Scripture: Matthew 5:1-12; Psalm 34:1-5 Series: One offs
An All Saints Day sermon using Bach’s C-minor Fifth Cello Suite (performed live by a church member) as an extended metaphor: just as musical vibrations resonate in a hall after notes are played, the lives of the holy people who have gone before us still resonate with us. Anchored in the Beatitudes (‘Blessed are those who mourn’) and Psalm 34, it argues that grief is infinite because love gives away part of oneself, that grief is a sign of love rather than doubt, and that Christians live lightened-but-not-erased grief in hope of the final resolution when all the chords of history resolve into praise. It calls hearers to recognize they are being shaped by saints and are themselves shaping others as role models, and to live a life that resonates with God’s song of love.
Illustrations: bach-in-cothen, fifth-cello-suite-c-minor, daniel-cello-ut, beethovens-fifth-symphony, eye-of-the-tiger-champions, triad-resonance-physics, kubler-ross-stages-of-grief, jesus-wept-lazarus
November 6
All Saints Day
God’s Song of Love
I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Look to him, and be radiant, so your faces shall never be ashamed. - Psalm 34:1-5
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he began to speak and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” - Matthew 5:1-12
I am going to nerd out on some classical music, but it is going to make sense even if you hate classical music. Just give me a little patience.
In the 1720s, Johan Sebastian Bach lived in a city called Cöthen. It was a unique time in his professional life. For most of his career, Bach worked for Lutheran princes or cities. His music was liturgical. It was churchy, all of the cantatas, the passions, the mass in B Minor, they were all based around Advent and Christmas and Lent and Easter and all the holy days in between. Cöthen did not have a Lutheran ruler. They had a Calvinist one who did not follow the liturgical calendar, the churchy calendar of the year. And it was during this time in Cöthen that Bach completed some of his most famous instrumental works: Book 1 of the The Well-Tempered Clavier for the piano, the Brandenburg Concertos for orchestra, his violin sonatas and partitas, as well as his Cello Suites. These works did not match a liturgical season, but Bach was a faithful Christian and still signed his manuscripts, soli de Gloria, all to the glory of God or only to the glory of God. Today we celebrate All Saints Day. The Methodist Church doesn’t have a canon of saints like the Catholic church. We don’t keep track and have a committee for it or a devotion to the saints. The word saint means holy and holy people have been a major concern for the Methodist movement since the very beginning. Today, we remember the Holy People in Our life. Some are members of this church. Most of the Holy People we remember this day are not a part of this church but were a part of our lives. They are unique and their stories matter to God and to us.
The classic scripture for All Saints Day is the beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. The saints in our life, the holy people in our life show us how this monumental text is possible. John Wesley described the whole sermon in the following way:
“And what is it which He is teaching The Son of God, who came from heaven, is here showing us the way to heaven; to the place which he hath prepared for us; the glory he had before the world began. He is teaching us the true way to life everlasting; the royal way which leads to the kingdom; and the only true way, — for there is none besides; all other paths lead to destruction.”
I think we should understand the sermon on the Mount and the beatitudes in particular as this representative of the sermon of all, as both aspirational and possible. It is the life of fully following the words of Jesus and obeying Jesus. It is always aspirational, always just beyond our grasp, but also possible for something we can hope for. It is also something we can see more in others than in ourselves. Holiness is a quality you observe external to yourself. It is something we see at present but especially in the past. We can look to our past and remember people in our lives who exhibited Christ-like qualities. We must look for a harmony between the generations which have come before, ourselves, and the generations to come. Musically, a triad, a chord, which gets us back to Bach.
Whether you like classical music or not, I feel that we must use the gifts we have. And right now at our church, we have a gift of Daniel studying cello at UT and working on the Fifth Suite, and I’m gonna use the fifth suite as a jumping off point to understand the complexity of God’s love for us through the saints of our lives.
