Sometimes loud, heartfelt singing makes all the difference. Wesley told congregational singers using the new Hymn Book for the People Called Methodists to sing "Lustily and with good courage."
Praise isn't about the sound of our own voice which we hear; it is the sound of our voices as God hears.
To sing of faith, confidence, hope, love, trust, and joy, is an exercise in worship where mumbling, hesitation and the constraints of self-consciousness are transformed into a new song. That happens when we begin to sing the reality behind words which break apart our resigned acceptance of our every day.
That happened yesterday in church (Crown Terrace in Aberdeen). After the Benediction, we sang a song based on the brilliant poem of Isaiah 55.12. It helps that it's a personal favourite - here's the Isaianic text.
"You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands."
We sang lustily and with good courage. We sang a new song about the applause of creation for the Creator. It was loud and by the third repetition we were ready to go out with joy and be led forth in peace.
Joy and peace don't just happen. We sing them into being. Hope is not based on fantasy, but grows out of a new way of seeing the world. Imagine, says Isaiah. Imagine the mountains as a flash-mob choir, and the trees as a cheering audience with standing ovation. That's your world.
On a personal note. I've thought long and deeply about joy and peace, because I've had to think long and deeply about grief and loss since our daughter Aileen died three years ago. The puzzle of love and loss co-existing in one heart remains unsolved. But the puzzle of hope and love and peace and joy still being possible in that same heart is an equal mystery.
Those words of Isaiah, sung with hand-clapping gusto, help to remake our vision of the world. The less than light-hearted Calvin described the world as "the theatre of God's glory." In that theatre mountains burst into song, trees clap their hands, and human hearts resonate to the music of God's creation, and join in the applause.
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