Welkin?

I've lately run into several mentions of the Charles Wesley poem that eventually became "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing."  A radio discussion I was hearing suggetsed that the original opening line, "Hark, how all the welkin rings", was changed over the author's objections that the scripture does not indicate the angels sang. As I've read more, I've learned of other objections Wesley may have had.  There are many places to check out the history of this song, but once again Christianity Today provided a concise and reasonably well-written summary, so I suggest any interested persons use that article as a starting place.

I honestly think that this is one of the first songs that made me realize the doctrinal depth that can be contained in hymn lyrics. I think that what may have happened is that I was reading I Corinthians sometime around Christmas, and thus the words "Second Adam from above, reinstate us in Thy love," grabbed my attention and caused me to focus on the rest of the lyrics.

The hymnal I grew up with had, like any hymnal, its shortcomings and idiosyncrasies (like listing Franz Josesph Haydn as Francis J. Haydn because we were apparently still uncomfortable with German names in 1957, I guess).  But I must give credit where due.  When it came to choosing which of Wesley's lyrics to include in the hymnal, the editor picked some great ones, and some that I don't know that I've really seen in hymnals of other churches I've attended since.
Here's the set I grew up with:

Hark! The herald angels sing,


“Glory to the newborn King;

Peace on earth, and mercy mild,

God and sinners reconciled!”


Joyful, all ye nations rise,


Join the triumph of the skies;

With th’angelic hosts proclaim,


“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”

Christ, by highest Heav’n adored;


Christ the everlasting Lord;


Late in time, behold Him come,


Offspring of a virgin’s womb.


Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;


Hail th’incarnate Deity,


Pleased as man with men to dwell,


Jesus our Emmanuel.

Hail the heav’n born Prince of Peace!


Hail the Sun of Righteousness!


Light and life to all He brings,


Ris’n with healing in His wings.


Mild He lays His glory by,


Born that man no more may die.


Born to raise the sons of earth,


Born to give them second birth.

Come, Desire of nations, come,


Fix in us Thy humble home;

Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed,


Bruise in us the serpent’s head.


Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,


Stamp Thine image in its place:


Second Adam from above,


Reinstate us in Thy love.


I see so many points of doctrine raised in these lines.  What a statement of the Lord's incarnation, its reasons, its results! The lyrics to this hymn are very easily rearranged and other configurations work well, but early exposure affects us, and I'm most satisfied when all these lyrics are included. I invite you to read through and discover for yourself, if you haven't previously, all Wesley's scriptural allusions laces throughout the hymn. Then raise your voice and join the triumph of the skies!

Words? What Words?

I'm going to use Christmas as an excuse to stray from the focus of this blog. Philosophically, I believe in a high standard for lyrics, as they obviously carry the content of the message of praise and worship.  But the music counts too.  Meaningful lyrics set to a boring tune lose their punch through inattention.  A beautiful melody can make less expertly written poetry feel profound. And sometimes, especially at Christmas, we may be a little more lenient on the lyrics because they at least have something to do with Jesus and are set to a lovely, or even catchy, tune. Do you know what I....mean?

Since the music counts too, I'd like to spend some time with "Gesu Bambino" by Pietro Yon.  I think this is one of the most beautiful Christmas songs to listen to, and it is certainly a joy to sing. Here it is performed in a duet version by Frederica von Stade and Kathleen Battle (in all her 90's divaness). This rendition stays in Italian, and I chose it for that reason.  You can just listen to the beautiful music and incredible performance without being concerned about the orthodoxy of the lyrics.



Ahhh.  

But now, what did they say?  I wish I could tell you, but I can only provide the English lyrics by Frederick Martens, and from what little Italian I can pick out, he definitely felt free to take poetic license.  For instance, in Italian, the second half of each stanza (at least the way I've typed it below) is identical, and is a hosanna.  Quite a few other differences are obvious, even if I don't know how to translate them.

At any rate, the song definitely contains some mixture of tradition that is fairly customary to Christmas songs (winter weather, angels singing as opposed to saying) though not strictly true to the Biblical nativity account. It also contains moving worship lyrics that soar along with the melodic line. If you have a minute, listen to Kathleen and Flicka again as you look at the words (or sing along; I won't tell!).

