Category: Sing Praise

Gather us in

Today’s hymn is a modern one, but familiar to me: usually known as “Gather us in” as that phrase occurs three times, but the first line is “Here in this place new light is streaming”, which keeps us on the Epiphany season theme of light coming into the world.  The theme of light recurs in the final verse – “Here in this place the new light is shining, now is the kingdom, and now is the day”. 

The overall theme, though, is indeed that of being gathered in.  The composer, Marty Haugen, is very much in the liberal / inclusive tradition of contemporary Christianity, and makes the point well here: in Christ everyone is gathered together: “the lost and forsaken, the blind and the lame … the young and the old … the rich and the haughty, the proud and the strong”. The light of Christ banishes the differences that have set people apart. 

The third verse diverges from these themes of gathering and light, and is appropriate to include for the communion service or celebration of mass – something that many of us are missing at present in the Covid pandemic with its lockdowns and social distancing. At best we might be allowed to remove our masks for a moment to slip a consecrated wafer, dropped at arm’s length into the hand, into our mouths. But no sharing of the symbolic common cup, only a ‘spiritual’ partaking in the blood of Christ, and no chance of hugging a fellow worshipper at the Peace.  Not knowing how long this will last, my choices of hymns on Sundays this year will include as many eucharistic songs as I can find in the book. 

But the words of this verse remind us that the communion is not only for our own benefit: we are gathered in from our different backgrounds only to be sent out again together. We are invited here to sing “call us anew to be salt for the earth”, and “nourish us well and teach us to fashion lives that are holy and hearts that are true”.  The Christians strengthened by the body and blood of Christ go out as one body to be of service in the world, in the light of his presence.

Wise men, they came to look for wisdom

Today’s Epiphany hymn is ‘Wise men, they came to look for wisdom’.  The story of the ‘wise men’, otherwise known as ‘magi’ or ‘the three kings’ is well known, though tales of their journey from the East are much embellished.  The hymn points out in verses 1, 3 and 4 that the baby they found was greater than themselves in various ways: wiser (as the son of God) than the wisest of men, a better light for their lives than that of the star they had been following, and a ‘gift beyond price’ more valuable than any amount of gold they could bring.  

The second of the four verses takes a different approach.  It contrasts the magi, ‘pilgrims from unknown countries’ travelling through lands strange to them to an unknown destination, with Jesus who already ‘knows the world’ because as the Word of God he was responsible for its creation in the first place (this is another of those unprovable acts of faith that Christians are asked to participate in: that although born of woman, Jesus was in a unique sense ‘born before all worlds’).

One of the claims of Christianity is that while people may think they are seeking God, it is in reality God, always present by his spirit, who is always seeking people and our task is to let ourselves be found. There are several reference in the Bible to God calling people by their names, from Adam in the Garden of Eden to Saul on the Damascus road, but this second verse also makes a point that we don’t know the names of the magi from the Biblical story (the names Melchior, Caspar and Balthasar are later inventions). This point is reinforced in the last lines of the verse: “Jesus, in you the lost are claimed, strangers are found, and known, and named”.   The question I have to ask myself is, when did I last hear God call my name (probably a long time ago) and how can I listen out this year to hear him calling me, finding me, and claiming me again?

Arise, shine out, your light has come

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany when we celebrate the revelation of God in the birth of Jesus. It’s also a festival of light, both in the spiritual sense of enlightenment, of seeing the world in a new way in the ‘light’ of God’s presence, but also (in the northern hemisphere) marking the latest time of sunrise – 08.40 this morning where I live – after which the days get lighter again.

The hymn I have chosen appears in the ‘Epiphany’ section of the hymn book, although it doesn’t directly address either of those uses of the idea of of light – the literal sunrise, or the birth of Jesus. Instead it takes another way in which the Bible uses the idea of light, when it speaks of the new creation (or ‘New Jerusalem”) to come at the fulfilment of time, a creation in which there will be no violence, no pain, no tears, no death, and also no darkness: “the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb” [i.e. the sacrifice of Jesus] Rrevelation 21:23).

