Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

Sunday, February 2, 2014


How does music 'color' our worship today?  I use the word 'color' as a way to recognize that music adds a new dimension to our experience, in a way that is symbolic or associative.   Almost all would agree that music has an emotive dimension - that is, that it is expressive of a feeling, or even manipulative in producing a feeling.  But music that is Gospel oriented, or carries the Word, is more than simply emotive.  And thus, I ask this question:  How does music 'color' our worship today?  Or how does music reveal something new about the Gospel we encounter in worship?

Olivier Messiaen is a great composer to consider when entertaining the notion of 'color.' In a literal way, it is helpful to know that he saw certain color patterns visually when hearing certain musical patterns.  In a more abstract way, he was very interested in how his music could be exegetical, or in other words, a vehicle for carrying and expressing a biblical message.  His composition Le Banquet celeste, composed in 1928, is prefaced by the text from John's Gospel "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in Him" (John 6:56).  The music is a contemplative and quiet meditation on the mystery of the Eucharist, selected to highlight the celebration this morning with the second-grade children of First Communion. Listen how the slow-moving chords and the 'tear-drop' melody transport us to a place of calm and mystery.  The Word is being 'colored.'

Other hymns this morning emphasize the Eucharist theme.  In terms of 'color,' think about how the energy of the Welsh folk tune THE ASH GROVE combines with the compelling text of "Sent Forth by God's Blessing" (ELW 547).  The text emphasizes how the nourishment we receive in Holy Communion prepares us, and "incites us" to be sent forth from our worship to "work for your kingdom and answer your call."

Last note for the morning:  We continue to encounter some of the music from ELW Setting Six in our liturgy.  Today, I will play the "Lamb of God" setting on the piano, as a way to familiarize our gathering with this new music.  This setting presents an African American gospel style of music.  One of the characteristics about this style that I've learned is to not play too fast - think about how the tempo of the piece 'colors' your impression about the text.  My personal image is of a certain richness, or depth to the expression.

Third Sunday after Epiphany

January 26, 2014

A charismatic gospel singer once said “all God’s songs for all God’s children.”  She was encouraging the use of music from many cultures and places as a way to expand our own awareness of who we are as Christians in this multi-faceted world. 

You should notice a distinctly jazz or gospel feel in worship today.  The soulful “Kyrie” comes from Dinah Reindorf, a music educator who worked for many years in Ghana.  To my ears, the plaintive melody richly imbues the call “Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy” with a keen sense of longing, or a cry coming from deep within the soul.  Historically, the Kyrie eleison does not connote begging before God, but is rather a gesture of submission or reverence before the One who merits awe.  How does the subtle rhythmic repetition in this setting establish a sense of plaintive reverence?

Mark Sedio subtitles his setting of “We Are Marching/Send me, Jesus” a “marriage of Africa and American Jazz.”  My question for you is:  In this Epiphany season of Christ made manifest (revealed), how does the sound of the jazz idiom cause you to hear and know Christ in a new way?  In other words, when you hear music that is perhaps not normal to our worship, do you find yourself contemplating the gospel from a different perspective?  

Second Sunday after Epiphany/Reconciling in Christ Sunday

Second Sunday after Epiphany/Reconciling in Christ Sunday

Sunday, January 19 2014

As part of our celebration of Reconciling in Christ Sunday at First Lutheran, our hymns today emphasize themes of welcome and justice.  The Gathering Hymn, We Are Called, invites us to "live in the light," an image appropriate for the season of Epiphany, and calls us to live in justice and unity as "brothers and sisters united in love."  Our Hymn of the Day, Love Divine, All Loves Excelling, expands upon the theme of love, focusing upon Jesus as pure compassion and unbounded love.  This hymn text is by Charles Wesley, who together with his brother John, originated the Methodist movement.  Charles wrote over 1000 hymns including Hark, the Herald Angels Sing and O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing.  The language and music of the first hymn comes from David Hass, a contemporary hymn writer and liturgist who lives in Eagan, Minnesota.  Hass is one of the primary leaders of the post-Vatican II musical movement in the Roman Catholic Church.

Today we continue to learn a new setting of the Sanctus, or the Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, in the Eucharist portion of the service.  The music is from Setting 6 in Evangelical Lutheran Worship, a setting rooted in the African American Gospel musical style.  One blessing of ELW is the invitation to embrace styles of music from other times and places; in the singing of this setting, we celebrate our unity with our brothers and sisters whose musical tradition (Gospel) is somewhat different than our Minnesota/Swedish tradition!

