The sound of.... music?

Throughout time has God has been incredibly good to the church.  One of his greatest gifts has been in the gift of music and musicians.  Singing is powerful, it lifts our eyes, instills truth and provides a vehicle for our expressions of trust, fear, joy, and so on in response to God's word, our lives and our hope.  A church without singing would be far poorer.

And yet I wonder if that is where we are heading.  Not wishing to seem apocalyptic but musicianship is on the wane.  If you're church has lots of gifted musicians my hunch is you are located in the city or in a locale with a university.  Be thankful, even though at times there can be tensions with having lots of musicians.

I am very grateful to God for the gifted musicians he has provided for us as a church over the last ten years.  Their faithful service has been of great benefit to us.  Yet here is my fear looking around about me and into the future about music and musicians in the church.  A fear that is especially true if you are not a university town/city church and that is exacerbated even more if you are in working class or deprived area.

Put simply there aren't many musicians and there is little prospect of there being lots of musicians n the future.  There are a number of reasons for this, one is that young people who head off to uni rarely return home.  But secondly and perhaps a greater cause for concern in the future is the sheer cost of music lessons.  Due to budget constraints our local school music service has put the cost of lessons up from £160 a year to over £400!  That puts music out of the reach of so many families.  It limits music and musicianship to the wealthy, because that is without the add on cost of instruments, music, etc...  And that will impact our churches, maybe not yours because you're church is largely middle class and fairly affluent, and so music will be an affordable priority, we ought to be thankful for that if that's us.  But for those in working class and deprived areas I wonder if it means many more churches without musicians.  There are ways around it, there are a growing range of apps, but we lose the sense of someone willingly serving the body of Christ, someone who has taken hours to craft and hone their skills.  It also means the next generation don't grow up to aspire to play and so the cycle perpetuates itself.

So what?  Ought we to be encouraging musicians to think about moving and serving in other churches, if we have a glut of them?  Could your musicians help another local church out by training their young, or not so young, people?  Are there musicians in your church who could provide free lessons to the next generation either in your church or in another to fill this void?

Our faulty view of God

Spent most of today studying Ruth - it is a great book and one I'm looking forward to learning from as we go through it on Sunday evenings at Lighthouse.

One thing in particular struck me today as I focused on Chapter 1 - the faulty nature of Naomi's understanding of God. I had never really noticed it before, quite how I'm not sure. But she lurches from praying that her daughters-in-law as she urges them to leave her would know and experience the ('hesed') unwavering, steadfast loyal love of God, to in the same exhortation (v13)saying God has been against her. A charge that she reiterates when she gets back to Bethlehem and tells them to call her 'Mara' (bitter) not Naomi (pleasant) because the Almighty has made my life very bitter, he has brought her back empty and he has afflicted and brought misfortune on her.

Added to all that as she seeks to send them back to Moab it is not just to the people but to their gods. Naomi's view of God is confused and is not grounded in the law (Gen-Deut) and its revelation of God and his character. It is amazing that Ruth woudl want to ally herself with the God of Naomi.

Her circumstances had made her bitter, her circumstances had determined her view of God. The question is which is right is God 'hesed' steadfastly faithful beyond what people deserve or is he responsible for her bitterness, has he left her bereft and without hope. The great irony is that as she describes herself as empty, beside her stands Ruth who has made Naomi's people and God hers and will be the means through which God provides and shows his hesed love for her.

It is striking because I think so often we are like Naomi - circumstances determined how we view and feel about God rather than how we view God determining how we feel about our circumstances.

Another facet I'd not thought about before is that Naomi is part of the lost generations following on from Judges 2:10 "After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel." I wonder if that is why her understanding of God seems so faulty, if that is what prompted the family to flee to Moab?

It is well with my soul

It is well with my soul is one of my favourite hymns, both for the truths it sets forth but also because it is a great rock when sufferings hit.

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot,
Thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well with my soul

It is well (it is well)With my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soul

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come
Let this blessed assurance control
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate
And hath shed His own blood for my soul

My sin, 0 the bliss of this glorious thought
My sin, not in part but in whole
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, 0 my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend
Even so, it is well with my soul

Spafford was a Chicago lawyer, but this great hymn was not written in the midst of ease and plenty but pain, grief and almost unimaginable personal tragedy. In 1870 their only son was killed by scarlet fever at the age of four. A year later, it was fire rather than fever that struck. Horatio had invested heavily in real estate on the shores of Lake Michigan. In 1871, every one of these holdings was wiped out by the great Chicago Fire.

Aware of the toll that these disasters had taken on the family, Horatio decided to take his wife and four daughters on a holiday to England. They needed the rest and their friend DL Moody needed the help as he was traveling around Britain on one of his evangelistic campaigns. They planned to join Moody in late 1873 and traveled to New York in November, from where they were to catch the French steamer 'Ville de Havre' across the Atlantic.

Just before they set sail, some last-minute business forced Horatio to delay. Not wanting to ruin the family holiday, Spafford persuaded his family to go as planned saying that he would follow on. Anna and her four daughters sailed to Europe while Spafford went back to Chicago. Just nine days later, Spafford received a telegram from his wife in Wales. It read: "Saved alone."

On November 2nd 1873, the 'Ville de Havre' had collided with 'The Lochearn', and sank in only 12 minutes, claiming the lives of 226 people. Anna Spafford had stood bravely on the deck, with her daughters Annie, Maggie, Bessie and Tanetta clinging desperately to her. Her last memory had been of her baby being torn violently from her arms by the force of the waters. Anna was only saved by a plank which floated beneath her unconscious body and propped her up. When the survivors of the wreck had been rescued, her first reaction was complete despair. Then she heard a voice speak to her, "You were spared for a purpose." And she immediately recalled the words of a friend, "It's easy to be grateful and good when you have so much, but take care that you are not a fair-weather friend to God."

Upon hearing the news, Horatio boarded the next ship out of New York to join his bereaved wife. Bertha Spafford (the fifth daughter of Horatio and Anna born later) explained that during her father's voyage, the captain of the ship had called him to the bridge. "A careful reckoning has been made", he said, "and I believe we are now passing the place where the de Havre was wrecked. The water is three miles deep." Horatio returned to his cabin and penned the lyrics of his great hymn.

The words Spafford wrote that day come from 2 Kings 4:26 and echo the response of the Shunammite woman to the sudden death of her only son. Though "her soul is vexed within her", she maintains that 'It is well." And Spafford's song reveals a man whose trust in the Lord is as unwavering as hers was.

His worship doesn't just depend on how he feels. "Whatever my lot", he says, come rain or shine, pleasure or pain, success or failure, joy or grief "Thou hast taught me to say / It is well, it is well with my soul".

Nor does his worship centre on himself rather he focuses on what God has already done at the cross (0 the bliss of this glorious thought / My sin ... is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more) and what God will do in the future ("Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight / The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend").

In fact, Spafford's worship brings us back to the bottom line: at the end of the day, come hell or high-water, it is "this blessed assurance" that holds us fast.