Why We Sing--November 9, 2016
Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne. When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. They sing a new song:
‘You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God
saints from* every tribe and language and people and nation;
you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving* our God,
and they will reign on earth.’ [Revelation 5:6-10]
‘You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God
saints from* every tribe and language and people and nation;
you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving* our God,
and they will reign on earth.’ [Revelation 5:6-10]
Consider this a spoiler alert: the last note is a C-natural.
In the hymnals in our church, the great classic hymn, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," is in the key of C-major, and it ends with a resounding double whole note C-major chord.
Now that I have told you that, should we still bother ever singing it? After all, I've already told you how it ends. What's the point of going through all the trouble of singing it, now that you already know (if you didn't before) that the song ends on a major chord?
For that matter, I'll go ahead and spoil the ending of the lyrics for you, too. In our hymnals, the translation of the last verse of "A Mighty Fortress" concludes, "Were they to take our house, goods, honor, child, or spouse... though life be wrenched away, they cannot win the day: the Kingdom's ours forever!" So, now you know, too, that at the end of the hymn, there is hope and confidence that even if everything else you held dear just got yanked out from under you, God's good reign will prevail and we are promised in Christ that we share in that victory. So, all of that is a given. Now that we are all clear on how the song ends, why bother singing it again?
Well... maybe a song of faith isn't like an M. Night Shyamalan movie that needs some kind of surprise twist in the ending to be enjoyable, but that doesn't stand up to repeated viewings (I'm looking at you, The Village). Maybe the songs of our faith aren't like a pulp mystery or thriller novel that you only read to find out the killer in the last chapter. And maybe the great Story of the Scriptures isn't a Dan Brown adaptation that depends on edge-of-your-seat plot twists and MacGuffins to go in search of. Maybe the great Story that the Scriptures tell actually has more power for us when we know the ending from the start.
Of course it is silly to think we wouldn't still sing a song just because we already know how its words and melody end. If anything, the opposite is true--we have all the more courage to dare singing a song of faith when we know how the melody goes, and when we know the words. And we can dare to sing the difficult words in the middle stanzas, too: "Though hordes of devils fill the land, all threatening to devour us..." because we know the next line goes, "we tremble not, unmoved we stand." It is knowing the end of the song that gives us courage to sing the middle verses while our stomachs are all tied up in knots and our hearts are fearful and saddened. Nobody says, "Skip the song because we know how it ends already," but rather, "Sing it again--we need the hope of those words that have gotten us through dark times in the past."
This is the whole Christian life, too. We are people who live day by day in light of the hope that grace wins in the end. It may or may not "feel" like that on any given day--some days it really doesn't feel like the way of Jesus is victorious--but we dare to live now with a hope in the promised end of the story. This hymn ends on a C-Major chord. This Story ends as a divine comedy where all the false lords are unmasked and God triumphs through a cross and empty tomb. The story of the universe ends with a surprise victory from the slain but triumphant Lamb, even when every other set of eyes thought that Jesus had lost the battle when he breathed his last and said, "It is finished." The story of creation ends in God's victory, and right now, the followers of Jesus hold onto that promise and live out our lives, daring to sing the middle stanzas when everything seems lost, because we know the last verse ends with "The kingdom's ours forever."
And in light of that promised resolution, in light of our hope in that C Major chord and the victory of God, we face this day differently. We face every day differently--at least we can. We can be people who can be honest--brutally honest--about what is wrong in the world around us, because we are not afraid that this is all there is. We can be people who say so when the emperor is wearing no clothes. We can be people who are gracious to those who have been jerks to us, because we trust that by the last verse of the song, all creation will be set right. We can be people who don't resort to anger or hate or violence, because our Lord is the slaughtered Lamb who won the victory by dying rather than by killing his enemies. We can be people who tell others who are downhearted, "This isn't the end of the story. We aren't there yet."
