It was a very hot mid summer day in Minneapolis. The kind of day where even an air conditioner couldn’t keep the humidity at bay. I was in my office at the church I was serving at and having a hard time concentrating. I heard some singing going on downstairs in our daycare center and figured it wouldn’t be procrastination if I just went down to investigate.
There they were. A group of five-year-olds sitting in a circle and singing at the tops of their voices. “Silent night, hooooly night, round Jon Burgen mother and child…” Sure enough, they were playing nativity with nearly the whole cast of characters. There was little Mary from the most recent Christmas pageant and Joseph. The same two children who seven months before had caused quite a stir when marching to the manger scene Joseph blurted out: “I don’t want to be Jofesh any more, Mary is too bossy!” Here they were again with Mary directing “Jofesh” and several others.
I asked them what was going on and the little boy took control: “I am Jofesh, this is Mary, and these are the shepherds, we are singing to baby Jesus.” “Is it Christmas? “ I asked them. “It can be Christmas anytime,” said Jofesh. “We just keep on singing.” And with that they burst out in song again with a loud “Glooooorrria in Alexeees Daaayo!”
We will just keep on singing. Doesn’t that just sound like what we need to hear? The clouds of uncertainty: COVID-19 continuing to take lives at an alarming rate, uprisings in our cities, anger and hate crimes, a political system in chaos, and people isolated from each other.
There are times when words fail us. There are times when our lives become boggled with confusion or pain rendering us speechless. There are times when we cannot or will not speak about our faith… there are dark times of the soul…. Sickness and fear… hopelessness and aloneness…. and there are times that is seems our faith doesn’t motivate us to action. But for all of that we have been given a marvelous gift, the gift of music. Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
People who sing together can change the world. Think of songs sung during war time…songs which comforted… gave hope: “There’ll be blue birds over the white cliffs of Dover, tomorrow…when the world is free”… music that challenged us: “Where have all the flowers gone? Gone to graveyards every one…when will they ever learn.”
Faith in music calls us to action. In the 60’s during the Civil Rights Movement, crowds of people would gather in their churches at night. They would pray and they would sing. During the day they’d go into the streets to march for justice. While they marched they sang. That music would flow into the hearts and minds of people everywhere: “We shall overcome, we shall overcome some day…. deep in my heart, I will believe.”
Now, in our challenging times, in our New Year, heed the words of Paul as he wrote in Colossians: “So be filled with the Spirit. Be filled with the Spirit addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, always and for everything, giving thanks through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God, the creator of life and song, through him.”
Or as little Jofesh and Mary said: “We just keep on singing”.
Rev. EvaLyn Carlson is a retiring Christian Church Disciple of Christ Intentional Interim Minister who served both First Congregational Church in Grand Marais and Zoar Lutheran Church LCMC in Tofte where she continues to share in ministry.
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