Joyful Music

Monday is the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. On November 9, 1989 Germans living in the totalitarian communist state known best as East Germany were first allowed to move through the locked down border that divided a people. History tells us it was a mistake of bureaucratic miscommunication that led the border guards to allow the first swarms of people through. But praise be to God, it was a mistake that changed the world. Once the gates to freedom were opened, nothing was going to turn back the clock. The Cold War was essentially over.

There were spontaneous celebrations throughout Berlin. East and West Germans came to the wall and stood in mass, unable to comprehend that this was happening. Just ten months earlier the leader of the DDR (East Germany) spoke of the wall standing for another 100 years before conditions might change for it to come down. Little did he know that within a year the DDR would be no more.

How do you celebrate such an event? Words could not express the feelings. Cameras took photos. Tears ran down cheeks. What can you say when a wrong which affected generations was finally made right?

A few days after the initial euphoria, when movement through Checkpoint Charlie was no different than movement through a Tri-State Highway toll booth, the great cellist, Mistislav Rostropovich, was moved the make a statement of pure joy. You see Rostropovich, music director of the National Symphony Orchestra and considered by many the greatest cellist of the twentieth century, was directly touched by the Cold War. A Russian, Rostropovich became great while learning and practicing his art in the finest musical institutions of the Soviet Union. But political pressures from the Communist Party forced him to make the difficult decision to defect to the United States with his wife in 1974. He thrived in America and continued his storied career. But he could never go home. He lost his country. He lost his people Or so he thought.

Then November 9, 1989 happened. So moved by joy... the great cellist did what he does best. He gave no speech. He wrote no articles. Instead he went to the wall, near Checkpoint Charlie, took out his cello, and played... and played... and played.

There are times in life when the only way we can express our joy and gratitude is through music. There are joys so inexpressible that only sounds can do the justice that words can't. And not just any sounds.... Music!

"Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live (Psalm 146:1-2)." Music is such an essential part of how we worship God. Yes we have words. We have God's Word. Yes we lift up prayers. But there are aspects of our gratitude and awe for the Lord our God that require more than words. There are joys we feel that cannot be expressed in any better way than through music.

Rostropovich expressed the inexpressible that day in Berlin twenty years ago. The world had changed and he had to make a statement... a statement through his cello... a statement through music. Praise be to God!