Mormon Tabernacle Choir - Soothing and Soaring

Visitors share a transcendent moment with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir


BY DAVID CRUMM
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST


As Craig and Sue Wagenschutz of Marysville settled into seats in the vast Mormon convention center in Salt Lake City recently, they heard America's most famous choir rehearsing beloved religious classics, including a stirring rendition of "Battle Hymn of the Republic."


Then, something strangely familiar arose. First, the sopranos in the 320-voice Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang the phrase, "I will lay me down." Then, other sections rehearsed the phrase. In the audience, many of the men and women who showed up to catch the rehearsal tilted their heads and whispered to friends.

Everyone was wondering: Was the venerable choir that's been broadcasting weekly concerts across the United States since 1929, actually performing a Simon and Garfunkel song?
They were, indeed, although music director Craig Jessop admitted after the rehearsal that he had come very close to rejecting the request from a friend who was eager to arrange a choral version of "Bridge Over Trouble Water."


"We're not a pops choir," Jessop said. "But we agreed to try this and it's obvious now that it's such a good choice after what has happened."


Jessop was referring to the Utah mining tragedies that transfixed the nation. On Aug. 6, a coal mine collapse swallowed six men. Then, 10 days later, three of the rescue workers were killed and six more were injured.
"None of us could get the miners out of our minds, and then we thought about the message of this song we were rehearsing," Jessop said.


At that point in the rehearsal, Jessop turned off his booming microphone that allowed him to address the audience as well as his choir. So, his voice fell low, full of emotion. To the audience, he seemed to be whispering.



Jessop knew that his singers drive to Salt Lake City from various towns in Utah, some commuting hours each week. For many choir members, this national news story felt like a family tragedy.


Jessop reminded his singers of the timeless religious message in the song. He quoted from the gospel of John: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
Gradually, the various vocal parts came together and soon Jessop poured himself into directing the full choir, which has sung for 10 U.S. presidents and calls itself America's Choir. The new version is slower than the original song and the massed voices soared with the words:


"When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all; I'm on your side. When times get rough and friends just can't be found -- like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down."
In that moment, hundreds of men and women in the convention center were caught up in what amounts to one of our greatest religious gifts as Americans -- our capacity to reshape whatever cultural resources we have at hand to cobble together the spiritual resources that will meet our needs in each challenging season.


Craig and Sue Wagenschutz said they were inspired as they left the convention center. They are members of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and were visiting Salt Lake City to attend a nearby business convention. But they wanted to come and hear the famous choir and immediately felt at home.


They were crossing religious boundaries in visiting the home of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Their own denomination is known for avoiding ecumenical and interfaith relationships.


"But I knew some Latter-day Saints missionaries ... and I knew they were good people," Sue Wagenschutz said. "I admire their lifestyle, their ethics and their service to others."
Her husband said, "It took me a number of years to understand this: There are more ways to worship than my own. And I think human beings create more barriers than we need. I know I've been guilty of that sometimes through the years.


"In the end, though, barriers just aren't helpful," he said, gesturing back at the choir loft. "If I had stayed behind my barriers, I would have missed out on something as great as this."

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The Power of God's Love

by Elder John H. Groberg

Filled with His love, we can endure pain, quell fear, forgive freely, avoid contention, renew strength, and bless and help others.

What is it about true love that touches every heart? Why does the simple phrase “I love you” evoke such universal joy?
Men give various reasons, but the real reason is that every person who comes to earth is a spirit son or daughter of God. Since all love emanates from God, we are born with the capacity and the desire to love and to be loved. One of the strongest connections we have with our premortal life is how much our Father and Jesus loved us and how much we loved Them. Even though a veil was drawn over our memory, whenever we sense true love, it awakens a longing that cannot be denied.
Responding to true love is part of our very being. We innately desire to reconnect here with the love we felt there. Only as we feel God’s love and fill our hearts with His love can we be truly happy.
God’s love fills the immensity of space; therefore, there is no shortage of love in the universe, only in our willingness to do what is needed to feel it. To do this, Jesus explained we must “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, … soul, … strength, and … mind; and thy neighbour as thyself” (Luke 10:27).
The more we obey God, the more we desire to help others. The more we help others, the more we love God and on and on. Conversely, the more we disobey God and the more selfish we are, the less love we feel.
Trying to find lasting love without obeying God is like trying to quench thirst by drinking from an empty cup—you can go through the motions, but the thirst remains. Similarly, trying to find love without helping and sacrificing for others is like trying to live without eating—it is against the laws of nature and cannot succeed. We cannot fake love. It must become part of us. The prophet Mormon explained:
“Charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.
“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love” (Moro. 7:47–48).
God is anxious to help us feel His love wherever we are. Let me give an example.
As a young missionary I was assigned to a small island of about 700 inhabitants in a remote area of the South Pacific. To me the heat was oppressive, the mosquitoes were terrible, the mud was everywhere, the language was impossible, and the food was—well, “different.”
After a few months our island was struck by a powerful hurricane. The devastation was massive. Crops were ruined, lives were lost, housing was blown away, and the telegraph station—our only link to the outside world—was destroyed. A small government boat normally came every month or two, so we rationed our food to last four or five weeks, hoping the boat would come. But no boat came. Every day we became weaker. There were acts of great kindness, but as the sixth and seventh weeks passed with very little food, our strength slipped noticeably. My native companion, Feki, helped me in every way he could, but as the eighth week commenced, I had no energy. I just sat under the shade of a tree and prayed and read scriptures and spent hours and hours pondering the things of eternity.

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"Be Thou My Vision"

An old Irish hymn....this is my favorite!



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