Sermon: "I've Got the Music in Me"

The Rev. Maureen R. Frescott

Congregational Church of Amherst, UCC

May 19, 2019 – Music Sunday (Fifth Sunday of Easter)

Colossians 3:16, Psalm 98:4, Psalm 104:33, Psalm 77:1, Psalm 57:7, Psalm 108:1, Psalm 144:9

“I’ve Got the Music in Me”

In a few weeks time, on Pentecost Sunday,

we’ll celebrate that spectacular event that the Book of Acts tells us took place after Jesus had ascended into heaven.

When the Spirit of God came rushing into the world,

moving through the crowd gathered in the city square

where dozens of different languages were being spoken,

miraculously giving each person the ability to understand everything that was being said as if every word had been spoken in their own tongue.

As we bend our brains trying to understand how this miracle might have happened in the ancient world,

and contemplate how it may be close to happening in our world with the advent of technology that can translate spoken languages instantaneously,

we may overlook the fact that we already have a single human language that is universal both in its ability to be understood by all –

and its ability to move us all – emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

The language of music.

This is not just poetic sentimentality.

There is actual science that shows that our brains are hard wired to hear and respond and move to music in a way that is common to us all.

Numerous studies have shown that music has a universal effect on our mood. It can help us to relax, to feel less anxious or fearful, and lull us to sleep.

Listening to music while we work or study can improve concentration, focus, and productivity.

Music can motivate us – to move more, to exercise longer, to clean the house more frequently.

And there’s a mounting body of evidence that shows that music is an effective therapy tool and serves an alternative to pharmaceutical treatment for a wide range of conditions – from PTSD to dementia to Parkinson’s Disease to opioid dependency.

An international biotech firm, called the Sync Project, has partnered with world-renowned scientists and musicians on the first-ever large-scale study to measure how music affects human physiology – specifically heart rate, sleep patterns, brain activity, pain perception, and the release of dopamine, the hormone associated with feelings of euphoria, bliss, and pleasure.

Biologists working for the Sync Project have used brain imaging to show that when our brain is exposed to music it isn’t just our auditory cortex that lights up, but a broad cross-section of different areas of our brain.

It’s the same patterns we see when the brain is under the effects of psychostimulants.

In other words, music lights up our brain in the same way that drugs do.

It was also discovered that we all possess a brain that is adept at interpreting music, even if we think we have no musical talent whatsoever.

The Sync Project’s founder, Marko Ahtisaari, writes:

 “…all people have the basic neural mechanisms needed to automatically perceive and analyze the structure and rules of music.

Even without any specific training, people very quickly learn the regularities typical for the music that they are exposed to: the keys, the ways that certain chords follow each other, and how melodies typically start and end.We learn to predict and anticipate the movements of the music."

Ahtisaari suggests, the pleasure we experience from music may stem from the way these expectations of particular movements and patterns are fulfilled or left unfulfilled as the composition unfolds in time.

We experience a tension while waiting for the resolution of the pattern  -

in the same way that we anticipate a crescendo, a hook of a chorus,

a particular blending of instruments or voices.

It’s been found that dopamine levels peak before the release of this tension, that special moment in a musical piece that sends chills down our spine.

There’s something to be said about a God who created us to be diverse creatures in a diverse world – yet also created within in us a common language that would draw us together.

As we left the metaphorical Garden of Eden, and scattered far and wide across the globe – developing different skin tones, different languages, different customs, different systems of social, political, and religious belief.

Looking at one another across a chasm created by geology, biology, and ideology.

Yet there is a language of rhythm and melody and harmony that has the power to connect us… To bring us together.

To bring us back to our Creator.

The Psalmist writes,

“My voice rises to God, and I will sing aloud;

My voice rises to God, and God will hear me.”

As we recite our litany of Psalms of praise and gratitude we can’t overlook the fact that nearly 1/3 of the Psalms in our Bible are songs of lament –

songs expressing sorrow, grief, anger, and despair.

Both individual and communal.

Few of us would deny that music provides us with an emotional release.

Beyond the dopamine rush of pleasurable melodies and pleasing patterns, there is delight to be found in soaring notes that lift our spirits,

and in familiar tunes that are forever tied to memories - of people we love, places where we experienced joy,

and events that give our lives purpose and meaning.

The same could be said for the music that carries us through difficult and desperate times.

When we immerse ourselves in minor keys, mournful melodies, and impassioned verses that mirror our pain and solitude.

Whether we prefer easy listening, Top 40, country, or classic rock…

there’s a reason why love songs and break up songs make up the bulk of popular music – regardless of era or genre.

As we find as much comfort in songs about losing love as we find in songs about gaining it.

You may have heard the old joke,

“What do you get when you play a country music song backward?”

You get back your wife, your job, your horse, and your truck.

The healing properties of music might be thought of as miraculous at times.

I witnessed it myself in a senior center where I served as a volunteer in CT, where a man who spent his days sitting in a wheelchair mute and immobilized from a combination of ALS and dementia,

would suddenly come alive when he was wheeled into the recreation room every Wednesday, when visiting musicians and singers would offer up songs from the 1930’s and 40’s and he would sing along loudly, word for word from memory.

Lifting up a voice that came from a place deep within him

that time and illness could not touch.

There’s a reason why a good portion of our Bible is devoted to the songs that our ancestors once lifted up to God.

The melodies may be lost to time, but the words still speak to us in the ‘sung from the heart’ way they were written.

In these words we find comfort, kinship, and peace.

Music is the way we find connection with an ancient people who lived in a very different world than we do,

and it’s the way we find connection and kinship with the people who live in a very different world than we do today.

Perhaps the miracle that occurred on the day of Pentecost didn’t come in the sound of the wind or the cacophony of a thousand tongues speaking at once. 

Perhaps the Spirit of God came rushing in with the sound of trumpets blaring, flutes singing, and voices raised in harmony…

And it was the music that filled our spirits and brought us together, as one. 

Thanks be to God and Amen.