We, the audience, had come from all across the United States to hear this choir sing, to see Dr. James Abbington lead, to absorb gospel standards and other pieces of black sacred music, to have our souls refreshed.
To the surprise of most, Dr. Abbington asked us, the audience, to become part of the show. Dr. Abbington changed the dynamic. He wanted us to sing.
Us. The audience.
I marveled at this. He seemed so certain we would just do as he said. What made him think we, the audience, would agree to this? Shouldn’t we be on the receiving end of all this?
But we did what he told us to do. Belting out such well known gospel greats as "Oh Happy Day," "Marching to Zion," and "Every Praise (is to Our God)." Song after song, we sang.
I wondered if this was just a thing he liked to do, the way some rock stars like to tilt the microphone toward the audience so they can chime in on some parts. Maybe this was just his way.
But then he said something that put it all in perspective: "According to Kierkegaard, in church, God is the only audience; we are all participants in the worship."
While I think I have long had a similar understanding of worship, I've never heard it said quite that way: God is the only audience. I guess that might be debated. But one thing is not debatable, God is certainly the only audience that matters.
Moses forgot this.
In this week’s Deuteronomy selection, God shows Moses the Promised Land ... and then reminds Moses that he will not be entering it.
All because Moses forgot just who was the most important audience.
At one pivotal juncture in their journey through the wilderness, angered at the bickering Israelites, Moses struck the rock with his staff to get the water they needed. In doing so, he disobeyed God's instruction to get that water by speaking to the rock. And he paid the price.
Afterwords, GOD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you didn’t trust me, didn’t treat me with holy reverence in front of the People of Israel, you two aren’t going to lead this company into the land that I am giving them.” (Numbers 20:12 MSG)
We are not, in fact, the audience.
No matter where we sit or stand in the house of meeting, when we act as though we or someone else is the audience, we forget a basic truth about worship.
God is the only audience.
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 25 (30) (October 29, 2017)
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17
Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18
Psalm 1
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
Matthew 22:34-46
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When I first wrote about this in 2014, I had just attended an extraordinary gathering of academics, at Baylor University, committed to the study of and preservation of Black Gospel Music. The concert we came to hear —and ended up participating in— was the capstone of that conference. It’s pretty much impossible to sing Gospel and not feel close to God. What a blessing that was.
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Photo from First Baptist Chiricahua, Atlanta: http://fbcatlanta.org/get-connected/sample-page/
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I hope you can join us Friday morning for Lectionary Breakfast. We meet in the Function Room of the Waco “Egg and I” Restaurant (8:00-9:00).
No one will ask you to sing 😱
Blessings,
Steve
1 comment:
The Eastern Orthodox Liturgy is built around the concept of God as the only "audience". The innovation of pews in many American Orthodox churches makes this harder to discern on first inspection (especially if one is accustomed to the modern Protestant style of high-production-value worship) but the way the clergy face the same direction as the congregation for most of the service (and are seemingly absent altogether at times) shows that the focus is not on the human beings who happen to be standing in the front.
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