Sunday, May 10, 2026 - Worship as Singing
May 10, 2026
Deborah Laforet
“Worship as Singing”
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by your
Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
I started in church as a singer. When I was 12 years old, I sang my first solo in church. It was
“Here I am, Lord.” The song holds a special place in my heart. After that, I became a cantor, which, in
the Catholic Church I attended, meant I was leading the congregational singing and the calls and
responses. Long after my family stopped going to church, I continued going. I think my participation
and the singing kept me coming back, even if it was on my own.
For me, singing is integral to worship. You can remove any other part of worship, but the
singing, and I would still feel like I’m worshipping. There are times when I’m walking in nature, and
it’s the songs my faith that come to mind: “O Great Earth” or “O Beautiful Gaia.” When I’m feeling
happy, I hear “Make a Joyful Noise” or “Joyful, Joyful,” and when I’m feeling sad, I might hear, “Don’t
Be Afraid,” or “O God We Call.”
I recently read a quote by singer/songwriter and philosopher, Michael Gungor, that resonated
with me. He wrote: “So why do we think of worship as singing? It's not. It can be. But singing just
happens to be a potentially really powerful doorway into worship because singing engages so much of
our "heart, mind, and strength." Another way of saying it is that making music together lights up our
whole brain. It engages our nervous system. It awakens our creativity, connection, and play. These are
all necessary components to worship.”
Creativity, connection, and play. Engaging our heart, mind, and strength. That is what makes
this time together worshipful. It’s what makes other times in our lives feel like worship, like we are
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connecting to the sacred, the Universal, the Cosmic. Everyone feels worship differently, of course, but
gathering as a community, or alone, and being one with God, is what it means to be in worship. For
many of us, music plays a large part in that worship experience.
Today’s scripture reading is an example of what is NOT worship. The story of Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego is one on which I have never preached, but I remember it fondly from watching
VeggieTales with my family. Rack, Shack, and Benny was a children’s show, that made this story more
palatable for children by having the King make everyone bow down to the almighty chocolate bunny.
When Rack, Shack, and Benny refuse, they are thrown into the furnace, but, of course, are protected by
an angel from God, and are unharmed. The moral of the story was around peer pressure and how
sometimes we have to stand up for what is right, even if the consequences might put us in danger.
In the story that Clara and Shelly read for us, King Nebuchadnezzar is commanding everyone to
bow down and worship to a ninety feet high and nine feet thick statue. We are not told what the statue
portrays. Maybe it was a self portrait or some hero that King Nebuchadnezzar wanted raised up and
revered. Whatever it was, we read that, whenever the band started to play, a huge band equipped with
all the musical instruments of Babylon, everyone—every race, colour, and creed—were commanded to
fall to their knees and worship this giant statue.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Jews in high positions in Babylon, did not bow down and
worship to this statue, and when they did not, others took the opportunity to tell the king that these men
were ignoring his command, that, “They don’t respect your gods and they won’t worship the gold statue
you set up.” Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew that this wasn’t how to worship, not for them
anyway. As Jews, living in a foreign land, they would have constantly been pushing against the customs
of others and trying to hold on to their customs and their own beliefs. Worshipping a golden statue went
against one of the earliest commandments of not worshipping idols or other gods.
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Not worshipping idols is actually also one of the trickiest commandments to follow. In our day,
worshipping idols is commonplace. We don’t use this language, but how much of our day is spent
bowed down before our screens? How much of our time and energy is spent making money and buying
what we don’t need? It’s difficult not to get caught up in our materialistic and capitalistic society where
acquiring wealth is seen as a means of being successful. Our image has become a source of obsession,
with people striving to be beautiful, with digital and real life alterations, to look happy, even when they
are not, and to make sure they are seen as strong, vibrant, and perfect, knowing we can never reach such
impossible standards.
Not worshipping idols is hard. Even on Sunday mornings, some people feel they can only
worship in a certain location, idolizing their building. They can only worship in a certain pew, idolizing
their seat. Some might find clapping, the sounds of children, drums, dancing not worshipful because
they are distractions and not appropriate, idolizing customs and tradition. And then, we have some who
will refuse to sing contemporary music, who get upset when words are changed, who don’t want to sing
songs in other languages, and only want to hear songs they grew up with or music that is classically
minded and steeped in the faith of their western European ancestors. Music and the songs we sing can
be idolized. Even to say that we must sing in order to worship is a way of creating an idol.
Let’s go back to Michael Gungor’s quote that I shared earlier: “So why do we think of worship
as singing? It's not. It can be. But singing just happens to be a potentially really powerful doorway into
worship because singing engages so much of our "heart, mind, and strength." Another way of saying it is
that making music together lights up our whole brain. It engages our nervous system. It awakens our
creativity, connection, and play. These are all necessary components to worship.”
What does worship mean to you? What are it’s necessary components? What do you need to get
closer to the Holy? What do you need to become centred and grounded? What is worship for you?
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Take a moment. Talk to a neighbour if you find it easier to think in conversation.
As we explore amalgamation, and as we begin to worship in a new space, remembering the
necessary components as opposed to what we idolize in worship is integral. What we value is important
but we have to differentiate what we value from what we are used to doing. We have a few months
before we move into a new space, so let’s keep the conversation going, let’s challenge our assumptions,
and let’s let go of what might hold us back from creativity, connection, play, and what engages our heart,
mind, and strength as we gather to worship God as a community, one in Christ and one in the Spirit.
May it be so. Amen.