5-12-24 Music
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Before I chat hymns, I want to say a word of thanks to Becca Longhenry, violinist with the Richmond Philharmonic Orchestra. The relationship between Grace and the RPO is a wonderful one that has been nurtured by caring folks over the years, and I am so thankful for it. Becca will be playing some of our service music, and joining the choir on our anthem, Christ Still Rises. I have included the text for the anthem further down the blog because it is worth reading, and maybe even praying or meditating on.
Can you believe it is already the last Sunday of Eastertide?! Wasn’t it just last week we were singing Christ the Lord is Risen Today?! Tradition and the story in Acts 1 say that Jesus remained on earth for 40 days following his Resurrection, so we mark that by reading stories of Jesus’ farewell on the Sunday following the 40th day after Easter. This year we have not chosen to focus only on that moment, but it will be one of many threads you see woven through the service.
Our first hymn may be the most controversial we have sung since I began at Grace. Ironically, I’ll be talking about this hymn next week in part 3 of a series on “why don’t we sing that hymn any more?” in Jubilee class. To quote hymnologist and friend, Dr. C. Michael Hawn, “Some hymns have the distinction of being adored by many and, simultaneously, scorned by an equal and opposing group.” Have you guessed what it is? We will be singing In the Garden (Chalice Hymnal, 227). I can sense half of you smiling, half of you rolling your eyes, and hopefully a few of you doing both. I won't go into the full detail we will in Jubilee next week, but, while not my favorite, I do think In the Garden gets a bad rap. Too often it is sung with an abundance of schmaltz, and in liturgically incorrect situations, becoming a trite “Jesus is my boyfriend” (or “Andy is my boyfriend,” i.e. Andy walks with me, Andy talks with me…) song. When used correctly, which we do here at Grace, it is a lovely story of Jesus's Resurrection. The garden setting continues imagery from the last two weeks, especially the choir anthems Now is the Cool of the Day, and Morning Breaks, the World Awakens. The final stanza may move us from walking with Jesus in the garden to Ascension, as Jesus “bids me go.” And, don't worry Archie, we will sing it as a brisk morning trot, rather than a long walk on the beach tempo. If you want to thank me, or throw a pie at me, come to Jubilee on 5/19 😂
Our second hymn is the only one that will directly reference the Ascension story, and is one of the “new(ish) words to old tunes.” You can read Sylvia Dunstan’s Lift Up Your Hearts Believers below, set to ELLACOMBE (CH64, We Sing Your Mighty Power, O God). It echoes Psalm 24, “lift up your heads, you gates” and the Eucharist Prayer, “lift up your hearts” and brings them to the story of watching Jesus take his place in Heaven. We end Eastertide with a line I love, “the thorns of crucifixion are changed to stars of light/and Christ, the Lord of Glory, is named as God's delight.” You can see the hymn in its entirety, below.
The Invitation Hymn is built around three responses to the word “Alleluia!” or “Praise God!” Those are:
Hear God’s story
Sing the story
Dance the story.
Alleluia, Hear God’s Story (CH 330) engages our whole, artistic, being in doing the work of being the church “to the ends of the earth.” By the end of the hymn it is both Creator and Creation who sing and dance together. We will sing this with the Polish folk tune, W ZLOBIE LEZY. We last sung this tune in Advent, 2022, when it was our candlelighting hymn, and in Easter of 2023 when we used to sing of the Woman Weeping in the Garden. Sometimes it all comes back to that conversation that happened In the Garden.
May we lift our voices together. Happy Singing.
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[1] This image is from Pixabay and was published prior to July 2017 under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication license: https://web.archive.org/web/20161229043156/https://pixabay.com/en/service/terms/
Source: https://timelessmoon.getarchive.net/amp/media/garden-tomcat-cat-animals-4d406b
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For our choral anthem, David Bjorlin’s text, set to music by Benjamin Brody, was written to celebrate Easter during the COVID-19 pandemic. I interpret the constant refrain of “Christ still rises” to have at least triple meaning of Resurrection, Ascension, and today as Christians and the Church live into Jesus’ teachings. Having experienced death and resurrection through both a church and seminary that shuttered their respective doors, this text hits me on a few levels:
Christ still rises when fear grips our city,
when death takes no pity, when much is unknown.
Christ still rises when friends are divided,
when joy feels misguided, when we are alone
Christ still rises when churches are shuttered,
when praises are muttered, when prayers go unsaid.
Christ still rises when peace has all faded,
when we are most jaded, when faith turns to dread.
Christ still rises when we give to neighbors,
when we share our labors, when strangers belong.
Christ still rises when we come together,
when love is our tether, when hope is our song.
Christ still rises when grieving is ended,
when bodies are mended, when beauty heals pain.
Christ still rises when fear has retreated,
when death is defeated, and joy will remain[3].
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And now for some listening links. Admittedly, it is a challenge to find public recordings of In the Garden that aren't super schmaltzy. So, I thought we could start with the best. Plus, I could listen to Reba sing the phone book at least once:
And, even if you can't stand the song, I challenge you to listen to the great Mahalia Jackson and not be moved:
Confessionally, I clicked on at least 30 recordings of congregations singing In the Garden, and didn't care for any of them. I guess we will just have to do it ourselves.
But this one wasn't bad:
And you never know what you'll find when searching for “in the garden organ:”
Here is First Plymouth singing ELLACOMBE with We Sing the Mighty Power of God:
And because it is fun to share something different, here is ELLACOMBE on a mountain dulcimer:
Here is a lovely recording of Dr. Paul Tucker at Country Club Christian Church in Kansas City, MO, playing Alleluia! Hear God’s Story/W ZLOBIE LEZY
If you skip ahead to around 34 minutes in, you can hear our Alliance of Baptist friends at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC, singing Alleluia! Hear God’s Story.
https://www.facebook.com/PullenChurch/videos/531287495242030
Enjoy the listening! I look forward to hearing you all sing, Sunday!
[3] Christ Still Rises #CSR2020, Words by David Bjorlin, ©2020 GIA Publications, Inc. Used with permission under OneLicense.net #A-720486.