When blossoms flowered 'mid the snows upon a winter night

Was born the Child the Christmas Rose, The King of Love and Light

The angels sang, the shepherds sang, the grateful earth rejoiced

And at His blessed birth the stars their exultation voiced.

O Come let us adore Him,

O come let us adore Him

O come let us adore Him,

Christ the Lord.

Again the heart with rapture glows to greet the holy night

That gave the world its Christmas Rose, its king of Love and Light

Let ev'ry voice acclaim His name, The grateful chorus swell

From paradise to earth He came that we with Him might dwell

O come let us adore him

O come let us adore Him

O come let us adore Him,

Christ the Lord.

Ah! O come let us adore Him

Ah! Adore Him, Christ, the Lord.

O come, O come

O come let us adore Him

Let us adore Him

Christ, the Lord.

I suppose what moves me about this song is the working together of lyrics and music (and not just the melody; the accompaniment is actually very stirring) to create a feeling and an image of a joyful, worshipping universe.  The angels, the shepherds, the grateful earth, the stars, and all of us who will -- we are the grateful chorus that praises His incarnation, the sacrifice He made, and the great love for us that moved Him to it.  In Him we move and live and have our being. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! 

Merciful and Mighty

If any hymn could be said to contain the essence of Advent, surely it is Mary's song in Luke 1, which has come to be called the Magnificat.

46 And Mary said:
   “My soul glorifies the Lord
 ⁴⁷ and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 
⁴⁸ for he has been mindful
   of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
 ⁴⁹ for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
   holy is his name. 
⁵⁰ His mercy extends to those who fear him,
   from generation to generation. 
⁵¹ He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
   he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 
⁵² He has brought down rulers from their thrones
   but has lifted up the humble. 
⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things
   but has sent the rich away empty. 
⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel,
   remembering to be merciful 
⁵⁵ to Abraham and his descendants forever, 
   just as he promised our ancestors.”

I hope you enjoy a portion of this Biblical hymn as written by Randy Gill and sung by the Zoe singers.





And excuse the punctuation. I just lifted it from youtube. If I could fix it, I would.

The Babe, the Son of Mary

There are so many songs heard through the holidays that are very moving to us.  Some move us simply because of their association with the holiday, some move us because of our individual memories associated with them, some touch our hearts because they bring up the images and feelings associated with home and family.

Christmas hymns focused on the baby in the manger move us as we think of that young couple in a cave or sheep fold trying to make sense of why shepherds were coming to see this newborn, probably still trying to wrap their brains around what angels had told them.  And we are touched because we have held our own tiny little babies and are confounded to think of God himself taking on that soft, vulnerable, helpless form.

But for me, the most gripping of Christmas hymns are the one ones, and there aren't perhaps as many as there should be, that include both the sweet babe in the manger and the beaten, suffering man that he would grow into.  I find this verse of "What Child Is This" to be full of passion and power:

Why lies He in such mean estate
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christian fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear shall pierce him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The babe, the son of Mary.

Thank you Jesus, for coming for me, for dying for me, for pleading for me.

Life and light

Since I sometimes do get stuck on what to sing for family Advent time, I decided I need to expand my parameters a bit.  In that spirit, tonight we sang "No Sweeter Name".  It includes much of what I want to emphasize in our Advent celebration, all of us know it, and all of us like it, which make it a clear winner.

No sweeter name than the name of Jesus,
No sweeter name have I ever known,
No sweeter name than the name of Jesus!
You are the life to my heart and my soul,
You are the light to the darkness around me,
You are the hope to the hopeless and broken,
You are the only truth and the way.
 -- Kari Jobe

In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  -- John 1:4-5

Walk in the light!

The First Commandment

I mentioned in an earlier post that we have established a family tradition of singing "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" for the first week of Advent.  Because I know so few actual Advent hymns, our traditional hymn for the second week is "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus." 

Lines from this song reminded me that sometimes the simplest message is the most necessary message.  What is the first commandment? "You shall have no other gods before Me."

