7-14-24 Music
This week provides a bit of a departure from our “usual” at Grace Baptist Church, in that none of our hymns are new. Each comes from the hymnal, are solidly on the list of most popular hymns of all time, and come from one of the famous W's of hymnody: Watts and Wesley. They have been written about extensively, so rather than share more words here about them, I am going to link elsewhere, should you care to learn more about them:
Opening Hymn:
517 Love Divine, All Loves Excelling/BEECHER
https://hymnary.org/text/love_divine_all_love_excelling_joy_of_he
Invitation Hymn:
67 O God, Our Help in Ages Past/ST. ANNE
https://hymnary.org/text/our_god_our_help_in_ages_past_watts
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-o-god-our-help-in-ages-past1
During the service the choir will sing This is My Song, as arranged by John Ferguson (hear it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69f19S_4xlU ), and it is my hope that you will join us in the final stanza. Or, you can sing the whole thing with us if you join us for rehearsal at 9:45! Here are the words to the special third stanza, a prayer for peace, not found in our hymnal:
May truth and freedom come to ev’ry nation;
may peace abound where strife has raged so long;
that each may seek to love and build together
a world united, righting ever wrong;
a world united in its love for freedom,
proclaiming peace together in one song.[1]
FINLANDIA, the tune for This is My Song, was originally written as a Finnish patriotic song by Jean Sibelius, protesting neighboring Russia’s imperialism. It is fitting that this piece, written amidst strife, is now associated with this hymn of world peace, and also the great hymn of inner peace, Be Still My Soul.
Sibelius’s Finlandia, This is My Song, and others are what I consider to be healthy patriotism. This is My Song is also a song written to, and honoring, God. When taken to unhealthy places, patriotism becomes a much uglier thing, nationalism, or preference of one nation at the expense of others. When that nationalism is mixed in with Christian symbols, it distorts and corrupts those symbols and becomes one of modern America’s most challenging heresies, Christian Nationalism. Courtney will be discussing a Biblical example of something similarly happening in David’s time, as she continues her series in the Samuel Saga.
Let me tell you what a relief and joy it is to be in a church where no one has groused to me that we don’t have an American flag, say the pledge of allegiance, or sing patriotic music around the 4th of July. I don’t see us doing the first two ever, and if we were to sing patriotic music, it would only be because the scripture we are hearing in worship points to it-not for calendar reasons. That said, sometimes the scripture and calendar get a little close, and it made sense to sing This is My Song, which is certainly patriotic (if not US-Centric), a few Sundays after Independence Day.
There is still music being written today that is in this vein, worship songs that are prayers for our country. We won’t be singing them this Sunday, but I wanted to share them with you nonetheless. In 2011, before most of us knew the phrase “Christian Nationalism,” there were certainly reactionary politicians using Christianese to further their goals. As some churches put more American flags in the worship space, and called for God to bless America, Mennonite, and friend of Grace, Adam Tice penned this (use How Firm a Foundation/FOUNDATION or Immortal, Invisible/ST. DENIO if you want to sing it).
May God guide our country, our home, and our land,
from need to abundance, from warfare to rest;
guide all the world’s peoples to work hand in hand
to bless one another as we would be blest.
If God and a nation are seen as the same,
then God is not God of the whole human race.
To claim that our government acts in God’s name
Imposes a bound’ry on borderless grace.
We pledge our allegiance to Christ crucified
who liberates those bound by vi’lence and pain.
God, save us from idols of national pride
And teach us that yours is a boundless domain.[2]
Hannah Brown has a text that she wrote for FINLANDIA, that she published last year after visiting the Statue of Liberty. I believe true patriotism does not just celebrate who we are, but challenges us towards a more perfect fulfillment of those ideals like “all are created equal (with right to) life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Hannah’s text echoes Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. in that vein:
May we be free, all peoples, tribes, and nations,
as some have dreamed but none have yet achieved.
May we fulfill the hopes of generations
with strength and will to live what they believed.
May we be free, our longed-for liberations
grown from the seeds of all who fought and grieved.
May we be free, pursuing transformation
till bias, greed, and exploitation cease.
May we repent, engage in reparation,
join in lament, and struggle for release.
May we be free, as fresh imagination
helps us make real a just and lasting peace.[3]
I don’t have any specific listening assignments for you this week, except for the previous link I shared of the choir anthem, and one more. Growing up, my dad shared the music of patriotic folk protest. You may know their names, Woody Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie, Stan Rogers. Another such singer is Jewish American singer-songwriter Si Kahn. He uses the poem at the Statue of Liberty, The New Colossus, as the refrain in his song, The Lady of the Harbor. He recounts the ways we have succeeded, and have failed, to welcome the hungry, poor, stranger. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAvZgxsiJoA
Back in 2019, while learning as a BJC Fellow, I had the honor of being one of the first to get to sign the statement at www.christiansagainstchristiannationalism.org I hope that, if you haven’t already, that you would take the time to read what it is about and add your name, and maybe even your voice.
May God bless each of us and all of us.
Chris
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[1] This Is My Song - #AF20210995 arrangement by John Ferguson, ©2019 Augsburg Fortress Publishers. Used with permission under OneLicense.net #A-720486.
[2] May God Guide Our Country #88522 Words by Adam Tice, ©2011 GIA Publications, Inc.Used with permission under OneLicense.net #A-720486
[3] May We Be Free #U01676 Words by Hannah Brown, ©2024 GIA Publications, Inc.Used with permission under OneLicense.net #A-720486