God's Language on Pentecost Eve

The porter's gate to St. John's College

Low voices.

That was the posting for Evensong at St. John’s College on Saturday evening. My third time at St. John’s was again an experience of intense appreciation for the beauty of music as it enhances our prayer life. My time here in Cambridge has only strengthened my conviction that there is no better way to pray and to worship God than through the use of music – certainly with the sound of “lyre and harp,” namely through instruments made by human ingenuity, but more importantly through the use of that instrument made by God – the human voice.

The ”low voices” Evensong featured the men’s sections of the usual men and boys’ choir – no trebles in view. When high range was required, a counter tenor provided the pitch, but this was only seldom. The psalms were prayed with the restraint of the festal tones of Gregorian chant – plain, simple, exquisite. The anthem was solid, fulsome, strong. A perfect setting for the eve of Pentecost.

Last Tuesday I was again at King’s College. That evening, prayer was led by the “King’s Voices,” a choir of mixed voices of men and women – a rather modern innovation for King’s. But again, the varied timbre, the style of music employed, and the ambience that resulted all produced an experience of prayer and meditation that was thoughtful and filled with meaning as we together reflected on the nature of Christ’s post resurrection gifts of peace given to us through those first disciples. Interestingly, the second lesson was not taken from scripture but was a portion of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail – poignant and revelatory as it tied together the words we so easily toss about as Christians – salvation, life, justice, love, and peace. They are all of one piece and they come together in the spirit of the Risen Lord.

And still, the noble music of these longstanding colleges is not the only expression of musical prayer freighted with such meaning. The modern praise music of Ridley Hall also touches the heart in unexpected ways, especially when wedded to the words of Samuel and Charles Wesley who through their poetic hymnody sought to warm the hearts of believers in an Anglican church that had grown overly rationalistic and even cold in its approach to the divine mysteries of God's love for the world.

At the same time, in the secular world, we heard news of the death of Tina Turner – a giant not only in the industry but among human beings. Someone who certainly was able to persist in what was clearly a “man’s world” even within a relationship filled with pain and abuse, Turner was able to use music to overcome pain and sorrow and to demonstrate the resilience of the human spirit. Music has this power in and outside of the Church. It can be and is often one of our most effective tools for proclaiming good news. Let’s not forget that. Let’s never think of it as expendable or as something nice but non-essential. It is the universal language of the human heart. It is for that reason, the language of God among men.