By Thine own eternal spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone.

It can be easy to gloss over the first and second commandments pretty quickly. I'm confident most of us have always been monotheistic.  We likely haven't bowed the knee to Ba'al or worshipped the moon. But I postulate with great confidence that all of are idolaters. 

As far as I can tell, pretty nearly every sin always comes back to the root sin of pride. And I am so frequently reminded of how prideful I am. In my case, the pride very often hides itself in the form of quite about of angst about not being good enough.  But I have come to understand that feelings of inferiority are essentially prideful, and if at any point I seem in danger of forgetting it, the Lord generally sends someone or some message along to remind me.

And so throughout Advent, the simplicity of those lines calls me back to first things first. No other gods. I may get to be a joint heir with Jesus Christ, but I don't get to be a co-regent. Again I must depose myself and seek true humility rather than pride-based inferiority, and simply worship. 

Born to reign in us forever,
Now thy gracious kingdom bring.

Thy kingdom come, O Lord!

Veiled in Flesh, the Godhead See

And when we see Your matchless face

In speechless awe we'll stand

And there we'll bow with grateful hearts

Unto the Great I Am.   

It probably wasn't snowing, right?

As I perused my facebook feed this morning, I found a discussion from Bible Gateway linked to a discussion at Christianity Today that was essentially about doctrinal purity of Christmas hymns, especially in terms of their use in corporate worship.  Is it perverse of me to be oddly pleased that there are other people who get all het up about these things?  (Yes, I said "het up" in public. I am my father's daughter. I can get more rural than that anytime you like.)

I think strict adherence to scripture is by far and away the best principle for any song, Christmas or otherwise. However, I don't think songs with "minor infractions" should necessarily be thrown out. A passing reference to winter or snow does not trouble me. While "no crying he makes" has irritated me for quite some time, I still sing the song with my children with no compunction.

However, I think "We Three Kings" belongs in a hymnal (and it was in the hymnal I grew up with!) only narrowly more than "The Little Drummer Boy."  Actually, to be fair, "We Three Kings" does make some interesting points about the gifts and really does have some good lines of worship in it. I suppose it irks me because I do think it perpetuates misconceptions.  But do I teach it to my children?  Yeah. Yeah, we sing it.

I think in terms of family worship, it all comes back to teaching. If you teach your children the truth, and then occasionally point out how elements from a song do not actually fit that scenario, my experience suggests that they will very quickly point out every single element of any song they hear that does not mesh with scripture. Every single time.  And if you do not teach your children to think about what they hear and sing, then you've got a lot more problems coming your way than can be attributed to celebrating the birth of Christ in December.

So while I do want what we sing in corporate worship to follow a high standard, I do think there is liberty to enjoy the other songs that are deeply ingrained in the culture.  In the end, be focused on Christ, the Incarnate Deity. Celebrate Emmanuel!

How We Need to Hear From God

I participate in a church praise team, and when I am scheduled to sing, I generally spend quite a bit of time with the music for that Sunday (though apparently not always to great avail). This frequently has the effect of sets of lyrics going through my head for what feels like days at a time.  This time around, the songs with whose words I seem to be spending the most time are "The Glorious Impossible," which I referred to in yesterday's post, and "Welcome to Our World".

Chris Rice has done some moving, thought-provoking songwriting, and "Welcome to Our World" certainly qualifies. Should anyone happen to drop by this blog and be unacquainted with this song, here for your perusal are the lyrics:

Tears are falling, hearts are breaking


How we need to hear from God


You've been promised, we've been waiting

Welcome Holy Child,


Welcome Holy Child.

Hope that you don't mind our manger


How I wish we would have known

Long-awaited Holy Stranger
,

Make Yourself at home
,

Please make Yourself at home
.

Bring Your peace into our violence


Bid our hungry souls be filled


Word now breaking Heaven's silence

Welcome to our world,


Welcome to our world.

Fragile finger sent to heal us


Tender brow prepared for thorn


Tiny heart whose blood will save us


Unto us is born,

Unto us is born
.

