I love to serve my home church by leading the congregational singing. I enjoy the hours of preparation required to seamlessly tie the songs to the general theme of the bible readings and sermon. I receive a great sense of personal satisfaction from the vocal practice that I employ so that my singing enhances and guides the participation of my fellow worshippers. As recently as a couple of Sunday’s ago I was fortunate enough to lead one of our morning congregations through the songs that thematically centred on singing God’s praise through the generations. The service went smoothly and a deep shared sense of God’s presence rested on the meeting as we sang songs that connected us with lyrics taken from today, the 8^th century, as well as words penned by David in the Psalms. One of our pastoral staff led us through Ps 145 and drew our attention to the centrality of Christ. Wonderful! Wonderful that is until I started the final song…

The song we had chosen as the final piece was the new song by Jonas Myrin and Matt Redman (2011), 10,000 Reasons. For those of you unfamiliar with the piece, the song commences with the chorus and then leads into verse one. I had decided that I would attempt to dovetail a solo presentation of the opening chorus neatly against the end of Ps Phil’s closing prayer. An excellent idea…until I missed the entrance note by approximately a 4^th. “No problem” I thought…it kind of worked in a kooky indie kind of way…”I’ll just make a quick adjustment when I invite the congregation to join me for verse one…how hard can it be for a doctor of musical arts?” Ha! Very hard it seems…I couldn’t find the right key/note to save myself. Fortunately, after what felt like an eternity of ‘awkward’ I had a friend in the pews that came to my rescue by belting out the right notes so that the congregation could commence singing. Actually, in the end, what took place was beautiful. In the midst of my broken attempts to find the right notes the congregation’s voice rose above mine to the point that they were leading me. It was so good that every time we sang a verse (there are three) I handed the leadership of the melody over to the 100 strong voices of the congregation. I would go as far as to say that the service may not have been as rich an experience had I got the entrance into the final song right.

Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, reminds us that “we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor 4:7). A common vessel for grains, water and oils in New Testament times, the household ‘jar of clay’ was given to breaking and spilling its contents. Even the well-crafted glazed pot or jar was vulnerable to mishap and structural failure. While reminding us that we are made of fallible materials Paul celebrates our earthiness; our imperfection and vulnerability. Paul reminds us to revel in the way God is glorified and revealed in our weakness.

Admittedly, I am not going to go searching for opportunities to fail in my responsibilities of leading the congregation in worship. I am however excited to know that God is more than capable of using our wrong notes stored in clay jars.