One Voice

Upon hearing a friend of mine claim to read books to find things with which he agrees, not disagrees, I was mildly taken aback. This is a concept completely foreign to me. I have since attempted to adopt that practice, but with little success.

According to my mother, I have been disposed to argue from a fairly early age. My natural bent is to listen with an intent to disagree. Playing devil's advocate is my hardwired default mode. Experiences of being misled in the past also taught me to be guarded, skeptical and untrusting. This combination doesn't make me the most docile person to live with or to lead, but hopefully it keeps me from being easily duped. (?) Hopefully...

Recently, I have twice referred favorably to Dietrich Bonhoeffer's, Life Together, a book about "communal life...as the 'roses and lilies' of the Christian life." It contains a great deal of advice, encouragement and instruction with which I heartily agree. But...(you knew that was coming, didn't you?), being who I am, I can't resist the urge to argue against one of his assertions with which I heartily DISagree.

He very boldly and unequivocally proclaims, "the singing of the congregation is essentially singing in unison. The purity of unison singing, unaffected by alien motives of musical techniques, the clarity, unspoiled by the attempt to give musical art an autonomy of its own apart from the words, the simplicity and frugality, the humaneness and warmth of this way of singing is the essence of all congregational singing. It becomes a question of a congregation's power of spiritual discernment whether it adopts proper unison singing. Unison singing, difficult as it is, is less of a musical than a spiritual matter."

I suggest that the "alien motives of musical technique" - otherwise known as HARMONY - by its very name decries Bonhoeffer's argument. Granted, if harmonizing is done primarily as a performance or to draw attention to oneself, it can detract from the experience of lifting "one voice" in praise to God, but that can be equally true of a showy or overpowering voice singing melody along with everyone else, can it not?

I also suggest that perhaps singing in harmony requires an even more unified spirit than singing in unison, and might more profoundly represent the reality of a Christian community. The significance of unity is lost in "sameness," while the beauty of unity is manifest when we recognize how thoroughly diverse the members of the congregation are (including vocal intonation!), and yet see and hear them functioning harmoniously...in concert with one another.

The Biblical "body" metaphor supports this idea. The hand is not the eye, but each aids the full and efficient function of the other precisely because they are not the same! Each member needs the other to be complete.

Can anyone (other than Bonhoeffer...) deny that when multiple voices join and cooperate to blend into a harmonious unified whole, the sound is infinitely more glorious than the "frugality" of unison singing? Nor do I believe that this blending in any way detracts from the single-minded oneness of heart and purpose which "one voice" is intended to express.

So I say, Mr. Bonhoeffer, bring on the harmony! Give me a full-bodied, multi-tonal congregation whose members work to blend their voices into a glorious manifestation of our unity in Christ.

NOTE: For all you members of the Tuesday morning men's book study, who, either against or in concert with your own will, have become avid readers of my blog, I recommend you refrain from fronting these ideas tomorrow. Your fellow members will call you out for espousing my thoughts as your own. :-)