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April 13, 2008

Song as Prayer

Sermon, April 13, 2008 Song as Prayer
Week Two of Series, Prayer Is…
Deuteronomy 6:1-10, Acts 2:46-3:10

Welcome to week two in our six part sermon series entitled, Prayer Is…Last week, we looked at specific prayers in our bulletins and defined the five types of prayer—invocation, confession, intercession, thanksgiving, and petition. We also examined the history and meaning behind the prayer Jesus taught his disciples and has been passed down to us—The Lord’s Prayer. After the sermon, each person was asked to write an answer to the statement, “Prayer is…” on a green block of paper. Those answers are found here, as the building blocks of our spiritual life.

This week’s sermon title was Worship as Prayer. Worship is something human beings have been doing for a long time. Using the text from Deuteronomy as our guide, worship (the noun) is a gathering the people of faith to remember God with all their heart, soul, and mind. To worship (verb) is to express one’s love of God from your heart, soul, or mind.

As the director of the worship service, I know that some can go better than others. The structure of worship should provide a framework for people to experience the Spirit of God. Therefore, those aspects that can be practiced and thought out ahead of time should be well prepared and well done. And the participation of those attending is vital to the feeling and Spirit of the service. (say twice) Those of you who attend have a part to play in worship. Your ability to leave behind the cares of the world, to look beyond the style of worship, and to open yourself to the Spirit of God is essential.

To worship is to move beyond ourselves and focus on God. God is the focus of worship, not the pastor, the choir, the musician, not the congregation. Our songs, our sermons, our prayers are all directed to God. God knows us well and so his words to the early Israelites speak to us in the 21st century. “Do not forget the Lord your God, worship God all your days with all your heart, soul and mind.” Thus we gather every Sunday.

In worship some of the ways we do this is by reading scripture—our Holy Book. We retell and remember the story of God and God’s people, of Jesus and his teachings. The sermon or the witness helps us see the connection between our lives, the lives of others and God.
What is left? Songs and Music. Hence the sermon title, Song as Prayer. Singing our prayers goes way back in our history. The hymnbook of ancient Israel was the book of Psalms. Because of the rhythmic language Psalms were easy to sing. Psalm 98 that Ruby read this morning is referred to as a hymn summoning the people to worship. “O Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things…” Our opening hymn this morning has the same feel—Rejoice the Lord is King…Lift up your hearts, lift up your voice; rejoice; again I say, rejoice!” This hymn is one of the hundreds of hymns written by Charles Wesley, the brother of our founder John Wesley.

Charles wrote not only hymns but poems also. Charles’ hymns are found in our hymnal and many are still sung today. Did you know that in the beginning of the Methodist movement, Charles took popular tunes and put Christian words to the melody so the people would remember them? They didn’t have the printed hymnals we have today.

Another example of song as prayer is the Negro spirituals or Afro-American Spirituals as they are listed in our hymnal. During slavery and afterwards, workers were allowed to sing songs during their working time. This was the case when they had to coordinate their efforts for hauling a fallen tree or any heavy load. For example, prisoners used to sing "chain gang" songs, when they worked on the road or some construction. But some "drivers" also allowed slaves to sing "quiet" songs, if they were not apparently against slaveholders. Such songs could be sung either by only one or by several slaves. They were used for expressing personal feeling, and for cheering one another. They were an important source of emotional support and spiritual power for slaves.

There are many Afro-American spirituals in our hymnal. There is a Balm in Gilead (#375) and Go Tell It on the Mountain (#251) to name a few. We will be singing one later. To represent our rich ethnic diversity from Afro-American, Hispanic, Asian American, and Native American heritages, there are more than 70 hymns, as well as other worship materials in our hymnal.

Singing is part of our Methodist heritage. In fact in our hymnal, it states that from the beginning we have been a singing people. “Next to the Bible, our hymnals have been our most formative resource.”
Our hymnal consists of a wide variety of music. Some older music with more contemporary words. Some old familiar tunes and words from Greek, Latin, European, English, and North American traditions. Some new tunes of a contemporary feel with new words. People who appear as writers in our current hymnal (published in 1989) include at least two current seminary professors, Rev. Dr. Thomas Troeger and Rev. Dr. Ruth C. Duck alongside the likes of Charles Wesley.

Please pick up a hymnal and turn to the back, specifically page 914. This begins a list of extensive Indexes. Index of composers, arranges, authors, translators, and sources. Two scripture indexes—one index for acts of worship and the other for hymns. Metrical Index. Index of tune names. For example the tune to Crown Him with Many Crowns (#327) is used for numerous hymns including Make Me a Captive Lord (#421). Index of Topics and Categories. Lastly, the one I use most often, Index of First Lines and Common Titles.

