I’ve sung the praises of Felix Mendelssohn before, but let the praises continue! Today, you’ll hear two movements of one of his last compositions, part of a work called Christus, Op. 97. What survives from this oratorio (which is like an opera, but for church) is about sixteen minutes of music, including today’s offertory, a chorus based on the Lutheran Chorale, “How Brightly Shines the Morning Star,” and a trio, our communion piece.

In May of 1847, while Mendelssohn was visiting England, he shared a portion of this work with Queen Victoria, who later wrote, “For some time he has been engaged in composing an oratorio but has lost courage. The subject for the oratorio is “Earth, Hell and Heaven,” and he played one of the choruses out of this to us, which was very fine.”

Later that month, Mendelssohn’s beloved sister Fanny passed away. The two of them were inseparable, as she was his closest confidante. Her death prompted him to stop composing, but he took up painting images of the Swiss Alps. He slowly returned to composition that year, but died in November from a series of strokes. His brother Paul posthumously published these works and titled them Christus. It is believed that the music was intended for the incomplete Erde, Himmel und Hölle, referenced in Queen Victoria’s diary.

If someone wants to study music, I encourage them to do so, only if there seems to be a passion for expressivity within them. Some people just want to be a “musician,” but that’s just a useless label. The only thing possible is to connect to what’s deep within you, that which wants to be expressed through you, in the development of a skill. It could be in cooking, or in mothering, or in helping abandoned animals. That yearning for expression comes from a deep place, but you have to have something to “say.”

Mendelssohn put down the composition quill and picked up the paintbrush, just like that. He was in tune with his own, expressive yearnings. My expressiveness goes beyond music, and I’ve delved into motivational speaking, gardening, and writing. If you look out into the world, you’ll get inspired. You’ll have something to express, even if just gratitude. Mendelssohn was so overcome with the beauty of the Swiss Alps that he couldn’t help himself but to paint. When my 7-year-old eyes beheld the shiny pipes of an organ for the first time, I couldn’t help but to express my awe and curiosity for it. Mendelssohn didn’t withhold his need to express, and he found a new way to do it in painting. I’m sure it was an outlet of grief, after having to bury his sister, but simultaneously as an outlet of expressing his profound wonder of the natural world.

God allows us to express ourselves. Unfortunately, most people express limits or grievances. Few can encapsulate gratitude, potential, or beauty into something they create. It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece. You arethe masterpiece. Express that by developing a skill that interests you and serves others, and you’ll find the fullness of life. Mendelssohn was only 38, but left us with over 750 works of art that are still known and performed globally. That’s the closest you’ll come to immortality on earth. Thank God he got an early start. There’s simply no time like the present. Why not get started today? Soli Deo Gloria!