Through Stained Glass: A Mid-Week Reflection-Sacred Singing (Tuesday 10)

Sacred Singing

Here is a bit of truth I’m sure you all probably didn’t know about your pastor.

Before I confide and confess to you this truth about myself, I encourage you to sit down.

Are you sitting?

Take a deep breath.

Ready?

Here is my confession: 

I

Can’t

Sing!

Phew. I feel better now that I’ve shared this with you.

Despite the fact that I can’t sing well, I love to sing. It is one of my favorite things to do when I’m cleaning the house, taking a long drive, or when I’m out on a run. Singing is important to me. The best way to explain why I love singing so much is share a quote from poet Maya Angelou who said this about ‘singing’: 

“A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”

We all have a song to sing. Just like we all have a story to tell. What matters is not how well we sing, but that we make the space to sing and allow others to join their voices with ours.

It is this very reason why I love church, especially our church. We sing and we sing beautifully. Now it helps we have a fantastic music director and a pair of organist who can really tickle those ivories. But what makes worship so enchanting and reverent is the song of the congregation.

Do you know why we sing in church? Song is a response, which engages the whole self in prayer. Song unites the faithful in common prayer wherever we gather for worship whether in church, home, or other special place. Throughout scripture we can find the people of singing as a way to worship and thank God for God’s presence in their lives.

So we sing.

And we use music. Music may serve as presentation and interpretation of Scripture, as response to the gospel, and as prayer, through psalms and canticles, hymns and anthems, spirituals and spiritual songs.

Essentially, music imparts spiritual truth to one's mind, heart, and soul.  It displays a dimension of meaning and feeling that mere words cannot. Or as Martin Luther once said, “Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world.”

With that said, this week’s mid-week is a top ten:  Adam’s Top Ten Hymns!

(In no particular order….)

1.    O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (#88)—This is my favorite hymn of all time. If I could, I would sing this song every Sunday during Advent. “O come, thou Wisdom from on high, who orderest all things mightily:  to us the path of knowledge show; and teach us in her ways to go.”

2.    My Song is Love Unknown (#209)—“My song is love unknown, my Savior’s love to me, love to the loveless shown that they might lovely be. O who am I that for my sake my Lord should take frail flesh, and die?” This opening line is a path into a vivid and poignant reflection on Christ’s passion.

3.    What Wondrous Love is This (#215)—The melody is haunting. While I may not like all the theology in this hymn, the last line offer great hope and encouragement in the life of our faith:  “And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on….”

4.    Let us Build a House:  All Are Welcome (#301)—At the heart of Christ’s ministry was his radical hospitality. He welcomed everybody. This is my greatest hope for the church:  that all will know they are welcome at Christ’s table in our church. “Let us build a house where all are named, their songs and visions heard and loved and treasured…”

5.    We Shall Overcome (#379)—Though now associated primarily with the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20^th century, this spiritual most likely dates from the days of the slave trade. We need to sing this because it reminds us of what we are to do:  march for justice. It is not a marching song. It is not necessarily defiant. It is a promise: "We shall overcome someday. Deep in my heart, I do believe."

6.    Here In This Place:  Gather Us In (#401)—This song is a great source of comfort. No matter where we have been, God gathers us in. God gathers us in through the bread and cup, giving us compassion to drink and Godself to eat.

7.    God Be With you Till We Meet Again (#541/542)—Growing up, this song was the last hymn we sung every Sunday. To this day whenever I hear it, I’m taken back to the third pew on the right, sitting next to my brothers at Bethel Presbyterian Church.

8.    O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing (#610)—I love John and Charles Wesley. Charles wrote it about his conversion and now it is customarily the first hymn in Methodist hymnals worldwide. “To God all glory, praise, and love be now and ever given by saints below and saints above, the church in earth and heaven.” When we gather for worship, we gather with that great cloud of witnesses, in the company and communion of saints!

9.    I Greet Thee, Who My Sure Redeemer Art (#624)—It is the only hymn attributed to Presbyterian John Calvin. “Our hope is in no other save in thee; our faith is built upon thy promise free…”

10.                  Will You Come and Follow Me (#726)—Our faith is a journey. It is a process that is to be walked with others. Daily God calls us to be the light and love of Christ. “Will you love the ‘you’ you hid if I but call your name? Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same? Will you use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around, through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?” Christ dwells in us. We must seek the risen Christ in all we meet!

Close calls:

11.                  Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine (#839)

12.                  A Mighty Fortress is Our God (#275)

13.                  I Love to Tell the Story (#462)

There you have it. My top 10 hymns/songs in our Presbyterian Hymnal:  Glory to God!

What would be your top ten? What have I left off!?

Have a wonderful week.

And see you at Kickapoo Park on Sunday for Worship in the Park!

Through Stained Glass: A Mid-Week Reflection-Sunday

Sunday

As we prepare to celebrate Reformation Sunday at First Presbyterian Church this coming Sunday, I wanted to share a list of my top 10 reasons why I love being Presbyterian. But before that, here is a one sentence description of what Reformation Sunday is all about:  The tradition of Reformation Sunday offers an opportunity to celebrate our heritage and history, to affirm our central theological convictions and to consider God’s ongoing reformation of the church.

