And They Sing - LSMF 2004
Rev. R. K. Barnes

Music is an essential element of Worship. It is music that, so often, thrills our souls and inspires us to service. The music swells and our hearts begin to race and our eyes well up with tears. When was the last time the presence of God in music quickened your pulse?

A true story - a woman entered a Haagen-Dazs store on the Kansas City Plaza for an ice-cream cone. After making her selection, she turned and found herself face to face with Paul Newman. He was in town filming the movie Mr. and Mrs. Bridge. Newman’s blue eyes caused her knees to buckle. She managed to pay for her cone, then left the shop, heart pounding. When she regained her composure, she realized she didn’t have her cone. She started back to the store to get it and met Newman at the door. "Are you looking for your ice-cream cone?" he asked. She nodded, unable to speak. "You put it in your purse with your change."

When was the last time that music and the presence of God quickened your pulse? Not to take anything away from Mr. Newman, but good music in the context of worship does more for me than Paul Newman does any day.

Some of my favorite biblical descriptions of worship are descriptions of the worship of God in heaven, and, most of the time they involve some form of music. For example we have this from St. John the beloved disciple. Rev. 15: 3-4: "And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying great and marvel ous are thy works, Lord God almighty; just and true are thy ways thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name: for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments are made manifest."

These words are like a Chariot in which we ride after winged horses to the throne of God to hear the music of heaven. Music has the power to lift us beyond the physical restraints of our humanity and lift us into the very presence of Jehovah. The notes melodious, discordant, moving, somehow connect us with the Almighty, they becomes our prayer, it is our contemplative communication with God that transcends rational thought.

This thing called music, some of us are convinced, comes from God. One of my favorite places to spend quality time with him is in a rocking chair or in the swing on my front porch by Barnes’ Pond. He provides a symphony of nature thr ough which some with open heart and mind might imagine hearing the cherubim and seraphim calling and saying aloud Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts,heaven and earth are full of your glory. As morning dawns slowly in the sky, a foggy mist rises from the pond and settles in around the cattails making them surreal and mysterious, the birds begin their melodious chatter. The squirrels leaping through the trees dislodging nuts and twigs offer a percussive accompaniment to the song that is blowing on the breeze. Katydids, Frogs, ducks, and a graceful blue heron daily contribute to the ensemble that takes the confusion, violence, and competition of nature, and speaks peace in the midst of chaos.

In a similar fashion, the music of the church helps us to make sense of our brokenness, our inhumanity, our pain. We take his gift of song, interpret it for our culture, and then offer it back to the Divine as an expres sion our great love for the gift of his Son and our Savior, Jesus the Lord and Christ.

Music is a ministry for which we are all responsible on some level. Saint Paul writing to all the members of the church in Ephesus admonishes them to “be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making 
melody to the Lord in your hearts.” (Ephesians 5: 18-19). The music of the heart is heralded as the Christians way of relating to both the Creator and the created. Offered to God this music of the heart is a sacrifice of praise. As regards our neighbor this heavenly strain ofthe heart is a song of hope, a song of healing, and a song of redemption. The divine music of the heart is blind to the color of a person’s skin, does not consider levels of formal education, and knows nothing about gender or sexual orientation. Yet songs of the heart are tailor-made to reach out to the most specific needs of individuals.

Songs of the heart when interpreted, expressed, written and performed, become the life’s work of a composer. It is the composer- not the preacher- who provides the framework within which earthbound humanity can wing its way heavenward. All who make the journey can truly get a foretaste of glory divine. While all are called to live out the song of the heart in the world, some very special people are chosen to give their lives to the task of, giving expression to, and writing and performing music for the glory of God and the inspiration and transformation of people. The composer helps us discover how we can live out the call of the Apostle Paul to receive music and live in song just as we receive the word of God and strive to live according to its precepts.

Music helps us to experience the majesty of God. Isaiah is a great example of one who saw first han d the majesty and glory of God. Of all the biblical narratives, none is so lofty as that of the call of Isaiah into the prophetic ministry. I bring this up to illustrate a most important point. It was not just any time in Isaiah’s life or in the life of the nation of Israel. A very powerful and effective King had died.


Before this, people had a sense of security knowing that their future was in the capable hands of King Uzziah. Now he was gone. We can only imagine the mixed emotions of confusion and sadness as Isaiah went about his temple duties. Being a Levite meant that from time to time, on a rotating basis, he would be on duty at the temple. Maybe he was copying Holy Scripture on fresh scrolls, polishing the Menorah, or preparing for a special feast day. Out from the midst of all the sorrow and confusion comes God in all his majesty.

Listen as I read the inspiring account of the call of Isaiah. 
1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the 
LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and 
his train filled the temple. 
2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six 
wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain 
he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 
3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, 
holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of 
his glory.4 and the posts of the door moved at the 
voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with 
smoke. 
5 Then said I, Woe is me! For I am undone; because I 
am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of 
a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the 
King, the LORD of hosts. 
6 Then flew one of the seraphim’s unto me, having a 
live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the 
tongs from off the altar: 7 And he laid it upon my 
mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and 
thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.8 
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall 
I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am 
I; send me.


O the wonder, the mystery, the majesty of this encounter with God. This experience was so powerful that Isaiah was moved to cry out to God in a confession of sin for himself and for his people Israel. It was as if this Levite was being supernaturally transferred from one plain of existence to a higher plain. As the experience rose to a dramatic climax this temple worker hears the Almighty calling for a prophet; “Who will go for us?” And Isaiah replies; “Here am I; send me.” Sometimes when I visit in a beautiful cathedral, just the architecture, windows, and high altar; cause me to feel the power and presence of God more acutely. But nothing brings me to that point of the awareness of the power, presence and majesty of God like music. Even with the most pathetic of physical surroundings, 
music lifts us up onto the wings of eagles so that we soar to new heights of spirituality. Many times I have stood in the sanctuary facing the congregation and watched as music caused the expressions on people’s faces to change. It was obvious that their very souls were enraptured in the music. Music is a medium through which the Holy Spirit can lift us out of the pain of earthly realities and seat us in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus. This is something that I have never underestimated and yet I am not convinced that I have been completely successful at getting others to see the vital importance of music in the worship experience of the Church. It is as important as preaching, praying, and reading scripture.

There is a wonderful liberating aspect to music that makes it more usable in the hands of God than any other aspect of our communal worship. We can experience fr eedom in composing, performing, interpreting, listening to and singing music. Some music is a product of one kind of freedom, the freedom found within the confines of permanent structures that exist within the science and math of notes and notation, keys and meter. Other compositions may be as free and chaotic as the symphony of nature around Barnes’ Pond. Either way, through them God speaks, through them God calls us into his service, through them God grants peace, music is a source of joy 
unequaled by any thing else on earth. May God’s Spirit songs play continually in our hearts and spring forth in melodious strains as we rejoice in the words of Isaiah: “Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrowing and mourning shall flee away.” Isaiah 51:11

Amen