WE SING!
We will gather in many contexts during this week, but most importantly to help people sing. Our songs will create an atmosphere of expectation, remembrance, and new life. Heart singing is such a common thread in the word of God — and God’s people have always gathered to sing by singing Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs with all of our hearts (Ephesians 5:19).
If you think about the Song of Miriam or those other dangerous songs (think about Paul and Silas) we read about through scripture we are always invited to join that kind of singing which is a refusal to accept the dominant definitions of reality. Such singing and storytelling is an insistence that there is another way to experience the world and there is another way to act in the world. These are very important models and authorizations for us. Most of the music we sing is this refusal.
Walter Brueggemann, one of my favorite writers states that: “In both ancient cadence and contemporary beauty, the people of God sing because we are called to live in an alternative world that requires constant reiteration. It is a world of order amid palpable chaos, of food for all creatures, and of breath given reliably and sovereignly withheld. It is no wonder that we continue, even in our frightening context, to sing exuberantly to the God of life who dwells beyond all our explanations.”
Psalm 107: 4-9 reads: Some of us once wandered in the wilderness like desert nomads, with no true direction or dwelling place. Starving, thirsting, staggering, we became desperate and filled with despair. Then we cried out, “Lord, help us! Rescue us!” And he did! He led us right into a place of safety and abundance, a suitable city to dwell in. So lift your hands and thank God for his marvelous kindness and for all his miracles of mercy for those he loves. How he satisfies the souls of thirsty ones and fills the hungry with all that is good!
We sing as we are moved “from a zone of death to a new zone of life” and when we are barely holding on we hear these words from Zephaniah 3:17: “For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”
We sing when the truth can only be told by our singing, whether that singing is joyful or desperate. We sing to help pull our brothers and sisters out of the net that the enemy has set for them. We sing and watch God pull us out as well. The Father has called the Church (that is US) to be an un-anxious presence in the midst of our anxiety-ridden society. So, join me and release your cares into the one that loves your voice more than anything in the world.
You were created to release a roar and a roar we shall bring …
We were created to do this ... and it's better together!
See you soon,
Jeremi and Amy