The Sanctus, a hymn of praise, is the conclusion of the Eucharistic Prayer and sings of the glory of God in the highest.  The two parts of the Sanctus reference two biblical texts.  The first part is from Isaiah 6:3 which describes a vision of God's throne surrounded by the seraphim, while the second part is from Matthew 21:9, which describes the Palm Sunday entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

Both of the offering music selections today relate to the Gospel lesson, in which John the Baptist declares Jesus the Lamb of God.  Both the Bach organ work O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig and the choral setting by F. Melius Christiansen use the tune (and text in the case of the Christiansen) of Nikolas Decius, a 16th century hymn writer who was a colleague of Martin Luther in Wittenberg.  

Hildegard on Music

Hildegard of Bingen (1098 - 1179), abbess, musician, spiritual leader, practitioner of healing arts, wrote this about music:

A voice emanating from the living Light made me think on David's psalm, which says:  "Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!  Let everything that breathes praise the LORD!  Praise the LORD!"  These visible words teach us invisible spiritual lessons.   When we sing, we repossess some of the Eden that we lost when Adam fell.

That's why the Holy Spirit inspired prophets to write songs, to touch the hearts of all who hear them.  The prophets were also called to make different kinds of musical instruments to accompany these songs of praise, enriching them.  When we hear the splendid music that these instruments make, absorbing the meaning of the psalms' words, we learn more about spiritual truths alive within us.

Music stirs our hearts and engages our souls in ways we can't describe.  When this happens, we are taken beyond our earthly banishment back to the divine melody Adam knew when he sang with the angels, when he was whole with God, before his exile. . . .

Translation by Carmen Acevedo Butcher in Hildegard of Bingen: A Spiritual Reader, Paraclete Press, 2007.

At the end, some conclusions (but not all!)

Dear friends at First Lutheran,

The sabbatical was a blessing, which I truly treasured and enjoyed.  The blog is not over, though!  Now, at the end of three months of reading, thinking, praying, and resting, I decided I should coalesce many of my thoughts into broader conclusions.  Here are some of them.  Chad

The liturgy of Eucharist, as an order throughout Christian history, distills to four elements:  Word, table talk, prayer, Meal. 

Be mindful of the pattern (the form, the vessel) of liturgy and embrace the many possibilities with which to follow the pattern (to flesh out the form, to fill the vessel.)

Be mindful of what parts of the liturgy are almost always necessary, and what are dispensable. 

For example, the Great Thanksgiving and Eucharistic prayer combination has a more central place in worship historically and functionally than the Canticle of Praise. 

We always hear scripture, but which ones?  All or some from the RCL?  Another lectionary?  Omit some, keep others?

Context and tradition matter, but they are not binding. 

The traditions we have inherited come from many sources.  Many times, elements of our liturgy suited specific needs for a local congregation.  (For example, the Kyrie eleison as part of the 4^th century Roman procession from basilica to basilica.)

I think we can be flexible yet intentional every Sunday with how we organize our worship.

Words matter!  What are the texts we are singing, praying, and hearing?

Liturgy is formative.  Lex orandi, lex credendi.  (As we pray, so we believe.)

Be mindful of a tension between a desire to be creative or pragmatic and a desire to establish pattern and memory.

Establish a formative pattern?  For example, use the Kyrie every Sunday for a significant period of time (i.e. a season) and from the same setting.

Worship should be authentic.  Embrace and use the gifts of the local assembly.  Let the liturgy tell something about ourselves.  

First Lutheran:  care for creation: hospitality to all; missionary spirit; love for art, music, poetry, drama; intellectual curiosity; service to community, others?

We should take time to educate our members about worship. 

            Once a month sessions in the chapel following worship?

            One confirmation class?

            Monday morning study of the biblical texts that form liturgy?

HYMNS and hymn selection

Words matter!

1)       Identify a core of hymns appropriate to our setting, context, tradition and desires. 

a.       Repeat these hymns often. 

b.       Review the core and add and subtract to the list as time passes.

2)       Identify hymns that tell the story, in contrast to hymns that curve inward upon our own story.  Sing these more often than other hymns.

a.       Hymns of personal piety have a place in worship, but in a society already consumed with a focus upon the individual self, we should do more proclaiming than reflecting.

b.       Hymns should express our worldview as Christians.

