“Beautiful Savior… glory and honor, praise adoration now and forevermore be thine.”

“Beautiful Savior… glory and honor, praise adoration now and forevermore be thine.”

Hymn: “Fairest Lord Jesus”

Text for This Stanza: Joseph August Seiss (1823-1904)

Tune: CRUSADER’S HYMN (ST. ELIZABETH)

If you need to brighten up your day, read that Hymn Line over to yourself several times. What a powerful moment you should have. Although this word-grouping is basically a restatement of Revelation language, for us whose life is inextricably merged with the Beautiful Savior, it speaks for us at a very deep level. If you’re finished reading it over and over, I’ll move on.

While this is powerful even when read, its strength is multiplied when it is sung together in congregation. This is one of those hymns in which my spirit never fails to soar… especially if there’s been a modulating interlude from the organ. Electrifying moments like these are probably why I am such the lover of hymns… and hymn-singing.

I don’t have to ask you what you think I have missed most during the pandemic. You know. I have missed singing with other believers down the pew from me -- hymnals in hand, voices at full-throttle!

My type has been disparaged during these sequestered weeks of being distanced from corporate worship. I’m being told on-line that it is not about the ritual or building. I value the liturgy (participation of the people) in worship; first because it is a biblical mandate, and second because it is therein that I have most-regularly encountered the Godhead throughout my life – usually in a beautifully-appointed worship room.

Tilted back in my recliner while attending two or three streamed services on Sunday morning has been pleasant. We’ve been able to visit far-away churches and enjoy their music, liturgy and sermons. I’ve been told that my living room is a sacred space during these services – I even wrote a well-used hymn about that. But down deep, I want to return to the totally holy place… the building we call a church. I want to resume the ritual. And I want to sing! O how I want to sing!

We won’t be rushing back to the sanctuary of a local church; fortunately, they aren’t rushing back either. But one of these days not too far in the future, I want light to spill through the windows and spread across my hymnal, giving me my cue to sing. We may be six feet from the nearest worshiper, we may be “masked singers,” and things may not be back to normal, but I really hope normal will include offering glory and honor, praise and adoration to the Beautiful Savior – with music.

I plan to weep.

Congregational Hymn (without organ modulation!): https://youtu.be/OWPTPGDeMZw

“Following him, I know I’m right.”

“Following him, I know I’m right.”

Hymn: “Jesus Is All the World to Me”

Words and Music: Will Thompson (1847-1909)

Tune: ELIZABETH

This is one of the first songs I sang in church. 70+ years ago, mama taught me this song, stood me on the stage, and I sang it unaccompanied – probably so I could find a good key!

This Hymn Line bothers me every time I sing it. Does it bring up some questions in your mind as well? It seems a little self-assured… even arrogant… as if we are saying, “As long as I’m a follower of Jesus, I am always right. So there!” Surely that’s not what Thompson meant – hopefully not what he intended.

If “right” means I am rightly-related to Christ… that I am righteous because of I followed him into the great salvation process — if that’s what is meant, I can sing this line with enthusiasm.

However, being “right” sometimes means that one has the correct opinion/answer… and that others’ differing views and beliefs are therefore wrong. We see a LOT of this in our divided culture and politics; and sometimes those who consider themselves “right” take that position because they are followers of Christ.

We have to re-follow Christ at every juncture. Following Christ into the Kingdom is initial; but upping that followship is required every time we have to make a decision as to what is right or wrong… valid or invalid… for good or for ill… for the best. If and when I have sought the divine leadership and follow it, then I may come away with an assurance that indeed this decision is the right one – for ME!

You have to admit: To believe I’m always right just because I’m a Christ-follower is a little scary; no it’s a LOT scary.

But to “go to him” for direction “o’er and o’er” on this life journey – seeking what is right – THAT seems a valid approach. And when we realize we were wrong, we need to admit that and move back to square one…and re-follow again. [Theologically, that is not redundant!]

Continuously following Christ I can know that I am in a right-relationship with him. Re-following Christ, I can make better decisions, take more legitimate stands for what is right, and more confidently reflect the image of the Friend who is all the world to me – my life, my joy, my all.

Listen to This Hymn: https://youtu.be/jh6TR7Szlgc

“Standeth God within the shadow keeping watch above his own.”

“Standeth God within the shadow keeping watch above his own.”

Hymn: “Once to Every Man and Nation”

Text: James Russell Lowell (1819-1991)

Typical Tune: EBENEZER

This is definitely a “picture this” Hymn Line! Immediately we visualize the God of all Creation standing just off-stage… just over there in the corner… out of sight – keeping an eye on the ways of his world and the actions of his people. Unaware of his presence, the Watchman is ever-present, keeping an eye on us, protecting us, warning us, parenting us.

Like the theater-prompter, God knows the drama of our life inside and out. The plot is known to him… written by him… now directed by him. The dream of every prompter is to never be needed; he/she is delighted to see the curtain come down without ever being called upon to jump in and give a “line”… or a forgotten stage direction.

