DAY 159: My Body’s Prayer

DAY 159

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty-three Thursday 20 August 2020

My Body’s Prayer

“Singing is my body’s prayer. I don’t dance before the Lord. I don’t lift my hands in praise during worship. I do, however, raise my voice in song, and it takes every cell of my body. I sing during worship. I sing with all I’ve got. Which is why it’s hard for me to imagine worship without singing. But studies are suggesting that singing might expel more virus-laden particles into the air than breathing and speaking. So churches that want to be safe when they regather after quarantine are doing the unthinkable: banning corporate song.” - A Methodist professor in a Presbyterian seminary in a current Christian magazine article

I went to a Christian college where one of the courses I took was sign language. I took to it easily and found myself one Sunday morning preaching the sermon in sign language in a deaf church. The members of the congregation were wonderful – eyes straight ahead as this was a ‘looking’ sermon not a ‘listening’ sermon. A couple of times when someone saw me struggling with a word they would wave their hand and, with a big smile that kept me relaxed, sign it for me. What I remember the most however was the absolute silence – they ‘sang’ hymns, but there was no piano. They sang – signed – with fervor, the words, not the music, moving them within.

I can’t imagine not being able to hear. If I were to ever go completely deaf I would have an incredible reservoir of music, from classical to hymns, stored in my memory bank. No problem – I could still ‘hear’ hymns as they would be sung in church. But most of the people in the deaf church had never heard. They had no knowledge of what a melody was.  

“Singing is my body’s prayer,” says our seminary professor. When we take time to reflect on what it is we are singing, a surprising number of texts actually are prayers – we are addressing the Triune God in the first person -  they just happen to be set to music. This time of pandemic ‘silent singing’ in church can be a time of deeper reflecting on what it is we are focusing on - the words.

Reflective question: What is your favorite hymn that makes you feel like it is a prayer as you sing it?

Reflective Scripture: Psalm 104:33 – “I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.”

Reflective hymn:

“He Keeps Me Singing” – Luther Bridgers (1884-1948)

There’s within my heart a melody, Jesus whispers sweet and low,

“Fear not – I am with thee, peace be still,” in all of life’s ebb and flow.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know,

Fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go.