Serpent in the Sacristy

Follow

twitter

Share

Twitter Linkedin Facebook

Saves

Preaching to the Choir

by Serpent

Preaching to the Choir
Photo by Iyinoluwa Onaeko / Unsplash

Someone in our choir had never encountered the expression "preaching to the choir." While it's often used in a more figurative sense, as a choir member, I find it nice when the person giving the sermon remembers there are some people sitting behind them, too.

But what strikes me as funny in this expression is the assumption that the choir already believes what's being preached. Certainly I don't. I occasionally wonder how many other atheists or adherents of other religions there are in most choirs. In my own choir, I'm fairly sure I'm not the only one. But I don't know, because most of us don't talk about it.

Is there a pleasant cultural Christian, who values the church as an institution with societal benefits, but sees no particular need for deity? Is there another follower of a different religion who nonetheless values the chance to sing great choral music? In the ranks of the paid singers, are there those who see this as more a job and less a holy service that happens to pay? Is there someone who tends toward the pantheist, believing that the communal experience we create during worship is God, rather than reaching out to a God existing independently of us?

Churches ponder and bemoan "Christmas and Easter Christians" who come only for the high points of the church year. But everyone has their own multi-layered motivations for being there – don't think those of us in the choir are any more uniformly faithful than the people in the congregation.

And I wouldn't slither any other way.

Hail Satan! Amen.