Liturgy Lessons: September 23, 2018
Call to Worship: Jn. 1:9-14; 8:12; 1 Tim. 6:15-16
Prayer of Invocation
Opening Hymns: Come, Thou Almighty King (#101); Holy, Holy, Holy (#100)
Confession: from Ephesians 5 and Kyrie Eleison
Assurance of Pardon: Selections from Isaiah 42 and 43
Songs of Assurance: The Steadfast Love of the Lord; Great is Thy Faithfulness (#32)
Catechism/Congregational Prayers
Reading of the Word: Luke 8:16-18 (A Lamp on a Stand)
Doxology: #731
Sermon: Rev. Casey Bedell
Tithes and Offerings
The Lord’s Supper: Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts (#646); How Sweet and Awesome (#469)
Closing Hymn: Hark, A Thrilling Voice is Sounding!
Benediction
Covenant Presbyterian Church has a perfect 5-star rating on Google. Granted, there are only five submitted reviews, three of which are members (a.k.a. “biased”); but it is the first two reviews that caught my attention. Both are equally brief and read like playful trolls. The first describes CPC as “spiritually traditional” and the second responds with the clever comeback of “traditionally spiritual.” I’m sure they are unrelated, and obviously not all that sincere. However, it would safe to assume that CPC has the reputation of being a “traditional” church. This is a label that carries with it quite a bit of associative baggage, and when applied to church, it has become synonymous with certain practices and customs that many think are outdated and irrelevant to our high-tech, postmodern culture. One of those customs is singing “the good ol’ hymns.” However, if just the singing of hymns is not enough to earn the “traditional” tag, then the use of organ to accompany those hymns will undoubtedly qualify us. Perhaps when you came to CPC, you were looking to fulfill criteria on your “spiritually traditional” check list. You wanted to make sure your sensibilities were not offended and your preferences were met.
And so, in the area of music and aesthetics, CPC qualified. Let’s check off the “yes” boxes. Hymns, check. Hymnals, check. Organ, check. Pews, check. Pastor in a suit and tie, check. And, to your delight, the “no” column was all filled in as well. No rock band, check. No loud sound system, check. No jumbotron movie screen, check. No skinny-jeaned, designer T-shirt pastor, check. And instantly you felt like this was a fit. I must confess that when we first came to CPC it was all of the above, but it was more than that. It was the laminated placard in the pew that had me at “hello.” It was a thoughtful and scripturally saturated explanation of the worship practices. I read it and wept. In a culture of attraction-based church services filled with entertainment, seeker-friendly fads, and technological trickery, here was a place that had thought about the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of their traditions. I am so grateful for that, more now than ever.
The structure of our weekly liturgy is full of traditional, historic elements like “call to worship,” “confession and assurance of pardon,” creeds, and the doxology. The service of the Word, which encompasses the front end of our worship (including the sermon), is taken from the ancient traditions of the old testament Jewish temple. The sacrament of communion is a tradition that was begun and mandated by Jesus himself on the night before he took up his cross. This template of “word and table” is biblical and brimming with gathered wisdom from centuries of Christians who have lifted heart and hands to Yahweh. But even these timeless traditions can calcify and fossilize if not infused with the Holy Spirit working in the hearts of the people. Without His creative freshness and our thoughtful catechesis, it all becomes empty ritual. Even the singing…especially the singing. A great hymn of the faith can be like a heartbeat that pulses with praise, or it can flatline in a mindless and meaningless monotone. If the hymns are nothing more than a sentimental journey, if they only serve to meet our aesthetic tastes or theological requirements, or if they are mere tradition, then we would be better off NOT singing them. Here is Jesus on the matter:
“This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”
– Mark 7
Jesus was responding to the Pharisees who had cried foul because the disciples had broken the “elder code” by eating with unwashed hands. Jesus’ response to them was, “You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” He also said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!” In scripture, the commandment of God in regard to music is to “sing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and make melody in your heart to the Lord” (Eph. 5:19). Scripture is blissfully silent on the subject of musical style, and most of the Psalms are simple and direct: “Praise the Lord,” “Bless the Lord,” and the one that all traditionalists love to hear, “Sing to Him a new song.”
Jaroslav Pelikan, the scholar of Christian history and theology at Yale, said that “Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. And, I suppose I should add, it is traditionalism that gives tradition such a bad name.” The word “tradition” comes from the Latin tradere, which means ‘to deliver.’ This week, as you embark on the tradition of singing the “good ol’ hymns,” pray that the Lord would deliver you from traditionalism and free you to honor Him, not just with your lips, but with your whole heart as well.
Holy, Holy, Holy
Text: Reginald Heber (1826)
Tune: NICAEA, John B. Dykes (1861)
After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”
And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”
– Revelations 4
Ok, here’s the challenge. Write a hymn. You only have four verses, four lines each, eight syllables per line. In this you must distill all of Revelations 4, and also a bit of Isaiah 6, thus linking old and new testaments. You need to cover the basic idea of God’s splendor and our sin. Oh, and one more thing: please defend and champion the doctrine of the Trinity. Got all that? Ready? Go!
