Our congregation did a profoundly counter-cultural act last Sunday. We sang.
People don’t sing anymore. They plug loudspeakers into their ears. While they’re at work. Or out for a walk. While they lie on the beach, or commune with nature.
They could be listening to Mozart. Or Metallica. Perhaps they’re learning Astronomy or Calculus from one of the Great Courses. Sometimes their lips move. But no sounds come out.
People used to sing. They weren’t ashamed of singing out loud. They gathered around a piano in someone’s living room. Even if the piano player mangled the melodies, they sang along. They brought guitars and sang around campfires. They sang as they marched off to war.
The great songwriters and lyricists put people’s hopes and dreams -- and their laments -- to music. During World War II, Vera Lynn’s songs did as much to lift British spirits as Winston Churchill’s speeches.

Unwilling to sing
We had a funeral recently, a memorial service, at church. The room was packed. But when it came time to sing, fewer than half the people sang.
The music wasn’t difficult. The words were projected on big screens. But more than half of the people didn’t even attempt to sing. They kept their mouths zippered, their faces blank.
Me, I love to sing. In my retirement years, I’m learning a little about harmony. And about rhythm, and timing. But even if I could do nothing but join in the main melody, I would delight in the sheer joy of singing.
Research at the University of Gothenberg suggests that singing together also has physiological effects. "Singing the phrases is a form of guided breathing," said musicologist Bjorn Vickhoff of the Sahlgrenska Academy (from a report on NPR). "You exhale on the phrases and breathe in between the phrases. When you exhale, the heart slows down."
Vickhoff’s team measured heart rates as a high school choir sang. Almost immediately, the music caused the singers' heart rates to fall into a shared rhythm influenced by the song's tempo.
His conclusions shouldn’t be surprising. We know already that breathing affects heart rates. Yoga and meditation both focus on breathing patterns. Singers must match their breathing to the demands of the music. So it stands to reason that their heart rates would be affected.
Perhaps that’s why ancient monks felt uplifted while singing sonorous psalms in the darkness before dawn. Perhaps that’s why worshippers at Taize and Iona experience euphoria as they chant endless refrains.
So when a congregation rises to its feet to belt out a rousing hymn, or repeats a prayer in unison, they discover a sense of unity. Not just with their minds, but also with their bodies.

One in the spirit
Merely listening to a sermon or speech doesn’t evoke a common response. Some will respond favourably to an idea; others won’t. But singing, by its nature, encourages a common response both mentally and physiologically.
As a writer, I believe that the words are important. Many musicians argue that the music itself matters, regardless of the words. But maybe both of us are wrong.
It’s not WHAT people sing; it’s THAT they sing. That they sing together, synchronizing breath and body in a common cause. Singing makes them one.

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Copyright © 2016 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.
        To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca
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YOUR TURN

Cathy Bishop wrote about last week’s column, “I see the changes in our culture, but had not thought of the ‘selfie’ as a clue to what is changing.”

Barbara Beatty thought that selfies might be a form of disguise: “I have struggled with cancer, a broken leg, depression and much other stress over the last few years.  I don't do selfies, but if you looked at my Instagram postings you would know I was happy, well, enjoying life, etc. I have felt pressure to appear way more together -- more mentally, spiritually and physically well -- than the reality of my life. I play the game. I have it together! 
“I am fortunate indeed that I have a few friends with whom I can share a more total picture.  It is those relationships where I find wisdom, support and the seeds of healing and being.”

Isabel Gibson found it “hard to imagine my grandparents (born around 1890) or parents (both born in 1922) making any effort to ‘find themselves,’ or thinking that the truth lay (exclusively, at least) within.
“There's value in the wisdom of the ages, just as there is value in letting each person become what they're capable of and add their own distinctive wisdom to the pile.
“We're such either/or thinkers, when what we all need is a little more both/and.”

Steve Roney disagreed, on several points: “Tourists taking pictures of themselves in front of landmarks are not being self-centred, just sensible. This, of course, is an East Asian thing. I cannot understand the North American prejudice against it. So you think your friends and relative would be more interested in your photograph of the landmark standing alone? Why? Do you really think YOU can take better picture of it than anyone else has ever done? Isn't that the attitude that is self-centred? Indeed, you could get such a picture off the Interne t…The only meaningful souvenir, and the only one of any possible interest to anyone else, unless you happen to be a brilliant photographer, is a picture that includes both you and the monument…”
I had said, quoting David Brooks, that “The selfie culture internalizes God. God is in me, in you."
“Again,” Steve wrote, “the doctrine that God is imminent, ‘within you,’ is not a new insight. It is what Jesus, for example, taught. It is what every religion has taught for millennia. But this, of course, is very different from saying ‘I am God.’ This is very different from seeing God as ‘not a separate being.’”

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PSALM PARAPHRASES

My goodness, those ancient psalm writers could be a mealy-mouthed lot! The lectionary suggests, as main readings, both Psalm 42 and 43 -- 16 verses of whining. The alternative, Psalm 22:19-28, isn’t much better. Psalm 22 at least moves towards optimism, having started off with that heart-rending, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me…” I’m going to use a paraphrase of part of Psalm 22, based on a friend who nursed three AIDS victims as they died.

23   Behold a saint! 
Few could do what she does: 
she goes down to the hospice, every day,
24   where people waste away with AIDS. 
She does not hide her face behind a mask, nor her hands inside rubber gloves. 
When they cry in misery, she cradles them in her arms.

25   We shake our heads in awe at such selfless service.

26   She feeds them, spoonful by spoonful. 
They watch with sunken burning eyes; 
they turn their skin-tight skulls and kiss her cheek.
27   Their own families turn away from them; 
long after their sons and brothers, their daughters and sisters, have died, those families will remember her devotion.
28   In her they see God's kind of love; 
love that has no limits and sets no conditions.

For paraphrases of most of the psalms used by the Revised Common Lectionary, you can order my book Everyday Psalms from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.

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YOU SCRATCH MY BACK…
Ralph Milton has a new project, called Sing Hallelujah – the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at www.singhallelujah.ca
Isabel Gibson's thoughtful and well-written blog, www.traditionaliconoclast.com
Wayne Irwin's "Churchweb Canada," an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://www.churchwebcanada.ca>
Alva Wood's satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town are not particularly religious, but they are fun; write alvawood@gmail.com to get onto her mailing list.
Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” – ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at twatson@sentex.net

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TECHNICAL STUFF

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