Mark Sorensen Have you ever gotten into a situation where you found yourself over your head? I’m not talking a little over your head. I’m talking WAY over your head. I can certainly confess that a few of those situations come to mind in my own life. Allow me to share one with you.
I was a senior in high school and a member of the Marshall High School chorale. We were asked to perform specific solos at a local church for a special service in the community and I was assigned by my choral instructor to sing a new piece in Latin. So far so good, right? It would have been except I procrastinated. In fact, I procrastinated to the point that I thought I could learn the piece on the day of the performance. So, I look over it a few times and leave for the concert. Enter into the scene the conflict in the story: I had missed the announcement that we were not using music and the songs were to be performed from memory. Now. A sane person would confess to his/her choir teacher and say something to the effect of, “Look, I messed up. I have no idea what the Latin is and should not be singing something that I don’t know.” Too bad I wasn’t sane.
My time to sing comes and I walk up to the platform and the pianist who, coincidentally, happened to be my high school choir teacher, begins the piece. Then, it happens. I start making up words that sound Latin to me. I’m not kidding. For four minutes and twenty-three seconds I make up a language that was certainly NOT Latin but more, “Latin-Esque”. I glimpsed at my teacher once mid-way through the song and will never forget her eyes as she stared at me. She knew. And she was not pleased with my decision. The funny thing? As the evening of worship ended, I had pulled it off. I had many compliment me on the beautiful song I had sang. They loved it. My teacher? Not so much.
Let’s look at Woe #2.
“Woe to you Pharisees, woe to you who teach the law, hypocrites! You traverse hills and mountains and seas to make one convert, and then when he does convert, you make him much more a son of hell than you are.” Matthew 23:15 (VOICE)
In the first “Woe” we looked at, Jesus was telling the Pharisees that their approach to religion was a hindrance to those who really wanted to know God. They were closing the door of the Kingdom in people’s faces as they were not giving them a way in. Jesus was in their midst and they didn’t see it. In this “Woe”, Jesus continues that thought but takes it a step further. In verse 15 Jesus is saying that, though the Pharisees were keen to win converts to Judaism, they were singing the wrong lyrics to the song. What’s worse? The people were buying it. The religious system they preached wasn’t the true Law and those that were listening were buying the lyrics as “truth”. The Pharisees were caught up in the “system”, not for the glory of God and saving souls, but for the credit in making more and more converts. The result? They were not making converts that mirrored the Kingdom. To the Pharisees, Jesus says in regards to the converts made, “you make him much more a son of hell than you are.”
As I have let this one sit in my soul for a couple of days, I have come to ask the following questions of myself. Is the song that I am singing now in check with the Word of God? Do my words and actions mirror the One whom I proclaim to have a relationship with and, even greater, are those singing along with me singing the right Words? I think about something Jesus said in the Great Commission. In Matthew 28:19, Jesus said, “Go and make disciples…”. Here, Jesus was instructing the disciples to make other disciples that mirror and reflect the words of the One who discipled them. In other words, Simon Peter was to make a disciple that mirrored Jesus, not Simon Peter. To make true disciples of Jesus, they must mirror the One who has discipled us.
God’s song, the song of His love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness, it’s worthy of singing. The music of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection? It’s worthy of our celebration!
To sing the song, we have to know the song. Let’s start there. Then? Let’s sing.
