This week's Gospel reading revolves around small things (mustard seeds and yeast) and hidden things (treasure and pearls of rare price and fish that are worthy hidden around a net full of sea creatures). I have preached on mustard seeds and weeds before. I'm always on the lookout for new metaphors and symbols. I've used symbols like mold in a bathroom as a synonym for yeast.
This year, I thought of an experience during Music Week, where we went to a workshop for people who are in charge or are part of small choirs. It quickly became clear that we (me, my spouse, my S. Florida church friend) have a very different definition of "small": one of the workshop leaders talked about his small Vespers choir, and then casually mentioned the 70 members of the small Vespers choir.
We looked at music that three workshop leaders would be good for "small" choirs. Almost all of them relied on choirs that had sopranos, altos, and deeper voices of some variety. Many of the pieces rely on some level of musical skill from those voices.
I am guessing that most truly small choirs don't even have these resources. Here's how I put it in the rough draft of my sermon for Sunday:
"My version of a small choir is the type you’d find at a church that only has 70 or so people, a choir of six or seven where one or two people might be able to carry a tune and play an instrument, where the other five choir members have enthusiasm but no ability to carry the non-soprano sections by themselves, the kind of choir where getting everyone to sing the melody is accomplishment enough."
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