18 Jun Music Notes ~ The First Sounds of Worship (Part 6)
By Cantor Miguel Ruiz
Of the many attributes of God, some theologians have proposed that his most preeminent quality is his holiness. Many other superlatives are regularly employed by the biblical authors or theologians re-stating their words in their own language: God is eternal or having no limit. It follows from this that God is also omniscient, knowing all things. And it follows from this that God is also omnipresent, or that God is everywhere and in all things. The angels sing in Isaiah 6:3 that “The whole earth is full of his glory,” and we see the spirit’s work in the scriptures throughout creation from the beginning. However, rather than the error of pantheism, which states that, since God is everywhere and in everything, therefore everything is God, Christianity advocates for panentheism, which maintains the distinction between God being present yet remaining distinct (the word “holy” means “separate”) from that which he inhabits and transcends. As Reformed theologian R. C. Sproul has put it, rather than saying God is everywhere and in everything, it may be more helpful to say that everything is in the immediate presence of God. “Where can I go from your presence?” asks the Psalmist (139:7). If God and his holiness are truly omnipresent, and we are therefore constantly in the immediate presence of God, is everything in the world therefore spiritual and holy?
We see otherwise in the scriptures. The Lord says to Moses, “Take off your sandals, for the ground on which you stand is holy ground.” What about all the other ground? Was God not also present in all his holiness there as well? The answer lies in the particular manner of God’s manifestation. God was revealing himself to Moses in a concrete, specific, audible way he is not otherwise always revealing himself throughout nature. While the heavens do declare the glory of God, and therefore they tell of his greatness and testify to his handwork, they do not speak to us with words or communicate to us directly any specific knowledge of God that would shape our understanding of his character or the things he does for us men and for our salvation. Nature may reveal the splendor and majesty of God, but it can also reveal God’s severity and judgment through disease, disaster, and death. It is only through direct verbal or written communication that we receive the knowledge of God’s goodness towards us, learning that he crosses the gap of holiness that separates him from sinful man to redeem us and unite us with him in the person of Christ. The general picture of God found in the creation that testifies to his existence is referred to as “general revelation,” but the voice of God speaking directly to his creature, through the prophets and their records, and finally in the person of his Son and the written testimony of his apostles, is called “special revelation.”
This special revelation is the means through which the promise and hope of the Gospel comes to us, apart from which we have no hope in the face of the terrible and destructive forces of nature. And it is this voice from God which makes the ground on which Moses stood to be holy – it was consecrated by God’s Word. As a prophet, Moses heard the direct voice of God on behalf of God’s people and the rest of God’s people heard God’s voice through the testimony and written record of the prophets (a.k.a. the Old Testament). This was necessary because, as the people then understood, to hear the voice of God would cause death. This is because holiness can give no space to sinfulness or impurity. We see this understanding consistently through Biblical stories. For example, Isaiah, when caught up to heaven in a vision and hearing the angels sing “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts” around the throne of God, laments his impending doom. “Woe is me, for I am a man of impure lips!” He recognizes that his sinfulness, through which he has fallen short of God’s glory, leaves him justly to be consumed by the fire of God’s justice. Similarly, the apostle Peter, after merely a miraculous catch of fish, recognizes that the man who gave him instruction to cast his nets again is no ordinary man, but rather, has at least some real connection to transcendent divinity. He falls at his knees before Christ and begs him, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.”
In both these instances, rather than administering justice, God reveals his mercy, absolving sins, forgiving these men, and sending them forth to bear this good word to the rest of God’s people. Peter was in God’s immediate presence before Jesus came along, enjoying the beauty of nature on his boat and going about the his daily labor to catch the fish God has provided for our nourishment. When Jesus arrives and speaks with him, however, Peter now finds himself fact to face with his very creator. The divine presence of God’s holiness has suddenly taken on an altogether different quality! Today we similarly stand in God’s immediate presence, but we no longer have the voices of prophets as mortal man appointed to receive and convey God’s message to us. “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” (Hebrews 1:1-2a) Christ stands as the last, true, and ultimate prophet, and his words are written and given to us in the pages of the New Testament. Even through the Gospels are considered the “red letters” of Christ’s verbatim speech, the Epistles are also considered the apostle’s conveying of Christ teaching to us, as they learned from him during his earthly ministry. “For in him we live, and move, and have our being,” preached the apostle Paul (Acts 17:28). God is always with us, and as his children we also always have immediate access to him through prayer.
However, it does not follow that all places and all things are equal in their manifestation of God’s holiness. There are many books, but only one gives to us the specific revelation of God’s goodness towards us and the things he has done for our salvation. Because of this witness, the words of the Scriptures, and the message of the gospel, are called “means of grace” in the Lutheran tradition. It is the hearing of the Gospel, and this word of promise, through which the Holy Spirit creates and sustains faith in our hearts. Therefore, this book, and the preaching of its substance, can said to be holy. Though it be printed on materials similar to other books, yet it has become a means through which God himself comes to us in ways that he does not through other printed products.