3)       Seek to balance these four kinds of music that illustrate ways of knowing God:

a.       Music of majesty

b.       Music of meditation

c.       Music of meeting

d.      Music of memory  (This is where hymns such as Precious Lord, Take My Hand or What a Fellowship, What a Joy Divine fit into the picture.)

Lord Jesus Christ, Be Present Now

Lord Jesus Christ, be present now; our hearts in true devotion bow.  Your Spirit send with light divine, and let your truth within us shine.

Unseal our lips to sing your praise in endless hymns through all our days; increase our faith and light our minds; and set us free from doubt that blinds.

Then shall we join the hosts that cry, “O holy, holy Lord Most High!”  And in the light of that blest place we then shall see you face to face.

All glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Three in One!  To you, O blessed Trinity, be praise throughout eternity!

Text attributed to Willhelm II, 1598-1662; translated by Catherine Winkworth, 1827-1878.

This hymn, ELW 527, brings to mind questions about learning ways to be flexible with our liturgy.  Can we learn this hymn, by singing it often and in the prominent place as Gathering Hymn, so that it becomes familiar, almost to the point of memorization?  Can we then spring from this comfortable position of familiarity to the point of intentionally using this hymn as the sole member of the Gathering rite? 

The text for this hymn is wonderfully revelatory in a rather concise way.  It describes our prayers for what we hope to happen in our worship, proclaims to whom we are praying, and sings our praise to the Holy Trinity.  This hymn “does” in two minutes what we often do in the ten minute medley of Gathering Hymn, Kyrie, and Canticle of Praise. 

All too often at First Lutheran, we encounter a conflict on Sunday morning.  The conflict centers around our intention to be faithful to form, which butts against our need to be mindful of the passage of time.  Our desire to be faithful to “the liturgy,” (in this sense the received tradition of worship services past,) sometimes causes us to retain portions of “the liturgy,” (in this sense the order described by the rubrics) that aren’t necessary to our worship on that particular day, but omit portions of the liturgy that we really must do every time we gather. 

I experience an inner anguish every time we omit the Great Thanksgiving because the clock is running out, while mindful that our service that morning has included a ten-minute gathering rite that incorporates a five stanza processional hymn, a Kyrie, and a canticle of praise.  In our worship planning, can we anticipate and identify what demands upon time will be present on a given morning, and then be intentional about how we “fill” the vessel of our liturgy?  Can we do so while conveying to the assembly that we aren’t simply omitting important portions of the liturgy, but using texts, anthems, psalms or other songs that also achieve what we intend? 

Hospitality and liturgical tradition

First Lutheran Church is a liturgical church.  Our members, those who have been attending for many years and those who have joined recently, expect and yearn for the liturgy, in its centuries-old historical form, to be done well and with integrity. 

Scan our congregation and see the people who are faithful pillars of our church, whether having attended for five weeks, five years, or five decades, and witness a testimony to the strength of our worship.  We need to have confidence that what we do every Sunday is attractive and hospitable to any guests that enter our nave with us. 

We must be confident that in our worship we are encountering God, through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit, “in Word, water, bread and wine” to “serve our community and the world.”  We must be confident that in our worship, our guests and our neighbors will experience that encounter as well, by witnessing and participating in the actions we do. 

Our confidence should be inviting.  Frank Senn asks in his book New Creation this question:  “What is the witness of the worshiping community to visitors?”  He continues with this observation:

“Do the people join in the liturgy, making the responses in a way that seems second nature to them and singing the songs with enthusiasm?  Augustine testified that the sight of the people at worship and the vigor of their singing was a powerful factor in his own conversion. 

“There’s a sense in which nothing is more hospitable than a congregation that knows its liturgy well and does it with a lack of self-consciousness that says:  this is as natural to us as life itself.  This is our life before God.”  (New Creation, 113)

As hosts, we do well to celebrate our liturgy with joy and confidence.  We must learn and practice the parts we have as participants in corporate worship, so that we can be evangelists through our actions. 

At least two corollaries emerge.  First, we must be willing to provide means to teach our liturgy, both to members and guests.  This includes teaching by the example of how we worship and also teaching by means of time spent outside of worship studying texts, music and history.  Second, we can learn to welcome our guests through personal interaction.  Our gestures of hospitality can include personally inviting a guest to sit nearby, or showing where in the hymnal a hymn is found, or simply saying “Welcome, and ask me if there’s anything you’d like to know.”  These sort of personal gestures are nothing less than what we do when guests arrive at our houses.  We can practice them at church as well!