Whistle While You Work
I feel like everything is intact today because, just outside my door, I have heard merry whistling out in the halls of the parish office. You may not know this about our Rector, but it is a reliable and spontaneous thing while making his way here or there that he whistles a tune. It might be popular music; more often it is a spiritual song or hymn. I take it to be his personal expression. I take it as evidence that music and the Inventor of music live in his heart.
I am taking notice of two passages we will hear Sunday morning. The first is from the Psalm:
Who among you loves life*
and desires long life to enjoy prosperity?
Turn from evil and do good;*
seek peace and pursue it. (Psalm 34:9, 14
To me, this is a reminder that life is richest when we can come to a place truly to enjoy it. Pursuing peace in life, pursuing the love that comes in living is not easy: it is work. Verse fourteen declares that the hard work of turning away from evil and toward the good is our vital and valuable work indeed. Whistling whilst we work can help the work go well. Good work can bring us the joy that makes our hearts sing and our lips whistle. Work can lead us to love, and love is our principal work.
The other passage I want to bring into focus is here:
…Be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God. (Ephesians 5: 18b-20a)
Here Paul, knowing human beings are compelled to be filled with something, recommends that the believers take advantage of the choice they have, the privilege they have, to be filled with the Spirit. He proposes that this will set their hearts to singing. The difficult and dangerous work that Paul has, to deliver the message of God’s love, he accomplishes, singing. Even after they were beaten and thrown into prison in Macedonia, Paul and his companion Silas were praying and singing hymns at midnight in the deepest part of the cell with their feet fixed to the wall in stocks. (Acts 16:22-26) The presence of God is so strong as they express their joy and praise, it shakes the ground and cracks them free from the locks.
Orthodox, New Testament theologian Lawrence R. Farley, explains that the alternative to drunkenness with wine is this filling with the Spirit and that it is not a one-time experience. (The Prison Epistles, Conciliar Press 2003, p. 129) The present tense of the verb “be filled” carries the meaning one is afforded continual infilling with the Spirit. He writes we sing “with our hearts” meaning it might also be with our voices (or our whistling). Our vocal praise comes from deep within us where the musical spring of living water is bubbling up afresh. Farley asserts, “Our song in the church is the liturgical expression of what should characterize our whole life. The sacramental Eucharist? Thanksgiving in Church launches and sets the tone for a life of thanksgiving. In this way, we make our entire life a Eucharistic offering to God. One thinks of the 19th-century anthem: “How Can I Keep From Singing:”
My life flows on in endless song;
Above earth's lamentation,
I hear the sweet, though far-off hymn
That hails a new creation
Through all the tumult and the strife,
I hear that music ringing
It finds an echo in my soul
How can I keep from singing?
I love to hear happy whistling lilting through the halls; it is a blessing in the workplace. It is a signal too that what fills the heart can spill over into one’s self-expression, ministry, and actions. We work, carried along in the power and love of Jesus Christ. It brings us not only to literal whistling while we work, but shows, the work itself and the joy in our hearts become a kind of song. How can we keep from singing?