By Mary Ellen Reetz-Pegues
Even while recovering from knee replacement surgeries, Mary Ellen Reetz-Pegues continued teaching her Adult Sunday Class via email. She missed only one class -- January 10 – two days after her second surgery. She was back teaching on January 17 with a lesson about one of her favorite things – music! We’re sharing that lesson below and asking that you respond to one or more of the questions Mary Ellen poses in this lesson and email your response to us for the next Echoes.
As I’ve been reading the lessons, I've found many that were meaningful and pertinent. However, I’m going to mention a couple that dealt with music, and in particular, the songs we sing. We so need our songs in this trying age!
From Our Daily Bread, January 13, “What’s Your Song?” with a reading from Deuteronomy 31: 15-22.
“So Moses wrote down this song that day and taught it to the Israelites.”
Deuteronomy. 31:22
Hymn singing is part of our faith tradition, a very big part. Mike Wittmer, our meditation’s author, understands that certain hymns are ingrained in us, impossible to forget.
He suggests that “it’s wise to be selective about what we sing.” I hadn’t thought about that before, but know that certain lyrics of secular songs are a big turn-off for me. Others can be powerfully good.
Paul, in the Ephesians, instructs us to make the most of every opportunity when speaking “to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit”. (Ephesians 5: 15-19).
Don’t we miss singing the hymns together? I surely do. These are not just ditties but everyone contains a message. To think that we sing them out loud together, regardless of our musical talents??
Wittmer ends with these words, “Songs can be an indicator of the direction of our heart…What we sing will influence what we believe, so choose wisely and sing loudly.”
What might you look for in a worship song? Is there a favorite song you can sing more often? Why? And why not sing it right now!
From These Days, for Saturday, January 15, “Being Known: Known in Song”
After reading Psalm 139: 13-18, I was struck with the beauty of verses 17-18, “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.”
The author of our meditation, Irene Pak Lee, writes about her experience in her church choir as a part of a “care choir” that sang hymns when visiting those in care facilities. She referred to it as “holy practice”
A special experience was a visit to a woman in hospice care who had all the hymns memorized and had always sung in church without using a hymnal. She and her choir literally sang her into eternity!
Pak Lee now always sings hymns to those she visits, especially to those in hospice care.
Has there been a time when someone singing to you might have been powerfully uplifting? Do we dare to sing to others? What would Jesus’ words mean coming to you in this manner?
Loving One, remind us of the ways in which we are blessed to be a blessing to others. We offer our song in thanksgiving and praise to you right now. (Sing it!) AMEN
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