6-2-24 Music
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This Sunday, the first Sunday of June, we will read scripture and share stories around Imago Dei, the teaching that all humanity is created in the image of God. My understanding is that, conversely, this means that the greater the diversity of humanity we see, the greater our vision of God. A wise friend recently told me, “All Sundays are Pride Sundays,” a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with. A Sunday in June where we focus on seeing the face of God in everyone around us makes me smile even more. Also making me smile is that we will welcome back Mikey Fuller, who you may remember jumped right in and saved the day for Easter 2023. We are glad to have him back for three appearances this month. You can learn more about him at his website, https://mikeyfuller.com/ Mikey will tell you he is a Recovering (Southern) Baptist, and I have been glad to introduce him to the kind of Baptists we are at Grace.
Our opening hymn is a classic. Come Christians, Join to Sing (Chalice Hymnal, 90) was first published in 1843 by Christian H. Bateman, who at the time was a 30 year old English minister in the Moravian tradition. He would later serve in the Congregational and Anglican traditions. It is thought to be a simpler version of an older hymn, Join Now in Praise, and Sing. This simplicity has contributed to its popularity. Dr. Michael Hawn notes that it consists of one or two syllable words, and the refrain “Alleluia, Amen!” making it easier to learn for children and adults alike. Hopefully singing nine of those “Alleluia, Amen!”-s will have you in a worshipful state of mind early in our service.
We have a new Doxology this week, following the choir singing the Offertory. Thanks to all of you who contributed thoughts as I shared some of my writing process on Facebook. The text began with a desire to incorporate some biblical imagery popular among queer theologians. Obviously the story of God placing a rainbow is beloved by many, and seemed like a natural for God the Father/Mother/Parent/Creator/Artist. There are some who draw parallels in the Greek language used to describe the relationship between the Roman Centurion and his servant who Jesus healed in Matthew 8, and that of lovers in Greek poetry. I had that story in mind as well. Having just celebrated Pentecost, and the story of the Spirit making it possible for an incredible spectrum of different people to come together to start the first church was another obvious choice. There are many other stories I could have brought in, but it's just a one stanza hymn 🙂. I ended up pairing it with the music we sang last week for To God Be the Glory, which is such a fun hymn to sing, even if the traditional text is heavy on blood atonement theology. I am glad to give that old tune some new life for a few weeks.
To prepare for Communion we will sing Sylvia Dunstan’s All Who Hunger, Gather Gladly (CH 419). She published this hymn in 1991, shortly after attending and leading at a Hymn Society conference. There is one this Summer in Atlanta, Deb would love to have you join her there. Sadly, Sylvia passed away just two years later at the far too early age of 38. However, she left behind a legacy of hymns about bringing people together, including this one and Come to Me, O Weary Traveler (CH 353). Each shares a theme of strangers, weary, finding grace among each other and God. As we look to each other and see reflections of the face of God, may we also see the nourishment of our minds and spirits in each other, as the bread and cup at the table nourish our bodies.
We will finish our singing together with a tremendous hymn of love and acceptance of other, singing a new version of Shirley Erena Murray’s, For Everyone Born (a Place at the Table). Shirley first published this in 1998, and I have to think that if it had been just a few years earlier, it would have been a featured hymn in Chalice Hymnal, which includes just about every great table hymn written prior to its publishing in 1995. Shirley’s landmark text welcomed “women and men,” “young and old,” calling for all to have shelter, food, and a “voice to be heard.” The fourth stanza, sometimes omitted, even challenged for “just and unjust” and “abuser and abused” to find their way to the table, always couching it in the refrain of being “creators of justice and joy.” Given the church’s history of doing the abusing, it makes sense that sometimes this stanza can be too difficult to sing without first doing the justice work.
In 2022 Hope Publishing Company asked Dan Damon, one of their hymnwriters, to look at updating A Place at the Table, given all that we have learned (or relearned) about the gender spectrum, moving away from the binary language of the original. Dan worked with Carl Daw to respond to that challenge, and what you see below is what they ended up with. It retains the spirit of Shirley’s text, and continues to expand the vision of who is included in the “everyone” who are welcomed at God’s table:
a covenant shared, a welcoming space,
a rainbow of race and gender and color,
for all who have breath, the chalice of grace,
Dan also pastorally takes the focus off of “abuser and abused” coming together at the table, instead acknowledging the work we do to make ourselves feel welcome, when we have hurt or have been hurt:
though wounded and sore, with need to forgive,
in anger, in hurt, a mindset of mercy,
for you and for me, a new way to live,
This is another longer hymn, which can be a challenge at the end of a long service. Dan’s expanding took it from 5 to now 6 stanzas. In order to give us a few less notes to sing, we will only sing the refrain after every other stanza. Please also keep in mind my theology of hymn singing, that only God can sing all of every note perfectly. The rest of us just do our part, the reflection of our whole singing coming closest to echoing what God does.
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May we all find our place at the table, singing together.
Chris.
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Not so many listening links this week as last, but here are a few to get you ready for Sunday.
This simple piano recording of Come, Christians Join to Sing includes an image of the hymn, albeit a slightly older edition that uses some of the royal language that Chalice Hymnal sometimes eschews:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wiuntgu2o0
And check out these adorable kids:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0A9HLd4d10
How about All Who Hunger, Gather Gladly on mountain dulcimer?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhfgzp8UT8Y
Of course the tune HOLY MANNA is most associated with Brethren, We have Met to Worship, from the Southern Harmony tradition. You might consider joining the Vinson guys for some singing with the Richmond Shape Note Singers, who we will welcome back in August. Here is a different group singing, but in the same style:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EK7QBItdv0
You can hear Tom Trenney’s lovely use of Brian Mann’s music for For Everyone Born, A Place at the Table:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqpdZq6TAfo
And we won’t be using Dan Damon’s very cool tune you can hear here, but we will be singing these lyrics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpPpxmqwTNo
Happy listening!
Chris
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[1] Through Him, All Things by Lauren Wright Pittman, Sanctified Art, 2024.
[1] For Everyone Born #260442 (FOR EVERYONE BORN #72277), Words by Shirley Erena Murray, 1998; Revised by Daniel Charles Damon & Carl P. Daw, 2022 © Hope Publishing Company. Music by Brian Mann ©2006 General Board of Global Ministries. Used with permission under OneLicense.net #A-720486.