Once while doing an in-the-round staged production of BRIGHT NEW WINGS, my cowboy sheriff character got so lost in his solo that the prompter was flipping pages trying to find him so she could help him get back. Since we were performing with a recorded trax, her task was futile. Fortunately, the sheriff heard a familiar few measures and jumped back on to finish the show – to the delight of the prompter.

Our Prompter must get frustrated at times when we lose our place as we perform this life. He knows the script and is there in the shadows to get us back on the planned scene’s outcome. But the frustration comes when we keep “acting” on our own, unheeding of his direction.

This hymn text is rarely sung in worship… except maybe the week before a national election; however, the next time this phrase comes past, picture our hovering God standing in the shadows, being himself… providing what we need: direction.

This hymn sung slowly by London Philharmonic Chorus: 

https://youtu.be/CUrfzo6Urng 

"Fightings within and fears without"

Hymn: "Just As I Am"
Text: Charlotte Elliott (1789-1871)
Tune: WOODWORTH*

Hymn Line: "Fightings within and fears without"

Made popular by the Billy Graham crusades, this great introspective hymn has been typically used as a call to response... invitation hymn in most evangelical traditions. It is a shame that it has been relegated to a singular purpose in corporate worship with all six printed stanzas sung and sometimes repeated until some lost soul responds publicly to the call of Christ to redemption. I say that because those stanzas are replete with wonderful "admissions of guilt" which could be sung or said as a part of the time of confession of sin... not just corporately, but in our personal worship time.

Once upon a time, I tried to use it in a Baptist service as a hymn of confession instead of a hymn of invitation. It was a powerful moment for some of us; for others, the reaction was as if I had used "Away in a Manger" on the Fourth of July!

"Just as I am, tho' tossed about with many a conflict, many a doubt." We are conflicted people. Admit it. The best of us deal with faith-doubt issues. The fact that this hymn is in the first person strengthens its power. "Just as we are..." would water down the impact of the text. In truth, many of us probably sing it as if it were "Just as THEY are..."!

This Hymn Line -- "Fightings within and fears without" -- extends the admission of conflict and doubt in my spiritual life; I am often at war with myself. The forces of evil and temptation attack me from the outside, and fear paralyzes me on the inside.

I am pretty big on the proper use of words in conversation and in print. So often, the words "anxious" and "eager" are wrongfully interchanged. "Eager" indicates that we look forward to something with a positive, hopeful attitude; "anxious" is from the same root as "anxiety," so it is more akin to "dread" of impending danger.

When people say they are anxious about their upcoming wedding, I wonder if they really are dreading their life together. Maybe there is trepidation about the actual wedding DAY with all it involves, but surely they are eager to be joined as one. Perhaps sometimes we are "eagerly anxious"!

Numbing fears make me anxious... more aware of the dangers than the possible rewards... of  impending failure instead of hopeful success.

People of conflict, hear this: The next stanza in this hymn says the Lamb of God will "receive, welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve." I believe Charlotte Elliott has her theology in good order and states well the assurance of pardon for those of us who are conflicted, confused, doubtful, adrift, fighting on the outside and on the inside.

"O Lamb of God, THIS is how I come. Receive me, welcome me, pardon me, cleanse me, give me relief. Amen."


* - I love Phillip Landgrave's TABERNACLE tune, but that one omits this stanza!

Mahalia Jackson sings this hymn: https://youtu.be/tw-g4-DTKfU

Threat to Congregational Singing

I know I have been over-concerned (my nature) with what we're being told about singing together in public. Having spent my entire career encouraging people to sing together in choirs and especially in congregations, the thought that we are being discouraged from singing in worship for several months (up to 2 years) when we go back "to church" has weighed heavily upon me.

One of the things I've wanted to do in my retirement is create more hymn texts and anthem texts... and do whatever I can to keep hymn-singing a living organism, central to the liturgy (what the PEOPLE do in worship). Suddenly, I realize that anything I produce will likely lie dormant in a file drawer or a computer file. I fear for the life of publishing companies who up until March 2020 were committed to providing choral and congregational music.

This "warning" about communal singing has been applied to schools and community choruses as well. In other words, we may not hear choirs singing in person for quite a long time.

This quote from the pastor of the local United Methodist Church from his sermon yesterday made me realize that Kevin Tullywas "preaching to me" -- wording something I needed to hear: There is a threat that I am about to lose something that I/we have taken for granted all our lives -- singing together! Who would have ever imagined that the church would meet without sung music... especially from the pews (or padded chairs) ... or that we might not go down the street to hear school choir concert?

I always said I did my ministry for God first, seeking his pleasure not necessarily that of the people -- not always a popular stance, by the way! But I guess I will keep writing texts (and occasional tunes) just in case we are once again encouraged to usher back into our sanctuaries the participation of our people... lots of people, not just miked ensembles... in the singing of songs, hymns and spiritual songs -- from our throats and not just our hearts.