Hebrew Scripture Reading-1 Chronicles 6: 31-48
Last week as I listened to the choir sing “Kyrie” and Natalie sing her solo I kept wondering what is it that makes music and the music of our choir in particular so powerful. This past week I tried to find an answer to this. I read books about neuroscience and music. I read about how music effects the brain, but nothing seemed to really answer my question until our choir came out with their new album: “The Spiritual Misfits: Hits from the Heavens.” I read the liner notes last night, and they contain an outstanding essay that I thought I would share with you this morning for my sermon. It is written by Georgnoff Milinski, an esteemed professor of religious music history at Northwest Washington University. It reads as follows:
Throughout the world, the Mormons are known for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It is somehow appropriate that the United Church of Christ should now become known for a choir named: “The Spiritual Misfits.” While the choir does indeed have its literal misfits as seen when Glen Owen sings about his raucous pre-marital behavior in “Get Me to the Church on Time,” their name represents more than that. It represents a heritage of audacious singing in a denomination known for taking stands that defy the religious norms of the time.
It would be wrong, however, to simply toss around clichés about how “The Spiritual Misfits” are musical innovators. No doubt they are, but they are also respecters of tradition. They sing in a line of spiritual greatness that extends all the way back to the original singers appointed by David to sing at the Tabernacle. As one biblical scholar notes, in the time of David “the singing of praise” was “the highest form of worship.”[i] With the singing of “The Spiritual Misfits,” we can again see how this is the case.
In a worship service, good singing should pull one out of the mundane world of everyday life and set us upon the heavenly cloud of a melody.[ii] No where is this more evident than when “The Spiritual Misfits” perform their hit “Higher Ground.” The melody and the lyrics go hand in hand as they sing: “I want to scale the utmost height and catch a glimpse of glory bright; but still I’ll pray till heav’n I’ve found, “Lord, lead me on to higher ground. Lord, lift me up and let me stand, by faith, on heaven’s tableland, a higher plane than I have found; Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”
It has been said that good art focuses our feelings and line of vision on aspects of life we “might not otherwise” closely observe. Good art frames a “point of interest in [such] a way that it becomes separated from a background of competing ideas or perceptions.”[iii] It can easily be said that “The Spiritual Misfits” draw our attention to a sense of the divine. When they sing “Seek the Lord,” this is felt especially. In the song, they beckon us to call upon God for God is near.
Good art can also generate the spark of life within even the most dour souls among us. If God can be sensed in the very pulse of life, “The Spiritual Misfits” grab our hand and place it right where the throbbing beat of God’s heart can be most keenly felt. Suddenly, our tired old batteries feel recharged with spiritual electricity. Our souls feel ignited. We feel like living again. The breath of God has swept into our lungs, and we are ready to march out into the world once more. I cannot help but to feel this way when I hear “The Spiritual Misfits” sing “Lift Your Light.” “Lift the light within you,” they sing, “shine it all around the world.”
Of course, life is not always about charging into the open field with our spiritual guns blazing. Life has its many seasons. Sometimes we need to be consoled. We need to be comforted, and “The Spiritual Misfits” do just that when they sing classics like “Precious Lord, Take My Hand”: “Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light: Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.” Then, there are the times when we need what words cannot express. We need the music of instruments that speak a deeper language that only our souls can understand. We need the tone chimes, the violin, the flute, the cello, the harp, and the trombone. We need to be lost in the reverie and splendor that only skillful musicians can provide.
Many of us have undoubtedly speculated as to the source of the great talent and genius of “The Spiritual Misfits.” I will focus here upon a few of the tangibles and intangibles. While the music on this album is remarkable for its theological meaning and the poetry of its lyrics, great music is always an experience of the emotions.[iv] It is something that goes on underneath our more cerebral thinking. It is something that touches the depths of our feelings. In order to accomplish this for an audience, a choir must put its own emotions into the singing, and this is what “The Spiritual Misfits” do. They sing with a wealth of feeling that ranges from tenderness to joy. In truth, they put their souls into it.
This trait, however, cannot by itself make a choir or a musician great. One must work hard at his or her craft. Recent studies show that greatness in any one art takes hours of practice. A pianist, for example, must practice ten thousand hours in order to become a world-class performer.[v] With his PhD in piano performance, Christopher Schindler, the pianist and organist of “The Spiritual Misfits,” has reached that level and his fans can see it when he plays everything from Mendelssohn to Rachmaninoff.
Great music, however, requires more than just hours of practice. Here I take my cue from a fellow professor. When his students profess that they want to score well on a test, he tells them that the key to doing so is that “they have to really care about the material as they study it.” If one likes one’s music and cares about it, one will put in the practice necessary to excel in the performance of it.[vi] “The Spiritual Misfits” care about their music.
Such care, however, needs direction, and this they receive under the outstanding leadership of Virginia Dunbar. Virginia draws out the talents of each choir member. Those whose singing once forced their neighbors to shutter their windows in a huff are now the songbirds people flock to hear. Those who thought they would never be able to sing a solo find themselves crooning into a microphone before a live audience. Those interested in the ancient art of stewardship would do well to take note of Virginia. If stewardship is about bringing forth our gifts to God, Virginia is the master steward who ushers us to the throne blossoming at our full potential.
Ultimately, Virginia and “The Spiritual Misfits” deserve more than a momentary round of applause. They deserve to have their names written down and honored in the great books of history. You will find their names here in this album. Read over them. Appreciate them as individuals, and honor them as a family full of the gifts given to us by God. There ends this outstanding essay by Georgnoff Milinski.
[i] Mark A. Throntveit, “1 Chronicles” in The HarperCollins Bible Commentary, ed. by James L. Mays, (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2000), 316.
[ii] David J. Levitin, The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Natures, (New York: Penguin, 2008), 225
[iii]Ibid., 21.
[iv] David J. Levitin, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, (New York: Penguin, 2006), 204.
[v] Ibid.,193.
[vi] Ibid.
