A new song

 Psalm 98:1 

Sing to the Lord a new song,

    for he has done marvelous things

Singing.  I miss singing with the congregation, so much.  I do sing at home during worship.  The cats seem to be curious about the noises I am making, but there is no one else to hear or to share the feelings with.  Yes, I am singing along with the Quarantine Qrew, just as I sing along with the cast of Hamilton, but I am still singing alone.  The music still moves me, even to tears sometimes, but it is not at all the same as when we are singing in church and some of the folks raise their hands in the air or place them over their hearts and I can see tears falling through the veil of my own tears.  I miss that, so much.

Sadly, I know it is going to be a long while before we can sing together like that again.  Even when we do return to in-person gatherings, we will not be able to sing as a congregation, even with masks on and appropriately distanced from each other.   I think the Qrew will be able to sing - I’m still checking on that - but the rest of us must keep silent.  We won’t even be able to pray the Lord’s Prayer together.  It is going to be very different, and probably very difficult for most of us.  We are so used to singing together that it’s hard to even imagine what worship will be like if we cannot sing.

For several years I wouldn’t sing with other people.  Never mind singing in church - I wouldn’t even sing along with the radio when everyone else in the room was singing!  For a lot of years I sang in a band in bars, and in my mind music was part of the life I had to leave behind when I stopped using and drinking.   I did, however, sing when I was alone in my house or while I was driving - often Amazing Grace or other hymns and Gospel songs I knew.  I would use my voice to worship and pray, when I didn’t know how to pray with my own words.   And I would weep tears of gratitude while I sang, for the marvelous things God had done for me by putting people in my life just when I needed them.  

We have no way of knowing when it will be safe again to sing as a congregation.  We do know it will be very difficult to be silent when the music is playing - just as it will be difficult to leave the children at home and wear masks and wave at our friends instead of hugging them.  But for the present, that is the world we are living in.  So we will sing a new song to the Lord - a song that is sung silently, within our hearts.

Holy God, you created music.  The heavens and seas and birds and whales all sing their own songs, songs you have given them.  We, too, have received the gift of song from you, and we thank you every time we use it to praise your name.  May this time of silent music in our hearts be as pleasing to your ears as the songs we sang aloud in the before times.  Amen.