08/22/2020
Recently I wrote this in the church newsletter:
My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music.- Psalm 57:7
On July 19th, 2020, Eric Whitacre premiered Sing Gently, his 6th virtual choir piece that consisted of a staggering, history-making number of 17,572 singers from 129 different countries. Whitacre didn’t believe he and his team would attempt another virtual choir piece after their last one debuted about a year ago. It took the pandemic for them to say, “that if there were a time for a virtual choir piece to be done it would be now.”
Sing Gently conveys the healing of our brokenness with a breath of consonance and love and invites us to oppose the fire and fury we often see and feel in today’s current events. To “sing gently” is to create a calm and reflective approach to appreciate one another; a true depiction of “we are all in this together.” The brokenness is shone visually using the Japanese art form “Kintsugi,” where something broken (the choir members are depicted as broken shards ) is put back together and gold (or silver in the video) is mixed into the adhesive keeping the pieces from completely touching, thereby showing the scars as part of the beauty within the whole piece.
Although Sing Gently is secular and the art is not found particularly in a Christian culture, I profoundly see the love of Christ in both, in three different ways. Firstly, Jesus sees us all as broken shards and brings us together as people of Christ. Secondly, Jesus takes all our individual brokenness and heal us inwardly, leaving our personal scars as representations of our struggles. And thirdly, Jesus keeps the scars in his hands and feet and allows us to see them as an example of his His grace and sacrifice so that we can surpass the brokenness we feel.
I’m moved to tears to be part of the spectacular and profound love of Jesus Christ. I’m also moved to be one of the singers in Sing Gently. Singing together as one body of love and hope truly brought a message of togetherness to us all and I truly feel the love of Christ from the first time I watched it. You probably won’t see me in the video, but I do hope you take the time to watch and listen to Sing Gently on YouTube and think on God when you do. I hope that it brings you a breath of fresh air.
With the Peace of God to You All,
- Davis
