Right now you may be trying to figure out how this scripture passage was chosen for this service and what I might say about it that will apply to you. It’s a rather lengthy passage with several statements that perhaps seem a little off-theme from the Lasker Summer Music Festival. I’m sure you heard the musical language of the closing verses, (which will be at the core of our meditations this week,) but before I address those verses in particular, I would like to put them into context.
If you will, allow me to share a recent experience of mine. I invite you to close your eyes and imagine with me being on an ocean beach. It’s a beautiful day with mild temperatures, and with just enough sun to enjoy the colors of the glistening ocean and the white sand, but enough clouds that they puff across the blue sky and provide a refreshing shade. The breeze is blowing, and the sound of the waves crashing on the shore is rhythmic and cause for full relaxation of your mind.
You begin to walk along the beach. You are drawn to the water, but you aren’t ready to get in just yet. Instead you stroll along the wet sand and feel it gush underneath your feet with each passing step. You enjoy feeling the occasional wave reach your feet and then recede back toward the next oncoming wave. You pause to delight in this motion of the water. It moves toward you, around you, and away from you taking parts of the earth out from under you with each pass it makes. You start to find yourself sinking into the sand because you’ve stood still for too long, so you begin to move again and allow the next wave to clean your feet and to restore the spot from which you just left. You begin to reflect on the incredible power and energy that the waves have as they come against the shore - they have the ability to change the contour of the beach so readily. As you walk a little further you notice that the straight path you have been walking ta kes you to a patch of dry sand. The waves have receded from this particular spot and left several remains - numerous seashells of various colors and sizes. It looks like a kind of graveyard. There is the absence of the constantly moving water and each shell is slightly imbedded in the sand spaced out just so from its neighbor. Because of this striking image, you continue to reflect on the power of the waves from the ocean - they are life-giving, but when they are absent, life seems to wither into death. You pray that you don’t become one of those seashells and you move toward the ocean and stand in the midst of the water to receive the life it has to offer.
This is precisely where we find ourselves when we read the letter of Ephesians. The letter acts as the call of the ocean bidding each of us to draw near and dwell within the life-giving power of God. As was just read in 5:14, "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
Let us take a few moments to try to understand what was happening in Ephesus in the first century. There is a lack of specific information given in the letter, but it would seem there was a struggle at hand. Gentile believers were being challenged in how to mature in their faith. They were being deceived by different doctrine (4:14); they struggled with how to use their differing spiritual gifts to be the unified body of Christ (ch. 4); they were torn between what it meant to live as their former selves and "to be renewed in the spirit of their minds" (4:22-24); they struggled with the culture around them (4:17-6:9); and they were being challenged by the evil forces still at work in this world (6:10-18).
The letter attempts to address these struggles by immersing the reader in thankfulness for what God has done for us through Christ. The first 3 chapters are an expression of praise for being adopted into God’s family through Jesus Christ (1:5) and a reminder of what that adoption means - (Eph. 2:10) "For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life". The culmination of these chapters is a prayer where I believe the central purpose of the letter is expressed: [Read 3:16-19].
So, here we are at the Lasker Summer Music Festival. We come as musicians and music-lovers and we are being called to live out of the fullness of God. What does that mean for us here today? What personal message can we glean from this calling?
Let us revisit our musical passage from chapter 5. As we hear these verses again, let us keep before us the call to be filled with the fullness of God. [Read 5:18-21.] Right from the very beginning we are summoned to be filled with the Spirit and not with things of the earth.
This past weekend Charles and I took a short trip to the Outer Banks of NC. We had a very enjoyable and edifying trip, but I found my thoughts beginning to wander as we walked around one of the tourist attractions. Up until that point I was simply enjoying the atmosphere of the Outer Banks and enjoying time with Charles, but once I began to wander in my thoughts, I started to notice the other tourists at the site. Instead of having noble thoughts where I would think of them as fellow children of God, my critical, judging self took over. Fortunately, I realized what was happening early on in the process and I steered my thoughts toward this scripture passage. I readily thought of making music and was released of my critical outlook.
I was amazed that just thinking about music-making helped to put me in a better frame of mind. I never even uttered a musical sound - simply the thought of it transported me. My mind began to be filled with several musical experiences that had helped me in my Christian life. I had a new energy and was thankful for it. --- Now I’m not sure my experience is universal, or that it sheds any light on interpreting today’s passage, but I believe it illustrates a powerful connection between God and music. That connection allowed me to use music to experience the fullness of God in a way that released me from the pettiness of my old self.
