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hymns

Adult Object Lesson: Advent 4

swing

With A Song in Your Heart — SING!

Luke 1:39-55

Today’s object lesson is a song. Today we ask our adults to remember a time gone by when we didn’t listen to music on itunes, or the radio or on TV every minute of day. Think back to the day when our songs were in our minds and not planted in our subconscious by professionals—back to the day when we owned our own music—one of a kind—probably never repeated—no copyright needed.

That may predate your congregation.

Ask them if they can remember their childhoods or watching their children or grandchildren blissfully swinging and singing a song of their own invention with each pump of their gangly legs.

Today, it is rare that songs spring from our hearts. The Bible has many notable outbursts of song. Miriam sang when the Israelites were delivered from their Egyptian captors. David sang — often.

It was a different age. They sang without a thought of ratings!

In today’s scripture, Mary sings a beautiful heartfelt song. Ask your congregation to close their eyes as you read the words of the Magnificat from the Bible.

Have them open their eyes and sing the Canticle of the Turning together.

Experience the power of song.

Incidentally, recent research indicates that humans are wired to communicate in song. Early evidence indicates that all cultures may respond to music in very similar ways.

(This came up in our Twitter feed — or we wouldn’t know this to share with you!)

Song is powerful.

Today is a day to remember that we all have a song inside of us. We don’t have to wait for a professional to fine tune it and make it marketable to the masses. Just sing it. God is listening.

PS: (If you really need an object, start the talk with an iphone in your hand, adjusting your earphones as you turn to your congregation.)

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19 Dec 2012

Singing Together Is Fun and Creates Community

Today there are just three songs outside of church that people sing together—the National Anthem, Happy Birthday, and whatever the pop star that people paid to hear is belting out at a concert.

Singing is fun. Yet, once we graduate from lower levels of school, many of us never again experience group singing. Recognizing this, some movie theaters sponsor movie singalongs to  favorites like Sound of Music or My Fair Lady.

The power of music is the power to surprise and delight.

We remind you of a favorite video link which illustrates this.

Here’s another from a different part of the world.

Songs create cultural ties. Many of the commenters to the Welsh choir video wrote that they enjoyed the Welsh hymn so much they memorized it. Otherwise, they spoke not a word of Welsh. The second video shows how good music knows no cultural bounds.

Our Ambassadors gathered for Sunday morning brunch recently and someone mentioned a clock, which had been her father’s prize possession. We broke into song, My Grandfather’s Clock, with an African member looking on in amusement. “Tick-tock, tick-tock.” My Grandfather’s Clock was written in 1876, by an American Civil War songwriter Henry Clay Work after a visit to England. 136 years later, we could all sing it together, part of our common culture.

Similarly, the one meeting Redeemer had with Bishop Claire Burkat, we considered such a success that as our members left they broke into song which traveled with them down the elevator from the synod offices and across the parking lot to waiting cars. This time the song was from African culture!

Music was part of the magic of Redeemer’s ministry that was binding our diverse groups. We used  eight or more hymns in our worship. Frequent repetition of select songs allowed for commonality. Soon Africans could sing I Cast All My Cares Upon You and Americans could sing Bwana Awabariki. We often sang popular hymns alternating languages and soon we could sing the chorus to Jesus Loves Me or How Great Thou Art in either language without realizing which language we wee singing!

One Sunday we had a guest preacher. He mentioned in his sermon the hymn Just As I Am. He started to read the words. The congregation began singing the hymn a cappella from memory. The hymn is part of our culture. Oddly the pastor seemed annoyed at the congregation’s initiative.

Church is one of very few places where people gather weekly to enjoy singing. Let’s take advantage of our strong points! Let the music of your church come from the people and shape your ministry.

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31 Aug 2012

Encouraging Hymn Knowledge to Create Community

One of my great grandmothers enjoyed playing piano. She collected sheet music and had her favorites bound into books. I have her volumes dating back into the late 1800s. None of the tunes that she found worth preserving are played on the radio today.

On the other hand, the Church is one place in our society where songs of past centuries are regularly revived. Only the words remain to the music of Bible times. The advent of a universal system of notation in the ninth century gave music—both melody and lyric—longevity. Today’s Christians sing songs that span from the Gregorian chant to the current folk and rock genres.

I attended a concert of a contemporary rock-style band recently where the tune to Of the Father’s Love Begotten from the 13th century was used as a motif.

The treasure and legacy of Christian music is most appreciated during the Christian season when even today’s pop singers make albums of music written hundreds of years ago. People who never attend church sing along with car radio (at least to the first verse).

Church music spans other seasons that are less recognized by secular culture but are a treasure of the church. Much of today’s hymnody comes from the Protestant tradition where pastors often wrote songs as a preaching tool. Martin Luther, Isaac Watts and the Wesleys were preachers and hymn writers whose work is still sung in churches around the world.

The legacy of praising God in song continues with a wealth of new music heard by many for the first time on Christian radio.

Often, hymns are a collaboration between the poet and the tune crafter—not unlike the great teams which brought us operettas and musicals. In fact, Sullivan, of Gilbert and Sullivan, wrote the tune of Onward Christian Soldier.

Knowing something about the hymns we sing adds to their meaning.

In the 1600s, Martin Rinkart was a village pastor in Germany during the years of the Great Plague. He buried as many as 50 of his parishioners a day, 4000 a year, including his wife. One of the most enduring hymns of thanksgiving came from his pen — Now Thank We All Our God.

In the 1700s, John Newton repented his life as a slave trader and wrote a perennial favorite used in both religious and secular settings — Amazing Grace. Another prolific hymn writer, Isaac Watts, broke with the tradition of sticking to the biblical Psalms as text. When I Survey the Wondrous Cross is the best known of his hundreds of hymns—some of them written specifically for children.

Some great hymns have come from the recognized masters such as Handel, Bach, and Beethoven.

Women, following the biblical tradition of Miriam, gained notice as hymn writers in the 1800s and early 1900s. They included the blind Fanny Crosby (Blessed Assurance) and Katherine Lee Bates (America, the Beautiful).

The difficult process of publishing and printing helped preserve hymns. Prior to 1980, it took about 40 years to compile and publish a hymnal within a denomination, which slowed the adoption of current music but added life to the existing hymns. Today’s publishing allows instantaneous publication and it remains to be seen how that will affect the legacy of hymnody.

Despite the wealth of tradition, many congregations stick to the tried and true. One pastor complained that the congregation he served was content to sing the same 12 hymns over and over.

Later posts will address ways to both preserve and build upon hymn legacy and the way hymn knowledge and tradition impacts faith and Christian community.

photo credit: Barkaw via photo pin cc
30 Aug 2012