‘How can I keep from singing?’
Stewarding the gift of song By Jennifer Baker-Trinity
S
ometimes the news is so astounding, the gift so over- whelming, that our thank you becomes a song. Such is the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus. “My soul magnifies the Lord,” she sings upon learning that she is to bear God’s son (Luke 1:46).
When we consider the circumstances surrounding this song, it becomes all the more amazing. How can Mary, an unwed teenager, sing praise when her future is so uncer- tain, the words of an angel so incredulous? And what about us? Time and time again in our own lives the Spirit enters both our astounding joy and deep sorrow and brings forth a song. American hymn writer Robert Lowry understood life as “flowing on in endless song” in response to the new life we share in Christ: No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that Rock I’m clinging. Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing? (“My Life Flows On in Endless Song,” Evangelical Lutheran
Worship, 763). Lowry’s question is rhetorical—we
can’t keep from singing. In times of grief, when the spoken word falls flat, we cling to song with its power to lift our spirits. Yet if we are honest, much does keep us from singing together in the wider culture and in the church. Instead of singing Christmas car- ols together, we attend holiday concerts where professionals sing for us. Similarly, over time singing in church has also become perfor- mance rather than participatory practice. Singing together has become excep- tional rather than expected.
What keeps us from singing? Last Christmas my spouse, an ELCA pastor, visited a parish- ioner with Alzheimer’s dis- ease. Family members had gathered at the nursing home for a holiday visit, and my husband led them in prayer. He suggested they sing “Away in a Manger” together.
SHUTTERSTOCK
Baker-Trinity tends assembly song at Beaver Lutheran Church in Beaver Springs, Pa.
14 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
To his surprise, the only person to join in the singing was the woman who couldn’t even remember the names of her family mem- bers. Disease may have stolen parts of her mem- ory, but it wouldn’t keep her from singing. What of her family members who didn’t sing? Were they silent because they didn’t know the
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