The Spiritual Power of Music
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Beth Henricks
November 14, 2021
Exodus 15:20-21
Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing. And Miriam sang to them:
“Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously”
Friends, today we are honoring Shawn Porter, our organist for 25 years here at First Friends. Shawn will be leaving us at the end of the year and I ask all of you to hold him in the Light and send your thoughts of appreciation for his ministry here. This special Sunday got me thinking about the power of music in our worship experience. Bob has been talking about Quaker worship and its different elements over the last few weeks. I want to today to expand on the spiritual power of music in how we experience the mystical, the Divine, its emotional bond and the movement of our heart to God through music. As Maya Angelou once said, no one will remember the words we say (as long and hard as we work on the words). People will remember how we made them feel. That speaks to me a lot about music. Music has this way of evoking an emotion, a time, a place, a feeling that nothing else can give us.
I know each of you has lost someone beloved to you and don’t you remember them in the most profound way through music? Just this weekend I was texting with my son Greg about the music his dad and my husband loved which was extensive (jazz, swing, Motown, anything with an accordion etc). But this weekend it was about marching band music and John Phillips Sousa’s Washington March that played on my phone during yard work. Jerry loved marching band music and every time he heard a song from Sousa, he participated in the bass drum part with his mouth. We were both sharing about how much we missed him and the memory that music brings up to us in a profound way.
Every time I hear a Fleetwood Mack song I immediately think of our dear Ann Panah that passed away several years ago at the age of 59 from cancer. Music was such a significant love of her life and that love connected us to her (and still does) in the deepest way. I’m sure that each of you could share one of these moments for someone that you have lost. Music connects us beyond this physical realm and for me this is such a part of our experience of God and worship.
Music meets a human need and finds its place in the heart of people. It is associated with the need for comfort, rest, tranquility, peace, sleep. But It’s associated with every other part of life. Music can be high, and noble, and exalted. It can be elevating. It can be uplifting. It can raise that which is honorable and pure. Music reminds us of who we are. It has the power to transform our lives. There is a great scene in the movie The Shawshank Redemption. If you have seen this movie, you will remember that the main character, Andy Dufrain, has been sentenced to two back-to-back life terms for crimes he did not commit. He is thrown into a violent world of Shawshank Prison where everything conspires to destroy humanity.
Andy puts one of his records on the prison record player. Intoxicated by the beauty of an aria, Andy locks out the warden and plays a portion of “The Marriage of Figaro” by Mozart over the prison loudspeaker. Everyone in Shawshank Prison stands transfixed by the music – a moment of intrusive beauty in a horrible place.
Andy is tortured for his little trick. On his release from solitary confinement, Andy explains to his inmate friends how he endured being in this prison . “I had Mr. Mozart to keep me company. It is in here (pointing to his head and heart). That’s the beauty of music… so you don’t forget that there are places in the world not made out of stone, that there’s something inside that they can’t get to, that they can’t touch.” It is yours and its mine and it can bring us back to a place of humanity and grace.
There are many other movies that I’m sure all of you can think of that evoke this same kind of emotion for you. I remember the first time I was watching Tom Hanks in the role of the attorney with AIDS in the movie Philadelphia. There is this profound moment when Hanks’s character who is dying listens to Maria Calla’s recording of “La Mamma Morta” from “Andrea Chénier . It is a scene that moves beyond his physical disease and the constraints of his body, and he achieved a mystical comprehension of being in that moment (as did his own attorney played by Denzel Washington). I will never forget how I felt watching this scene in the movie.
This power of music has been a part of the church since its beginning. It was an important aspect of worship in both the Old and New Testament. As we heard today, Miriam led women in singing, tambourines and joy to express gratitude to God for bringing them out of bondage with the Egyptians (this was after the Red Sea parted and the Israelites were able to escape from the Pharoah and Egyptian army.) The book of Psalms seems to be the original songbook of the church as praises and laments permeate throughout this book. So many songs from our current music as well as our traditional music have their words coming out of the book of Psalms. II Chronicles 5:13 says “it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments in praise to the Lord, for he is good, his steadfast love endures forever, the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud.” Music was a part of the Isrraelites culture and songs were a way to praise, worship and lament to Yahweh.
