Music lifts our hearts to God in a particular way. It sustains us in weary times and increases our joy during happy times. More than a program or a place, music is a strengthening, comforting, spiritual experience for people of all ages and backgrounds. Music creates a place of welcome for each of us. It is a form of hospitality, as all are invited into the space that is created to enjoy and to take part. It is a natural intergenerational activity – a bridge between young and old and past, present and future. Raising our voices in song together goes beyond our individual efforts and experiences to become something collective, something that is more than the sum of its parts.
Music simultaneously locates us in time and takes us beyond time – binding us to all who ever sang these hymns and all who ever will – our grandparents, neighbors, ancestors in faith and those will come after us, many years from now. With the psalmist we sing out, “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations” (Psalm 90:1).
This message is excerpted from “Finding the rhythm of love” by Jordan Miller-Stubbendick in the May 2018 Gather magazine. Today is Ascension Day. Today we commemorate Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, renewer of the church, hymnwriter, 1760.
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