All God's Creatures Have a Place in the Choir, a sermon based on Ephesians 5: 15-20, preached on August 18, 2024

I once had the honor of preaching at a tiny Presbyterian church in South Georgia. I was a seminary student, preaching as a sub for their pastor, and that Sunday, the choir loft was empty, and there were 15 or 20 sitting in the pews. When we got to the choir anthem, those 15 or 20 sitting in the pews stood up, walked to the choir loft, and sang the anthem. All God’s creatures have a place in the choir. That’s what I titled this sermon, “All God’s Creatures Have a Place in the Choir,” but Dr. Jeffrey Meeks hasn’t had the chance to sign off on that title. I’m not sure that he would endorse the message that all God’s creatures have a place in the choir, for the truth is that not all God’s creatures can sing. While we can all make a joyful noise to the Lord, it’s not necessarily a pleasant noise, so while many a cross-stitched sampler has declared that all God’s creatures have a place in the choir, most people know better than to think that they can just walk into a choral group and sing. However, if you walked into a kindergarten classroom, they wouldn’t. I once heard a story about a teacher who walked into a classroom full of kindergarteners. She asked, “Who in here is an artist?” Those kids had just painted pictures that were hanging on the walls, and so every kid in there raised his or her hand. They had all donned smocks and had handled a paintbrush, so every one of them considered him or herself an artist. Then the teacher asked, “Who in here is a musician?” One kid raised his hand and said, “I can play the triangle.” Another, “I can play the maracas.” On they went. The classroom was full of musicians. Then she asked, “Who in here can sing?” Again, every hand shot up. Why? Because no one told them that they couldn’t, and they were all young enough to still be trying everything they could possibly try. That changes by the time we get to high school. By the time we get to high school, most of us specialize in one thing or another. I specialized in baseball. I gave up Boy Scouts and playing the trombone so that I could sit the bench for the Marietta Blue Devils. Last Sunday, I ran into the older brother of a team member I had played with. We talked about how his little brother could throw a fastball right by you. Our conversation was as though that Bruce Springsteen song “Glory Days” had come to life. Do you know that song? It goes: I had a friend who was a big baseball player, back in high school. He could throw that speedball by you; make you look like a fool. Saw him the other night at this roadside bar. I was walking in; he was walking out. We went back inside, sat down, had a few drinks. But all he kept talking about, was Glory days. Well, they’ll pass you by, glory days. In the wink of a young girl’s eye, glory days. Glory days. That song is so good, maybe because it’s so true. Most of us who played sports in high school have taken up watching sports rather than playing sports, apart from pickleball, which everyone is playing these days. Think with me about the difference. Watching is not as life-giving as doing. Now, consider this verse from our second Scripture lesson: Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery. You’ve likely heard this verse before, but don’t just interpret the obvious lesson of this verse. Visualize with me the old football player, sitting in front of a TV or in the stands, beer in hand, watching players on a field do the thing he used to do. Keep that image on the one hand and consider with me the second half of that sentence: Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves. Did you hear what the author of our second Scripture lesson did there? On the one hand is the old baseball player from the song who thinks all his best days are behind him, so he has a few drinks and reminisces on the bar stool, yet the alternative is to sing. Not listening to music but singing it. Not remembering the good old days but looking forward to tomorrow. My friends, most of us can’t play the sports we played in high school or college anymore, so we stop playing and start watching. That won’t work in here because Christianity is not a spectator sport. You don’t have to sing in the choir. You don’t have to preach the sermon or play the organ. These things are not for everybody, yet when you’re in here, you must sing. You must praise. You must lift up your voice because of all the seats in this room, not one of them is for the audience. Everyone in here is a participant in praising God, and when our hour of worship is over, the service begins. I’ve been reading this book that I’ve told you about. It’s a book titled, The Anxious Generation, and in it, the author, Jonathan Haidt, calls for all kinds of changes. He’s all for these changes that Marietta City Schools is already implementing, like those locked bags that kids put their cell phones in so they’re not distracted by them in class. Assistant Principal Anthony Booker, he told me this morning that it’s hard to implement, but it’s worth it because his students are talking to each other again. In addition to those locking bags for cell phones, Jonathan Haidt encourages no social media before the age of 16 and no smart phones before high school, but the big thing this guy encourages is to restore independence, free play, and responsibility to childhood. He says that our playgrounds are too safe to be any fun, and that we parents are so nervous about our kids getting hurt, that we haven’t given them chores or let them walk to school or ride the bus, and so our kids grow up without feeling the joy that comes from independence and having a purpose. According to Haidt, we all have two big human needs: community and purpose. We all need to be around people, which makes us feel loved, and we need to have the chance to do something that we love and that serves a higher purpose. That makes us feel like our lives have meaning. In other words, while washed-up old football players are sitting back drinking beer and watching the game, our kids are sitting back and looking at their phones, and the result is the same. We lack purpose. We lack community. We’re watching more than we are living, and Christianity is not a spectator sport. You don’t have to sing in the choir, but we all have a place here. We all have a part to sing and a gift to bring. Of all the seats in this room, not one of them is for the audience. Everyone in here is a participant in praising God, and when our hour of worship is over, the service begins, and when we serve, we are filled with the Spirit. Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about. You might know that groups of musicians from our church have been going around to retirement communities to sing. The group that went out the week before last went to Atherton Retirement Community one afternoon and sang songs like “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.” That one’s not in our hymnal. To talk to some of these singers and to ask them why they’re doing it, I talked with Lynne Sloop abut it one afternoon, and she said that she loves doing this. It brings her joy. If you could see Amy Sherwood singing. She and Lynn were the first two to go out to sing as a part of this program, and they sang “Moon River” during lunch at Atherton on the birthday of our church’s oldest member, Betty Kuhnen. The Cobb County Sheriff’s department heard that they were doing it, and they brought flowers and made Betty an honorary sheriff’s deputy for the day. It was an amazing experience to witness, and it never would have happened if Amy and Lynne had grown used to listening to music rather than singing it. We listen to music too much, when we were created to sing. We watch people do the things that we are meant to do. We wait around, frustrated with the world, and we wish someone would come along to do something about it, when we were created for just such a time as this. My friends, let us sing to remind ourselves that our Glory Days are not behind us, but before us. Let us lift our voices to praise the One who has promised that ahead of us are brighter days, brighter than all the days we have known before. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O, what a foretaste of glory divine! Not an aftertaste, but a foretaste. Sing the wondrous love of Jesus. Sing his mercy and his grace. In the mansion bright and blessed, he’ll prepare for us a place. When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be, If you want to be ready to rejoice when we make it there, you had better stop mumbling through the words now. Together, let us sing will full hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.