This blog is in two sections. First I want to talk about something important that is on my mind and heart, and following that is a discussion of this week’s music.

Marble’s Applause Addiction

It’s a slippery slope from a worship service with occasional applause to a performance with occasional worship. The amount of applause in the worship service has steadily risen since I arrived here 14 years ago. Very few parts of our service have been immune to it. Even the scripture reading received applause one summer Sunday a few years ago!

Furthermore, I believe we are unintentionally teaching our children to expect applause each time they sing in the sanctuary. Recently the children’s choir sang something from the rear choir loft for the first time, and because they did not receive applause we felt it necessary to assure them they had done nothing wrong and that, in fact, they had inspired a spirit of prayerfulness in the congregation. The lack of applause was an aberration to be explained and interpreted lest they feel like they had failed.

What’s Wrong with Applause in Worship?

Applause is certainly no sin! In rare instances it is highly appropriate, as for the retirement of a beloved minister or the welcoming of a new one. But when routine applause becomes the norm I believe we are robbing ourselves of the precious sacredness of this hour of worship, which truly is holy time, set apart from every other hour in our week.

I don’t mean to sound ungrateful for all the gratitude and affirmation I and others receive. But I do believe that pervasive, routine applause during worship is:

• A mood wrecker. The music and the spoken word work together to create a sacred space, a transcendent moment. Applause robs us of experiencing the profound mystery and very real sense of Divine Presence in worship.
   
• A message distracter. It takes the spotlight off of the message and puts it on the messenger. Did you notice how humbly and masterfully Dr. Brown redirected the applause right back to Jesus following last week’s sermon?
   
• A peer pressurer. Most people feel reluctant to spoil a moment that is pregnant with the Spirit, but a small handful of people often coerce everyone into the obligatory applause. It’s a tyranny of the few, to be sure.
   
• An ego confuser. We in the choirs work hard to let go of our egos and our natural inclination to be performers in order to make Sundays less about us and more about ministry, about transformative worship, and about God. After all that inner work, applause can really mess with our heads, reawakening our craving for instant affirmation.
   
• An inequitable rewarder. I receive more applause than just about anyone at Marble, and yet there are so many members of the staff and congregation who deserve great recognition and overflowing gratitude for all they do; rarely do they ever receive it publicly.

Ways to Redirect the Urge to Applaud

Here are six ideas for things we could try in lieu of applause. The first three can be practiced right in the moment, and the last three can be employed over tme.

• Keep silence. Diane Johnston gave a wonderful talk last week during the adult education hour on the art of mindfulness, and deep listening. After a word is spoken or an anthem is sung I encourage you to try sitting quietly with the moment, remaining fully present in the silence and fully open to hear whatever word God is speaking to you.
   
• Voice an acclamation. As Dr. Kim Jordan says, “Let the church say amen!” Say ‘Hallelujah’ or ‘Thank You Lord’ out loud. Substituting a spoken acclamation for applause separates the church from any ordinary theater or concert hall. It redirects praise to God, the author of both the Word being preached and the Song being sung. And to hear such voiced acclamations are deeply affirming to the speaker or musician – much more so than applause.
   
• Say a prayer. We need them! Prayer has far greater lasting value than applause, and by praying for the ministers and musicians you are giving a priceless gift of love and support.
   
• Send a note, voicemail or email. I am so honored and humbled when people often write to me to say how the music touched them. Last week I received a Sunday evening email that began, “Today you were playing for me.” That was such a generous, wonderful gift that sent me soaring through the start of my work week!
   
• Make a donation. If you are a regular contributor to Marble, you may make a note on the memo line of your check that “applauds” a ministry which has made a difference in your life, such as “In gratitude for the CYF ministry.” Or perhaps you will feel inspired to make a one-time gift, thereby making a lasting difference in a particular ministry.
   
• Invite a friend to Marble. Invite someone to share with you that which has touched you deeply, inspired you to become more of the person God intends for you to be, and helped you forge deep bonds of friendship with others on the faith journey.

