Article March 14, 2011 Issue

The following was written in support of Church Alive, a focus of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, that explores the meaning and possibilities of awakening to the spiritual basis and impact of Church.

Music — anointed with Love

By Becky Buhl

Don’t we love it? What would our world be without the toe-tapping, heart-singing glory of music in all its vast genres? Jazz, classical, folk, rock, pop, ethnic, gospel, contemporary Christian, hip-hop, R&B, reggae, just to name a few!

There are 54 references to the word music in Mary Baker Eddy’s published writings. Have you caught this potent three-word statement in a talk she gave at the turn of the 20th century: “Music is divine” (Message to The Mother Church for 1900, p. 11)? Earlier, a compelling challenge is tucked into this same talk, “I want not only quality, quantity, and variation in tone, but the unction of Love.”

Wow! Call it goofy, but I get goose-bumpy all over reading that statement. It’s her use of the word unction that really tugs at my heart. One dictionary defines it as: the act of anointing; richness of gracious affections; divine or sanctifying grace.