And so... in the fifth chapter of the book we call Revelation, there is a scene where all of heaven breaks into song. And John the visionary who penned the book gives us the words of the song now. Spoiler alert--it is all about the God who reigns from self-giving love, the God whose victory is in a cross, the God whose power is in in weakness, the God who always stands on the side of those labeled "loser," the God who, as Mary famous sang, dethrones the powerful and sends the rich away empty. That is our song. You and I know it now. We can sing it now already--in fact, in the churches where I live and serve, we usually do sing a version of this song about "the Lamb who was slain" and who "has begun his reign" most Sundays. That is our song now, and that song gives us the hope to be gracious in a graceless world and to have hope in hopeless times. We know the song, and we know it ends on a major chord. And because we know those notes ahead of time, we can sing all the more boldly, even on days when we cannot make sense of anything else.
"The kingdom's ours forever," proclaims the old song. Indeed it is. That is why we sing.
Lord Jesus, give us the courage to live with your grace and your hope, by giving us the promise of the end of the song right now, while we are still living in these fearful middle stanzas.
Of course it is silly to think we wouldn't still sing a song just because we already know how its words and melody end. If anything, the opposite is true--we have all the more courage to dare singing a song of faith when we know how the melody goes, and when we know the words. And we can dare to sing the difficult words in the middle stanzas, too: "Though hordes of devils fill the land, all threatening to devour us..." because we know the next line goes, "we tremble not, unmoved we stand." It is knowing the end of the song that gives us courage to sing the middle verses while our stomachs are all tied up in knots and our hearts are fearful and saddened. Nobody says, "Skip the song because we know how it ends already," but rather, "Sing it again--we need the hope of those words that have gotten us through dark times in the past."
This is the whole Christian life, too. We are people who live day by day in light of the hope that grace wins in the end. It may or may not "feel" like that on any given day--some days it really doesn't feel like the way of Jesus is victorious--but we dare to live now with a hope in the promised end of the story. This hymn ends on a C-Major chord. This Story ends as a divine comedy where all the false lords are unmasked and God triumphs through a cross and empty tomb. The story of the universe ends with a surprise victory from the slain but triumphant Lamb, even when every other set of eyes thought that Jesus had lost the battle when he breathed his last and said, "It is finished." The story of creation ends in God's victory, and right now, the followers of Jesus hold onto that promise and live out our lives, daring to sing the middle stanzas when everything seems lost, because we know the last verse ends with "The kingdom's ours forever."
And in light of that promised resolution, in light of our hope in that C Major chord and the victory of God, we face this day differently. We face every day differently--at least we can. We can be people who can be honest--brutally honest--about what is wrong in the world around us, because we are not afraid that this is all there is. We can be people who say so when the emperor is wearing no clothes. We can be people who are gracious to those who have been jerks to us, because we trust that by the last verse of the song, all creation will be set right. We can be people who don't resort to anger or hate or violence, because our Lord is the slaughtered Lamb who won the victory by dying rather than by killing his enemies. We can be people who tell others who are downhearted, "This isn't the end of the story. We aren't there yet."
And so... in the fifth chapter of the book we call Revelation, there is a scene where all of heaven breaks into song. And John the visionary who penned the book gives us the words of the song now. Spoiler alert--it is all about the God who reigns from self-giving love, the God whose victory is in a cross, the God whose power is in in weakness, the God who always stands on the side of those labeled "loser," the God who, as Mary famous sang, dethrones the powerful and sends the rich away empty. That is our song. You and I know it now. We can sing it now already--in fact, in the churches where I live and serve, we usually do sing a version of this song about "the Lamb who was slain" and who "has begun his reign" most Sundays. That is our song now, and that song gives us the hope to be gracious in a graceless world and to have hope in hopeless times. We know the song, and we know it ends on a major chord. And because we know those notes ahead of time, we can sing all the more boldly, even on days when we cannot make sense of anything else.
"The kingdom's ours forever," proclaims the old song. Indeed it is. That is why we sing.
Lord Jesus, give us the courage to live with your grace and your hope, by giving us the promise of the end of the song right now, while we are still living in these fearful middle stanzas.
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