For those of you who don’t know, I’m deaf. Severely deaf in my left ear and profoundly in my right. I’ve nerve deafness, which, to put simply, I can hear some frequencies and not some others. Every thing I can hear is not as clear as it would be for others.
Fortunately, advances in hearing aid technology and portable captioning have allowed myself, and others with varying degrees of deafness, to navigate the hearing world more effectively.
Before these technologies I’ve had to appreciate the gifts of this world in different ways. From an early age, music has always played a significant part in my life. Some music I can’t hear well, some not at all and some jazz and classical I can hear and enjoy to some degree.
When I preach and I’m asked to select music appropriate to the sermon, I feel better delegating that to worship leaders who are more capable than I.
This past February 8, at LaGrave Ave CRC, the opposite happened. I was on the schedule to preach the evening service and I had a sermon planned.
Then I was informed that a young lady wanted to play special music the next time I was on the calendar to preach. She was a person who is visually impaired and an accomplished oboist.
I was excited. Oboes are one of those instruments I can hear fairly well. Then I was told she was going to play Bach. I nearly fell through the floor! I love Bach’s oboe pieces.
Given the circumstances, I decided to not preach the sermon I had planned originally, I would preach a disability sermon based on Mark 7, the account of Jesus healing the deaf-mute. The whole service was about heeding Jesus command: “be opened!”. The context is that God restores us so that we can walk in the way of holiness.
Don’t see the disabilities, see the gifts. The gifts that God gives his children as unconditionally as his love for us.
The service was phenomenal. The music made it so.
As Bach would conclude: Sola Deo Gloria!
Pete