So wrap our injured flesh around You


Breathe our air and walk our sod


Rob our sin and make us holy

Perfect Son of God,

Perfect Son of God,

Welcome to our world.

I suppose that to me, despite the nativity elements, the plaintiveness of this song fits in more with the quietness and expectation of Advent than with the joy of Christmas. I think perhaps Advent is about neediness.  What could heighten our anticipation of His coming more than an increased awareness of how much we need Him?

How we need to hear from God!  How I've needed to hear from God, and yet how surprised I am as I begin to see what must surely be an answer to the prayers that have been prayed. And how much more I need to hear from Him as I follow the call to raise children in the admonition of the Lord. 

Word now breaking Heaven's silence!  Thank you, Lord, that you did not leave us without the Comforter.  Thank you that as we wait for your second coming, we do not have to wait in silence.

There is so much to think about in this song, but I suppose the most thought-provoking line for me is "Rob our sin." Each time I come to it when singing, I do a bit of a mental double take.  This is a time when I wish there was someone reading what I write here.  I think I understand this line, but I have never thought of it that way before.  I wish I had readers to discuss with me how they understand this line, and perhaps give me some scripture, as none appropriate to this line has come to mind so far. But indeed, make us holy, perfect Son of God!

Lift Your Souls and Receive…

Clearly, good lyrics stand on their own without any comment from me. I'm glad of this, for I have nothing to add the words I've been listening to tonight.  These lines from "The Glorious Impossible" by Joe Beck, Carl Cartee, and Wendy Willis have captured my attention this week:

Love has come to walk on water, turn the water into wine,
Touch the leper, bless the children, love both human and divine.
Praise the wisdom of the Father who has spoken through His Son
Speaking still He calls us to the glorious impossible!

Praise the wisdom of the Father -- Emmanuel. God is with us. Amen.

Advent? Christmas?

Sometime in the last few years, I was doing some reading and the author said something like, "it would be like singing Christmas hymns during Advent."  The phrase certainly grabbed my attention. I really had no idea what that was supposed to mean. I was surprised to learn, as a grown woman, that churches that observe a liturgical year traditionally sang Advent hymns through the four preparatory Sundays, and Christmas songs and hymns were reserved for the actual 12 days of Christmas from Christmas Day through Epiphany. (And as I read more about it, I learned that the demolition of this tradition has been just about as heated as the worship-style battles in our evangelical churches.)

I began to do a little research into what hymns were considered appropriate for Advent, and found that I knew very, very few of them.  I suppose that should be no surprise.  After all, a structured season leading up to the commemoration of the nativity is pretty much entirely extra-biblical, and we were supposed to be people of the book.

But I really do want to help create a sense of anticipation and longing for Christ's advent, because just as Israel waited for Messiah, so are we waiting for his return.  As I looked over hymns that I found listed as suitable for Advent, I didn't really find very many that I wanted to make a point of teaching my children, as I doubt they'd ever be singing them in corporate worship.  

But I did find some with writing that I liked even if I didn't care to learn the song, and one of those is "O Son of God, We Wait for Thee".  It grabbed my attention first because it used the word "supernal", meaning that contrary to popular opinion "Heaven Came Down and Glory Filled My Soul" is not the only place that word has ever been used.  

My silliness aside, it also had some lines that fit in with that sense of longing anticipation for his coming advent that I want us to feel:

But while our spirits feel Thee near,
Our eyes would see Thy beauty. 

I think that sums up our situation so well.  Christ in us, Christ never leaving us nor forsaking us, and yet we still see through that glass darkly and are waiting to see face-to-face. As the Bride, let us listen to the Spirit and join as he says, "Come."

Waiting in Darkness

Today is the first Sunday of Advent.  In our family Advent celebration, I have tried to focus the first week on the waiting aspect of Advent.  We emphasize that Israel had been waiting essentially for all time for the Messiah, but that for the last 500 or so years before Jesus's incarnation, they had been waiting in silence.  God had not spoken through a prophet for centuries. They were waiting in darkness.


A friend of mine posted a quote today that sums up the feeling we're trying to convey to our children about what that waiting was like:

‎A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes... and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

As we sit in a darkened room, the oldest child lights the first candle, and when the flame is lit, my husband or I read, "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light." Then we sing what I consider the prototypical Advent hymn: "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel."