This looking forward to a time of perfection is an attractive proposition at a time of pain, isolation and death from the Coronavirus, and a national lockdown in England occurring in the middle of winter. To some people it may be seen as just wishful thinking, but as we saw yesterday with the divinity of Christ and the Communion of Saints, these are very much matters of faith. If we have faith in Jesus as the human incarnation of the eternal father, and in everlasting life with him for those who have died in that faith, then the idea of a whole new creation with Jesus as its light makes sense. And if you ask “what does faith look like?”, I refer you to my earlier blog post in December “Advent Faith” which you will find by scrolling down the recent posts.

God we praise you (Te deum)

After two hymns this week based on the Psalms, today’s hymn, “God we praise you, God we bless you” by Christopher Idle is based on the ‘Te Deum’ – an ancient hymn or canticle traditionally sung at morning prayer.  It reminds us of two things.  Firstly, that the baby Jesus whose birth we have been celebrating for the last twelve days of Christmas is the same King of Glory in heaven.  It is a teaching that has been handed down to us from those who knew Jesus, who had both heard the story of his humble birth (presumably from his mother Mary) and also experienced his transfiguration, resurrection and ascension.  When Jesus shocked Jewish leaders by saying things such as “Before Abraham was, I am!” or “He who has seen me has seen the Father”, he was claiming to be God. As C.S.Lewis memorably put it,  “a man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil.” Christians believe that Jesus was not mad, or evil, but truly God.

The other Christian belief found in the Te Deum is that of the ‘Communion of Saints’.  The apostles, martyrs, prophets and saints – and for that matter anyone who has died believing in Christ – are, we believe, not only alive in heaven (whatever that might mean) but are aware of what is happening on earth and able to pray to God on our behalf.

These two beliefs are of course ‘acts of faith’ that cannot be proven scientifically or evidentially.  But if you hold to them, particularly at this time of lockdown when many people do not see others for days or weeks at a time, it can be a comfort that there is this ‘invisible cloud of witnesses’ along with Jesus Christ himself, who know what we are going through and are constantly praying for us.  The hymn ends with these words –“King enthroned above all praises, save your people, God, we pray!”

Come with newly written anthems

Today’s hymn, “Come with newly written anthems” is by the same composer as yesterday’s and is another psalm setting (this time Ps.98).  Although it has its own tune called “St Paul’s Cathedral” I sing it to a better known one, Abbot’s Leigh (likely to be in any popular hymn book).

The first verse praises God for his qualities – mercy, strength, holy kindness – and the fact that he never forgets or breaks his promises. The last verse speaks of God coming with justice, although more literal translations of Psalm 98 speak of God coming to “judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity (or truth)” which is a bit scarier.  Some hymns, as we will no doubt see later in the year, are less about joyful praise and more about engaging with the righteousness and truth (i.e. being faithful to God in our actions and words).

In between these two, the middle verse focuses on our response to God, exhorting each other to be ‘creative’ in our worship as well as skilful. It also speaks of rejoicing, of having a thankful heart and cheerful voice. And most important of all, to “focus on the wonders of God’s greatness as you sing”.  If hymn singing becomes just a routine, part of a sandwich of activities making up a church service in between readings and prayers, it can be easy just to go with the flow and not pay much attention either to the words or the emotions they seek to evoke.  Which is one reason for this year-long challenge, in itself an exercise in being creative: to look at unfamiliar hymns as well as well known ones, ponder the words and sing them outside the context of church services.  That way, I hope I can get ‘under the skin’ of them and a bit closer to ‘worshipping God with righteousness and equity’ as well as joyfully.

Bring to God your new, best songs

Because for most of the year I’m not including Saturdays, today is day two of this project to sing through the hymn book (see the pinned introductory post for details).  It’s the second Sunday of Christmas, the one nearest to the Epiphany when we celebrate God’s presence in Jesus being revealed to the world through the visit of the magi.  The hymn I have selected is a modern one, “Bring to God your new, best songs”. It doesn’t have a tune of its own but of the available tunes that fit it, I sing it to the tune of an older hymn, “King of glory, King of peace”.

The words are an adaptation by an acquaintance of mine, Martin Leckebusch, of Psalm 96.  This psalm has a long history of being adapted to sung worship. In the Book of Common Prayer it is known as the Venite (from the first word of the Latin version – Come!), and is still set as one of the canticles to be read or chanted at Morning Prayer.  God is praised as the creator of all the world and its peoples. Some verses of it also inspired the Epiphany hymn sung in many churches on this day, “O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, bow down before him, his glory proclaim!” 

