Oct
24
While we in the means are found
Filed Under Christmas, Music, Poetry, Prayer, The Church, Worship | Leave a Comment
I judge a hymnal on “The Newton Scale.” When I look at an unfamiliar hymnal, the first thing I do is thumb my way to the index to see how many (and which) hymns by John Newton are contained therein. It’s a pretty good indicator of the kind of piety the editors want to encourage. Newton’s hymns are, well, let me borrow the words of Kenny Bania, “That’s gold, Jerry! Gold!” Among Newton’s best are:
- Amazing Grace
- Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder
- Day of Judgment! Day of Wonders!
- How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds
- Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken
- Approach My Soul, the Mercy Seat
- Safely Through Another Week
The old Gadsby Hymnal has many Newton compositions. Certainly, some of these are not of the same calibre as the aforementioned classics (Does anyone remember Harlem Shuffle by the Rolling Stones, for example?). But below is a mighty good one from Newton. It is a prayer for the Spirit’s power to be unleashed in the ordinary means of grace, with 1 Corinthians 12:6-11 and 1:5 as a heading:
1 O thou, at whose almighty word
The glorious light from darkness sprung,
Thy quickening influence afford,
And clothe with power the preacher’s tongue.
2 ‘Tis thine to teach him how to speak;
‘Tis thine to give the hearing ear;
‘Tis thine the stubborn heart to break
And make the careless sinner fear.
3 ‘Tis also thine, Almighty Lord,
To cheer the poor, desponding heart;
To speak the soul-reviving word
And bid the mourner’s fears depart.
4 Thus, while we in the means are found,
We still on thee alone depend
To make the gospel’s joyful sound
Effectual to the promised end.
Thank you, John Newton.
Sep
17
Proverbs: Anger, continued
Filed Under Christian Living, Poetry, Proverbs | Leave a Comment
Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.
~Proverbs 16:32
A little extra something re: the 9/2 sermon on anger in Proverbs. This morning Andra
Mooney, retired English teacher, reminded me of William Blake’s 1794 poem “A Poison Tree” concerning unresolved anger:
I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe;
I told it not, my wrath did grow.And I water’d it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with my smiles
And with soft deceitful wiles.And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright;
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine,And into my garden stole
When the night had veil’d the pole:
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretch’d beneath the tree.
Aug
23
Say ‘ruminate’ around these parts, and people think about cows. That’s alright. OK, stop
thinking about cows for just a moment while I tell you about a quarterly arts and literature publication called Ruminate. It is a handsome, high-quality journal devoted to ‘faith in literature and art,’ the labor of some friends in Fort Collins, Colorado. And it is certainly worth a subscription and the time taken to drink it all in. The editors describe the Ruminate this way:
RUMINATE is a quarterly magazine for those who desire the space to share short stories, poetry, creative nonfiction, and visual art that resonate with the complexity and truth of the Christian faith. Each issue is a themed forum for literature and art that speaks to the existence of our daily lives while nudging us toward a greater hope. Because of this, we strive to publish quality work accounting for the grappling pleas, as well as the quiet assurances of an authentic faith. RUMINATE Magazine was created for every person who has paused over a good word, a real story, a perfect brushstroke— longing for the significance they point us toward.
My friend Richard Rieves, pastor of Grace Church Presbyterian in Fort Collins, gave me a free sample in June at the PCA General Assembly (full disclosure: he gave it to me like the proud papa he is, for his daughter Whitney is a reader for the magazine). I have carried it around with me for weeks in my bag as a ‘just in case I’m stuck somewhere with nothing to read’ kind of thing. Last week, though, I pulled it out of the bag and sat down with it a cup of coffee (yes, chicory, in case you were wondering). I’m urging you to sample with me, but brew your own coffee, because the coffee maker here at FPC Kosciusko isn’t very big.
Jun
26
Red Mountain Music
Filed Under Music, Poetry, Psalms, Worship | 2 Comments
Let me encourage you to sample and purchase CDs from the website of Red Mountain Music, a ministry of Red Mountain Church (PCA) in Birmingham, Alabama. Red Mountain has made a number of worthy contributions to the ‘hymn-rewrite’ movement, in which many great hymns forgotten over time or locked away in unsingable or obsolete tunes have been set to newer, simpler music. They call it ‘traditional text with truly contemporary music.’ Groups such as Red Mountain and Indelible Grace, along with individuals such as Chris Miner, are like restorers of antique furniture, who can bring out the true loveliness in an old piece and restore its usefulness.
