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You are here: Home / Music / Sermon: Songs Old and New

Sermon: Songs Old and New

November 24, 2013 by Chad Herring Leave a Comment

2013 11 24 – Songs New and Old from John Knox Kirk on Vimeo.

A sermon preached at John Knox Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri, on November 24, 2013.

Luke 1: 67-79
and Psalm 98

 

20_1958.04_st_pauls_childrens_choir_c

 

Tuesday this week, I did something

that, as far as I can figure, is seldom done anymore these days

particularly with the rise of

speakerphones and skype and teleconferencing:

On Tuesday I got up bright and early to fly to Minneapolis

for a six-hour meeting at Westminster Presbyterian Church

and then got on another plane and flew home that night.

I needed to be there in person.

I am helping to plan a conference there in April

and I needed to see the space and size it up

so I can get a sense of where the 500 people

can register and eat and have workshops and get coffee.

That sort of thing.

 So their associate pastor, Meghan Gage-Finn,

gave me the tour.

The Sanctuary…an old, beautiful, mahogany festooned sanctuary

The grand hall, the office complex, the Christian education wing

What you might expect from a thriving, downtown church.

 The last stop before heading off for various other meetings

was the choir loft, which was impressive

and then the “kids choir” room next door.

 I walked in and Meghan flicked on the lights

and on a rack to the left as we walked in

were the kids choir robes:

a maroon red with a white lacy upper portion.

And I immediately smiled.

 See, they reminded me instantly of the robes they used to dress us in

when I was 7 or 8 at Atlantic Presbyterian Church in Atlantic, Iowa.

 And it was like I was transported, for an instant

back to that sanctuary, with the piano playing and

the other kids singing with me:

 It only takes a spark, to get a fire going

         And soon all those around, can warm up in its glowing;

         That’s how it is with God’s love,

         Once you’ve experienced it,

         You spread God’s love, to every one

         You want to pass it on….

Not to mention Jesus Loves Me, This I Know,

                                             For the Bible Tells me So…

 Or This little light of Mine, I’m gonna let it shine…

 Or Give me Oil for my lamp, keep it burning…

Funny what a piece of clothing hanging in a locked room

way up on the third floor can do.

 * * *

Making and enjoying music is something that unites us as a species,

one of those characteristics that makes human beings human

even if there isn’t a single type or definition or structure

to the music human beings make.

Whole fields of anthropology and ethnomusicology

have emerged to study the music of the world and its history.

 Experts can reveal a lot about composition theory

Improvisational method

or Music Psychology;

You can go on youtube and literally spend years

exploring entire genres

from Opera to Rhythm and Blues to Folk to Zydeco.

A short jingle or the right tune,

and we can instantly conjure up an advertisement

or a movie which that music helped define.

For most of our culture,

making and listening to music is deeply interwoven

with what it means to be human.

 * * *

I was pondering all of this on my flight back home from Minneapolis.

This flooding back of memories from my childhood church

made me think about other key moments of my life

and how music was in one way or another

present through them all.

 

        O Love, that wilt not let me go,

                  I rest my weary soul in Thee;

         I give Thee back the life I owe,

                  That in Thine ocean depths its flow

                           May Richer, Fuller be…

We sang that at my Grandmother’s funeral.

 

Early morning, April 4

                  shot ring out, in the Memphis Sky

         Free at Last! They took your life

                  They could not take your pride

          In the name of Love!

         What more in the name of love?

         In the name of Love!

         What more in the name of love?

That song, by the Irish band U2,

brought me to tears when I was reading about

Martin Luther King, Junior

as a 7th grader in Civics class.

Lord let me be your instrument,

                  spreading Sunshine in the land

         Let people see your works in me,

                  help me live the best I can

         Fill my cup, let it overflow

         Fill my cup, let it overflow

         Fill my cup, let it overflow

         Let it overflow with love.    

That’s the hymn Fill my Cup that was sung

so beautifully by an African-American Tenor

in my urban Saint Louis church

when I was studying that same unit

on Martin Luther King Junior.

 I can name so many more:

Your Love is better than Ice Cream

is the first line of the Sarah McLaughlin song

that was playing over and over again

on my first date with Brook.

Mira que Buena, que Buena es!

         Mira que Buena, que Buena es!

         Mira que Buena es el pan en la mesa…

                  A prayer of blessing over our meal together

when I travelled with other

Presbyterians to Central America                  

         as a teenager.

