First Reading is from Sing Out: page 47, 5th song, First Stanza, First word: Open… Open my eyes.
Second Reading is page 62, 3rd song, First Stanza, First word: Micheal, row the boat.
Open my eyes, Micheal, row the boat.
The word of Sing Out Publications. Let it be so.
 
Now Sing Out can be a bit dated in language, SO lets look at the word in more contemporary language: Open my eyes, MIKE, row the boat.
Or perhaps more simply: Open Mike.
The scripture today tells us about Open Mike.
Let it be so!
 
Now some of you might have expected a third reading… Many of you I think that the scripture tells us to Open Mike Delaney. But I can assure, that is not in the text. We are NOT to open mike Delaney. We’ll leave that to the doctors!
 
No, all of you here who think that Open Mike is about Mike Delaney have been lead astray by bad preaching.
Open mike is actually about MICROPHONES. Did you know that? A big part of understanding scripture requires that you understand the context. Open Mike is really Open Microphone.
 
Microphone: Phallic object that makes you louder.
 
And that is what Open Mike is about, being louder, getting your voice heard. The scripture today is reminding us that humming in the bedroom is fine, strumming in the kitchen is fine, drumming in the bathroom is fine, singing is the car is fine, as long as your windows are shut. You can sing in the shower, or play your music while you knit or mow the lawn, or pee, or eat (although please not with food in your mouth). But in the end the good book tells us OPEN MIKE. You’ve got to amplify that music and get out in PUBLIC.
 
And because it the good book DOESN’T say OPEN MIKE DELANEY—that means of course that you can be in public in other places than Java Joes in Jamaica Plain. Not that this Open Mike isn’t the best one, of course, but the scripture is telling you to get out in Public, any public and stand up next to a microphone and LET THE MUSIC be heard.
 
Can I hear: “let it be so”
 
Some of you have heard the word and are living the word. Thank you for signing up.
 
But some of you are sitting out there murmuring that your music is ready not ready to be heard—some of you are thinking you don’t have the right gift to share next to a microphone. OF COURSE YOU AREN’T GOOD ENOUGH.
 
Does the scripture saying anything about GOOD open Mike??? NO. These words are calling you to share what you’ve got. Surely you all have heard some less than stellar music at an open mike?
 
As bad as you are, you’ve got to join in. We have heard the words of the good book and they are telling you, begging you, asking you, downright demanding that you get yourself to an Open Mike.
 
So what is a poor musician to do if you are afraid to stand next to a Microphone, afraid to obey the good book and offer your music out loud? Let me tell you a story.
I knew a musician once that was afraid. He died and went to music hell for failing to follow the words of scripture.
 
Hmm. OK, here’s a more encouraging story.
Another group of musicians decided that it would be easier to make music in public if they did it TOGETHER. The good book likes TOGETHER. Why on page 59, song two, first stanza together is the ninth word. On page 238 it’s in the refrain 3 times. On page 261 its in the first song. Together is a good word from the good book.
 
So this nervous group gathered together and called themselves “Safety in Numbers”. They got together, practiced twice, and next thing you know there they were, following the words of scripture by playing at an OPEN MIKE.
This is what the good book is calling you to do.
 
Now I’ll tell you a secret that the members of “Safety in Numbers” may not know. There were a few people who talked a bit behind their back. One or two people called them “two big for the stage” (I think that once there were 28 on the stage) and I’ve heard rumor that they were called “a lot of basses and drum”.  But they followed the word. And that is good.
 
In fact they got good! They got so good they changed their name to “New England Weather”. Now you may be thinking that a name like New England Weather implies something dreary, rainy, grey, drippy, stormy, and wet as New England Weather. It makes you think they’d have songs all about rain and snow and hurricanes. You’d expect a group named New England weather to have songs about the silence of the sea, holes in rivers, flooding of towns, wading in the water. You think: It’s gonna rain today, and immediately it pops into your mind—New England Weather.
 
