Singing and Civil Disobedience

Last Sunday morning, Governor Jay Inslee announced some new COVID restrictions for the state. Among these was included a restriction on places of worship that prohibits corporate singing of any kind. This puts Saint Andrew’s Presbyterian in a difficult position because God both commands his people to sing praises to him (more on this below), and also commands his people to obey the authorities put over them (more on this below as well). As a pastor, I am not called to be an expert in constitutional theory/practice, nor am I called to be an expert in the sciences, I am called to study and apply scripture to your lives. So although there are arguments to be made from other angles, our chief concern is what the Bible has to say about this. So what do we do? How should we approach this sensitive topic from a biblical perspective?

Greater and Lesser Commands

One of the things we find when we look in scripture is that there is a concept of greater and lesser commands. We actually find this even in regards to obeying authorities, so it is an apt case study for us in our cultural moment. 

First of all, both Paul and Peter wrote explicitly on the topic of obeying the authorities put over us:

“Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.”

1 Peter 2:13-17

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.”

Romans 13:1-7

Both of these sections of scripture are full of challenging words. God has put our authorities over us and we are called to obey them. They aren’t over qualifying their words either. It is a plain and simple command that we should respect and obey the authorities over us. What is interesting is that the authorities that they are appealing to for God’s people to obey, are the very ones that brought about Paul’s and Peter’s own deaths. This tells us that Paul and Peter know better than we do what it is to have ungodly rulers over them. Yet their call is still to obey. Even more than that, our obedience to authorities is marked as our obedience to God himself. This begs the question: why were Paul and Peter put to death by their governing authorities? Because they disobeyed their leaders. 

This is where our heads start to spin, isn’t it? Paul and Peter tell us to obey, and yet they themselves died because of their disobedience. Without chasing every rabbit trail available to us, we can at least say that wisdom is required, and that there are times to disobey. Much like in the Proverbs when we are called to both answer a fool and not answer a fool, there are clearly times when we are called to obey and disobey the government. 

How do we discern when that is? Although, in scripture, there is no direct comparison to what we are dealing with, there are several examples of disobedience that come to mind that help us. One is from Acts 4:18-22

“So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people, for all were praising God for what had happened. For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than forty years old.”
Acts 4:18-22

Now, of course, our situation is different, and we aren’t being told we can’t proclaim the gospel. However, like Peter and John from Acts 4, we are being asked to do something that goes against what God has called his people to do in their worship of him. 

A closer comparison comes from the book of Daniel (worth reading in its entirety) when the Jews are being challenged in how they worship God. There are several examples in this book, but we will look at the precursor to Daniel in the lion’s den as the example:

It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps, to be throughout the whole kingdom; and over them three high officials, of whom Daniel was one, to whom these satraps should give account, so that the king might suffer no loss. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him. Then these men said, “We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.” Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live forever! All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction, that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.” Therefore King Darius signed the document and injunction. When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God. Then they came near and said before the king, concerning the injunction, “O king! Did you not sign an injunction, that anyone who makes petition to any god or man within thirty days except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?” The king answered and said, “The thing stands fast, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked.” Then they answered and said before the king, “Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or the injunction you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.”
Daniel 6:1-13

Daniel disobeyed the king. He disobeyed the authorities over him because they asked him to not worship Yahweh for 30 days the way he was called to worship him. What I love about the Daniel story is that Daniel didn’t flaunt his disobedience. He didn’t try to get caught or send out a mailer (or tweet). He went to his house and worshipped quietly before the Lord (more on this point later). He did whatever he could to keep the peace while he obeyed God, but this still meant disobeying the authorities placed over him. 

In just these handful of verses, we can see that there are greater and lesser commands at play for God’s people. There are times when we disobey one command of God, in order to obey his greater commands. So how do we know what the greater command is? I believe what these instances show us is that we obey our authorities until they prohibit us from the other commands that God has given us, instructing us how to worship and live. When authorities ask us to break God’s law, or prohibit us from worshiping God how he calls us to, we disobey. It doesn’t mean we won’t face consequences for our disobedience (Daniel, Peter, and Paul faced the consequences for their disobedience), but it means that we can face those consequences knowing that we are being faithful to God. 

Importance of Singing

At the very least, you are likely in agreement that there are times to disobey our government. The question that remains is: is this the time? Is God’s command for his people to sing the greater commandment here? Is singing to God worth disobeying our government over? Is singing really essential to the worship of the church? Let’s look at scripture again. 

In the entirety of the bible, the largest book we have is the Psalms, which is a collection of songs sung to God. This fact alone should be a weighty one for us. God’s people are called to be a singing people, but more than that, in the psalter there are almost 400 commands to sing. 

Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm!
Psalm 47:6-7

Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts; his name is the LORD; exult before him!
Psalm 68:4

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Psalm 95:1

In all these commands to sing, we are responding to God’s majesty, to his beauty, to his work in this world, and that response bubbles out of his people in song. We sing songs to the ones we love. It is a gift from God. He has given us the gift of music that we might lift our voices in beautiful chorus, praising his glorious name.

God’s people sing. 

This command to sing continues on in the life of the church in the New Testament as well.

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,
Ephesians 5:18-19

And in a parallel passage in Colossians, we read:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Colossians 3:16

The church is commanded here to sing. In Ephesians, it is how we are a people filled with the Spirit. In Colossians, it is one of the ways the word of Christ dwells in his people. 

Singing is so central for us because of how God created singing to work. What happens when you sing? Whether it is a love song to a spouse or a song to God, our hearts are stirred towards that thing. Singing arouses the passions of the heart towards the object of the singing. God’s people have always been a singing people because it is one of the ways that our hearts’ affections are aroused in love towards God. It doesn’t happen apart from our singing. Singing is the tuning fork for the heart that aligns us with a profound passion for God. This is why singing (and what we sing) is so important. Because if we sing false things or no things at all, our hearts’ affections are tuned incorrectly. Singing is more than important; singing is essential for the disciple of Christ. 