This was the task that Reginald Heber gladly embraced. Heber, a lifelong poet and hymnwriter, not only passed the test, but he aced it! In four brilliantly succinct and sublime verses, Heber evokes a sense of awe at God’s majesty, and calls us to join in the heavenly anthem that praises the Godhead three-in-one.
Reginald Heber was always trying to improve the music for the Anglican Church he served in England during the mid-19th century. Though his superiors frowned upon the use of anything but metrical psalms (the Church of England banned the singing of hymns until 1820), Heber introduced hymns by Cowper and Newton and even wrote some of his own. This hymn, which certainly would find its place on the Mt. Rushmore of hymnody was called by Alfred Lord Tennyson, “The world’s greatest hymn”.
It is very rare to find a hymn that is included in almost every hymnal, with relatively unchanged text. And yet this is the case with Heber’s greatest hymn, set to a tune by John Dykes named NICAEA, after the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. It was this 4th-century council that gave us the Nicene Creed, in which the church leaders established a firm doctrine of the Trinity in response to the heresies of Arius. Each verse opens with a threefold “Holy,” and the closing statement of the first and last lines is “God in three persons, blessed Trinity.” One of the reasons that this hymn is the gold standard is that the form of the music supports and further illuminates the words. It is interesting to note how many musical intervals (the distance between two consecutive pitches) in this tune are thirds. In fact, the opening melodic statement is based on the triad (do-mi-so) of the diatonic scale, a simple and foundational element of western music. This makes the opening musical gesture very easy to sing, but it also is symbolic of the Trinity, since it groups the first musical phrases in harmonious thirds. Simple yet profound, accessible yet transcendent, this hymn is worthy to be echoed around the glassy sea.
– A more un-traditional version
– A special treat for the traditionalists
Great is Thy Faithfulness (#32)
Text: Thomas O. Chisholm (1923)
Music: William M. Runyan (1923)
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 Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
– Lamentations 3:22-25
“Thomas Chisholm, the author of 1,200 hymns and poems, was born in a log cabin in Kentucky in 1866, and he lived a pretty unremarkable life: he worked as a school teacher, a newspaper editor, and insurance agent, then he retired and spent his remaining days at the Methodist Home for the Aged in New Jersey. Unlike many hymns that have heart-wrenching stories behind them (for instance “It Is Well With My Soul”), “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” is inspired by the simple realization that God is at work in our lives on a daily basis. 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.’ The hymn reminds us that God doesn’t only work in dramatic or miraculous ways, but also in simple, everyday ways. It also reminds us that Jesus has never failed us in the past, so we have no reason to doubt his faithfulness in the future.”
– Greg Scheer, 1994 (from hymnary.org)
There is indeed a sweet simplicity and gratitude expressed in the lyrics. But this hymn owes its popularity perhaps more to the music than the words. The music is sweeping and slightly sentimental, particularly in the refrain. Written in 1923 at the height of the jazz age, it is emblematic of its time. Calvin Coolidge had just been elected, prohibition was in full swing, the Scopes trial was about the get underway, and the market crash had not yet happened. The average life expectancy had risen from 49 years to 54 in the past decade. Soon to be published were The Great Gatsby and Winnie the Pooh, and Babe Ruth was swinging for the fences. There was the first ‘talkie’, the first electric razor, the first jukebox, and Henry Ford introduced the 49-hour work week. Optimism was high, and church music was often full of a feel-good, romantic sensibility which, understandably, permeated much of the gospel songs (i.e. “In the Garden”, “I’d Rather Have Jesus”, “In My Heart There Rings a Melody”).
The music to “Great is Thy Faithfulness” was composed by William Runyan, a personal friend of Chisholm and fellow Methodist minister. Runyan had composed gospel songs for the Moody Bible Institute and also worked as an editor for Hope Publishing Company. But his greatest success by far was the music to “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” It was so popular that a memorial scholarship fund was created at Baker University with the royalties from the song. Its popularity has continued through the decades, and one could argue that we need to sing a song like this now more than ever. This hymn’s message and general optimistic tone can be medicinal for us. We live now in an age of skepticism and entitlement, where expressions of hope and gratitude are rare. But we can confidently declare that our faith is not contingent on our life circumstances or changes in culture. God’s faithfulness is a shield and bulwark (Ps. 91:4), and it endures to all generations (Ps. 119:90). Brothers and Sisters, know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations (Deut. 7:9). If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. (2 Tim. 2:13) That is reason to sing!
“Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed, Thy hand hath provided.
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!”
– Acoustic folk recording
– Jazz guitar (taking it back to its roots?)
– Oh…and one for the traditionalists (this is actually my favorite!)