It was a hot, humid, & rainy day. It was August in Hot Springs, NC and I was at
the Wild Goose Festival, a gathering to celebrate the sacred through art,
music, word, and social justice. It was
Saturday afternoon, somewhere between an inspiring message from the Rev. Dr.
William Barber (speak love to the dry
bones!) and waiting for the Indigo Girls was the Beer & Hymn Sing.
With my lawn chair positioned to trap the shade of the few
trees around I sat with a beer in my left and lyric sheet in my right. A gentleman resembling a delicate fusion of a
court jester and John the Baptist wore an oversized hat, a colorful cape and
played a ukulele with missing strings.
He stood on a picnic table and began to sing. The crowd of a couple hundred quickly joined
in!
This was my first Beer and Hymn sing and where I met Claire,
a Methodist Minister who worked right down the road from me in Raleigh. Something happens at a Hymn Sing – people
let their guard down, they don’t worry about sounding good, or if they know the
words or the melody. It’s messy but the
Sacred is present and people are able to become fast friends. That’s how it felt anyway.
“We should do this in Raleigh,” one of us says.
“Sounds like a great idea,” responds the other.
The birth of Raleigh Beer and Hymns
The first Raleigh Beer & Hymns was on Sunday, November
3. Claire, whose brother plays guitar and has a band, organized the
musicians. We talked to a local pub,
created a Facebook event and put up some posters. The first Beer & Hymns had about 80
people.
Since, we’ve had 2 more and it has grown to around 150
people. I will admit it took the first
couple to convince Tir Na Nog Irish Pub this it this was a worthwhile
gesture. They weren’t convinced that
people would show up on a Sunday evening for a hymn sing. But with over 150 people showing up to eat,
drink and sing – on a night that would otherwise be dead – they’ve put Beer and
Hymns on the calendar for the rest of the year.
Raleigh Beer and Hymns happens the first Sunday of each month from 7:30-8:30*.
Why Does It Work?
Not only have I been asked this question, I continually ask myself
this question. Why do people show up on
a most inconvenient day and time (when most are getting ready for school and
work the next day) to sing hymns for an hour?
Why does a congregation sound like they are being dragged through the
mud when singing Sunday morning but sound Joy-Filled at Beer & Hymn
sing? I honestly don’t know but here are
my hunches:
It’s simple
We sing songs that are familiar. That’s it.
It’s not complicated with “programming”, solos, or budgets. There isn’t much to prepare or cleanup. There is not much to it and we don’t ask
anything from anyone (except change to help pay the sound guy).
It’s fun
Let’s face it church has lost its zing! Maybe you see people you like and care about,
maybe you enjoy the church potluck, but more than not, you make your grocery
list while listening to a mediocre sermon, you mumble through some songs, and
you stay hidden so no one asks anything else of you. I haven’t even mentioned the fact that most
of our congregations just aren’t even relevant for our lives anymore! But Beer & Hymns – it’s ok to laugh. It’s
ok to talk to your neighbor. It’s ok to not know the words. It’s ok to be
tired. It’s ok to eat. It’s ok to have a beer. It’s ok to not have a beer. It’s just – fun! And without a doubt the Divine is found in the
sacred space of fun!
No pretense or guise
Beer & Hymns is actually not about the beer, however, the beer represents a lack of pretension and guise. (Many who attend Beer & Hymns don’t even drink.)
But the availability of beer creates the space to honest conversations and
differing opinions in a relaxed atmosphere.
People attending B&H come from all different walks of life,
different denominations, some agnostic, or even atheist. There also may be something about the
juxtaposition of the sacred hymns in what would be considered non-sacred space
with the sacrilegious beer. (Though I
would challenge the notion that beer is not sacred)
People are being
nourished by community
All of the above comes down to this point: at Beer &
Hymns, people are nourished by the community.
For an hour once a month, people from various places and spaces come
together to meet others where they are on this journey called life. We come with our broken hearts, questions,
and our cracked voices. We come to be
fed with food and beer and each other.
We come to share our stories, to laugh and to sing. And it just so happens we find God.