But it’s not true. In fact there music is so varied that if you wait a few minutes the music will change! New England Weather, this group that finally got together and sang out in public, their music is varied, and bright, just like the weather today. You might wonder how they got so good?
 
Because they followed the word of Sing Out Publications. They listened to the word OPEN MIKE. They came out into public, shared their music. Oh, and because they practiced!
 
All of you here today, listen to the word of scripture: Open Mike. Often!
 
And you too shall be ready to release a CD.

Let it be so.
 

​It snowed when I visited Bethlehem in January 1983. I remember this clearly not because it was beautiful, in fact the small amount melted before we had finished breakfast. I remember this because the hotel I stayed in did not have heat, and so I was miserably cold, and I remember it because snow in the holy lands is a very rare occurrence.

And so, at a Christmas Season worship the other day, I found myself giggling a bit at "In the Bleak Mid-winter" with its snow filled images, and then laughed out loud as we sang about Mary wrapping the little baby in a fresh-killed rabbit skin. Christopher Duraisingh, presently teaching a contextual theology course, turned and smiled, and we commented after worship on the words, and on the use of a minor key that gave a plaintive tone to our alleluias.
 
What about our music? What is the role of music in the success or decline of mainline parishes in the United States? There is research that says that most growing churches use drums in worship. Is that what we've done wrong, not enough drums? I went to the emerging worship service at the Episcopal General Convention, it was awesome, inspiring, uplifting, and God filled. It was not, however, an Episcopal Eucharist, suitable for Sunday morning worship. Another Sunday evening I visited, with my parish, a Methodist folk service in Western Massachusetts. This is the music I love, and pay money to hear, and in fact this worship service attracted many from the community. It attracted people just like me, white and aging.
 
The answer to music in worship isn't about  what I like, or what you like, or what, on average the people in the congregation like. The answer to the music question is this "what will help us find God, feel God, connect to God, worship God?" 

There is not a single answer to that question. The answer will vary based on our cultural heritage: our race, class, education, and connection to our ethnic heritage. And the answer will vary based on our generation. It also will vary based on our spiritual type: are we looking for God by being uplifted, by being reflective, by being exuberant, by being quiet?
 
As a congregation, our answer is also affected by who we want our worship to reach. Do we want to be sure that group of women in the back left corner are satisfied? Or is the choir our most important demographic? Or perhaps it’s the values of the pastor or priest, or of the altar guild or worship team that drive our music selections.

Another possibility is to ask about who is missing from our worship, and to ask what "those people" might find will help them in their search to find God. This is hard, of course, because "they" aren't here, and because "they" don't have a single answer. Some of them will want to hear drums, or rock, or rap, or techno. Some will want to hear taize, classical, easy listening, folk, some will appreciate silence.
 
The question about music in worship is not a question about taste, or about what is "right" in God's mind, or about tradition, nor is it a question about being modern or young. The question about music in worship is a theological question: who do you want to feel welcome in your worship, and how do you help those people to experience God. Those aren't simple questions, you won't answer them in an afternoon worship team meeting, or even in a month where you send out surveys and tally the results.
 
The question about music in worship is part of the formation and outreach efforts of your congregation. It is part of what you discuss in small groups, and in worship, and at committee meetings, slowly getting at how people who are "us"  experience God. And it is part of what we ask as we go out the in the community and get to know your neighbors and learn from them how they experience God.
 
All of this means that your music in worship needs to be open to change. I'll dare say it, it needs to be open to music that is not in your hymnal, and open to drums, and open to the fourth grader who is learning to play the violin, and open to music that sounds wrong to some of us who have been here forever.

Worship should help people find God, and that means that every time a new person is part of your worship you will need to consider new music, new words to old tunes, new tunes to old words, even new words and tunes and rhythms.  You'll need to experiment, and ask for feedback, and respond to the feedback by trying again, not by giving up.

​You'll need to tell those who think they are in charge of the music that they are not in charge, that there isn't a single answer, and that the music will keep changing as long as people keep changing, and that the music will meet the needs of those who are here, but also to meet the needs of those that are not yet here, but are looking for God.