What is sacred?

I am intrigued by the fact that there is no universal standard for sacredness. A great deal of energy is spent in the world of church music arguing over what constitutes appropriately sacred music. Shouldn't there be some place that maintained a list of appropriate music?

The answer is obvious. We are each responsible for the sacred in our lives. The Bible says, "Behold, the Kingdom of God is with people". In our anthropomorphic attempts to understand that which cannot be understood, we assign sacredness to the things that make us feel close to the God we claim to understand.

Somewhere along the journey of monotheism that was begun by the children of Israel, we decided that it wasn't enough to have only one God. We had to increasingly define that God, and in so doing, we had to increasingly deny access to God to anyone whose understandings didn't match our own. I'm a pretty orthodox Christian believer, and I don't really propose any radical change in the ways we describe God in our worship. But I think it borders on blasphemy to think that I alone (and those with whom I agree) possess a true understanding of the nature of God. If God is all-knowing, all-being, then in order to understand God wouldn't we have to be God's equals? Obvious blasphemy.

The trigger for this train of thought came today when I saw a reference to Schubert's familiar setting of "Ave Maria." It's such a familiar piece of music that everyone has heard it, even though it represents a fairly radical part of the Christian understanding, the belief within some Christian traditions that Mary is of such elevated status that we can actually pray to her for intercession. As a Baptist, I was raised with the belief that this was incorrect and suspect doctrine. In the church of my childhood there was no place for any feminine reference related to God.

I remember the first time I heard Franz Biebl's setting of "Ave Maria," and what an impact it had on me. I decided immediately that the choir I directed had to sing the piece. It never occurred to me that we should quibble over doctrine. There was no doubt that this was sacred music. Of course, I received complaints and refusals from a couple of singers, but the rest fell in love with the piece like I had. I told them, "Just because it's not sacred to you doesn't mean it's not sacred." We sang it in our church and in Europe on tour. The last time we sang it we were in the Sistine Chapel. In that rarefied accoustic it came to life in a whole new way. A catholic friend who was traveling with us came over afterward and said, "I think Jesus was very pleased for you to sing so beautifully to his mother." It was sacred to my friend, and that was good enough for me.

I guess my point in this rambling post is that we should learn to believe in the limitations of our own understanding. It's a by-product of our self-centeredness and narcissism that we believe we can fully understand the God of the universe. Why don't we admit to our limits, and accept that other limited believers express themselves in other ways. Why don't we agree that music is sacred because of the pure intent of the worshiper who sings or plays it, rather than because it meets our arbitrary standard. Why don't we seek to be effective and committed stewards of our own musical gifts and abilities, and leave the judgment of others to a more qualified judge.