So, is God’s command to sing greater than his command to obey the government’s order not to sing? Yes. I would argue that our command to sing is greater than our command to obey the government, because the government is asking us to not do something that God has explicitly called his people to do. The greatest commandment is God’s commandment for us to love God with all that we are. Our love of God is grown in our worship of him, and in Colossians, we see that this is how God’s word, Christ himself, dwells in us richly, which is to say one of the ways Christ is formed in us is through singing. To not sing would seriously impact our ability to fulfill the greatest commandment to love God with all that we are. 

Because God has commanded us to sing, and because it stirs our affections towards God, it is scandalous to tell Christians they can’t sing. 

Obey as far as we can. 

That said, like Daniel, we ought to obey as far as we can. We ought not take any civil disobedience lightly. Because of this, we are making some adjustments to our current weekly routines in order to obey as far as we can. We are going to finish our last few discipleship group meetings for this term on Zoom. Whether we agree with this or not, we can do this without breaking the commands of God towards his people. 

As we look at scripture, we find that our hearts should take the posture of humility when we disobey. We should not look for opportunities to rebel. Just as Christ humbly laid down his life, we are called to lay down our lives. When we are eager to rebel against our authorities, our sinful hearts are exposed. Ultimately, it reveals our desire to be autonomous beings, and to this, God emphatically says, “No”. We are not autonomous. God has placed us in a community of believers. And he has placed us under various governments that we might learn to submit to him. If we struggle to submit to our earthly authorities, no matter how wicked they are, then we probably aren’t very good at submitting to our heavenly authority.  Obedience is easy when you agree. Obedience when we disagree is how our faith is grown.

Common Objections

Objection 1: Disobeying the government breaks the second greatest commandment to love our neighbor.
This is a strong argument. I believe this is one of the hardest ones for me to wrestle with. Scripture consistently calls us to lay down our rights and to serve our neighbors, for the sake of the other. So wouldn’t it be the most loving thing to just obey the government in this? To stop the spread of this virus? This is a challenge that cannot be easily dismissed. 

Objection 2: This is a unique situation that requires us to do things differently for just a short time, so we should do that.
In this, the argument goes that the government isn’t trying to limit us for nefarious reasons, but in order to protect public health. We aren’t being persecuted because of our faith, so shouldn’t we help protect public health as a church? Shouldn’t we be concerned for the welfare of the city? This too is a really good and challenging argument. 

Both of these objections are coming from a place of trying to love our neighbors and trying to apply God’s laws for how we should live as exiles in a foreign land. Both of these objections also point out the uniqueness of this situation, that it isn’t a forever prohibition but a temporary one. These desires are what motivate us to go as far as we can in our obedience, even with things that we think are silly (like Zoom D-Groups), in order to preserve the peace and witness of the church. The reason why, even in the face of these solid objections, we will still sing, is simply because God commanded it of us. Our obedience to God, even in these circumstances where it is risky for us, helps us grow in our ability to trust him, which is to grow in our love of him. As our love for God is grown, so our love for our neighbors grows. The irony here is that we can’t love our neighbors well without disobeying our government’s command to prohibit our worship. This is because we don’t love our neighbors in our own strength, but only in the strength that flows out of our love for God, which is formed in us in our worship. So for us to fulfill the second greatest commandment to love our neighbor, we must sing. To sing is to love our neighbor. To sing is to take the virus seriously because to sing is to trust God with our lives.

The other reality at play in this is that the warnings against gathering and singing could be correct. Us gathering to sing is a risky endeavor. It could continue the spread of the virus and prolong shutdowns. This could very well be the reality. Following God and being faithful is always risky, and perhaps for the first time in many of our lives, we are experiencing some of the very real risks involved. And yet, amidst the risks and the unknowns, we are called to trust God. In trusting God, we say, “Come what may, we will follow you.” In this, we can identify with our brothers and sisters in Christ who are gathering around the world in worship on pain of death. Our western church needs to look for inspiration from its sister churches around the world who continue to gather, sing, and preach with their lives on the line. If they can do that, then we can sing at the risk of getting ill and losing jobs.

Our worship is that important, and one of my prayers through this is that we learn the importance of gathered worship.

The Attitude of Disobedience

In this disobedience, we have to guard against arrogance. It can be easy for us to slip into the attitude that we are better than others because of our actions. As we are stirred in worship to love God, we are equally as stirred to love our neighbor. And so, when they disagree with us, we can be polite and loving in our response. We can be quiet about our actions. We don’t need to broadcast to the world what we are doing. We are called to be faithful. And so we will be. We are called to be loving, and so we will be. We are called to obey our leaders, and so we will as far as we can. We are not called to the easy life, but to the good life, and the good life is a challenging one. When we have to part from the laws of the land, we will do so with lament in our hearts because our laws lack the justice of God. In this, we should be stirred towards compassion and prayer for our leaders. 

So as we make this difficult decision to disobey, and as we gather, let us do so with love in our hearts, and prayers for our authorities on our lips. Only Christ can heal our land, and only the Church has the power to proclaim that healing touch. Let us not slander the world while trying to speak peace. They will see through us. Let us hold these things in tension, by the power of the love of Christ, which unites us together as one people.

If you have questions, or even if you disagree with this decision, please talk to me. I pray that we can stay united in these challenging times, and that through it all, we will emerge even stronger in faith and unity. I love you all. 

Blessings,

Pastor Craig Harris