Sacred the Body
I wrote this post for my good friend, Kate Giguere Morris, and her blog Thighs and Offerings, where she embraces questions relating to spirituality, the body, eating disorders, and culture.
Sacred the Body
Sacred the body God has created,
temple of Spirit that dwells deep inside.
Cherish each person; nurture creation.
Treat flesh as holy, that love may abide.Bodies are varied, made in all sizes,
pale, full of color, both fragile and strong.
Holy the difference, gift of the Maker,
so let us honor each story and song.Love respects person, bodies, and boundries.
Love does not batter, neglect or abuse.
Love touches gently, never coercing.
Love leaves the other with power to choose.Holy of holies, God ever loving,
make us your temples; indwell all we do.
May we be careful, tender, and caring,
so may our bodies give honor to you.-Ruth Duck
I love this hymn text, but it also troubles me. Then again, maybe the tension is why I love it.
First, my initial reaction to speaking of one’s body as a temple is the negative way I’ve seen the phrase used. Mostly, in my experience, it’s usually male pastors who use the phrase to coax female teens not to have sex. Somehow, the message doesn’t get communicated to the boys as clearly, and really, the “just say no to sex” message is a huge pigeon-holing of Paul’s letter (and bad sex ed, but that’s another matter). … Continue Reading
Sing an Old Song to the Lord
Last Sunday night I attended a hymn sing in Montreat. I’m not sure how long these Sunday evening sings have occurred, but they seem quite the tradition. The average age skews fairly high (as does Montreat’s cottager population in general,) but there’s also a good intergenerational mix.
As in many “y’all come” hymn sings, those who show up get to pick the hymns. The leader will then spice things up with some instructions as to whom might sing what parts and similar such funness. Heck, I’m a hymn nerd, I enjoy singing, and social situations are great too…ergo, I love the hymn sings.
But, last Sunday night, an odd thing happened. Or, at least, it was odd if you know just a little about Presbyterian history.
After thirty minutes of people shouting out hymns to sing, I thought it strange, but held my tongue. After another ten, I got real nervous. After a few more minutes, I gave up, spoke up, and took things into my own hands.
I requested we sing a psalm.
After 45 minutes, this group of mainly older Presbyterians had requested many a favorite hymn, several topical hymns for evening, and few noting July 4th, but not one psalm.
Psalm singing is our tradition. For many many years, Presbyterians ONLY sang psalms. Calvin was all about psalms. We still use many tunes from the Genevan psalter. Oh, and that Knox guy and his Scottish friends came up with a darn good psalter of their own. “What do Presbyterians bring to the interdenominational hymn sing pot luck supper?” Psalms. The answer is psalms. (Lutherans have some fancy fun chorales, Methodists bring Wesley…and Wesley, Anglicans at least have some chants, and so on…) But Presbyterians bring psalms, right?
Well, from this tiny sample size, at least, psalms haven’t stuck in people’s hearts and heads like they used to. I’m all for singing new texts, but I’m worried that those younger generations at the hymn sing will grow up without knowing, without singing their heritage. So I can’t wait for next week’s hymn sing. I already know what I’ll request. I have 150 options.
image by Julia Freeman-Woolpert
What's so hip about "Guide My Feet"?
The past few days I’ve been meeting with the Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song in Louisville. It’s a formidable but fun group with whom it’s a joy to work. I’ll have a few more reflections going up in the next week or so, but this one I had actually been planning to write for a while.
It won’t be news to anyone that each worshiping community develops a kind of core to their congregational song repertoire. Some hymns, for identifiable reasons and un, are particularly popular in certain congregations. Obvious examples include hymns or songs written by members, or pieces commissioned for the congregation.
(A favorite song in Montreat is “Montreat How I Love You,” which is a camp favorite but, I dare say, not being considering for the hymnal.)
I’m not really sure why this is, but by far the most popular hymn for Columbia Seminary chapel services is the African-American spiritual “Guide My Feet”. Nobody keeps good records about this at CTS as far as I know, so I’m only claiming this as a frequent chapel attender, but I’m willing to say ‘“Guide My Feet” was the most-sung hymn in each of my three years at Columbia.’
Mostly, at Columbia, senior M.Div. students plan and lead chapel services for the community. Why, then, is “Guide My Feet” so popular? Who knows, but here’s a few possible reasons that come to mind.
- I’ll be generous with my first reason: “Guide My Feet” is just a very good hymn. It’s chosen often because of it’s high quality. There’s probably something to this. Though it’s a simple text, it’s one of very sound theology. While some hymns can be a bit wordy, or too showy, “Guide My Feet” gets right to the point: help us out God! The tune is catchy, easy to sing, and has a rich heritage. It also invites easy singing in harmony.
- Less generous second reason: the average musical skills of seminary students these days are not great. Many (most?) are not very comfortable reading music and they have been formed by congregations with fairly small core hymn repertoires. When this is the case, flipping through the hymnal is a daunting task — especially when one feels the hymns will be analyzed by students and professors alike. So, “Guide My Feet” becomes a comfortable, safe, and familiar choice. It looks good on the page, so students choose it.