One of its verses particularly captures what I want my children to take away about the dark times of waiting for a word from the Lord. I want us to have a sense of the Lord's absence so that we may even more rejoice in his presence.

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer


Our spirits by Thine advent here;


Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,


And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Blessings

A couple of weeks ago in this space, I jotted down some musings on what makes a hymn dated, or what characteristics keep it from becoming timeless. This is a pretty subjective subject, of course.  One good ol' gospel song that I think does not necessarily modernize well is one that was undoubtedly near and dear to my grandparents' generation: In the Sweet By and By.  You, of course, may love that one, but to me it's fairly dated.

Why?  I think first that the metaphor linking dying with crossing the river has pretty much run its course.  There's nothing wrong with it, of course, but contemporary worship writers just don't tend to spend as much ink on death as writers of previous generations did.

I think another reason In the Sweet By and By has fallen out of favor has to do with its melody.  The melody line of the chorus has an unfortunate tendency to encourage a bit of sliding and sometimes it even gets a bit screechy. And though it doesn't have to be this way, I think that unless handled skillfully, it gets a bit dirge-like.

But this Thanksgiving, as I was counting my blessings and chopping my onions for the dressing, a verse from this song is what kept coming to mind.  So I'd like to close out my week of Thanksgiving-focused posts by highlighting that verse:

To our bountiful Father above,


We will offer our tribute of praise

For the glorious gift of His love


And the blessings that hallow our days.

That final line has really touched me the last few days.  "The blessings that hallow our days." May we remember that our days are made holy by His gift of righteousness that came through the one man, Jesus Christ.  Lord, we thank you for the gift of your love, and are grateful that you hear us. Blessed be your glorious name.

Harvest Matters

Being a typical suburban housewife (to the extent that there actually is such a thing), I am dismayed from time to time at the extent to which my children are removed from awareness of the food supply. The same is true for me, of course, but at least I had occasion to ride on the combine with my grandfather and spend days of summer prepping corn and beans for canning and other tasks that brought me at least a little closer to the process. 

I think that there are indeed a few things we lose in being so far removed from our food sources.  I think we probably lose a shade of thankfulness.  When the harvest is providing not only our own sustenance, but also all our other income, I expect we are more grateful than when the food is coming from the grocery store, and said store has always had plenty of it there to sell. Greater awareness brings greater gratitude.

Second, I wonder whether being closer to the process creates a greater sense of the dependence we have on God for all good things.  Drought or pests might drive prices up for my family, but they are unlikely to leave us looking for food.  We still recognize our dependence on the Lord for income and even recognize our lack of control over growing conditions, but we certainly do not recognize it to the extent a farmer would.

Third, I think we have to try harder to relate to some of Jesus's words in the gospel.  Many of his parables that made absolute sense to his agrarian audiences send us to commentaries for interpretation. We have to search to get the impact of words that might strike a different audience with full force.

These are the things I have been musing upon as I've been thinking about a true harvest hymn, "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come."  Note how many references in this song are both agricultural and biblical.

Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home;


All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin.


God our Maker doth provide for our wants to be supplied;


Come to God’s own temple, come, raise the song of harvest home.

All the world is God’s own field, fruit unto His praise to yield;

Wheat and tares together sown unto joy or sorrow grown.


First the blade and then the ear, then the full corn shall appear;


Lord of harvest, grant that we wholesome grain and pure may be.

For the Lord our God shall come, and shall take His harvest home;

From His field shall in that day all offenses purge away,


Giving angels charge at last in the fire the tares to cast;


But the fruitful ears to store in His garner evermore.

Even so, Lord, quickly come, bring Thy final harvest home;


Gather Thou Thy people in, free from sorrow, free from sin,


There, forever purified, in Thy garner to abide;


Come, with all Thine angels come, raise the glorious harvest home.

To me, there is just something very heartfelt and simple about this song. My perception may also be colored by a reference to this song in a favorite book.

