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“How can I keep from singing?”
March 13, 2022
Genesis 15:1-12,17-18 | Philippians 3:17-4:1 | Luke 13:31-35 | Psalm 27
Of all the readings assigned for this 2nd Sunday of Lent, the one & only thing that kept drawing me back was this little piece from Psalm 27: “I will sing and make music to the LORD.” And then all I could hear in my head was “How can I keep from singing?”
“My life flows on in endless song above earth’s lamentation.
I hear the real tho’ far off hymn…that hails a new creation.
Thru all the tumult and the strife…I hear it’s music ringing.
It sounds an echo in my soul, HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING?”
(Words by Anne Warner, Music by R. Lowry, 1864.)
The tumult & the strife…A world-wide pandemic: COVID…And it is far from over. Some say we will have to learn to live with it, like the flu. But look how it’s changed our lives! How many of us have been profoundly touched by losses too deep to put to words? How many lives have been lost? How do we grieve such losses? We will probably never go back to what “normal” used to be. A “new normal” will take its place, eventually. What will that look like? Will we create it, or will it create us?
“What thro’ the tempest loudly roars, I hear the truth, it liveth.
What tho’ the darkness round me close, songs in the night it giveth.
No storm can shake my inmost calm… while to that rock I’m clinging.
Since Love is Lord of heaven and earth, HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING?”
What thro’ the tempest loudly roars…Global warming is picking up speed & some scientists are wondering out loud if it’s too late to turn this around. And Putin sent in Russian troops to attack Ukraine, and then put Russian nuclear war heads on high alert. Well, that certainly got everybody’s attention! And it kicked off a lot of PTSD for those of us who grew up in the 50’s & 60’s…Practicing hiding under our school desks, or sitting lined up against the walls in the hallways, practicing “duck & cover” so we would all be prepared for when “IT” happened…Nuclear annihilation…What’s up with all this self-destruction stuff? When are we going to wake up & really, truly “get it”? What happens to one of us, happens to ALL of us! Not just what happens to human beings, but to ALL life on this earth… LIFE…ALL LIFE…In all its blessed forms! It doesn’t matter what nationality, what color of skin…It doesn’t matter if it’s a human baby or a baby of another earthly species. It doesn’t matter if we’re considering animal, mineral, vegetable, the water, the air, the biosphere…
WE ARE ALL in THIS… TOGETHER.
“I lift my eyes, the cloud grows thin, I see the blue above it.
And day by day this pathway clears, since first I learned to love it.
The peace of God restores my soul, a fountain ever springing.
All things are mine since I am loved…HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING?”
And so, even though I cannot carry a tune, I am grateful – oh so grateful – for the music…Because it is OUR song to sing…our relationship with each other that lifts our voices & our lives…It is our COMMUN-ity…It is remembering TOGETHER who WE ARE, & WHY we are here!
So I ask you,
HOW CAN WE KEEP FROM SINGING?
(“How can I keep from singing?” published in SONGS: An eclectic lyric collection of more than 999 songs for most situations; Complied by Yohann Anderson, published by Songs And Creations, Inc, San Anselmo, California)
Pam Gregory