        

The Presbyterian Church (USA) has a rich tradition and much to celebrate. So without any further ado, here are my 10 reasons why I love being Presbyterian:

1. I love being Presbyterian because of the emphasis we place on God’s Goodness. God is not a distant god, who created the world and stepped away. Rather, God is one who out of selfless love created and continues to create with this same selfless love. Perhaps though, the most important aspect about our theology as Presbyterians is the comfort and hope that can be found in the very good news that God chooses us and has gifted us with faith in God!

2. I love being Presbyterian because, well, we are a thankful people. We know that everything we have comes from God. We understand that we are God’s stewards or caretakers–of the environment, of one another, of children, of everything. We participate in being good stewards by tutoring children at a local grade school, contributing money to local organizations that are about the building up of community, and we make every opportunity to make sure everybody has a way to share their unique gifts!

3. I love being Presbyterian because we don’t forget to love God with all hearts, souls, strength, and minds. We value education and the importance of spiritual formation in the community. We endorse the study of God’s entire world and we are willing to ask questions, hard questions. We are willing to debate. We are “a thinking,” as well as “a feeling,” people.

The short list of why I really love being
Presbyterian:
1.  We have the best potlucks!
2. It is easy to scare people when we to talk
about Book of Order...or to use the acronym:
BoO!
3.  I'm not a good dancer, so I'm grateful
we have 2 movements in worship:  sit & stand
4.  Presbyterians drink coffee as if it is
our 3rd sacrament.
5.  There is a 'renewal' movement in our
denomination titled:  Presbyterians
For Bow Tie Renewal
6.  We have the best block party in the area:
our annual Pork Bar-B-Cue!
7.  This joke:  how many Presbyterians does it
take to change a light bulb?
Wait, who said anything about change
:) 

4. I love being Presbyterian because we are not afraid to engage the Bible critically. We believe that the Bible is authoritative and God’s word to us, meant to be taken very seriously. We understand that it was written by humans. We realize that the Bible contains different types of literature--poetry, commandments, apocalyptic writings, for example–which requires study and sensitivity in interpreting. More importantly, we know that our story is a part of God’s story, which has, is, and will continue to mold us into who God longs for us to be!

5. I love being Presbyterian because we understand the importance of diversity and the wideness of God’s love. At the heart of who we are is the spirit of hospitality. We welcome and affirm the gifts of all God’s children, recognizing that as a body, we are incomplete when one person is left out! God revels in diversity. After all, what a diverse world God thought up.

6. I love being Presbyterian because we love all our neighbors:  we are ecumenical! Some of us are life long Presby’s, while some of us have dabbled with the Methodist and Baptists, Roman Catholics and Lutherans. Regardless of where we come from, we affirm every Sunday that we believe in the holy catholic church, that is the holy universal church. We are but one patch in the crazy quilt of Christ’s church. While we love our Presbyterian way, ours is not the only way to serve God.

7. I love being Presbyterian because we don’t do ministry alone. Okay, okay—I’ll admit, sometimes committee work can be frustrating. But there is so much potential when decisions of the church are spread out between clergy and laity. What I value most is that the use of committees allows for many participants and cultivates a community of our shared ministry in God’s mission.

8. I love being Presbyterian because we care about God’s world. While our hope lies in the coming resurrection of Christ, we are aware of God’s call here and now to bring heaven on earth. We do this by our efforts in the blood drive, providing food for children in local schools on weekends, and visiting people when they are sick and homebound. As Presbyterians we believe that God has called us, God has elected us, not for privilege, but for service.

9. I love being Presbyterian because we live by the slogan, “Reformed, always being reformed according to the Word of God.” The first “Reformed” in the slogan is spelled with a capital referring to our Reformed heritage that is the Protestant tradition that dates back to John Calvin, John Knox, and other reformers. It means we stand in a great theological tradition. We didn’t make everything up yesterday. We have as a part of our constitution eleven creeds and confessions dating from the fourth century through the twentieth century, we stand on the shoulders of giants.

10. And last and maybe most important, I love being Presbyterian because some of the finest people I know are Presbyterians. My story begins at Bethel Presbyterian Church in Peoria, Illinois where I was baptized as an infant in the fall of 1985. These fine people have remained faithful to their covenant promise made to my family and me in a variety of ways throughout my life. Some of my dearest friends are Presbyterians, who have taught me more about grace than Calvin’s institutes ever could. And the folks of First Presbyterian Church have demonstrated God’s love to me in new ways. I could go on. But if I start naming any of you, I would be writing for years! Suffice it to say Presbyterians are wonderful people. And that’s probably why I most love being a Presbyterian. 

So there you have it. An expansive top 10 List why I love being Presbyterian. I hope to see many of you this Sunday as we celebrate our rich heritage with bagpipes and singing, scripture reading and preaching! Feel free to wear your plaid…and a kilt if you have one. We don’t want only 1 person to show up in his…