Friends,
I hope you will forgive me if, in my Contact space this week, I take another celebratory rhetorical victory lap in response to the music we had in celebration last Sunday. It was amazing. We are blessed.
After church on Sunday, I got to thinking about the connection between social justice and the use of beautiful music in worship, and it seems to me that there are at least two important reasons for progressive, social justice oriented, faith communities like ours to make beautiful music in celebration.
The use of wonderful music in church democratizes that music. It is a fact that tickets for most quality musical performances are priced beyond the means of many people who live in Oakland, especially for elderly folks on fixed incomes and for families with children who survive on low-to-moderate paychecks. By performing Bach for free in the welcoming space of worship, we made beauty available across socioeconomic strata. And that, to me, is really important, and it leads to the second reason music in worship is an important implement in the tool chest of social justice.
When we are exposed to beauty, we grow impatient with all in the world that is ugly. If, for example we hear the deep, rich tones of a 350-year old double bass, or the soaring blend of a well-rehearsed chorus (as we did on Sunday) then, perhaps, we will be increasingly dissatisfied with the ugliness of racism or economic inequality or the violence of war.
I am pleased to be part of the MPC family, a community of faith so dedicated to the practice of beauty. May that beauty lead us into a world of goodness, peace, and joy.
May God’s beauty and peace be forever yours,
Ben