6-23-24 Music

I am back! This week we are looking at themes of being different from what the world expects us to be. For me that begins with where our attention lies, and you can’t go wrong with one of the most beautiful hymns ever written, Be Thou My Vision (Chalice Hymnal, 595). It is also Kim’s favorite hymn, so that's always good too 🙂 What can I add to such a perfect, beloved piece? Honestly, probably not much. It does give me good fodder for looking at the little ways hymns evolve. How do you feel about these changes made for Chalice Hymnal?

Stanza 2, line 3:

Thou my great Father, I Thy true son

is now

thou my redeemer, my love thou hast won,

Also, stanza 4, line 1:

High King of heaven, my victory won,

is now

Great God of heaven, my victory won,

Even 30 years ago, hymn editors were looking to where hymns could be made more inclusive, and also less “chief/king”-especially in societies that don’t have “high King” imagery as part of their governance or culture. For me this begs the question, what about the last thirty years? Well, Voices Together, the wonderful, justice-oriented, Mennonite hymnal has this for stanza 2, lines 3 and 4, in place of “thou my redeemer…”

Born of thy love, thy child may I be,

thou in me dwelling and I one with thee.

The “High King” or “Great God” of the end of stanza 3 and beginning of stanza 4 has been replaced by “Ruler” and “True Light.” Personally, I am happy to see more and more ways to understand God.

One more nerdy tidbit. Voices Together brought back an “optional stanza” that is often left out of hymnals, that sometimes begins with “Be thou my breastplate,” but instead here goes:

Be thou my buckler, my sword for the fight.

Be thou my dignity, thou my delight,

thou my soul’s shelter, thou my high tow’r.

Raise thou me heav’nward, O Pow’r of my pow’r.

I understand leaving that stanza out, with its references to sword and armor. At the same time, there is something about declaring in song, especially in pacifist circles, that God is our armor and sword- literally. We don’t need guns.

Moving on to our second hymn, we sing of how God can use us. Take My Life and Let it Be (consecrated Lord, to thee) (CH 609) is a hymn I associate with what a former church called “Consecration Sunday,” what we at Grace call, “Commitment Sunday.” Do you ever have hymns that you learned with one meaning, that you need to reframe? That is this for me. Not, that I have a problem with commitment Sundays, or consecration Sundays, they are necessary in the life of a congregation. Yet, this hymn has so much more than Take my silver and my gold… How beautiful is the image of Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of thy love. Tom, if you’re reading this, please get a shot of the pianist's hands as we sing that line, a literal representation of hands moving at love’s impulse. What line do you connect to? Is it one of the ones that gets repeated when we sing this text with this tune?

Our Hymn of Invitation is a new one, a fantastic meditation by David Bjorlin on the question of how what God might want for us might be different than what we or the world expects. David wrote Dare to Live the Dream God Gives You as a testament to the faith of friends as they journeyed through the adoption process. They ended up adopting and raising twin girls who, “continue to be a sign for (David) of the faithfulness of God that always is greater than the risks we dare to take.” Amen and amen.

We will sing this with the tune W ZLOBIE LEZY, which Google has not been useful in learning to pronounce. I found one that had W pronounced something like an English “of,” and the rest being sound out-able, but if any of you speak Polish, I would love to know. You may know this tune as Infant Holy, Infant Lowly (CH 163), which makes me smile when thinking of the story of David Bjorlin’s friends adopting baby girls. You might also recognize it as the connective hymn we sang in Advent of 2022, connecting “From generation to generation.”

You might note the way the text moves us from “you” which could be singular or plural, depending on how it is read, to later “us.” As both time alone, and time together, are needed in order to do the things God calls us to do. I cannot sing the line “you’ll never walk alone” without that line from Carousel, which I have had the honor to sing for funerals and weddings. I’ll have to sing it for you all some time.

It will be good to sing these, together.
Chris

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I shared this family band, The Petersons, with the mom playing bass along with her kids and a friend a few weeks ago. Their rendition of Be Thou My Vision is quite lovely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwwWMWTpp-U

I have no idea what is happening here in this video, but I kind of dig it? The singing isn’t my personal favorite, but this fiddler and whistler are having a great time, and the lead singer is also pounding a mean floor tom. Its different, but different can end up being cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdMy8Opup-c

But maybe they could be even cooler with pipes?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3xSOhyXj-s

I’d never want to study at Southern Seminary, but sometimes they still have pretty music (even if I want them to sing longer phrases). Take My Life and Let it Be by the Norton Hall Band of SBTS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idXARg1urGA

Maybe hearing W ZLOBIE LEZY performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra might help my Polish questions? Or not, it only shares a few bars with the hymn tune we are familiar with, but it is still very nice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnSnSnpCcNE

This is more what you are used to, plus its absolutely precious. Great job by these little ones at Westminster Presbyterian, Greenville SC, singing another great text, Mel Bringle’s God is Calling Through the Whisper, which echoes the choral anthem this week The Still, Small Voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAEMmLGPdI4

Maybe God is calling you through music this week or others, if so, please share that story with me.

Chris

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[1] For whatever reason, this picture of flamingos in formation had me thinking about what the Holy Spirit might look like with us following God’s dreams.

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