OT EVERYONE appreciates the value of the liturgy, nor do all understand the value of particular aspects of liturgical celebration. For some, church architecture seems frivolous, while to others, it is “organized religion” that poses a difficulty. For some, the very idea of offering a “sacrifice” is interpreted (wrongly, I believe) as unnecessary, unfruitful, or unscriptural.
The value and pertinence of sacred music, also, is very often not well understood or appreciated. After all, some people ask, what good does a choir accomplish? What purpose does singing serve in the act of worship? “God doesn’t need to hear your music,” they might say. “He has no need of your praise or your music.”
A passage from Saint Irenaeus might serve as a clarifying response to such a position:
The Lord gave directions to His disciples to offer first-fruits to God from His own creatures, not as though He stood in need of them, but in order that they, themselves, might be neither unfruitful nor ungrateful. (Irenaeus, Adversus haereses 4.17.5; trans. adapt. from David Power, Irenaeus of Lyons on Baptism and Eucharist {Nottingham, England: Grove Books, 1991}, 15-16)
Indeed, while God may have no need of our music, nor does He have need of our worship, our love, or our very existence. This is precisely how we know the magnitude of His love.
UR DILIGENCE in the work of sacred music, therefore, serves not to fulfill a need on God’s part (as though the Godhead could stand in “need” of anything). Our worship, rather, serves to fulfill our own need to bear fruit for God and to express our gratitude for His munificence.
