I’ve never heard anything like
it.
The ordinary mode of beginning
the Sunday worship service at Montview Presbyterian Church is the sound of
chimes after which the congregation is invited to quietly make the transition
from getting there to being there. This Sunday, being Easter, the sanctuary
was overflowing with people enthusiastically greeting each other with churchy
cordiality and requests from the front to move closer together in the pews to
accommodate more people.
I was sitting quietly
waiting for the chimes, hoping to be able to hear them over the din, and
looking forward to a few moments of silence to absorb the beauty of the
surroundings.
Suddenly from the choir loft
came a deafening crash of cymbals followed by a brass and organ fanfare that
filled the gothic architecture with ear-splitting wonder that lasted a full 5
minutes. After the final grand chord, the congregation was speechless. The
impact was powerful and profound, setting the tone for something grand about
to happen. For me, if nothing else occurred during the service, the Easter
wonder had happened.
But that was only the first
musical treat. The brass and organ and choir continued their gift of
awe-producing sounds during the hymns, anthem, and offertory anthem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZtIRp3Vglw was the anthem.
By the time we left, I was done
in, having experienced something of a resurrection
myself..
Since then, I’ve
been wrestling with the thought that such grandeur was not at all like the
lifestyle portrayed in the New Testament. Though it clearly portrays the
significance of the Easter event for Christians, the music and setting seemed
more appropriate to royalty than to us. Recent Public TV shows featuring Henry
VIII depict a setting in which this type of music would have been right at
home.
Maybe the point is that awe
happens when you least expect it, when surprises break through that are not of
our doing. If, as I have contended elsewhere, surprises are where we are
confronted by Mystery, that certainly happened at the Denver Montview
Presbyterian Church on Easter Sunday, 2017.