I find life is inherently ironic. The relationship I had with my father was at times “strained”. Yet now I find myself more and more like him every passing day! My father’s mannerisms are now mirrored in me – the very ones that used to vex me most!
When I think of my teenage years, indeed, there was a certain priest – whom since he yet lives I shall refrain from naming – who really got my goat. Today (and now I am almost cringing with the admission) I sound just like the man! Behind what I now see were superficial matters of disagreement, what troubled me most about that priest was that he raised one essential question. That was a sore point.
I was brought up in a tradition of boys’ choirs, and fine church music. We used to culture this, as indeed the language in which our rituals were written. Ironically (yet another irony!) we had a fast prayer that ought to have reminded us of the reason for our tradition, but this was just another ritual in the life of a chorister. That prayer, like the priest, raised the question of why one was in church in the first place.
Bless O Lord, us Thy servants who minister in Thy temple. Grant that what we sing with our lips we may believe in our hearts, and what we believe in our hearts we may show forth in our daily lives; through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Now in those days there were many church choirs. As many of you here in Norway know, Britain had a tradition for them. The problem was that that same tradition had itself become our god: the music, the special language, the rituals and the culture were the most important thing to us if we had asked ourselves why we went to church.
I shall balance what I say by adding that in getting rid of choirs, and the tradition that used to exist, many “threw the baby out with the bathwater“. I personally regret that the boys’ choir (boys singing with men) is now almost an endangered species. Even so, at the heart of the processes of change, which unfortunately did see the loss of many a choral institution, was the desire to explore what being church is all about.
If our churchgoing was “vanity of vanities“, because we never asked ourselves truthful questions about why we were doing what we did, then it is perhaps the irony of ironies – life is so ironical – that the “worship groups” sometimes ended up doing exactly what the robed choirs and traditions they replaced had done before them. That is to say that now you had people enjoying the modern pop songs instead, but they still would not ask themselves why they otherwise went to church…
The beautiful song “When the Music Fades” by Matt Redman speaks of just this matter. The story of this song’s conception is well worth reading, because it very much sums up what has been written so far. As a church musician I am moved by the touching honesty of the words “I’m sorry for the thing I made it”. That “thing” of course is what we do in church, the music, the rituals, and this applies just as much to the modern choruses and songs as it did when I was a boy to the older hymns. “It’s all about You Jesus”, ought to be cry that compels itself out from our innermost being if we really are worshipping.
We ought all to reflect upon this worship song’s profound message. I have sometimes despaired that so-called “church choirs” do not sing in church, save for concerts and an occasional church service. Likewise it has saddened me to see that many church musicians seem to treat their work as a simple job. They plan out a series of events in the year, that mainly follows the school year, and those are the things they and their choirs/music groups then work towards. That is not “what it’s all about”!
A comment on my facebook wall set me off on this article. What, I was asked, did I think about Ris Church in Oslo that had replaced all its hymns for the music of U2? Well, if you have read my article, you will already know. I find it very sad that when people talk about making church less boring and instead wish to appeal to the masses (who not usually going to church certainly have not asked why they want to be there), and have not rather asked themselves “what it’s all about”. We are not talking about entertainment, but as Matt Redman so eloquently puts it “The Heart of Worship”.
I need say no more about Ris Church’s sorry experiment. In the long run it will fail, because even if the place is full to bursting point, the most they have achieved is an alternative venue for entertainment – a par with a concert hall or theatre. You do not bring growth to the Church by anything other than the Word of Jesus Himself.
This goes to the heart of what it means to be His follower. We who call ourselves Christians are expected to be doers, not merely hearers of what Jesus says. Going to church, or rather being church – it is we in fact who are the Church – is about meeting Jesus. It is about letting Him become the most important “be all and end all” in our life.
It is about a fellowship where – exactly as He Himself commanded His followers to do – we constantly remember how Jesus, the Lord we love, once had to die for us. Likewise in the Communion, we also are reminded that His death is what allows us to have a relationship with God Himself. We believe that through the mystery that is the Holy Communion, Jesus Himself does indeed come into us.
As for me, the prayer that once was a mere ritual is now very central to my work, “Bless O Lord us Thy Servants who minister in Thy temple: grant that what we sing with our lips, we may believe in our hearts, and what we believe in our hearts, we may show forth in our daily lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen”. That prayer brings me therefore full circle: life as said is ironic!
av 36 lesere
