Sermons:

• Close to the Father’s Heart, John 1:1-18     (see below)
  by Rev. Randy Quinn  
  
  A New Reason to Sing, Jeremiah 31:7-14, Rev. Randy Quinn
• Reflections of Light, John 1:1-18; 8:12, Rev. Randy L. Quinn
• Incarnation   John 1:1-18, by Richard Gehring

• A Great, Big, Huge, Positive Affirmation About Our World, Ephesians 1:3-14, by Rev. Thomas Hall       

• God has Pitched a Tent, John 1: 1-18, by Rev. John Nadasi

• When Christmas Doesn't Mean Much, John 1: 1-18, by El Jefe

• Telling the Christmas Story, John 1: 1-18, by DP in DL

• His Light Dispels All Darkness, John 1: 1-18, by Gary Roth

• A Light To Lighten Our Darkness, John 1: 1-18, by Gary Roth,

• Only a Word?, John 1: 1-18, by Kurt Hansen, John 1:1-14

• Grief Invaded By Joy, Jeremiah 31:7-14, by Rev. Thomas Hall  

More related Sermons (off lectionary):

• The Meaning of Life, Eccl 1:1-11, Mt. 5:1-6, Rev. Frank Schaefer
• Giving Like Magi,   Matthew 2:1-12, by Rev. Randy  Quinn
• Another New Year  Ecclesiastes 1: 1-11 and Luke 2:41-50
   by Rev. Frank Schaefer

Close to the Father’s Heart
a sermon based on John 1:1-18
by Rev. Randy Quinn

Yohann Anderson is a musician I met several years ago at a worship workshop. He was trying to help churches create contemporary worship services, and since we had one at our church, we thought he might have some good ideas for us.

There were several things he shared with us that we were already doing – and lots of other things that I no longer remember. But what I do remember was some of his theory about congregational singing. I think I remember it because it was so different than what I had been taught and because it also made so much sense to me.

Yohann began by telling us how a tuning fork works. You tap on the tines of the fork, and they begin to vibrate. (I found one and will demonstrate.) The size of the tines determines how fast they vibrate, but what actually happens is that the air around them begins to pulsate at the same speed. That pulsating resonates with our ear drums and our brains interpret it as a sound.

Lots of things work the same way – sometimes at pitches so high and so low that we cannot hear them. It’s why the philosopher-scientists asked the theoretical question of whether or not a tree falling in the woods makes a sound if there is no one there to hear it. The sound itself is only pulsating air. Without an ear to interpret the pulses, there is no evidence of a sound.

A piano tuner uses a tuning fork to tune the strings in a piano. He or she tightens or loosens the strings until they vibrate at the same speed as the tuning fork.

That much I knew. And many of you do, too.

After telling us that, Yohann did something else that I’ve seen done before. First he tapped the tines of a tuning fork, then he set it down on a table and the table began to vibrate at the same pitch. It became like an amplifier making the sound more easily heard throughout the room. (Again, I demonstrate.)

What he said next, however, still resonates within me – if you don’t mind the pun. That table is not a musical instrument. But it began to sing. For those who have come to believe they can’t sing or who have actually been told they can’t sing, Yohann says the truth is that like the table every one of us sings when we are in the presence of music. Our bodies begin vibrating with the music – just like the table did.

And in particular, our vocal cords begin to vibrate at the same pitch that we hear. The pulsating air not only “tickles” our ear drums, it causes our vocal cords to vibrate, too. Singing is simply letting air go over those vocal cords to produce musical chords. [continue]