Whichever version of the psalm you prefer, the common themes are that after Epiphany the whole world, not just the people of Bethlehem, get to hear about the birth of Jesus, the presence of God among us.  And that there is no longer any excuse for idolatry – in Martin’s words, “Earth and heaven, revere the Lord your Creator: Why exalt some other god? He is greater!”

At the end of the twelve days of Christmas, the challenge is to do as the magi did, return home with a message of good new to tell the world. We can’t do that much in person at present, but this song calls us to “Bring to God our new songs” – we have other ways of communicating these days. In your phone calls, video conferences, tweets and other online interactions, how can you tell of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?

Be still, for the presence of the Lord

Day one of this project to sing through the hymn book (see the pinned introductory post for details).  For copyright reasons I’m not putting the full words up here but will link to other online sources where possible.

We’re still in the Christmas season (the Eighth Day of Christmas today) but as “Sing Praise” only has a few Christmas carols I will leave those to December, and start with some general ones appropriate to a new year. Today’s song is “Be still, for the presence of the Lord”, a modern one popular in many churches.  It reminds us that prayer and worship start with being still – ‘centring prayer’ as some people call it.  It calls us to “bow down before him now, in reverence and fear”.  There are thirteen references in the Bible to bowing down to God, a practice very familiar to Muslims but less so to Christians. It’s worth trying this physical symbol of our humility in God’s presence, or at least kneeling in prayer.

The second verse reminds us of the possibility in the stillness of being surprised by Gods’ sudden glorious presence around us, much as the shepherds were surprised by the angels’ song at the birth of Jesus or the wise men discerned God’s purposes in the appearance of a new sign in the sky.  The final verse, appropriate for a new year, responds to God’s work of cleansing and healing – “No work too hard for him, in faith receive from him”.  Whatever your current needs for cleansing and healing, bring them to God in humility and ask him to make his presence known in your life this year.

Sing Praise 2021 – introduction

Four years ago, in 2017, I set myself the task, which I completed, of reading through the Bible in a year.  You can read my thoughts on each day’s section in the archives of my blog.

For 2021 I have set myself a different challenge, to sing my way through a hymn book.  Why?  Several people recently, in the media and in church sermons, have commented that the Covid-19 pandemic, depriving us of most opportunities to hear live music or participate in singing, has also deprived us of something essential to our humanity.   Song, in its many forms, is at the heart of every culture.

It is particularly important in the Jewish-Christian religious tradition (with a few exceptions such as the Quakers who worship in silence).   St Paul tells his readers to “sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs”. This covers very succinctly the use of musical versions of the Psalms to express the full range of human emotions, settings of the creeds and liturgies of the church (hymns), and celebrating the love of God (spiritual songs).  This was expressed more fully and very eloquently by the Revd Keith Fraser-Smith, in his sermon for the first Sunday of Christmas at Christ Church, Upper Armley in Leeds.  You can watch it on the church’s Facebook page at https://tinyurl.com/y7op7wpw – start 13 minutes into the service for the sermon. Without these opportunities for collective worship in song, I have felt dissatisfied with my spiritual life in 2020. 

So, for 2021, starting as it does with a continued and indefinite ban on congregational singing, I will at least sing one hymn or song per day at home, and I will share some brief thoughts on these in subsequent blog posts.  Of the several hymn books on my shelf, I have chosen “Sing Praise” (published by Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd in 2010 – available from their website singpraise.hymnsam.co.uk ).  It has a good range of new songs and hymns, many of which I haven’t tried yet, along with some old favourites, and about half of them are themed to the seasons of the church year as observed by Catholic and Anglican churches. The number in the book (329) is close enough to 365 to allow for a different hymn nearly every day.

The principles I have observed in fitting these 329 songs to the calendar for 2021 are as follows:

  • A choice for every day from Sunday to Friday, plus Saturdays in Lent, Easter and Advent seasons (the remaining Saturdays will serve as catch-ups for the odd day that I may miss).
  • Seasonally themed where possible
  • Songs related directly to the Communion service are allocated to Sundays.
  • Outside the named church seasons (in “ordinary time”) the remaining hymns are randomly allocated.

If you’ve read so far, I hope you can join me for the rest of the year as we sing our way through 2021.