In The Magician's Nephew (and I assume that if anyone actually reads this entry, you have probably read the Narnia books or you probably wouldn't have stuck around to read a blog about hymns), Digory and Polly have jumped from London to the Wood Between the Worlds, bringing Jadis, Uncle Andrew, a London cabby, and his horse with them.  They move from the Wood into a land that is dark and empty.  As they try to figure out what has happened, the cabby acts as a calming influence.

And if we're dead -- which I don't deny it might be -- well, you got to remember that worse things 'appen at sea and a chap's got to die sometime. And there ain't nothing to be afraid of if a chap's led a decent life. And if you ask me, I think the best thing we could do to pass the time would be sing a 'ymn.

And he did. He struck up at once a harvest thanksgiving hymn, all about crops being "safely gathered in."

I didn't particularly notice this passage as a child, I don't suppose.  But it turns out that by the time I read The Magician's Nephew to my children, I had already taught them "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come," and of course it was fun to watch them notice the allusion. But more than that, it made me think about the worship responses.  I think the first response when we encounter God is likely to be awe.  He is, of course, awesome in the truest sense of the word, and if we have come into His presence, we will be awestruck.  But I think the cabby's response to sensing an impending encounter with the Holy was thankfulness, as is ours.  We are thankful that He is mindful of us, that He desires a relationship with us, and that He has acted to make that relationship possible. Lord, accept the worship of Your thankful people!

Happy Thanksgiving!

To me, the prototypical Thanksgiving hymn is "We Gather Together."  Like "Now Thank We All Our God," its origin is not in harvest and plenty but instead in time of war. It was written to celebrate a victory in 1597 of Dutch Protestants against the forces of Philip II (he of the Spanish Armada).


It was a good 10 years after this victory that the Englishmen we now know as the Plymouth colonists spent a season in Amsterdam avoiding persecution for their non-conformity to the Church of England. So it doesn't seem like too much of a stretch to suppose that they may have heard this song during their Dutch sojourn and perhaps even brought it with them as they returned to England and later sailed out to help colonize a new world. My understanding of Separatist and Puritan worship practices is that the only music acceptable in corporate worship was the singing of metrical psalms, so I suppose it wouldn't have been sung in assembly. However, one can imagine that perhaps this song might have been one that was on their lips as they went about the daily work.


It turns out that the first line of this song is more significant than we realize if we do not know its origin.  In areas of Reformation Europe still torn apart by religious wars, neither freedom of worship nor freedom of assembly were at all considered inalienable rights.  The Protestants in the low countries were indeed forbidden to gather together, so that line is truly a proclamation of great victory. Similarly, the final line recognizes that they are still in need of divine help to secure true religious liberty.

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;

He chastens and hastens His will to make known.


The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.


Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,


Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine;


So from the beginning the fight we were winning;


Thou, Lord, were at our side, all glory be Thine!

We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant,


And pray that Thou still our Defender will be.


Let Thy congregation escape tribulation;


Thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

I think from our 21st century American perspective, it is rather difficult to wrap our brains around the hardships and actual persecution that led the Separatists first to the Netherlands and eventually to the colony.  We forget that the first amendment, forbidding a state church and allowing complete freedom of religion, was a truly radical policy.  And we, or I, can just as easily fail to be mindful of believers in other places that still can not gather together legally, and that still face persecution. Lord, you have been at our side. All glory be Thine.  Lord, wherever they are, let Thy congregation be relieved from their tribulation. O Lord, make them free!


Some source material from:
Wikipedia
History News Network

Now Thank We All Our God!

Here in the US, our Thanksgiving still carries images of a harvest festival, regardless of how many generations removed we are from the farm and the growing cycle. So when we hear traditional Thanksgiving songs, images of a bountiful harvest and meal and of the Plymouth colonists gathering with the Wampanoag to mark the successful establishment of a colony and peaceful coexistence with the indigenous people are the images that prevail in our imaginations. 


But there are many reasons to give thanks, and thanks must still be given even during hardship. Some of our oldest thanksgiving songs have more to do with hostilities and hardships than with harvest.  One example is "Now Thank We All Our God", by 17th century Dutch Lutheran minister Martin Rinkart.


