|
The readings on which this sermon is based can be found at: http://users.bigpond.net.au/frsparky/r065.htm |
s065o02 Lockleys 10/11/02 Sunday 32
"I will not listen to the melody of your harps." Amos 5:23 (Be aware - there is a sting in the tail of this sermon.)
I must say that the three parables in the 25th chapter of Matthew are real favourites of mine, but having preached on them before, I must look at one of the other readings. For of course I not only preach to you here in the congregation, I have another "virtual congregation" some who have "heard" me preach for quite some time. I do want to say that Matthew gives us three parables of judgement, not just one. This shows us that God makes sure that everyone has an opportunity to be a part of the kingdom, not just a select few. So the old paradigm of arguing who was right - the Anglo Catholic, the Evangelical, the Charismatic or the Broad Anglican amongst the multitude of other divisions and subdivisions - is entirely wrong. God is a God who includes, not a God who excludes - and this is demonstrated by the fact that there are these three parables put side by side.
And in fact the same message comes from our second lesson in his letter to the Thessalonians, where St Paul says that God does not arbitrarily exclude some through no fault of their own. The "issue" is that some people have died before the Lord's second coming. St Paul makes it quite plain that God treats everyone equally. All will be brought into the kingdom, because that is what God wants for all people.
But I think today I will change tack for a while and talk about music - for there is often no more frustration for a congregation when they are unfamiliar with that which is sung. We are greatly blessed here at St Richard's with our choir and musicians, and the music is wonderful.
But it is worthwhile explaining that there are inevitably difficulties with choosing and singing suitable music. There are few here who don't go home to listen to "Songs of Praise" after the services. It is my suspicion that this is why our services here at St Richard's are earlier than most, lest we be late for this program :-) I don't have any argument with this, for the reality is that the hour here on Sunday morning is hardly likely to entirely satisfy the needs of everyone. This is as it should be, for we can find inspiration in lots of other places - not just in "Songs of Praise". But I wonder if we can unconsciously think that we have to keep up with that sort of standard of music? That is a tall ask for any choir - even an accomplished one like ours. But the other thing is that in this world of mass communication and mobility, the days when a particular congregation had a "English Hymnal" or "Ancient and Mouldy Standard" tradition are long gone. It is simply not possible for anyone to choose music that *everybody* knows or is everyone's favourite tune, simply by looking at the hymn book given out by the sides-persons.
Of course our worship is augmented in other ways. We, like most other parishes, have fellowship, prayer groups and Bible Studies. All of these are opportunities to see God elsewhere than just in our Sunday morning worship.
People generally like to join in the singing. Anglicans are not happy spectators when it comes to liturgy. This is why I am not especially keen to have young musical groups, for worship might become more spectator rather than participant, not because I disapprove of modern music. Of course, I don't.
I have sometimes heard the comment that what we want is "jazzy" music because that is what the young ones want. But I have also often been amazed at the age of the people who have made these sorts of suggestions. I have sometimes wondered if some of these want to pretend that they are not the age they really are :-) The difficulty with "jazzy" music is, in fact, it is often more difficult to play and sing to. Traditional hymns with their regular metre and uncomplicated key signatures, are written to be sung by ordinary people rather than practised professionals. So traditional hymns are written for congregational participation. The music in modern hymn books is set in a lower key to make them more suitable for congregational singing rather than for choirs. Anglican Chant was actually designed to make it easy for people to sing the psalms and canticles of the Church, and for those who have learned the technique, it actually does this very well.
It was good to have some different hymns at the Area Deanery Confirmation recently. While they were not familiar here, they are often sung on Diocesan occasions, so with candidates and friends from other parishes, we actually did quite well. In fact, as I talked with one of the parents, the candidates themselves have sung those very hymns we used, at their services at school!
This should again alert us to the fact that people, especially young people, get their religious instruction and opportunities for worship at places other than parish churches, a fact we are apt to forget. Just because young people are not in Church on Sundays it is simply not true that they are all living lives without reference to the divine.
However I was a bit bemused that these "newer" hymns we sung at the Confirmation actually came from books originally compiled from the 1980's, but even so the language in some of them was not sensitive to gender. They had to be modified beforehand to make them so.
