Across the Lands | Great is Thy Faithfulness

Across the Lands | Great is Thy Faithfulness

Liturgy Lessons: February 18, 2018 (First Sunday of Lent)
Call to Worship: Selections from Gen. 9 and 15; 2 Sam. 7; Luke 1
Prayer of Invocation
Hymn of Adoration: Across the Lands (Getty)
Confession: Hebrews 12:1-2; Psalm 25:6-7
Song of Confession: Jesus, Lamb of God (Agnus Dei)
Assurance of Pardon: Col. 1:11-14; Heb. 12:28
Hymn of Assurance: Great Is Thy Faithfulness (#32)
Catechism/Congregational Prayers
Reading of the Word: Luke 3:23-38 (The Genealogy of Jesus Christ)
Doxology: #731
Sermon: Shiv Muthukumar
Tithes and Offerings: He will Hold Me Fast (Getty)
Supper: Lamb of God (Paris); Wonderful, Merciful Savior
Closing Hymn: O God our Help in Ages Past (#30)

All the Kingdoms of the World
By Malcolm Guite

‘So here’s the deal and this is what you get:
The penthouse suite with world-commanding views,
The banker’s bonus and the private jet
Control and ownership of all the news
An in to that exclusive one percent,
Who know the score, who really run the show
With interest on every penny lent
And sweeteners for cronies in the know.
A straight arrangement between me and you
No hell below or heaven high above
You just admit it, and give me my due
And wake up from this foolish dream of love…’
But Jesus laughed, ‘You are not what you seem.
Love is the waking life, you are the dream.’

This is the first Sunday in Lent, the (roughly) six-week period in the Christian liturgical calendar that lasts from Ash Wednesday to Easter. It is traditionally a time of prayer, fasting, self-denial, and repentance, during which the Christian believer draws closer to God by following the example of Christ, who fasted in the wilderness for forty days. There is, perhaps, no other liturgical season of the church that is more countercultural than Lent. In an era of glut and fullness, the Christian empties out. In a culture of indulgence and entertainment, the Christian fasts and prays. In a western ideological world where the self is sovereign, the Christian denies himself, takes up his cross, and follows Jesus. Of course, these are things we are called to do every day. Lent is, therefore, a time to re-establish disciplines and habits that can be, in essence, syncing our heartbeats with the rhythm of Christ’s, and tuning our lives in harmony with His. It is a season of turning our compass back to true north, finding our way to him in the wilderness when we have lost our way in the city.

Across the Lands
Text: Stuart Townend (2002)
Music: Keith Getty (2002)

If you count the days between Ash Wednesday and Easter, you will get the number 46. “I thought it was 40 days,” and you may ask, “Why the extra 6?” Good question. The answer is that Sundays are not counted during Lent, because every Sunday remains a “little Easter.” This is partly because throughout much of church history, the practice of corporate worship has been distinct from personal piety. Basically, Sunday worship is not just about me and Jesus. It is about the body of Christ, His covenant people, gathering in one place to proclaim TOGETHER His glory, confess their guilt, plead His grace, and express their gratitude. So, on Sundays during Lent we drop the sackcloth and take hold of the cup. We don’t just wring our hands in personal penance; we also join them, lift them, and open them in praise. We are the covenant people of God, and we are one in Christ. This is a mystery worth celebrating, and often that calls for vivacious and vigorous vocalizing. Let’s call it adrenalized adoration!

This exuberant hymn of praise fits the bill. It is a celebration of the covenant-keeping God who continues to call sinners home from “every tribe and tongue and nation.” It is written in an ebullient six-eight meter (think mug-swinging bar songs or a Straussian waltz) by the prolific and popular contemporary hymn-writing duo of Stuart Townend and Keith Getty (In Christ Alone, The Power of the Cross, My Heart is Filled with Thankfulness, and many others). The three verses focus on the work of Christ in creation, salvation, and re-creation, and the refrain is a beautifully simple encapsulation of all of those aspects.

“You’re the author of creation, You’re the Lord of every man,
and Your cry of love rings out across the lands.”

There are two things that I appreciate about the Getty/Townend hymns. First, the lyrics are accessible, palatable, and fit for everyman. They are sort of like theological Tylenol. Medicinal truth packaged in easy-to-swallow conversational capsules. It takes poetic skill to render such lofty notions in simple ways without dumbing them down. Second, the melodies are memorable and easily sing-able. They are ones you can go home humming. The spirit of the music seems to marry well with the content of the lyrics. Keith Getty is Irish, and he is part of a culture and tradition that is steeped in beautifully crafted folk songs. I’m so glad that these hymns from the UK have found their way to us across the lands.
Sheet music
Recording

Great is Thy Faithfulness
Text: Thomas O. Chisholm (1923)
Music: William M. Runyan (1923)

Our preacher this Sunday is the newly minted staff member, our own beloved Shiv Muthukumar. Shiv is very quotable. Two of my favorites are “before I became a Christian, I had no reason to sing,” and “a song is worth a thousand sermons.” Shiv is preaching this week on Luke’s genealogy of Jesus. At first glance, it may seem like a laundry list of names that is sandwiched in between two more meaty chunks of narrative scripture (the baptism of Christ, and his temptation in the wilderness). However, this inverted (moving backwards throughout history) list of names includes Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and David—a reminder of God’s covenant-keeping faithfulness with His people. The content of our liturgy celebrates this, with scripture and song chosen to illuminate the steadfast and ever-pursuing love of our Good Shepherd. Throughout history, he has been seeking out the lost sheep and bringing them back to the fold. Often he finds such sheep in the most unlikely and obscure places. Such was the case of the author of the timeless hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness.

Thomas Chisholm was a simple, poor poet who was born in a log cabin in Kentucky in 1866. Throughout his life he wrote 1,200 hymns and poems when not working as an insurance agent, teacher, or editor. A victim of fragile health, Thomas Chisholm always lived on a meager salary, and never had much. He wrote, “My income has not been large at any time, due to impaired health in the earlier years which has followed me on until now. Although I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God and that He has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care, for which I am filled with astonishing gratefulness.” Blessed are the poor in spirit, indeed! In order to express his thanks to God, Chisholm lifted the title of his hymn from Lamentations 3:22-23:

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

The music for this Gratit-ode comes from the Rev. William H. Runyan, a musician with the Moody Bible Institute and one of the editors of Hope Publishing Company in Chicago. Chisholm had sent Runyan several of his hymns, but this one struck a chord. “This particular poem held such an appeal that I prayed most earnestly that my tune might carry over its message in a worthy way, and the subsequent history of its use indicates that God answered prayer.”

Runyan wrote the music in a small town in Kansas in 1923, and it has spread to every corner of the gospel-singing world. This is due in large part to its original champion, George Beverly Shea, the famous singer of the Billy Graham Crusades, who first sang it at an evangelistic meeting in 1954. It was an instant hit. This hymn was listed as the second most popular hymn among Methodists, and is a regular on those dubious internet top-ten lists of “greatest hymns of all time.” What I love about the hymn is the warmth of the music. The gentle harmonic shifts and slight arches in the melody are evocative of the tender embrace of a father who holds his beloved children in his strong arms. Now, that’s definitely worth a thousand sermons.

Sheet music
Archived recording of George Beverly Shea (Oh, how styles have changed!)

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