So Daniel is going to play the first section of the prelude to the fifth cello suite.
Daniel plays]
The fifth cello suite is in the key of C minor. It is not a happy key. If you know nothing of classical music, you can understand the difference in mood between a major or a minor key. Beethoven’s fifth symphony is also in the key of C minor, bum bum bum buuuuumm. The first movement is one of the most famous in history, but that piece ends in C major. We get to the resolution. I know two pop songs that have the same trajectory as Beethoven’s fifth. Eye of the Tiger and We are the Champions.
The chord of C minor functions like all of Western music through the power of the triad, this miracle of physics where the vibrations at these specific frequencies resonate with each other. C vibrates at 261.63 Hz, E-flat at 311.13 Hz, and G at 392.00 Hz. When you play these together you get a C minor chord.
When you play or hear an instrument live, those vibrations resonate after the notes are played. One of the amazing principle virtues of live classical music is how the resonances of a piece stay in the hall, the sanctuary, the venue, and interact with what comes next.
The fourth Cello suite is in the key of E-flat major which has three flats like c-minor. So the notes are the same but the starting point is different. The fourth suite ends with a delightful Gigue, or jig, a dance that covers the length of the cello. When someone performs the works straight through, those vibrations are still present in the hall when you start the C minor fifth suite. And even in the specific movements within the piece. When you move from the prelude to the fugue, right after Daniel’s excerpt, to the German dance which is the next movement, the grief never disappears. It resonates still.
This is the moment we turn the corner back to All Saints day and the scripture for the day. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Jesus does not dismiss mourning or ignore it.
Grief of the loss of loved ones does not disappear. We need to admit that. One of my problems with Elizabeth Kübler-Ross and the five stages of grief is that grief is infinite. Because when you love another person, their absence is always felt. When you love another person, you give them part of yourself. When you are loved by another, they give you part of themselves. TheIr identity is wrapped up in you. So the absence is felt. It may not be felt in the same way as right after loss. Grief changes shape and form, but It is always felt.
As a Christian, grief is lightened by the promise of life with God. It is lightened, but it is not erased. Grief is not a lack of faith. Jesus wept for his friend Lazarus. Tears are not signs of doubt but signs of love.
The life of those whom we love, who are no longer with us, their lives are resonating right now. Those vibrations are in the room. The saints of our life, the holy people whom we have known, who are currently in eternal glory with God, their life is still resonating with us. Now, I like the language of saints, not in the sense of the Catholic church, of having this canon and this big dramatic process, but just in the simple meaning of holy, or someone set apart. Saint means holy, A saint is a holy person. It is so important to remember the holy people who have come before us. It is so important to realize that we have been shaped by the holy people who have come before us. We have been shaped by the ones we like. We have been shaped by the ones we don’t even know about. And then this turns into another aspect and another awareness that we are shaping the people around us. We are living lives that others are looking at and seeing. You are a role model whether you like that or not. And so let us live in such a way that resonates with the heavenly song of life. This is what Jesus calls us to when he says lay down your nets and follow me and I will make you fisher’s of men. This is what Jesus means when he says, Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. This is what Jesus means when he says, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Live a life that resonates the heavenly song of life. Sometimes this song is in a minor key, so that doesn’t make it less beautiful.
Our music has a history. Our lives have a history. God’s love has a history. God’s song of love has a history. It resonated before we were born and it will resonate after us. The song of our life may seem minor or major, it may feel augmented or diminished, but our faith is not in the present but in our future with God, when all the chords of all human history will resolve in that great song of praise we will sing with all the angels: a song like Psalm 34
I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.
Let us give thanks for the saints who have gone before us. Let us give thanks to their influence on us and the ways they showed us Jesus. May we resonate our life with Jesus. May we live out God’s song of life by being doers of God’s word.
Let us pray, Heavenly Father, we thank you for the saints who have come before. Help us to remember what they have showed us of your kingdom and may we live it out. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.