just substitute "Jesus" for "Bach"

This is Albert Schweitzer on Bach...but just substitute "Jesus" for "Bach,"
and it's a word for us preachers ("performers", "singers").

Chilling.
Pro-phetic and rhematic even.
Holy ouch!

Try it:

"Many performers have been performing Bach for years without experiencing the deepening that Bach is capable of bringing out in any true artist. Most of our singers are too caught up in technique to sing Bach correctly. Only a very small number of them can reproduce the spirit of his music; the rest of them are incapable of penetrating into the Master's spiritual world. They do not feel what Bach is trying to say, and therefore cannot transmit it to anyone else. Worst of all, they consider themselves to be outstanding Bach interpreters, and have no awareness of what it is they lack. Sometimes one has to wonder how many listeners who attend such superficial performances are able to detect even the slightest sign of the depths of Bach's music. Those who understand the situation today will not consider these comments to be exaggeratedly pessimistic. Our enchantment with Bach is undergoing a crisis. The danger is that our love for Bach's music will become superficial and that too much vanity and smugness will be mixed in with it. Our era's lamentable trend toward imitation comes out also in the way we can take Bach over, which is all too visible these days. We act as if we wanted to praise Bach, but actually we only want to praise ourselves. We act as if we had rediscovered him, and performed him as no one has ever done before. A bit less noise, a bit less 'Bach dogmatism,' a bit more ability, a bit more humility, a bit more tranquility, a bit more devotion... Only thus will Bach be honored in spirit and in truth than he has been before." -Albert Schweitzer, quoted in Hofstadter, "I Am a Strange Loop," pp 349-50

Bach: Organ Works / Albert Schweitzer CD