What Do You Worship?

I have to teach a song to my chorus this year called the "Rhythm of Life." It's from a Cy Coleman musical. The lyrics are somewhat tamed down for an elementary chorus, but there are still several things in it that trouble me. There are lines telling us to "spread the religion of the rhythm of life", "get a whole new congregation" and something about spreading the gospel of music. Because this song was chosen district-wide, and will be performed at a mass concert with many other schools, I'm obligated to teach it to my students.

In the music teaching world, a lot of music teachers have church jobs to supplement their income. I was talking to one of my friends in this position and sharing with her some of the parts of the song that were troubling me. Her response was that "religion, music and God all go together." (This is not the first music teacher who has equated music and God.) I responded out of my own troubled mind, "but how do you reconcile that with the first commandment, that we should have no other gods before God? To me, that becomes idolatry...worshiping the music rather than using music to worship the One who gave it to us."

My friend was somewhat speechless and quickly changed the subject. I guess it continually baffles me that people would choose a place of worship because of the quality of the music instead of the quality of the message. (Several music teacher friends can't believe I would attend a church with contemporary worship and *gasp* drums.)