Does your church sing? Church as the body of Christ, as the structure of Truth and Love (see Colossians 1:18 and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 583), is always reflecting the all-harmonious nature of Being, God. God, Spirit, doesn’t create material vocal cords. If God created matter, He would be responsible for the suffering inherent in matter. But infinite Soul, God, creates each of us as His spiritual child, or expression, for the holy purpose of our “singing”—of our reflecting this perfect Being that can only be composed of good qualities.
In a more literal sense, the ancient Hebrews recognized the importance of singing and all sacred music as a way of affirming and celebrating the fundamental, undeniable presence of God. Psalms, the Hebrew songbook, stands as the longest book in the Bible. It’s also one of the most quoted Old Testament books in the New Testament. This shows that Jesus and the early Christians knew that songbook well. The Master and his disciples sang a hymn before Jesus went to the garden of Gethsemane prior to his being taken to be crucified (see Matthew 26:30). On the cross itself, Jesus voices words from Psalm 22, which starts with anguish and ends in a paean to God (see Matthew 27:46). Even the devil quotes the Psalms when tempting Jesus (see Matthew 4:6).
From the Song of Moses, to David playing the harp to calm Saul, to Paul and Silas singing at midnight when in shackles in prison, to the heavenly choir in Revelation, singing is not just a biblical theme, but a central theme of reality—of Church—itself (see Exodus 15:1–19; I Samuel 16:23; Acts 16:25; and Revelation 14:1–3).
The ancient Hebrews recognized the importance of singing as a way of affirming and celebrating the fundamental, undeniable presence of God.
Singing frees. As Paul and Silas exemplified, music is often inspired by a deep desire for freedom. Music was central to overthrowing apartheid in South Africa, to the recognition of civil rights in the United States in the 1960s, and to overcoming the oppression of the Soviet Union in Estonia, as documented in the film The Singing Revolution.
Why does singing free? Because gratitude, joy, purity, selflessness, and freedom themselves compose singing as a spiritual activity. When you engage in that activity, even if it’s just by humming a quiet song in your heart, darkness, fear, and sickness are shut out of the only place where they can appear to be—in human consciousness. Sickness, for example, would masquerade as a stubborn state of matter but it is actually a moment-by-moment pattern of mental suggestion. The joy of song and praise breaks that pattern, as Paul and Silas glorifying God broke their chains at midnight.
The Christian Science Church is a singing church because it’s the mouthpiece of the Science of Being; and Being, God, includes all good qualities such as joy, light, peace, and confidence. A branch church “sings” to the degree its members are expressing those and other qualities of God, not only during six hymns and one solo a week, but during every moment of every day.
Singing members comprise a singing church congregation. But more than simply raising our voices in song during Sunday services and Wednesday meetings, each member brings music to those services by making music constantly in his or her own life. This doesn’t mean having taken music lessons for many years. It simply requires that the individual member live those qualities of love, kindness, thoughtfulness, and strength, and so experience the joy of devotion to God and to His image and likeness, man. A wholehearted worship of God spills over into church services, filling them with beautiful sound and harmony.
The Christian Science Church is a singing church because it’s the mouthpiece of the Science of Being.
But how can you sing if you don’t feel like it? Maybe you’ve been ill for a long time, or perhaps you’re dealing with a relationship problem that hasn’t yielded in spite of your best prayerful efforts. This is when your singing is most needed. We sing, not in spite of adversity, but knowing that adversity is unreal, insubstantial, and impotent in the face of God’s all-powerful love. This divine joy and merriment slices through the adversity, giving us the hope, courage, and conviction that we need to confront and destroy that adverse pattern of mental suggestion. God gives us an open invitation to find holiness and healing through music. That’s why so many people find healing when singing or listening to hymns.
True healing and singing, indeed the singing Church, can never be suppressed because it’s grounded in the nature of God as Soul, encompassing all beauty and glory. As we love God and our brothers and sisters worldwide, we awake to find ourselves to be participating in this one universal choir. This multi-voice chorale’s strong, vibrant tones of irrepressible joy can never be stopped. Indeed, through spiritual understanding, this singing Church, this irresistible consciousness of harmony alone, is destined to redeem all humanity.
So, “be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:18–20). And “whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (I Corinthians 10:31).
