What's With All the Singing?

Sunday, May 11, 2025

Fourth Sunday of Easter

The Rev. Dan Clark (he/him)

Director of Regional Organizing, Faith in Public Life

Allied Christian

On this fourth Sunday of Easter, we find an otherworldly

scene in St. John’s Revelation (7:9-17). People from every

imaginable background are together. (There are also

present angels and creatures and the Divine, of course.

But let’s focus on the people.) The sight is awe inspiring,

for sure. But the sound is what I’m drawn to. They are all

singing, like birds. Yes, the action the people are taking is

an onomatopoeic verb in the original language, and it is

like the calls of birds.

There are many things one could imagine doing if such a

gathering occurred, so what’s with all the singing?

Researchers at the University of Oxford have published

findings that outline the mental and physical health

benefits of singing. Music exercises the brain and the

body and brings people together, creating social bonds

that inoculate us against the isolation and loneliness that

can cause so much harm. Singing has even been shown

to relieve pain and improve immunity.

Just as music has been used in healing rituals in many

cultures through all of time, the biblical story in today’s

lectionary reading shows people singing together with the

result that hunger and thirst are alleviated, the elements

do not harm them, and those who grieve are comforted.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, so what song

will you sing this Spring? Sing in the shower. Sing in the

car. Sing at church. Join a local choir. Go out for

karaoke. Sing alone. Sing together. Whatever you do,

however you sound, what if you began to inhale and

exhale and join the diverse multitude of songbirds

gathered around Divine Love? Do re mi.