Music enriches your soul, not just your ears By Nathan Scoggins NPR recently broadcast an interview with a woman who sang beautiful religious operatic arias in local NY churches. She was quick to declare herself an atheist, but then admitted that there was something to these old songs of faith, which told the story of a Savior, born of a virgin, descended from on high to right the wrongs of man, that touched her spirit. I found her dual-response interesting. As a Christian, and as a worship leader who’s sung in the United States, Great Britain, and Egypt, I have seen the power and sheer joy of music break through cultural barriers. On a trip to Cairo last summer, an Egyptian my own age, upon hearing that I could play guitar, asked me if I knew a song he’d heard once called “Amazing Grace.” Had I heard it! I’d lived it, and was happy to share with him not only the song, but also my love for it. On a fallouka ride on the Nile, a group of 60 Egyptians asked me to sing it again. And again this semester, a group of people playing piano in the MPR started singing this classic hymn that begins, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound/That saved a wretch like me.” My student prayer group, which meets Thursday nights in the campus center, happily joined in. Sting said in an interview once that, “music is one of the last spiritual languages we have.” In a season when much, if not most, of the traditional music is still hymns, I have to wonder if the reason we still sing these old songs is not just because of the sound, but because of the message. Yes, we sing standbys such as “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” but we also sing songs like “The First Noel,” “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” “Silent Night,” “O Come All Ye Faithful.” As much as our society has attempted to commercialize Christmas, anyone reading the words of these songs has to be confronted with their overwhelmingly religious message. This is as it should be, for all music has some kind of message, whether it’s “I want to sleep with you tonight” or “let’s save the world.” And the music that endures does so because it is at once more than a song, because it transcends and reminds us of a larger reality. Music resonates not just because of shared experiences around favorite songs (the lovers of “Come On Eileen” will nod their heads), but because of the deeper spirits which they stir up. U2’s Bono points out that there are two types of music: music you live to or music you die to. I have to believe that the music which endures the longest is that which people live to, which inspires people, which touches the soul, which bridges the distance between God and man. Music is man’s God-given ability to create, to transcend space and time. Consider: Handel’s Messiah, “Ode to Joy,” “Ave Maria,” “Amazing Grace,” “Be Thou My Vision.” All these are songs that have existed for hundreds of years, as explicit praises to God, and are still sung today. I can’t help but wonder that the reason so many have been moved by these songs is not just because of the sound, but because of the undeniably spiritual content that they bring. It only makes sense to consider that if we are spiritual beings, if God has created us in His own image, then there is a deeper reality into which the best music helps us plunge. This does not have to simply be church music; in the post-September 11 tragedy, many found solace in music that was spiritual. Enya’s “Only Time” is spiritual without forcing its message to the fore, and U2’s “Peace on Earth” – with the telling lyric, “Jesus, can you take the time/To throw a drowning man a line/Peace on earth” – became the most-requested song at many radio stations. The best music achieves a certain transcendence, exploring the mysterious ways of life’s rhythms, and then inviting you to dance to them. I have to wonder too, that the songs which enter into our cultural lexicon, absorbed into the fabric of our consciousness, are those which have the deepest meaning – that resound with transcendence, bringing the soul from this physical state into the next. At a U2 concert this fall, the band broke into “Walk On,” from their latest album and finished with a “Hallelujah” chant that had the whole crowd on their feet, clapping, dancing, singing, praising. Sorrow was eclipsed by joy. A final case in point: the Ebony Singers concert, which sells out every semester. At the concert Monday night, there was no doubt about the exuberance and excitement of the singers, who crowded onto the Crowell Concert Hall stage, and the depth of faith of many, who sang as though their lives depended on it, who sang not just from their hearts, but from their souls. There was no doubt too about the exuberance and excitement of many in the audience, who raised their hands in praise, dancing for joy. Redeemed ex-wretches, saved not by their own power, but by the love of a God who was so desirous for a relationship with them that He sent His son in their – in our – place. Over and over, that was the message: “God kept me.” When watching, amazed at the sheer number of students in the choir, in the hall, pushing up against the windows outside and crowding the aisles, I could not help but wonder if the reason this concert sells out every year, if the reason people audition (sometimes over and over again) to get in, is because the exuberance is not just one of the body, but of the soul. If it’s not just the sound (which was nice), but the message, which was palpable – of faith, of healing, of deliverance, of redemption, of God breaking through space and time on behalf of His people. In these days, who doesn’t find comfort in that? In the Bible, David danced to glorify the Lord – and when told not to, he replied, “I will become more foolish than even this!” Jesus himself said, “If these people would not praise, the rocks and stones would cry out.” There is a palpable joy that comes when the created unites with the Creator, when grace breaks through and touches the wretches who need it most. That joy can only be expressed in music. How can those of us who are redeemed ex-wretches do anything but dance?

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