Worship: 12/10-11/2011

The other night I went to listen to some friends play music in a crowded, noisy restaurant.  I'm sure you know the situation: there's earnest musicians playing in the corner, fighting to be seen and heard as more than "background noise," while a crowd of people carry on multiple conversations at the top of their lungs. It can be chaotic, cacophonic to be exact.  Once in a while people would sing along or clap, but for most of the people there, the music was just something to be overcome.  And then things changed.  They always play this song.  It's one of a few they have built into their set to draw people's attention to something bigger than themselves.  Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."  It's a really great song. (If you want to see Justin Timberlake do a surprisingly impressive version of it, you can see it here.) And it can silence a noisy crowd.  It cut right through a room filled with laughter and flirting and shouting. 

There's something about that chorus—"Hallelujah...." It's worship, really and sometimes it can happen in unexpected places.

All of a sudden, in this room, people were paying attention.  To what used to be just background noise.  To the earnest musicians in the corner. And just maybe they were paying attention to something they couldn't name or identify but they felt just the same.

Worship has a way of cutting through the noise. 

In the middle of chaos, Mary raises her "Hallelujah" chorus.  To honor God, to let God know that she hears the music God is playing in the world.  It's her way of paying attention.

What role does noise play in your life?  What voices or sounds can distract you from paying attention to God's work in the world?

If you were going to add your verse to a song about God doing great things, what would you have to sing? (It doesn't have to rhyme—just something to think about.)

Are there things in your life that can get in the way of you literally lifting your voice to God?

One of my favorite song lyrics is from an old song by Satellite Soul:  "There are those who merely listen, because they think they cannot sing.  There are those who join the music, and they become the free." 

If you want a good picture of this, try watching this flash mob below.  You may have seen this already, since it's been watched 35 million times, but still, how can we live our lives in a way that looks more like spontaneous outbursts of "Hallelujah"?!

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