The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
November 23, 2003
Vol. 6 no. 42a

Everything But...
           Music, worship, the Church, and theology have run around in the same crowd since it all began. Some of my spiritual ancestors, the English Puritans, tried to suppress music as tools of the devil, but happily their experiment failed because their theology was faulty. God created music too.
           Martin Luther advised, “We must not ordain young men into the ministry unless they have become well-acquainted with music.” Thank goodness, I am not a Lutheran, for my musical skills are not that high. However, I believe I am well-acquainted with music, as are all of you here to hear this magnificent organ.
           It is appropriate that our next piece of music is J. S. Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D minor.” He was, above all else, a church musician. Leonard Bernstein observed that, “for Bach all music is religious; writing it was an act of worship. Every note was dedicated to God and to nothing else.”
           Perhaps the greatest theologian of the 20th century, the last of the Church Fathers, the Swiss Reformed pastor and theologian Karl Barth, wrote his great works in a study that had two portraits on the wall: one of a revered 19th century theologian Friedrich Schliermacher, and the other of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Barth died one morning in his 85th year, slumped over his desk with the unfinished manuscript before him. The record player was still playing Mozart when they found him.
           We are here to rejoice over the music we are allowed to make. Our Casavant Organ is not being revived, because it wasn’t dead. It is not really being rebuilt, because it was built and was functioning well for over 30 years. I really like the verb “revoice” – enabling our magnificent musical instrument to sing a new song.
           Let us rededicate our Organ this evening so that it may be played SDG. Many have noted that most of Bach’s manuscripts include the initials, S. D. G. – soli deo gloria – “solely to the glory of God.” To that, may all of God’s children say, Amen.