It is important that we do have a range of music and that we be open to the musical tastes of others.
Some years ago my previous parish decided to upgrade their organ. It wasn't to get a large instrument for there was simply no room for anything the size of what we have here. They bought a modern digitally synthesised one which immediately got three new (and younger) organists into playing there. At the same time there was an article in the Adelaide Church Guardian about how pipe organs rendered obsolete the instrumentalists who had previously led the singing. This was never intended and we still had the new organ regularly supplemented with a piano and oboe, as well as occasionally with other instruments. So even though we do have a pipe organ here, it is important that this does not replace the contribution that others might make in leading worship.
For if we do not hear and encourage the contribution that our fellow worshippers, especially including the younger members of the congregation, might make to our worship, how can we expect to hear and appreciate the contribution that those we perceive to be outside, might make to our perceptions of reality?
When I was overseas, I travelled more regularly on public transport than I ever do in Australia. I noticed that it was not unusual that people in the United States read their Bibles on the subway, though I again it was not hard to see that it was more often than not people who were not of white Anglo-Saxon appearance who did. Again, I often saw people who wore a religious symbol such as a cross or crucifix, but again, it was more often than not, people who were not of white Anglo-Saxon appearance who did. And it lead me to think that perhaps we give the poor and the marginalised the trappings of religion - rather than giving them a ministry and acceptance. And, please, I am not criticising America here, for surely the same dynamics exist precisely the same here in Australia, but my travelling by car means I simply have never seen this.
For righteousness is not about a particular "kosher" style of worship but an openness to the contributions that others make. And it is the lack of righteousness that led to God's condemnation of worship and God's refusal to listen even to the music in the time of Amos. I do not know what a harp might have sounded like in the time of Amos, but everyone knows that today the harp is a relatively rare and lovely instrument, played only by an accomplished elite. The music of the harp is the epitome of quiet and gentle music - so much so that the traditional picture of angels in heaven are that they are all playing them. I suppose I have to say that the oboe and the harp are the pinnacle when it comes to instruments. How could God be unmoved by such heavenly music? Why would God refuse to listen to such wonderful and gentle melodies?
Now I got to this stage in the preparation of my sermon when I happened to have occasion to speak with one of the Anglican Chaplains in one of our major public hospitals. The fact that she is a woman is necessary to the story, though it does tend to identify her, for those of us who know South Australia. She had been especially busy ministering to the burns victims from Bali and then the victims of the bus and train collision at Salisbury. Quite understandably she was feeling fairly low. But what made it worse was that on that particular morning she was arranging with the family a funeral for a young person who had died - again, not something unusual for a person "of the cloth". She had ministered to this person and her family in the illness, but the real source of her lowness was that she was unable to do the funeral herself, not because she was unwilling or unable. She was unable to do the funeral because it was in a town in a different Diocese where the ordination of women is not recognised. She is forbidden to even take a funeral there.
Now I guess I can understand that some still find the concept of priest who happens to be female someone different from what one has experienced, but if one's doctrinal position means that someone else is deprived of ministry from someone of their own choosing - something which we would consider our right - something is radically wrong. If God refuses to listen to even the finest of worship which is at the expense of someone else, we do well to take notice.
Our doctrine is immaterial when it comes to the particular tunes or styles of music, but it is vital when it concerns the ministry of one person to another. As I have said before, in the light of the prophet Nathan's interchange with King David, we do well to make sure the sacrifices we make are our own and not someone else's.
Our gospel story tells us that the kingdom is like a wedding feast - a joyful celebration. The oil that the foolish virgins lacked was not related to their virginity - how often has the Church traditionally talked as if virginity before marriage was so important as the lack of it lead to exclusion from the kingdom? No, the oil was the preparedness to join in the celebration. The oil they lacked was the "oil of gladness", gladness to be included with everyone else. This comes from within, one cannot get it elsewhere. The stern words: "Truly I tell you, I do not know you." are directed towards those who haven't yet grasped that God is one who includes everyone, and bids us join in with others too.
Links to other sites on the Web:
To a Lectionary Index of Archived Sermons.
To a Scriptural Index of Archived Sermons.
Back to a sermon for next Sunday.