Music Sunday

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come into God’s presence with singing… (Psalm 100:1-2)

Unlike most people, these were the first two verses of the Psalter that I learned as a child. (Probably because my children’s pastor was also the music pastor.) In Third Grade we memorized Psalm 100 – all four verses. Upon completing that task, we were handed our very first copies of the Bible with our names in them. It was all very exciting.

From the very beginning for me, music has been tied up with my understanding of who God is and most certainly with my worship of God. That same music pastor used to take one Sunday every summer and do a “Hymn Sing,” when the congregation would call out all the songs they had not had a chance to hear lo those many months and we would sing them. From national hymns to Christmas to Thanksgiving to Easter. We did it all. And everyone had a roaring good time.

They say music is a universal language. Perhaps that is why it is so essential to worship (and why we missed it so greatly in the midst of this awful plague). Music speaks to our hearts and, I believe, connects us more fully to God’s own heart as we come into God’s presence to listen for God’s Spirit moving in our midst.

This weekend, we are pulling out all the stops on all the hymns in the book. There will be no sermon, except the joyful noise we make with the words printed in our hymnal.

So come one, come all as we sing for God’s glory and watch in wonder in the steadfast love that surrounds us.

Blessings, Pastor Janie