Please turn to the front, Roman numeral vii, Directions for Singing. Each of us needs to be reminded by the instructions here. For the tentative singer, Wesley invites us to join in, don’t be shy. You will find the singing a blessing, he says.

The last paragraph, Wesley reminds us to sing spiritually. “Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself or any other creature.” Did you know that it would be possible to sing all aspects of a worship service? There are songs for thanksgiving, petition, confession, intercession, and invocation. We will be singing our prayers of confession and our prayers of intercession this morning. Turn to page 348. The description on the right page indicates what category these songs fall into. Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling and Turn Your Eyes on Jesus are songs of invitation. Turn to page 234. These songs are about the birth and baptism of Jesus, followed by songs of his life and teachings, passion and death, and resurrection.

As I indicated earlier, the songs we sing in worship are not selected randomly to get through the book. The hymns are selected as one more avenue to open us up to receive the Spirit of God. Have you ever been moved by the words of a song that you’ve sung numerous times before? That the Spirit, moving in and through you. When we sing as Wesley advises, we forget our self-consciousness and allow the words and the melody to work in us as mere words cannot do. When we lift our voices together in song, we are praying to God. The more we familiarize ourselves with the various songs, the more natural our singing, our prayer life becomes.

Even those of us who feel self conscious praying aloud can sing aloud. I don’t mean to sing alone, but we lift our voices together to sing our songs of joy, sorrow, invitation, confession, thanksgiving, petition, and celebration to God. There is nothing as moving for me than to hear a group of people sing a song and have the instruments pull back so that all you hear is the voices—tenor, bass, soprano, and alto. We become the instruments of praise!

Community singing gives us the opportunity to sing and rejoice, to pray to God in a way that is beyond our head and our intellect. Community singing gives us the opportunity to try things we normally might not do—like clap, stomp, smile, and lift our hands. Community singing, if done passionately and spiritually, gets us out of ourselves and gets us focused on GOD.

The great thing about Christian songs is that we can take them with us beyond the church. Do you find yourself humming a hymn days after church, or having a favorite hymn come to mind during the day? We need not limit our Christian music to what is in our hymnals. I love to pop this CD of Michael Card’s in to my CD player and sing along with him.

How many of you listen and sing along to Christian music? Has there ever been a time when you experienced the Holy Spirit while singing/listening to Christian music? It has happened to me, listening to a song I’ve heard numerous times before. Other times, a concept that has been only in my head is suddenly moved to my heart through the song. How do I know, my eyes will well up with tears, my stomach with feel funny, my heart will ache. I’ll feel different all of a sudden because of that song.

Some of my favorite artists are Point of Grace, Michael Card, and I like Kyle Matthews. There are so many awesome Christian artists out there right now that I am embarrassed to only mention three. Do you have your favorites? How do you feel when you turn off the talk radio and place in a CD with a Christian artist? Is it possible to sing along and pray while driving down the Kennedy Expressway? You Bet! It is possible to offer up prayers at home while dusting or cooking? You Bet! Is it possible to sing some songs about Jesus with your family while driving north to the cottage?

I don’t know about you, but I often feel as if the songwriters have seen inside my heart and written the song with me in mind. It’s amazing how similar our walk of faith is—our similar our lives are with the ups and downs, fear and failure, perseverance and gratitude.

Yesterday, I learned the story of the song; I Love You Lord written by Laurie Klein in 1974. In a remote mobile home in the high deserts of central Oregon, a young mother is having a quiet time with the Lord. Her toddler is still asleep. Her husband is a full time college student, and the couple is surviving on $400 per month. They have no home church, no friends nearby, and she does not drive. Even the expense of a long distance phone call might leave them without milk or bread in weeks to come.

It was a very difficult and hopeless time for Laure. That morning she was so empty, she recalls telling God she didn’t have anything to offer. She offered to sing a song to him if he would just give her something he was in the mood to hear.

Laurie describes how the first half of the song came out with no effort. “I love You Lord and I lift my voice, To worship You. O my soul, rejoice! Intrigued and moved by these words, she remembers thinking, "maybe I should write that down." She stopped long enough to get a pen. When she came back, the last two phrases came just as easily: Take joy, my King in what you hear. May it be a sweet, sweet sound in Your ear.

This song is number 2068 in our black songbook, The Faith We Sing. Brothers and sisters, what song is waiting in you to be lifted up to the Lord? What song is on your heart this morning to sing to God? We will sing some more in our time together, and I hope that you will open yourself up to experience the song as prayer this morning. Think of your voice as floating up into the air toward God as a gift to Her. Since Christ is Lord, of heaven and earth, How can we keep from singing?

Posted by vickie at 10:00 AM