Brian T. Murphy (who was a student at Auburn University while I was assistant pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Auburn–and he also helped us tremendously by playing piano for our worship services back then) writes on their web site:
…hymns ring true in a way that many modern songs simply do not. At times, it seems our ancestors had a stronger command of the language than we do. Their words drip with truth and paint pictures of the kingdom that make believers long for heaven. I cannot begin to describe what reading through these old hymnals has done to encourage the spirits of the musicians that play here. We find ourselves continually able to rest in the truth of these great lyrics, always with a sense that we are part of something much bigger than us or our little church. We are excited about this time in the church, and we are thrilled about this music.
The peculiar contribution of Red Mountain Music has been the The Gadsby Project, a reworking of 14 hymns from Gadsby’s Hymns, published in several stages during the 19th century. The Gadsby hymnal contains the text of 1,156 settings of psalms and hymns, most of which were penned during the 17th and 18th centuries. A goodly number of lesser-known hymns by masters such as Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, Joseph Hart and John Newton have been mined from this hymnal, and Red Mountain Music has done the Church a great service by reacquainting us with these songs of Zion.
I would also recommend their 2006 release Help My Unbelief, which continues in the spirit of The Gadsby Project by drawing from that vast resource. What is remarkable about Help My Unbelief is that it is a collection of hymns on the theme of doubt, struggle, longing, and crying out to God for help. These songs give expression to Christian struggles and laments in a brutally honest way in the biblical expectation that Christ meets us in the midst of the mess of our lives, and he does so as one who ‘will not break the bruised reed or quench the smoking flax.’ Help My Unbelief is a collection ‘for God’s prodigals and sojourners as they wait patiently for the Kingdom to come.’
Apr
4
All ye that pass by
Filed Under Easter, Justification, Music, Poetry | Leave a Comment
Chip Stam, Director of the Institute for Christian Worship at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, has a weekly “Worship Quote of the Week” you can receive as a free email (click here for more info). This week’s is a Charles Wesley poem about the atoning death of Christ. The opening line is based on Lamentations 1:12:
Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me,
which the LORD inflicted on the day of his fierce anger.
ALL YE THAT PASS BY
All ye that pass by, to Jesus draw nigh:
To you is it nothing that Jesus should die?
Your ransom and peace, Your surety He is:
Come, see if there ever was sorrow like His.
For what you have done His blood must atone:
The Father hath punished for you His dear Son.
The Lord, in the day of His anger, did lay
Your sins on the Lamb, and He bore them away.
He answered for all: O come at His call,
And low at His cross with astonishment fall!
But lift up your eyes at Jesus’ cries:
Impassive, He suffers; immortal, He dies.
He dies to atone for sins not His own;
Your debt He hath paid, and your work He hath done.
Ye all may receive the peace He did leave,
Who made intercession, “My Father, forgive!”
For you and for me He prayed on the tree:
The prayer is accepted, the sinner is free.
That sinner am I, who on Jesus rely,
And come for the pardon God cannot deny.
My pardon I claim; for a sinner I am,
A sinner believing in Jesus’ Name.
He purchased the grace which now I embrace:
O Father, Thou know’st He hath died in my place.
His death is my plea; my Advocate see,
And hear the blood speak that hath answered for me.
My ransom He was when He bled on the cross;
And losing His life He hath carried my cause.
—Charles Wesley, 1707-1788, from METHODIST HYMNS, 1779.
Mar
30
Easter Poem by George Herbert
Filed Under Easter, Poetry | Leave a Comment
Here is an Easter poem by George Herbert.
Easter
Rise, heart, thy lord is risen. Sing his praise
Without delays,
Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
With him may’st rise:
That, as his death calcinèd thee to dust,
His life may make thee gold, and, much more, just.
Awake, my lute, and struggle for thy part
With all thy art,
The cross taught all wood to resound his name
Who bore the same.
His stretchèd sinews taught all strings what key
Is best to celebrate this most high day.
Consort, both heart and lute, and twist a song
Pleasant and long;
Or, since all music is but three parts vied
And multiplied
Oh let thy blessed Spirit bear a part,
And make up our defects with his sweet art.
George Herbert