So, then, let us "be filled with the Spirit of God as we sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among ourselves." What exactly is Paul asking us to do here? We can understand that we are to build up the body of Christ through Spirit-filled song, yet why these three genres? I haven’t read any conclusive scholarship on the matter, so I will simply conjecture and offer my own interpretation of what this means. First, I invite us to consider the types of texts and expressions that might be involved by specifying all three genres. -- To say "psalms" invites us to think about the collection of 150 psalms, but I would like to add that it could mean all of scripture. When I compare the three genres and take note of the types of songs we have today, it seems that the genre of psalms used here should include any sung text that comes directly from the Bible. This would incorporate a wide variety of texts and expressions that could be sung in a variety of ways. Most readily we know this is done today when communities sing psalm settings, or what we usually call scripture songs. -- To say "hymns" conveys a genre of song where scripture is evident as the foundation for a text, but the words are poetic and convey the carefully worked out thoughts of a fellow believer. Typically, hymns convey an element of doctrine and challenge us to think about how we understand and express our faith. -- To say "spiritual songs" encourages us to ponder what is left in our musical expression. Many of us may feel that we understand singing scripture and hymns, but we don’t understand what Paul means by spiritual songs. Today I want to submit that spiritual songs are a form of song that conveys personal testimony. It would be wonderful if all of us felt gifted to express our daily Christian walk through song, but I recognize that some of us might feel uncomfortable with that. (We so rarely convey these significant matters of the heart through words, let alone song.) However, I believe we already participate in these types of songs when we sing such gospel favorites as "I’d Rather Have Jesus" or "His Eye is on the Sparrow." Songs such as these invite us to understand and live out the expression of the composer. When we sing these songs, we sing from the Spirit within us.
To have background on these three genres has direct application to songs we use for congregational singing, but what can they teach us about other songs and music without text? How do we plan and prepare for our concerts? I think we need to keep in mind the fullness of expression that exists in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. If a community just focused on spiritual songs, people would be able to express themselves, yet the teaching aspect of scripture songs and hymns would surely be missed. If a community just focused on scripture songs, then the aspect of being able to process the scripture and to convey one’s relation to God and the world would be missed. If a community just focused on hymns, then the ability to express oneself or the ability to know the scriptural allusions in the hymn texts would be missed. It needs to be our understanding that all three genres with their varying means of expression should be present to experience th e fullness of God.
When we think about other music, then, we can keep the ideal of richness of expression before us. This can mean multiple things depending upon your need. It may mean that over the course of a recital program, you will want to think about the overall balance of repertoire. It may mean that as you teach your students, you will want to think about the variety of repertoire you expose them to. It may mean that as you compose music, you will want to think about the types of musical materials you are using and how they bring about a diversity of expression. Or, it may mean that as you prepare and study a particular piece of music, you will ask questions of the composer and the piece to discover multiple layers of expression.
I also believe that these three genres can teach us something about the types of expression we want to convey. Psalms or scripture songs convey the foundation of our faith. In musical terms, this can be found in the basic musical materials used in a piece that ground us into knowing that God is creator. How that is applied is left up to the composer, but it should be a seminal thought as we are writing, performing, or listening to music. The genre of hymns indicates a mode of expression where ideas of the musical material are spun out - it is the nature of what holds a piece together from start to finish. This can either be a very heady kind of connection, or perhaps an organic connection that flows naturally out of the musical material.
The spiritual song teaches us about a mode of personal expression. Each of us as musicians and listeners want to feel a connection with the music as if it conveys what we can’t say through words or other means. All of these ideas put together give you a piece that conveys God as creator where the musical elements fit together to express the mystery of God and the mystery of emotions within us.
These thoughts help us to contemplate the content of our music-making, but what about our attitude? If we continue with our passage, it says: "Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." Here we are instructed to give thanks to God always and for every thing. Our attitude in all that we do should be one of thankfulness, and it should be at the root of our music-making. We should also come to our music-making with humility before God and one another. These are not radical ideas to the Christian mindset, but I believe they are radical ideas to the Christian mindset, but I believe they are radical to the musical world that teaches us our art. In many cases, thankfulness and humility run counter to the culture that trained us. That’s why we need passages like this and places like this to remind us of the significance of putting God first in our lives. Let us agree to put attitudes of thanksgiving and humility into our work this week and carry that into all the work we do back home. Let us be witnesses for Christ to the musical world through our attitudes.
So here we are - at the Lasker Summer Music Festival being asked to take into full account our musical work in light of our calling to be filled with the fullness of God. I have offered several thoughts based on this passage from Ephesians, but no thought is complete. I invite you to meditate on these things this week. Speak psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to one another. Take this time to think about how God comes first in your life and informs the work that you do. The Lasker Summer Music Festival is a unique place where you can explore your calling as an artist while striving to be filled with the fullness of God.