Our Sin vs. God’s Mercy

Rev. David Lewicki’s sermon, The Road to Ruin, is based on Luke 13:1-9, in which Jesus tells the parable of the barren fig tree and the debate between the owner and the gardener on whether to cut it down or let it live another year. Like this passage of scripture, Sunday’s music also examines the tension between our sinful nature which warrants punishment and God’s merciful love which gives us another chance.

Anthem: My Lord, Thou Art in Every Breath by Kevin Oldham (1960-1993) [LISTEN] Kevin Oldham was a brilliant pianist, composer, and member of the Sanctuary Choir, for whom this piece was composed. He and I were classmates at Juilliard, where we studied with the same teacher. Written as Kevin bravely waged a losing battle with AIDS, this sublime a cappella motet is the final movement of the Boulding Chorales, a setting of four sonnets by Kenneth Boulding. Surely Kevin knew, as each day entailed ever greater struggle, that his every breath was a gift from God. Composed in a purely homophonic (or chordal) style, the rich harmonies cultivate the feeling of drama, tension, and ultimately surrender that is contained in this remarkable text. In keeping with our theme of the day, the poet cries out in anguish for God to cleanse “this House I have defiled; and if I should be merciful, I know it is Thy mercy in overflow.”

Offertory: O Deus, Ego Amo Te from Three Motets by Ned Rorem (b. 1923) It is often said that for Ned Rorem, words and music are inextricably linked. His mastery of language is amply displayed in fourteen books of prose, diaries, lectures, and criticism. His musical gift is legendary, and includes works for nearly every genre. It is in the combination of words and music, however, where his greatest genius lies. “I conceive all music…vocally. Whatever my music is written for – tuba, tambourine, or tubular bells – it is always the singer within me crying to get out.”

[LISTEN] O Deus, Ego Amo Te can be thought of as a sacred art song containing two contrasting musical ideas: one, the gentle arc of an ascending unison scale, and the other, an angular, somewhat dissonant and constrained motive. Juxtaposed, these brilliantly illustrate the inner conflict in Hopkins’ text between faith motivated by love or by fear, by genuine devotion or the desire to avoid judgment. We are not to love God, Hopkins suggest, for any personal gain we can identify, but rather with no strings attached, “just the way that Thou didst me I do love, and I will love Thee.”

Hymn: My Song is Love Unknown Our middle hymn this week is one of the most important Christian hymns: “My Song Is Love Unknown.” [LISTEN] This magnificent 7-stanza poem by Samuel Crossman (1623-1684) recounts the story of Jesus’ incarnation, ministry, triumphal entry into Jerusalem, mock trial, crucifixion, and burial in a stranger’s grave. (We will sing selected verses.) Seldom has a tune been more perfectly wedded to a hymn text. English composer John Ireland (1879-1962) created a soaring lyrical melody which perfectly parallels the rise and fall, triumph and tragedy of the story.

A remarkable harmonic shift occurs on the third line, in which Ireland momentarily drops the music into a new key center – specifically, that of the flatted 7th (or Db within the key signature of Eb) in order to reflect the shift of text at that precise moment. Ireland’s surprising harmony creates a deeply profound moment in each verse of the hymn: (capital letters = harmonic shift)

“My song is love unknown, my Savior’s love to me, love to the loveless shown, that they might lovely be. BUT WHO AM I, THAT FOR MY SAKE my Lord should take frail flesh and die.”

In attempting to capture the essence of God’s mercy and forgiving love, perhaps Frederick W. Faber, author of the text to our closing hymn, There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy, puts it best:

It is God whose love looks mighty, but is mightier than it seems; ‘Tis our Savior: and His fondness goes far out beyond our dreams. Pining souls! Come nearer Jesus, and oh come not doubting thus, But with faith that trusts more bravely God’s huge tenderness for us.