Hymns
March 24, 2010
You may be surprised at the worship topic I’ve chosen for today: I don’t sing in the choir, I don’t play an instrument, and if you’ve ever stood near me when we sing a new hymn, you know I also have no sense of timing. Yet to me, music — hymns in particular — is a vital part of worship. For me, the words of the hymns often express what I feel in my heart and soul, yet do not have the words to say. One of the reasons I so enjoy what is called contemporary Christian music is that the music sounds like the music to songs I grew up listening to, while the words are Biblical and faith based. Many of the words in praise songs (that we like to make fun of for saying the same 7 words over and over) come directly from the psalms.
However, my love of music is not purely based on the contemporary movement. Some of it has to do with tradition. At my last appointment, a group of us went twice a month to nursing homes for a devotion and hymn sing. I loved knowing that at least twice a month I would get to sing the first and last verses of “Amazing Grace”, “Count Your Many Blessings”, and “The Old Rugged Cross”, among so many other classics. There is peace in knowing that these hymns have touched people spiritually for decades or even centuries. The words gain power in the knowledge that despite individual Christian preferences, we have the same basic beliefs. We may be divided on many issues, but we can all agree that God’s grace is amazing, and we’ll come together to sing about it.
Hymns also play a role in our theological development. Most of us have at least heard of John Wesley. Most Methodists know him as the father of Methodism and are aware of many facets of his understandings of God and faith. However, many of us learn our theology from John’s brother Charles Wesley. He wrote thousands of hymns, some of which are in our current hymnal. In those hymns, Charles writes about many topics of faith. We sing those hymns, and thus, we learn about God, about faith, and about living Christian lives. A side note of interest: John was a big fan of singing during worship, but he did not think there should be choirs, harmonizing, organs, Latin hymns, or fuguing tunes. He believed the text was primary; everything else was a distraction. Obviously, the Methodist church has moved away from this, as Garrison Keillor has pointed out in the past.
For many worship leaders, there is a temptation to select favorite hymns for times of worship. However, every effort should be made to select music that complements the service, the scripture, and the sermon. Obviously, we wouldn’t want to sing an Advent hymn on Pentecost (see last week’s article if you aren’t sure about Advent and Pentecost) just because we like the song. And unfortunately for preachers, the congregation often learns more from the hymns than they do from the sermon, so it makes sense to have everything match.
I leave you with a final thought on hymns. Karl Barth, a well-known theologian, says that a community that doesn’t sing is not a faith community. So our hymns are not just an effort to break up the amount of time we spend sitting during worship, or to give the worship leaders a break from merely talking. Hymns play a vital role in our understandings of God, the Bible, and our faith, in addition to uniting our voices as we lift them up to the Lord.
Heather Wong