- Third reason for right now: “Guide My Feet” has several verses, but they are simple repeated words and one does not need the have one’s face buried in the hymnal to sing. In fact, one barely needs the words written at all. Perhaps this gives worshipers a confidence to sing out, a comfort not to worry about the words. Knowing the words make the hymn easy not just to sing, but to pray.
So that’s a few thoughts on the popularity of “Guide My Feet” at Columbia Seminary. What’s the most popular song in your place of worship? Any ideas why?
image by chris1961
A week later
It was a joy to attend the first meeting of the Presbyterian Hymnal Committee last week. Strange, I know, “a joy to attend a meeting.” Truly, though, I had a great time getting to know the other committee members, and getting a better grasp of our task.
The Presbyterian News Service has a wee pic from the commissioning service here.
And Linda Valentine blogs about things here.
I won’t bore you with meeting details, but I will say that I took away from our meeting both great excitement about the road ahead and clarity that the task before us is, well, hard.
The largest American Lutheran denomination (ELCA) came out with their newest hymnal two years ago. Rumor has it, they received over 10,000 hymns to consider for the hymnal. That number is both heartening since it shows the huge popularity of hymnody and explosion of new texts and tunes in recent years, but also harrowing since the committee had to find the time and energy to consider 10,000 hymns!
The PC(USA) is in a delicate place at the moment, theologically, pastorally, financially. My personal hope, then, is that through the process of developing the next hymnal we might in some way, with God’s help, be strengthened, uplifted, and soothed through the collection of hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs to God. After all, it is to God’s glory that we work and sing.
From the wedding singer: Now the Silence, Then the Glory
Today marks week two of our road trip, and day two in Kansas City, Kansas (Overland Park, to be precise). We’re enjoying KC, the wedding festivities, and the relative luxuries of the hotel–our Aspen campground didn’t have showers, let alone A/C and an exercise room.
At tomorrow’s wedding, I’ll be singing this beautiful and biblical text by Jaroslav Vajda (other famous hymns include “Go My Children” and “God of the Sparrow”).
A Luther pastor, though Vajda translated hymns from Slavic from a young age, his own writing career didn’t begin until he was almost 50 years old. And even then, it was almost by accident.
In 1968, when Vajda was editing This Day magazine, Vajda found himself having to fill a blank page in the magazine before the copy went to the printer three days later. Vajda decided he would fill the page himself. As he shaved the next morning, he was bothered by a question which had troubled him for years. He was always struck by the psalmist’s statement, “I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord.” Not only did Vajda perceive most contemporary worshipers as not particularly glad when anticipating worship, he himself was not always pleased at the prospect of worship. Vajda then attempted to write a hymn that would prepare worshipers in a way that might enable them to identify more with the psalmist. “Now the Silence” was born.
Now the silence
Now the peace
Now the empty hands uplifted
Now the kneeling
Now the plea
Now the Father’s arms in welcome
Now the hearing
Now the pow’r
Now the vessel brimmed for pouring
Now the body
Now the blood
Now the joyful celebration
Now the wedding
Now the songs
Now the heart forgiven leaping
Now the Spirit’s visitation
Now the Son’s epiphany
Now the Father’s blessing
Now
Now
Now
To fill the blank space, Vajda listed out the Lutheran order of worship, noting what happed at each cycle. He later wrote, “As I went through the list, I realized there was so much there that I was missing, or that the average worshiper was missing, simply because of not anticipating. I thought, if this kind of hymn (or poem) could be sung or read at the beginning of a church service, a person would be more conscious of what’s happening in that holy hour.” He wrote the basis for “Now the Silence” in next thirty minutes.
The hymn was published in This Day and caught the attention of Carl Schalk, a professor of music at Concordia University in River Forest, Illinois. Schalk contacted Vajda, asking if he could set the text to music. Vajda agreed. The hymn has since appeared in 20 hymnals. Vajda continued writing hymns, mainly in his retirement, and has now published more than 200 original and translated hymns.
Later, Vajda wrote another text set to the same Schalk tune, “Then the Glory”
Then the glory
Then the rest
Then the Sabbath peace unbroken
Then the garden
Then the throne
Then the crystal river flowing
Then the splendor
Then the life
Then the new creation singing
Then the marriage
Then the love
Then the feast of joy unending
Then the knowing
Then the light
Then the ultimate adventure
Then the Spirit’s harvest gathered
Then the Lamb in majesty
Then the Father’s Amen
Then
Then
Then
I don’t know the full story for this second text, but as in the first, every image is straight from the Bible. I love its eschatological emphasis, and the contemplative imagery-driven approach. The hymn invites the reader to imagine, to reflect on the Bible, but also to just experience the rich variety of God’s promises.
I certainly won’t due the hymn justice tomorrow at the wedding, but in that one-of-a-kind congregation gathered for a wedding around the word, a couple will make their vows and God’s covenant of love will be celebrated and honored. Now, and then, may God be praised.
image by Scyza
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