Dr. Ingle, our university's president, set the tone for this academic year with the word "dream," so I would like to consider this topic of dreams together as musicians.
During the summer, I visited with a couple of old friends - friends who trained to be professional musicians. As we are all reaching middle age, we reflected that, while we are working in music, the primary duties of our jobs are not the things we trained for. Yes, we spent hours and hours learning how to perform a musical phrase with elegance and healthy technique, but since then, we have also learned to tutor students, to write good e-mails, to manage budgets, etc..
This being paid for things you didn't exactly train for is actually the norm. (And, by the way, it is a good reason for pursuing a liberal arts education.) But more than being the norm, this emphasizes that music is ultimately a gift to humanity. Yes, we do have gifts for performing music, but we are also to give that music to others. My friends and I agreed that, whether we were working professionally in music or not, we would still be making music and giving that gift. We do not have to be paid money for it, although it's nice to be. Our real pay is in the giving of the gift, in being part of a design that brings blessing to the world.
We music faculty want gainful employment for our students after they have finished their degrees, and hopefully that work will be in music. But achieving employment, even in music, is not really our central desire for our students. If our students' dreams are simply to be employed as musicians, and they achieve that goal, what then? What do the remaining years of their lives look like? What propels them to keep achieving and what gives meaning to that work?
And so I turn to questions that I first heard proposed by my friend, Brother Stefan Waligur. (Stefan is a great composer and an equally great friend whose gifts for empathy and getting to the heart of a matter are profound.)
Br. Stefan asks:
What are you doing with your music?
Whom are you loving with your music?
When we consider what we hope to accomplish with our music-making, we Christians tend to turn first to worship. Some of us are called to explicit church ministry, but not all of us. Those who serve by supporting the worship of congregations would do well to dream of three types of prayer found in the Psalms. I will list and briefly discuss them below but they are explored nicely here.
1. What should be obvious to most of us, worship involves praise and thanksgiving.
2. A second facet of what the psalmist offers - and something we don't frequently provide our congregations in any significant measure - is the opportunity to lament. Much of the world lives in lamentable situations, situations in which Christ joined them on Good Friday, but more often than not, we are not willing to linger with them even though many of these brothers and sisters have no choice but to lead their entire lives essentially on the cross or in the tomb. For a very challenging word on this topic, see this writing by Dr. Miguel De La Torre.
3. A third spiritual orientation is played out in the Psalms and that is the calming and quieting of the soul as referenced in Psalm 131 and other places. These words suggest a mode of relating with God that moves beyond praise or requests, nourishing trust and inviting intimacy, instead.
There is music that expresses and catalyzes thanks, lament, and silence. This is music of the church that could make a difference for the world. And a great many of us are called to make music "out there" in secular space where the needs of the human heart are just as great. A number of powerful passages speak to the possibilities of music in that arena and help us know how to build our dreams.
Exodus 15 - Miriam's celebration
What do we celebrate as individuals and as a culture?
We should be on the lookout for what to celebrate so as to help others recognize its specialness and importance. Musicians have a strong voice in defining what and how to celebrate.
Exodus 31 - Moses' remembrance
Poised to enter the Promised Land, Moses reviewed and interpreted Israel's history for his nation.
What history do we need not to forget?
World War I, the Holocaust . . .
but good things, too -
the lives of saints, the legacies of those who shaped us and of those who answered God's call.
Joshua 6 - Jericho's walls
What sorts of walls do we see that need to come down?
Joshua's story teaches something about the real labor of bringing down walls. And this is it: While the quick clip of the wall falling flashes across the broadcast news and captivates our imaginations, the real work of advocacy consists of untold days and years, even generations, of preparation. The advocate comes to recognize the need for change then works and works and works to raise consciousness, and then just keeps keeping at it until critical mass finally weighs heavily enough on the wall. Somewhere in all of this, music can be a megaphone for the powerless.
I Samuel 16 - Saul's therapy
Who is troubled and can be relieved by our music-making?
When we reach out to bring relief through music, we enter into relationships, and, just as in David's case, those relationships might well determine the very course of our lives.
Acts 16 - The pastime of Paul and Silas
I picture it like this: at midnight, having been flogged, jailed, and put in stocks, Paul looks to Silas and says, "So what do we do now?" and Silas says, "Let's sing some of those hymns you like." And so they persisted in faith and in the holy pastime of private worship. And God responded. We who strive to make music professionally for others sometimes forget to make it in our homes and to express our heart to God with it, whatever the situation.
Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3
What needs to be taught or learned? Who needs to be encouraged and to what end?
Music plays a role in these things, too, and perhaps a greater role than the factors we normally think contribute to these dynamics.
In conclusion, I think of Brother Stefan again and of another of the probing questions God has given him.
As we go out from Southeastern to the places of our lives' service, do we truly believe God loves us?
So often, we focus so much on ideas of our sinfulness and God's justice that we never allow ourselves truly to accept that God loves us. The initial posture of the prayer Jesus taught us was that of a child speaking to a parent, not of a lawbreaker begging a judge. I believe we need to pray that way until we can give the gift of music with the purity and freedom the world needs.
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| An open space and a little window through which one might dream |
1 comment:
Blessings on you, Charles and on the Good Work !
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