What about the “holy ground” of Moses? Are there sites where we might obtain access to some elevated concentration of God’s essence to have a more immediate encounter with Him? Perhaps a shrine, monument, or memorial to which one might make a pilgrimage? By the work of our hands can no place be made holy. Our feet cannot take us to a place more special to find God. His presence fills all rooms and cannot be increased or conjured by any preparations of our own invention. However, there is the means through which God himself has given to manifest himself to us, to speak his words of forgiveness and give them to us through an immediate, tangible, physical sign. These are the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which Luther referred to as “visible words.” In these, not only does the sound of God’s word enter the ears of all equally, faithful and unbeliever alike, but to those who confess their faith in these words, the physical elements of water, bread, and wine, are given us individually, reassuring that as surely as you feel the water or taste the bread and wine, this Word of forgiveness is given for you. These two words, “for you,” summarize the essence of God’s promise, and through these visible and tangible “words,” Christ himself is truly present among his people, forgiving our sins and lavishing on us His gifts of life and salvation. Christ promises that wherever two or three are gathered in his name, He is truly present among them (Matthew 18:20). As the Holy Spirit calls and gathers us in this name, the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are enlightened the teaching of the gospel and sanctified through the gifts of his grace we receive through Christ’s appointed means of word and sacrament.
As such, wherever the church is assembled to do this becomes a sort of “holy ground” analogous to the burning bush experience of Moses. It does not follow that the ground itself becomes a sacrament, or holy means through which God is immediately encountered. The defining elements of this holy encounter with God are the assembly of His people in His name, according to his institution, to receive gifts of Word and Sacrament, as we call upon this name, pray, praise, and give thanks. This could happen in an open field, in a giant cathedral, in a home, or even in the ghastly tombs of the catacombs where early Christians worshiped in secret for fear of governmental persecution. We are greatly blessed to enjoy the freedom to worship Christ according to our belief, and thus we construct facilities as we are able for this specific purpose. We even endeavor to arrange and adorn this space to facilitate and reflect the teaching of Christ’s message. Altar and pulpit are front and center, and symbols of the faith are found throughout the space from windows to paraments. While, for example, the wood of the pulpit may not be in and of itself any more holy and spiritual than any other wood, we do recognize that it is set apart to serve the holy purposes of Christian worship, and thus respect is accorded to such a space and object, not necessarily because it has become holy through our craftsmanship, but rather, we recognize that its created purpose is for the assembly of God’s people around the holy things that God has given us.
We do not make our sanctuary holy through our work of beautification. However, it becomes a holy place when we are there assembled in God’s name and Christ is present among us through his promised means. In this sense, this space, and the time in which we assemble therein, is “set apart” from all other times and places in our lives. While we always have personal access to God as his children through prayer, only here in this time and place does he come to us in these immediate, direct ways of special revelation and tangible sign. Here Christ himself meets with us to continue his ministry of teaching and healing as he did when He walked the earth. Thus, our gathering for worship becomes a set-apart, or holy, time and space, distinct from all other time and space in our lives. Where Christ comes to us with his gifts is sacred time and space, and the rest of our lives, though they may hopefully also bear the marks of prayer and learning God’s word, remain a secular time and space. As we assemble, we are coming out from the secular time/space of the world (the Biblical word for “assembly” means “called out ones”) and into the sacred time/space of God’s kingdom. How easily the momentous nature of this transition can go unnoticed!
A musical prelude can serve to mark, or bridge, this transition, signifying the leaving of one domain and our “going on up” to the mountain of Zion where we commune with God. In most Lutheran congregations, the prelude is usually immediately followed with the invocation of God’s name, in which we have gathered, or a “hymn of invocation” which is then followed by the Trinitarian name, in order that we might, as the Psalmist instructs, “Come into his presence with singing!” (Psalm 100:2b) The assembled people of God, drawn together by his Spirit around the holy things, is a musical people who sings for the joy God has put into our hears through the hope of the Gospel. Luther even went as far to say that the man who will not sing shows that he does not believe! As we begin to celebrate the hope we have through the song of our faith, a little instrumental introduction signifies that we are entering into an altogether different time and space, where we are no longer emissaries of God’s kingdom in the world, but have come out of it to take refuge in the presence of Christ himself, to feast on the foretaste of the divine kingdom which belongs to us and has become our eternal home. This Kingdom of God is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:18). How can we keep from singing? As surely as beauty adorns the space in which we assemble for these things, the best music we can produce must also adorn, mark, and celebrate this time. Starting with the prelude.
Do you have any questions about the music we use in our services? Send your questions to Cantor Miguel Ruiz at [email protected], and perhaps they can be answered in a future “Music Notes!”