We know that King David (before he was king) would many times play his harp to calm King Saul when he was in a dark place mentally and emotionally. There is lots to examine about this for another day, but it again speaks to the power of music to soothe our soul and bring us into God’s presence when we are scared, in the dark and afraid.
There was also much music in the early New Testament church gatherings. Ephesians 5: 19-20 says “as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hears, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Colossians 3:16 says “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to God.
Music in worship is a powerful emotional stimulator. It is a gift of God. It is a common grace. We can’t imagine the world without music, the world in which we now live.
Barbara Brown Taylor, one of my favorite writers and pastors, said that to preach is to “toss the fragile net of our words over the bone-melting music of God.” I like the image of these words and the description of how music can melt our bones and bring us into a place of the Divine.
Sometimes on Sunday we hear our name called in the music. Something stirs within us, and we, too, realize who we were meant to be. “Deep cries unto deep,” and we find ourselves surrounded by the “bone-melting music of God.”
Sometimes, music reminds us of our past. That’s especially true today as we sing several of the old hymns. However, music also takes us into a future that we can imagine, one where love, peace, joy and care for each other and our earth is possible. I am sure you can think of times and songs that transport you to this place of hope and promise. Just about every important social and justice movement has music deeply embedded in their drive for change.
When I first started exploring Quakerism 30 years ago, I was attracted to the idea of unprogrammed worship and learning how to center myself to listen to the voice. But I also knew I had to be a part of a worship service where music was included because of how music connects me to the Divine. I know this is not the case for everyone, but it’s one of the reasons why I have loved First Friends. The fact that we incorporate music, the spoken word and silence in our community is what I had been looking for my entire spiritual life. And we have been blessed to have some talented musicians that have offered a breadth of musical styles and songs.
One of those people is Shawn Porter. Today we are celebrating him and honoring the 25 years of his music ministry at First Friends. I remember the first time that Shawn came to First Friends to play the organ. It was in December, close to Christmas and he showed up in this festive Christmas vest and played the organ wonderfully that Sunday. Shawn started out as our organist and within several years he was playing the organ and also directing the choir. I was part of the choir for many years, and I always appreciated his organizational skills, his amazing ability to sight read music (never seen anyone sight read that well), his sense of humor and fun, and how he embraced all of us no matter our musical talents.
Shawn also became more than my choir director – he became my friend. Shawn is a good friend. I will never forget his genuine concern for me when I told everyone on a Sunday 17 years ago that I had uterine cancer. I was having surgery the following week and I remember being in the Coffee Circle room for some meeting after Meeting for worship and when he left the meeting visibly shaken by my news he whispered in my ear – I love you. He meant it and I was deeply moved by his care and connection with me.
We come from some similar religious backgrounds – Church of God and Nazarenes have a lot of similarities and we have a lot of common language from our backgrounds – as well as a love for the card game Rook (because we could not use regular playing cards as they were considered evil). We both have been on a spiritual journey, and I have always appreciated his openness and his wrestling with some of the messages of these denominations.
I was honored to officiate at Shawn and Brett’s wedding here at First Friends on July 8th, 2017. It was a joy to get to know Brett and to do premarital counseling with them and appreciate the love and respect they have for each other as individuals and the positive potential for a marriage that is so the right thing for both of them. It was a beautiful day, and the Meeting room was filled with friends, family and so many members of the First Friends community to show our love and appreciation for Shawn.
Shawn brought his musical talents and his whole being to First Friends. He added to our spiritual experience through the ministry of music. Shawn, we are thankful that you shared your music ministry with us for all these years and became a part of our faith community.
I close today with a poem about the power of music.
The Gift to Sing
James Weldon Johnson - 1871-1938
Sometimes the mist overhangs my path,
And blackening clouds about me cling;
But, oh, I have a magic way
To turn the gloom to cheerful day—
I softly sing.
And if the way grows darker still,
Shadowed by Sorrow’s somber wing,
With glad defiance in my throat,
I pierce the darkness with a note,
And sing, and sing.
I brood not over the broken past,
Nor dread whatever time may bring;
No nights are dark, no days are long,
While in my heart there swells a song,
And I can sing.Top of FormBottom of Form
Friends, as we enter this time of silent reflection and unprogrammed worship, centering ourselves to listen for the voice, I share several queries for your consideration.
How does music move you?
What memories come up for you as you listen to various music?
In what ways do you experience God through music?