple Musicians.” This
whole chapter is simply a list of difficult to pronounce names of musicians who
served under King David, names like Peter Jarjisian, hard to pronounce names.
The
other favorite passage of scripture comes one book later in II Chronicles
chapter 5 which tells the story of King Solomon, David’s son, who had built the
Temple in Jerusalem, and had gathered all of Israel to the Temple for a special
dedication.
It
was at this dedication of the newly built Temple that over 120 trumpeters joined
with singers and other instruments including cymbals, harps and lyres, to offer
in unison, a song of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord.
Of
this scene from this passage, Johann Sebastian Bach, wrote in the margin of his
personal copy of Martin Luther’s three volume translation of the Bible these
words, “At a reverent performance of
music, God is always at hand with his gracious presence.”
George Frederick Handel is also a classical
composer who was able to write music to help people be drawn closer in their
relationship with God. Handel lived
about the same time as Bach and both composers are included in the Anglican and
Episcopal church calendars of saints.
Like
Bach, Handel was born in Germany in the late 1600’s, eventually moving to Italy
and then to England where he became a British subject. From operas, Handel turned to writing
oratorios which are works with a religious theme to be sung by soloists and a
chorus.
His
greatest work, “The Messiah” is filled with words from scripture from both the
Old and New Testaments and the focus, as the title suggests, is on the life,
death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It is often performed every year for both the Christmas and Easter
celebrations.
One
of the reasons for the wonderful popularity of “The Messiah” is the almost
overpoweringly and majestic “Hallelujah Chorus.”
In a
conversation with a friend who loves classical music, she advised me to not
only focus on Bach and Handel, but to go all the way back to Gregory the Great
from the 7th century, who developed forms of public worship that are
still in effect to this day including a weekly schedule of scripture readings
so that the church is able to hear a variety of scriptures based on the church
seasons over the course of the year.
But
for our focus today, we remember Gregory as the person who is named for the “Gregorian
Chant.” Thanks to Gregory, he founded a school for the training of church
musicians which ended up serving as a foundation for what we would refer today
as classical music.
There
are many stories that are attributed to Gregory, but one that stands out to me
is that since he also served as Bishop, he would send missionaries with the
instruction to bring back any new music they encountered. And he’s quoted as saying, “Why should the Devil have all the good
songs?” Maybe you’ve heard that quote. It goes all the way back to St.
Gregory the Great from the 7th century.
In one of my
previous churches, we hosted members from “Music Mission Kiev,” a symphony from
the Ukraine during one of their US tours. Their music was breathtaking and we
enjoyed providing meals for them during their stay.
I had the privilege of getting to know their director, Roger McMurrin who had a strong connection with the church I was serving, and he felt called by God to serve as a missionary in the Ukraine back in 1995. Since classical music often centers around the Christian faith, Roger felt called by God to form a symphony in Kiev to play these religious musical pieces as a way for agnostics and atheists in that country to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. From this symphony, a church was formed and they provide ministries to support orphans and widows.
Under communist Russian rule, countries such as the Ukraine had not been
permitted to hear classical music compositions such as Handel's "Messiah"
because of its focus on the Christian faith. Utilizing the beauty of
classical music, “Music Mission Kiev” is sharing the good news of Jesus Christ
to a people who are hungry for this particular genre of music that they for so
long had been denied.
A friend of mine who has conducted many
classical musical performances told me one time that what he appreciates most
about classical music is that, “It
conveys thoughts and feelings beyond what language can convey and it often is
what helps him to see the face of God.”
This
is my sense with classical music as well.
Even if classical music might not be something we have heard very often,
when we listen to some of the great pieces of classical music, it can take us
to a whole other place. Let me offer an example of how classical music can lift
our spirits no matter what we may be facing in life.
One
of my favorite movies is Shawshank Redemption starring Timothy Robbins who
plays the part of Andy, a prison inmate who is sentenced to two life terms
based on a crime he most likely didn’t commit, but because of strong
circumstantial evidence, he had been convicted.
In
the movie, Andy takes on a Christ-like role with the other inmates as well as
with the guards. Because he had worked
in finance, Andy ends up helping the prison guards with their tax returns. He also helps to expand the prison
library. Andy is always trying to bring
a sense of beauty and grace into the dark and cold world of prison life.
When
the library is given a record of the opera, “The Marriage of Figaro,” Andy
takes the risk of playing it over the prison loud speaker for all the inmates
to hear, well aware of the punishment of solitary confinement he will receive
for breaking prison rules to make this happen.
Here’s this scene from the movie, “The Shawshank Redemption.”
What
strikes me about that scene is that even if the prisoners didn’t necessarily
like classical music, in that brief moment, there music preference wasn’t the
issue. Somehow, that music did what my
conductor friend was talking to me about when he said that “It conveys thoughts and feelings beyond what language can convey and
it often is what helps us to see the face of God.”
Sometimes it’s not in the loud guitar sound of rock and roll, or in the
improvisations found in jazz, or in the down to earth lyrics of country music
that we can best experience the presence of God in our lives.
Sometimes, God’s grace is most felt through the time tested notes of
classical music that take us to a place in which we encounter the face and the
beauty of God.
And
this is why whenever Johan Sebastian Bach wrote a piece of music to be used in
church, he always included the initials, S.D.G. at the bottom of the page. Those letters stand for the Latin phrase, “Soli Deo Gloria,” which means, “Glory to God alone.”
Even
though Bach was the one who composed the music, he knew that his music was
simply pointing to a far greater beauty and helping us to see the face of God.
That’s classical music at its best.
Music & Faith: Classical
Small Group Questions
II Chronicles 5:2-14
October 30, 2016
Our church has begun a sermon series on how music and faith are closely connected and how different music styles can help us grow closer to God. (October 30: Classical; November 6: Jazz, November 13: Country, November 20: Rock.) Here are the results of a 2009 survey regarding our music preferences:
Listen to
Most Often (Survey Conducted by Pew Research, 2009)
#1 – Rock – 35%
#2 – Country – 27%
#3 – R & B – 22%
#4 – Hip-Hop/Rap – 16%
#5 – Classical – 15%
#6 – Jazz – 12%
Share your favorite music style. What do you like most about it?
Pastor Robert shared in the sermon how a friend of his said that classical music helps him to connect with God because, “It
conveys thoughts and feelings beyond what language can convey and it often is
what helps me to see the face of God.”
Has there been a time when classical music has helped you to connect with God in a way that language cannot convey? Share about that experience.
In the movie, "Shawshank Redemption," starring Timothy Robbins and Morgan Freedman, Andy (Timothy Robbins) who is in prison for a crime he didn't commit risks punishment by playing a record of classical music over the loud speaker so his fellow prisoners would be able to hear it. For that brief moment, the prisoners were able to experience this beautiful sound.
In what creative ways can you offer a little of God's beauty for someone who is experiencing a difficult time in their life?
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