The Sunday Musician

All my life I’ve heard people say, “Heaven sounds boring. Who wants to just sit around all day, singing?”

I’ve always countered that argument by pointing out that the resurrection has not yet occurred, that there’s a new heaven and a new earth coming, and that it’s all very much still in process. We won’t be bored, we won’t just sit around and sing all day.

So yesterday afternoon I’m putting together a song list for the Saturday evening service (The Other Ed had to work again), and I was scrolling through all the old songs I boiled to disc when I left The Big Church, and I found “I See The Lord”. I couldn’t remember the scripture passage it’s drawn from, so I went to www.biblegateway.com (a great place to look up bible passages) and found it:

Isaiah 6:1-3

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory."

As I read through it, an image came to my mind: Molly and I gaping at Mt. Rainier. When we were in the Seattle area a couple of months ago, we spent an afternoon driving out to the mountain. Usually it’s enshrouded in clouds, but the day was brilliantly clear so we made the trip.

As we wound our way up the switchback road that leads up the mountain, we kept catching glimpses of the peak through the trees. After a half hour of driving (mountains are big), we pulled into the Visitor’s Center, which is about halfway up the mountain. Having seen pictures of the mountain, I would have predicted standing and looking for a minute, then buying a hat in the gift shop and leaving. I underestimated its grandeur. It was breathtaking. Molly and I stood there for about ten minutes and just gaped. The mountain was right in front of us—so close I felt I could just walk out of the parking lot and right up to the peak. After a few minutes we started to say things like, “Wow...look at it!” We both remarked that if we could, we’d build a house right on the spot so we could look at it every day.  Here we are at a turnout, still not as close as we would get. 

Mount Rainier

The picture is just a picture, but up close--whoa.  And it’s just a mountain. Just a big rock.  All we get now is a glimpse of God, but up close...

As I read the passage from Isaiah and thought about the seraphs flying around and saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord,” it occurred to me that perhaps I’ve underestimated what it would be like to look at God, and that if I got the chance, maybe all I’d ever want to do is look at Him. And then turn to the person next to me and say, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord!”

Last night we sang:

On Christ The Solid Rock I Stand

This Is My Father’s World

Then I told my little story about the mountain, and then we sang:

I see the Lord

There were only about 15 of us last night, and as I’ve said before, I love the intimacy of it. We prayed together, I led one time through ‘Great Is Thy Faithfulness’, and we broke for cookies and coffee refills.

(This post is part of Fred McKinnon's 'Sunday Set Lists', which, if you're a worship leader, you should check out)