         Come Sing O Church in Joy! Come Join O Church in Song

                  the song we sang this morning,

which was commissioned for the 1989

national meeting of our church in Saint Louis

where I sang it from the base section during opening worship.

 or I sing a Song of the Saints of God, patient and brave and true

the song we sang together when I preached here

candidating to be your pastor.

 It really is amazing the memories and the meaning

that music can bear in our lives.

Close your eyes for a moment and ponder the key songs from your life,

the important melodies, the tunes of your heart.

The significance of music for your life, your faith,

your hope, your vision for the future….

* * *

If this is true,

that music is central to the human experience of life

then it should be no surprise how important music is

in experiencing God, in talking about God

and in worshipping God together.

For the community of faith, music plays an important role

in our life together.

 Our tradition has always recognized the function of music

in our human lives and in the life of the church:

Our constitution puts it this way in the Book of Order:

Song is a response which engages the whole self in prayer.

        Song unites the faithful in common prayer wherever

                  they gather for worship, whether in church, home,

                           or other special place.

         The covenant people have always used the gift of song

                  to offer prayer,

                  [and] congregations are encouraged to use …

                           diverse musical forms for prayer

                           as well as those which arise out of the musical life

                                    of their own cultures. (W-2.1003)

* * *

Not only does our church Constitution encourage us

to a diverse and robust music life.

The holy scriptures, also, demonstrate the diverse way

that the people of God engaged God through song.

This prayer from Zechariah, for instance,

was likely sung before it was written down and became part of Luke.

We see something similar in the Canticle of Mary in the same chapter

this song we call the Magnificat: My Soul Magnifies the Lord…

There are songs woven throughout Paul’s writings,

each of them hints to how the early church gathered for worship.

 And then there are, of course, the psalms,

beautiful lyrics to melodies long since forgotten

that express the full measure of human emotion

to the God of Steadfast Love.

Today’s psalm is no different:

O sing to the Lord a new song,

                  for God has done marvelous things…

         Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth;

                  break forth into joyous songs and sing praises.

For God, the psalmist will continue

God is coming to judge the earth with righteousness and equity

God, whom the very creation sings to,

engages our hearts and our minds and our hearts

through songs old and new….

* * *

When you think about the diversity of the human population

the wide array of musical styles and tastes and sensibilities

it can almost be stunning, and perhaps a bit daunting.

This might explain why, at least at church,

we have a tendency to choose one type of music we like

and to stick with it.

There’s nothing wrong with that, really,

choosing a particular way to worship and a music to complement it

so long as we don’t get stuck thinking that this

is THE right way to do it

or we get SO comfortable with OUR way

that we forget its not always comfortable for others.

We like what we like.

And our experiences with music and solidify those feelings.

I will never have a problem singing a hymn with an organ or piano

given my childhood choir experience with those goofy robes.

Even as I know that most people my age

don’t get them, don’t feel like I do,

don’t have the same positive memories

with those particular songs and that particular style.

That’s ok. There are so many ways we can explore God through song.

Sometimes the challenge is to open my own heart

to the way music moves others, so that we can find a way

to worship God together.

Sometimes I have to open my heart to something NEW.

* * *

Today we dedicate our new hymnals.

If God encourages us through the Psalms to Sing a New Song,

we now have some new material to do it,

whether you hold it in your hands while we sing

or engage through the lyrics on our screens.

This hymnal combines the best of the former hymnal,

with a host of good, theologically sound material.

It has many old standards, beloved by many of us.

It has songs sung by Christians all over the world

but which may be new to us

It has lyrics that will comfort sometimes

and that will challenge in others.

I judge all of that to be a good thing.

For this hymnal will both encourage us to worship

in a way that is authentic and true for us

while also expanding our hearts to go deeper and broader

as we come to God through song.

My prayer is that we commit ourselves anew to the wide range of ways

we can sing Glory to God through song

that the music we sing

creates memories and moments that are blessed forever

that the hymns we offer move us to deeper faith

and sincere acts of love for our neighbor.

that the melodies we encounter feed our souls

all the days of our lives.

May it be so.

Amen.

 

(Image: the 1958 Children’s Choir of St. Paul Lutheran Church of Ames, Iowa. My choir robes were not quite like this, but I remember a similar big bow tie adorning them)

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Chad Andrew Herring

Chad Herring

kairos :: creature of dust :: child of God :: husband of 21 years :: father of 2 :: teaching elder/minister of word and sacrament in the presbyterian church (u.s.a.) :: exploring a progressive-reformed – emergent-christianity :: more

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