Worship Seeking Understanding by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-22T16:00:00+00:00

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Soul Food for the People of God

Dieticians have taught us to live by the maxim “We are what we eat.” Our capability for developing muscle tone and warding off diseases is due, in part, to the nutritional value of the food we eat. The same is true for the soul. What goes into our soul shapes who we are. It sculpts our fundamental identity. It provides resources to build spiritual muscles and to ward off spiritual diseases.

And what more soul-shaping force can we imagine than the songs we sing? Even when we are tired or depressed, old songs well up from within us and dance on our plaintive, whistling lips. When we are old and can remember little else, we are still likely to recall the songs learned in childhood. Music has the uncanny ability to burrow its way into our spiritual bones. When it comes to matters of spirituality and faith, we are what we sing.

There is no need to overstate the case. Music is not all-powerful. Many things shape our souls, including our parents’ attitudes, our friends’ priorities, and our television consumption. But music is certainly among these potent soul-shaping forces. As Aristotle and many since have claimed, music has formative power. It will either corrupt us, inoculate us, or—to use a Pauline phrase—build us up.[1]

This is especially true of the music we sing in church, for this music is offered in the name of God. The guardians of our liturgical music have much to say about the music that feeds our souls. Pastoral musicians have the important and terrifying priestly task of placing words of sung prayer on people’s lips—and not only words but also the melodies that interpret those words and give them affective shape. This happens every time they choose a song and accompany a hymn. Such musicians also have the holy task of being stewards of God’s Word. Choices of which anthem texts and theological themes will be featured in worship represent a degree of control over people’s spiritual diets. To say it in a sentence, to be a church musician—and by extension, a music editor, hymnal committee member, or church music professor—is to be a spiritual dietician.

This food metaphor is not uncommon in the world of religion. We speak of liturgical or musical “taste,” of liturgical “menus.” We even buy books with titles such as Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul. But have we paused to learn from this metaphor? Have we considered its implications for the way we live and worship?

Let us consider another aspect of life. Our ability to handle time wisely can be enlightened once we discover how consistently we speak of time in language derived from commerce (we speak of time as money, something to be spent, saved, and invested). We can learn a great deal about our culture’s view of an argument when we realize how often we speak of arguments using the language of war (the argument is either won or lost). These and other common metaphors become instructive when we use them self-consciously, with consideration.

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