Sermon for St Cecilia's Day
Sermon preached by Anne East at St Margaret’s for St Cecilia 26 / 11 / 23
Azariah 28-34, 52-59, 68. Psalm 150. Revelation 15: 1-4. Luke 10: 38-42
One of my earliest childhood memories is of standing next to my father in chapel (in the pew that had our name on, because we paid ‘pew rent’ – but that’s another story!) on a Sunday morning, dad’s voice ringing out above me:
O Lord my God
When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds thy hands have made –
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to thee,
How great thou art. How great thou art.
Methodism was born in song. (I promised Brutus I’d tell you that . . it’s a quote from the 1933 Methodist Hymn Book, which is probably the one my father was singing from).
Later I experienced a different kind of worship song. The girls of Truro High School filed into Morning Assembly clutching not only their hymn books but also their Psalters. (Books of Psalms). We were an Anglican foundation and we sang a Psalm every morning. Very clever stuff, singing all on one note and then moving at the pointy bits. In the sixth form they made me leader of the Hymn Choir, so I was destined to be Church of England after all.
Today we celebrate Saint Cecilia, patron of music and musicians. Cecilia was a Roman virgin martyr and it is written that as the musicians played at her wedding Cecilia ‘sang in her heart to the Lord’. She came to symbolise the central role of music in liturgy. And we acknowledge, with gratitude, the gifts that our choir (directed by Rhiannon, supported by Emily) bring to our worship here at St Margaret’s.
There are hundreds of references to singing in the Bible.
Matthew and Mark record that on the eve of the crucifixion, after the Passover meal, (the Last Supper) the disciples and Jesus sang together “ . . . after they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” (Matthew 26:30). While Scripture doesn’t explicitly state which hymn was sung, Jewish tradition has it that the Passover meal was concluded by singing the last portion of the ‘Hallel’ – a joyous celebration of praise and thanksgiving comprised of psalms 113 to 118.
The Psalms, the longest book in the Bible, are the prayers, reflections, laments, complaints and praise declarations of God’s people. Jesus knew them and frequently quoted from them. All human emotions are there: celebration, despair, grief, anger, joy, sorrow, thanksgiving. . .
One important use for the psalms was for instruction: reminding people of the fundamental truths of their faith:
· How God has saved / is saving his people
· The attributes of God – what God is like (just, merciful, compassionate, forgiving)
· the nature of creation
· humankind’s strengths and weaknesses
Psalm 96: ‘Oh sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name, tell of his salvation from day to day.’
The ‘Salvation Story’ – that’s what it’s about. That’s why Charles Wesley wrote 6,500 hymns (yes, I know, I couldn’t believe that number either) – but he and his brother John produced 56 hymnals that covered every area of Christian doctrine. Those Cornish tin miners, Yorkshire coal miners, learnt the gospel (the Good News of Jesus Christ) from those songs.
Martin Luther, 200 years before the Wesley brothers, loved congregational music. In a foreword to a collection of songs, he wrote the following: “When man’s natural ability is whetted and polished to the extent that it becomes an art, then do we note with great surprise the great and perfect wisdom of God in music, which is, after all, His product and His gift”.
So music is a way of teaching us our theology.
But by far the greater number of hymns and psalms are about simply PRAISING God. That reminds me of something else I used to sing with my father – the ‘Te Deum’- WE PRAISE THEE O GOD, WE ACKNOWLEDGE THEE TO BE THE LORD’ . . .
The glorious company of the Apostles praise Thee.
The noble fellowship of the Prophets praise Thee.
The white-robed army of Martyrs praise Thee.
The holy Church throughout all the world . .
This is a Christian text going back to the 4th century and earlier, and the point about praise is that it’s not about us. It’s about God – Creator, Comforter, Saviour.
That exuberance of praise is summed up for me in the figure of Margaret Newman, whom many of the older worshippers here will remember – organist, pianist, church warden, guide leader – playing us out with a final hymn : ‘And the trees of the fields shall clap their hands / clap their hands . . and you’ll go out with joy!’
The whole creation is called upon to worship God. In our reading from Azariah: ‘Let the earth bless the Lord . . . mountains and hills, . . .all that grows in the ground . . seas and rivers . . whales and all that swim in the waters . . all the birds of the air . .
Music is about harmony. It is a powerful gift that complements, supports, and deepens our relationship with God and with each other.
My mother-in-law had Alzheimer’s and lost the ability to communicate meaningfully in speech towards the end of her life. But when I visited her I used to sing hymns, and she joined in. The music was so embedded that the music hung on to the words she had lost in every other aspect of her life.
There are times when hymns express things that I do not have the words for:
Father I place into your hands / My friends and family
Father I place into your hands / The things that trouble me . . .
For I know I always can trust you.
Our curate Sarah, in her sermon on Wednesday a couple of weeks ago, reminded us of the importance of gratitude to God - an awareness of the Grace that we receive. Our response to that must be adoration – like Mary, sitting at the feet of Jesus in today’s Gospel. The repetition of music like the songs from Taize also help us to express our deepest prayers.
As we celebrate - and appreciate – what music brings to our worship here at St Margaret’s, let Paul have the last word; (this from Colossians chapter 3 v 16):
“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”
Amen