According to Cyberhymnal, Mr. Rinkart and his parishioners experienced dark, desolate days of siege and plague and defeat. He ministered to parishioners faithfully through a horrific time, and when at last they were relieved from the dire situation, he wrote this hymn in celebration:

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!

All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;
The one eternal God, whom earth and Heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

Thanksgiving Time!

I would indeed like to reflect on some traditional Thanksgiving songs this week, but we'll get to that tomorrow.  During two different worship services yesterday, a couple of lines jumped out at me that I wanted to remember. As I was unable to post yesterday due to a DSL outage and to my own unwillingness to blog on an Iphone-sized keyboard, those are the words I'd like you to hear today.


My church participates in a yearly community Thanksgiving service with about 5 other churches of varying denominations. The location rotates each year, and the host church is responsible for planning to music portion of the service. One song selected last night at this year's service was "He Reigns," popularized by The Newsboys and written by their former lead singer Peter Furler along with Steve Taylor.


This has been a pretty popular song, and certainly I was familiar with it, but apparently sometime after the first verse, I stopped listening to the words, because as we got further into the song, I found I didn't know it. That verse had a few lines that really jumped out at me.


Of all the songs sung from the dawn of creation
Some were meant to persist
Of all the bells rung from a thousand steeples
None rings truer than this…
Glory, glory! Hallelujah, He reigns!


Now that is something to be thankful for!  He reigns!  There is a kingdom of God, and He reigns!  The powers of darkness do not reign.  I do not reign, the president does not reign, OPEC does not reign, political parties do not reign, the UN does not reign, members of organizations that people make up conspiracy theories about do not reign, the TSA does not reign. The Lord God Almighty reigns.  Blessed be His name.


The other song I know quite well: Chris Tomlin's Sing, Sing, Sing. And though I've given this bit of lyric thought before, I expect it jumped out at me because I knew I was planning on writing about themes of thanksgiving in this space.


We will sing, sing, sing
Grateful that He hears us


Indeed!  The same Lord who reigns and who created all, who brought Israel through the Exodus, who defeated mighty kings, who gives food to all creatures, who took on the nature of a servant, who was born, beaten, killed, buried and raised, to whom all knees will bow and whose lordship all tongues will confess hears me.  I try to give thanks, and He hears me. I make feeble attempts to sing praise, and he Hears me.  I have the presumption to try and engage others as we speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and call it "leading worship", and He hears us all together.  Yes, we will sing and be profoundly grateful that He hears us. He has done great things, and He has shown us tender mercy.  He reigns, and I am grateful that He hears me.

Summer

and winter

and springtime

and harvest

Sun, moon and stars in their courses above

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love! 

(Note: I'm not sure which of these pictures were taken by my son and which by me.  I know the fall color is his, and expect the mimosa blossom is as well.  Thanks for the use of your images!)

What a Contrast!

Set our feet on lofty places,


Gird our lives that they may be

Armored with all Christ-like graces,


In the fight to set men free.

Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,


That we fail not man nor Thee,


That we fail not man nor Thee.

Save us from weak resignation,


To the evils we deplore.


Let the search for Thy salvation

Be our glory evermore.


Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,


Serving Thee Whom we adore,


Serving Thee Whom we adore.

I find these final 2 stanzas to both be very evocative, but evocative of such very different emotions.  Verse 4 just seems so stirring and energizing and, well, lofty.  You can practically hear the organs and trumpets sounding as we get prepared to get out there and set men free. We think of Mount Sinai, of Elijah battling on Mount Carmel, of the transfiguration, of the ascension.  We feel ennobled thinking of being imbued with Christ-like graces.  We feel like we've been to church!

And then comes verse 5. If verse 3 ("rich in things and poor in soul") described the Laodicean condition that our affluent suburban churches find ourselves in danger of, verse 5 describes, well, me.  Oh, how many times I have weakly resigned.  I am lacking in the spirit of Winston Churchill. As has been well-established, I am not good enough.  But I can know His salvation, and I can share in His glory.  And from the depths of that weak resignation, I am raised to serve Him Whom we adore.  Amen!