Question: Thinking about Music Discipleship, is music sacred?
a difficult question
The best way to know if music is sacred is to ask music itself. That, however, is an even more difficult task. Problem is if music does answer, whether we understand what it says.
Well, it’s easy. All that is created, seen an unseen, came about because of God. So, music is sacred because all God’s creation is sacred. That approach does not go down well, because it is being over-generous. it is over-generalising the issue.
Another problem with taking the “music is sacred given everything is sacred” approach is that why do we have that question (is music sacred?) in the first place.
- It is like asking was the door already open when I came in, or did I have to open it?
- A reason why I asked myself that question was probably because I now realise the cat is in the hallway, not in the room that I have entered.
If the cat left the room as I open the door, that could be indication the cat wanted to go for her morning jog, giving me the cue to ceremonioulsy open the front door so she could stretch her muscles.
- In this scenario, questions such as “was there dust on the door” is irrelevant. It is a valid and worthy question to raise, but not fitting this occasion.
My convinction about “is music sacred” is a “Yes”. From here, we can say when we, as music writers and makers, have deviated from treating and handling music as sacred. Music being sacred is not an issue, it is what we do with it that is more as an issue.
A-ha! Music in worship must not be loud and disorganised, forever repeating then. No, that’s not the appropriate approach. Music draws from the heart. It expresses what is in our soul. So many “pop” songs (popular genre, folk, rock, jazz etc. etc.) maintain their presence in the psyche of the general public of the words they carry. They speak of the raw feelings and aspirations and outcomes of relationship developing.
In considering music discipleship, questions such as “is music sacred” are likely to come round our thoughts and conversations numerous times. Being clear about our own understanding on this topic is an important step in our growth as disciple. There will be equal reasonings for music as sacred, or secular, or both, or “depends”. What is at stake is the core issue of what do we do with the music primarily and worship in general. In “working our faith out” through music and worship, our discipleship ought to focus on our patterns of sacrifices through music. The form and manner this is done is secondary.
