As I write this I’m listening to my girlfriends sing. One is playing guitar and the four of them are singing songs like Keep on the Sunny Side, Hard Times, You Are My Sunshine, and Shenandoah. We all met at church, and we are singers of hymns and folk music. I love that music is a common language for us.
This Sunday in worship we’re singing one of my favorite hymns, My Life Flows On. “No storm can shake my inmost calm, when to that rock I’m clinging. Since love is lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?”
We Methodists are a singing people. We sing to praise God; we sing to confirm what we hope and pray for; we sing to remember our heritage, and what our spiritual ancestors taught and believed. Singing is one of our common languages. This fall we’ll welcome back the Cathedral Choir, and God’s House Band, and hopefully some music from the Good Faith Singers, too.
Sometimes I forget that singing – making a joyful noise – lifts my spirits and brings me closer to God.
This Sunday our guests in worship, and at the brunch afterwards, are a Muslim father and son who live in Palestine in occupied territory. I wonder what songs they sing, and what lifts their spirits, and I hope to have the opportunity to ask them. Please be there to welcome them, learn from them, and listen for a common language between us.
In faith, Marylee