Threshold Choirs.

These are groups that sing at the bedsides of seriously ill people, many of whom are in the final stages of life. They sing a capella — without instrumental accompaniment — in homes, hospitals, and hospices. Their music comes from a 300-piece repertoire of songs and hymns, ranging from “Ave Maria” to “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”

Started in the year 2000, there are now 35 chapters in a dozen states. Usually two or three members of a Threshold Choir gather at a bedside and sing a selection of songs. Says Kate Munger, the founder of this choral movement, “We think of these as lullabies for [people] on the way out.” People on the threshold between life and death.

When the singing starts, the face of the dying person often softens, and there is a sense of relaxation taking place. Kate Munger says that it’s often a comforting moment, as when a mother softly croons a lullaby at the end of a day — only in these cases, the lullaby comes at the end of a life.

Some of the people receiving this music are hooked up to monitors. Frequently, as the singing begins, the patient’s heartbeat steadies and their breathing becomes less labored. Once in a while, the patient actually recovers, and some of them credit the singing as playing a role in their healing. Clearly, this kind of singing can be a very comforting and healing gift to people who are facing death.

So Threshold Choirs provide people with a Soundtrack for Dying. But what about a Soundtrack for Living? That’s the job of our songs of faith, and what I want us to focus on today.

To get a sense of that soundtrack, you can flip through our hymnal. Kenneth Martin and Donna Whited did an excellent presentation on this hymnbook during our “Meeting Ground” week earlier this month. Look through the hymnal, and you’ll find pieces about some very heavy themes: Sin, death, war, social ills, pain, and personal emptiness. But when you sing or read these hymns, you find that they are written from a perspective of faith, praise, thanksgiving, forgiveness, and spiritual affirmation.

That’s what our Christian Soundtrack for Living provides: A set of tunes that take the pain of life very seriously, but at the same time offer us a perspective of faith and spiritual affirmation — a perspective that can helps us to deal with our difficulties.

Of course, our soundtrack did not begin with the publication of The Presbyterian Hymnal. It goes all the way back to the Book of Psalms, which is the hymnbook of the Bible. These songs were sung by the people of Israel, and later by Jesus and his disciples. Although we’ve lost the music to these psalms, we still have the words of faith and praise.

Psalm 95 begins with the words, “O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!” (vv. 1-2). This is an invitation to turn away from the cares of the world, and turn to God in praise and thanksgiving. Our Sanctuary choir will now help us to do this with one of the greatest works of Christian praise, the “Hallelujah Chorus.”

SONG 1: “Hallelujah Chorus” — Choir only

It is always good to approach God with praise and thanksgiving. But when we enter God’s presence, we discover that we are not truly worthy to stand before the Lord. Verse 6 of Psalm 95 says, “O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!” When we kneel before the Lord and confess our sins, we discover who we really are in relation to God. We also discover that God has offered us forgiveness and new life through the amazing grace of God’s gift of Jesus Christ.

SONG 2: Please turn to Hymn 280 in The Hymnal, and join the choir in singing the first three verses of “Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound.” That’s Hymn 280, verses 1 through 3.

After praising God, confessing our sin, and receiving forgiveness, we are ready to ask God for help. We are now in a place to make our supplication, and ask the Lord to provide what we need. Fortunately, God is ready to respond to our requests. As verse 7 of Psalm 95 says, “He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”

Listen now, as a soloist sings a hymn based on the 23rd Psalm.

SONG 3: “The King of Love My Shepherd Is” Hymn 171 — vv 1, 2, 6— Solo

The King of Love truly is our Good Shepherd, and this can be made real for us through music. I’m convinced that music gets inside us better than almost anything else, and I’ve noticed that people can remember songs far longer than they can remember sermons or speeches or lectures. In fact, a man named Melik Kaylan discovered this for himself after he had a terrible auto accident in Turkey.

Melik is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal who was born in Turkey, but then attended an English boarding school, where he learned hymns and Christmas carols during the morning chapel services. He returned to Turkey as an adult, and had a car accident that sent him to the ICU, comatose and near death.

Periodically, he came to consciousness long enough to realize that he’d been singing Christmas carols loudly enough for everyone to hear him. This was a real surprise to him, because he thought that he’d left all those songs, along with any religious interests, back in the England of his childhood. One time, he woke up with an ice bag on his head, and looked around to see two other patients with their heads bandaged. With all three of them crowned with ice bags or bandages, he began to sing, “We Three Kings of Orient Are.”

Later, when Melik recovered completely, he wrote that the carols had purged and simplified his life, and helped him to surrender to the healing process. “Carols have the knack of transporting you back to the first moments you ever sang them, which tend to be times of optimism and wonder at the universe.” This is exactly the outlook that is needed for healing, and for new life.

Psalm 95 says “The Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed” (vv. 3-5). The Lord has crated us, and put us in this world to be his people. He wants us to sing songs that will purge and simplify our lives, and help us to feel a sense of optimism and wonder at the universe. He wants us to experience healing and new life.

SONG 4: Let’s join the choir in singing Hymn 467, “How Great Thou Art,” verses 1 and 2. That’s Hymn 467, verses 1 and 2.

What we have heard today is just a small portion of our Christian Soundtrack for Living. It’s a set of tunes that take the pain of life very seriously, but at the same time offer us a perspective of faith and spiritual affirmation — a perspective that can helps us to deal with our difficulties. Let these tunes take root deep within you, and continue to shape your life. The Lord is our God, says Psalm 95, “and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!” (v. 7).

Receive now the blessing of the Lord who loves you.

SONG 5: “The Lord Bless You and Keep You” — Choir only


Sources:
Schmidt, Steve. “Compassion fills a choir’s repertoire.” The San Diego Union-Tribune, February 26, 2007.
Kaylan, Melik. “Carols for convalescence.” The Wall Street Journal, December 22, 2000.