I hear voices, not regular voices per se, but a gospel choir. They sing to me in my head. They wear blue satin robes with white collars and are quite soulful. At various times throughout the day I hear…
“Can I get a witness, wit-ness
Can I get a witness, wit-ness”
They are clapping and swaying very enthusiastically. My children join in with me and my choir and we jive, clap, and sing in the kitchen often during dinner preparations. So either I have some deep unfulfilled need for affirmation, or maybe this is spiritual call for me to witness to others. Whatever the reason, the singers are there.
Why a gospel choir? Not exactly sure. It certainly does not come from the choir of my religious heritage, the good old Mormon Tabernacle Choir. MoTab doesn’t break into quite such rhythmic, exultant jubilee (although they are known to wear blue).
Maybe it’s because a few years back I served in an inner city branch of our church. The best thing was when you gave a talk, the branch president would gently nod his head in approval as you were talking (or at least if you weren’t preaching any false doctrine). If you said something good you would get an audible “mm-hmm” as you spoke. It was very affirming. If the congregation liked your words, well sister, you got especially loud “Amen” at the end. I loved the way others truly witnessed with you.
Last Sunday, I was assigned to speak on the nature and glory of God, and as it worked out after the 30-second Father’s Day tribute from the Primary children, I was left with a solid 30 minutes to fill with my weighty topic. From my vantage point at the pulpit, I watched the congregants. Some looked at me with varying degrees of attention, others were engaged in the arduous but honorable task of reverently wrestling their children, a few dozed. Some I could tell were being tortured by the mere thought being forced to listen to a single speaker’s talk which was going to be longer than a TV sitcom. I’ll be honest my reaction upon receiving the topic was not rooftop dancing, but as I spent the week preparing I really found the power in the subject. It found its way into a few conversations with non-member friends, who couldn’t understand why I was madly using my son’s nap time to write the Father’s Day sermon for our church. It gave me a chance to witness deep, amazing truths. I got to squeeze into the conversation our basic theology on the godhead and plan of salvation in three minutes or less.
As church members, we’ve been taught our basic doctrines (like the nature of God) well; at least 40 or 50 times in Primary alone, let alone the years of Sunday School, Young Women’s, seminary, Relief Society and many sacrament meetings. I wonder if we take our truths too lightly and forget how amazing they are.
A lot of times we’re not really focused in church, we zone in and out through talks. In the end, our classical conditioning kicks in. We hear that concluding “Amen” and we mumble our weak, reflexive knee jerk “amen” back. I am all for reverence and decorum, but I’d also like some evidence of a strong spiritual pulse.
We don’t often let ourselves get caught up and feel the good news of the gospel. These abiding truths deserves some hearty affirmation. So next time we’re at church I’ll be looking for some head nods, and listening for those heart-felt “Amens.”
Because “I wanna get witness, wit-ness”.
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