Why clap on the 2/4

Today's Readings:
Psalm 50, (Evening Psalms Psalm 59, Psalm 60, Psalm 46)
Genesis 39:1-23, 1 Corinthians 2:24-3:15, Mark 2:1-12

We were packed into the tiny church in the sleepy little town of Tariffville, Connecticut  to listen to one of the most influential giants of gospel music of all times, Horace Clarence Boyer. He had found his way through the doors and into our lives.

"Now, fine people" he began with a voice that could make both a colicky  baby swoon and the Devil tremble, "to properly sing Gospel you must let the words from here, in your jowls, and not down here, in your belly".

We began to sing. Oddly enough when using the proper technique of singing from a higher place, the words seemed to come from a depth I had never felt before.

..."wade, in the water, wade, in the water children, wade in the water, the Lord's gonna trouble the water"

We not so much sounded better as we did feel better.
It was believable.

A few bars in he stopped us again.
"I am pleased you wish to clap, all Gospel music should stir the soul, the hands and the feet. Do not clap when you feel you want to, however. Clap on the two and the four, not the one and the three. You may find it helpful to stamp your foot when you want to clap, and then clap your hands when you should"

With these two simple tips, a master transformed a bunch of white-bread singers into a buttermilk biscuit Gospel Choir.

In the same way, Paul speaks to the church in Corinth:

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, 

for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them 

because they are spiritually discerned.  

The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.  

“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” 

But we have the mind of Christ.

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people,

 but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 

I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. 

And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. 

1 Corinthians 2:14-3:2

The church had been trying to sing the songs of the Lord, to follow his way, but they were off beat and singing from the wrong place. As a result, the music was off and it expressed itself in fighting, quarreling,  and self-centeredness. No matter what words they sang it sounded wrong and as a result the Good News was not believable. 

They were doing what they wanted to, not what they should done

To be fair we can't blame them too much. These folks had only recently come out of a society that actually forced everyone to clap whenever they wanted and to sing whatever felt good. 

Many gods, many temples, indulge in your own way. 
If it felt good, do it. 

In fact, the only thing that was forbidden was following the heart beat of the One True God. 

The cure for this off beat-band is the same cure for us:

Spending time with the Master; learning to sing from the right place, stomping at the wrong beat

This is Lent; putting down our drum sticks and playing back the tapes and changing the notes if need be.

When we spend time with God, when we seek after him, when we yearn for him, then we will have the mind of Christ. We will learn to when to stomp our feet "no" at the natural desires of a sinful heart and move our hands to do the works of God. 
We will all be in rhythm of one voice and heart, a heavenly choir.

We will not simply sound better. We will be better. He makes us better. That is what the cross was all about. 
And that, is what makes us believable. 

 amen

NB 

Horace had his "great gettin' up mornin' in 2009. He is perhaps remembered less for what he sang, than he is for preserving the music. May our lives in Christ be the same.