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(This sermon was preached
when my brother John brought his Youth Chamber Choir from
Kent. It turned out to be a bit controversial because one of
the young men in the Choir, who was a Catholic, mistakenly
thought that I was being critical of his church. I
wasn’t, of course, as I hope you will see!) It is a delight to share in this service, Ian’s first as an Episcopalian presbyter. I know that we are all delighted that at last he has been ‘priested’, to use to old saying (which is easier to say than ‘presbytered’), and yesterday in the Cathedral he was given what Methodists call ‘a charge’ - words to guide him at the start of this new chapter in ministry. It seems to have taken a long time, but now he is here as our minister, and we rejoice. Our celebration of that will continue this evening in a Choral Evensong, and that sets the tone for what I want to say now. I want to turn your thoughts to music. Here are some words from our reading: “David would take his lyre and play it, so that relief would come to Saul’” I Sam.16:23 And here are two quotations to start us off: “If music be the food of love - play on!” Shakespeare - (Twelfth Night; Duke Orsino),and then: “Music has charms to sooth a savage breast.” (Wm. Congreve Restoration dramatist) Both of these, it seems to me, are saying something profound, something about the way in which music is very special in our lives. And that is what I would like us to think about this morning. That story we heard from the Old Testament about Saul and his depression is one that I recall as one of my earliest memories. I grew up surrounded by family music - piano, choir, organ - and this was a tale I could relate to. It is a lovely story about how as a young man, David the shepherd was also an accomplished poet and musician. What he was able to do in his playing certainly worked for King Saul, and brought a calm and an elation to his spirits. So David is probably the earliest example we have of what we would now call a ‘music therapist’. John’s daughter and her husband are both professional music therapists, and I know the value of their work in bring healing and wholeness to people whose lives are, for one reason or another, in a state of upset. Music has indeed charms to soothe. I have known all my life, I suppose, of the therapeutic value of music. I have known that music can move me to the deepest level of my emotions. I know that music can affect the way I behave. I know how music can lift you to the heights. And you only have to listen to some of the darker works of composers like Brahms, for instance, to realise they they are the outworkings of deeply disturbed people. You can tell a lot about people by the kind of music they like and dislike. When my daughters were teenagers, they always wanted to have Radio One on the car radio when we were travelling. Being the archetypical Grumpy Old Dad, I always refused. I found the music (which in those days I didn’t mind listening to at home) much too aggressive for driving. It made people bad drivers. Nowadays, we have Classic FM, which sells itself as being soothing for the drive home from work, when you may be stuck in a traffic jam. The other side of that, of course, is that I am deeply suspicious of youths who turn their cars into mobile discos, where it sounds as if somebody is desperately trying to escape from the boot by beating on the inside of the car with their feet! Yes, music is profoundly tied up with our feelings. It stirs our memories and our emotions. We in the church have known about this for centuries. We have used music as a means to an end. We have made it into a vehicle to carry our teaching and our dogma. It has been the means by which our souls and spirits are lifted up in the worship of God. Over hundreds of years it has changed, of course, and developed in different directions. We have used different techniques, different instruments, all of which have their place. I am not one of those who think that there once was a golden age of church music which is now ended, and that it centred around choirs, organs, Parry and Stanford, much as I love all of it. There is a lot more to church music than that. Of course, as a Methodist, I take some pride in the fact that it was really one of our lads who got the church singing hymns. The Anglicans had their psalter and their chants; the Presbyterians had their metrical psalms, but the Methodists had Wesley and his hymns. Now everybody sings hymns - even the Catholics! Of course, there were thousands of hymns before the Wesleys, but the singing of their hymns in the 18th century revived them. As I have often said - hymns are the folk-songs of the church. Many are now forgotten. Even hymns which were well known and loved by, say, my parents’ generation, have gone out of fashion. But the best remain, even though the wastage has been tremendous. At the Greenbelt Festival (which for those who don’t know is a Christian Arts Festival held every year at big venues like Knebworth) there is a hymn sung almost every year which the young people, who are in a majority at Greenbelt, always enjoy. It isn’t actually a modern hymn. It is set to a tune by Handel, so is from the 18th century, and the words are translated from the French. Any idea? It is ‘Thine be the glory’. Surely it is one of the great folk songs of the church! And I have seen Catholics singing their hearts out to Mr Wesley’s ‘Love Divine, all loves excelling’. Others, of course, are far less rousing and much more reflective. But however good the words may be, it is the music which carries the hymn, and ensures its survival. That is a generalisation, I know, but there is more than a grain of reality in it. Let me introduce a concern, however, before I finish, and I speak as a chorister, you understand. I never cease to be amazed at the way in which some people, especially in choirs, can sing gloriously, and never consider what they are singing, being totally carried away by the music. The words seem to be unimportant. Methodists are some of the worst offenders. Having ‘a good sing’ was much prized, and it was more about the volume of sound than anything. In one little village chapel in my boyhood,in Norfolk, there were two old men, who both sat at the front, and it always seemed as if they were having a competition to see who could sing the loudest! And I always have to have a giggle, singing in the Dumfries Choral Society, when we perform a Mass. Many of the Choral Society are Presbyterians, who cannot even tolerate the word ‘bishop’, let alone the notion of a Mass, yet they happily sing their hearts out! Its a funny old world! In the Bible, when dire, doom-laden days were predicted, one of the first things to die was to be the music. And I can see that connection clearly. A world without music is indeed a lost world. So, when it comes to the music of the church, music which is the food of the love of God and of his Christ, I say ‘Play on!’, for it has charms to soothe, as well as to uplift Let us never downplay the importance of our music, in which, as we sang, God is glorified. But remember this also: the chief end, the chief purpose of our music, is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever. Let us never, then, stop singing and playing, and making music. |