Sing!

Music and Scriptures
July 12, 2009

A sermon by

The Rev. Dr. Laura Barnes

Scripture and Meditation #1

Psalm 84:1-4

¹How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! ²My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. ³Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. ⁴Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise.  

Good morning. I want to invite you to keep your hymnals open today as we will be referring to them throughout our time together this morning.

Over the next few weeks, The Rev Doug Howell and I will be working with you on various ways to engage in Bible study. Today we will explore how the music of our tradition can inform our own personal devotion time. Next week we will see how prayer and meditation can better prepare us to receive the Word and Doug will end this series with an emphasis on ways to study and review the texts through their historical and social contexts.  It is our hope at the end of this series that we will all be better prepared each morning for our personal scripture study as it is central to our spiritual journeys as Christians.

I want to lift up the New Century Hymnal today as a resource not only for music, but also for personal devotion. One can hardly celebrate the music of worship without honoring the Psalms. If you would, turn to page 675 in the back of your hymnal and look at the chant on today’s psalm, number 84, that is there. Let’s try this one – Kristin and I will teach it to you.  As I lead us in our first meditation today, we will use this chant to help us focus on the scripture text. (SING)

Thank you. Over the past few months, Kristin, Alan and myself have received quite a bit of input from many of you about the music we use in our worship services. We have received a lot of requests for change, especially as it relates to the hymns we sing together during worship. We appreciate your feedback and hope you have noticed that a new song has been introduced almost every week for the past ten weeks. We want your worship experience to be a good one and realize how very important music is to many of us. Having said that, I thought I would better explain how hymns get chosen and what their purpose is in the liturgy.

Basically for me, music is my gateway to the divine.  As a singer myself, I have always enjoyed music first, the spoken word second. My preference would be to sing my sermons, but not having been given the gift of that kind of voice, I have been asked to speak the words instead. I always say I would rather get paid to sing than to preach, but God had another plan for my life...

As Alan and I prepare each week for worship, we first review the lectionary texts for that week. If that is the text we choose to preach from, then we begin to explore possible hymns that relate theologically to that scripture. In your New Century Hymnal, you will notice there are several indices in the back. One that is very useful in planning worship is the Lectionary Index, which begins on p.912. We are in Year B, or the Markan cycle, of the lectionary, so turn to p. 916 under “Proper 10” which is the week we are currently in...there you will find eight suggestions for hymns which relate to our scripture for this week. Another way to select hymns is by the biblical text itself, so now turn to page 910, which is the Scripture Index. Go to the Psalm texts, and you will see there are a LOT of suggestions. Look at our Psalm for today, or number 84. There you will see 4 hymn ideas listed. We will be singing two of these in a few minutes.

Our New Century Hymnal is a great resource both for communal worship and for personal devotion time. Let us lift up the chant for Psalm 84 again, as we continue to prepare our hearts and minds for worship (sing chant, p. 675). Thank you.

My closing thoughts about our hymnal as resource is that we believe that God is Still Singing! Not only do we believe that God continues to reveal Herself, or Himself, in the biblical text, but we also believe God is being revealed to us through song, through chant, and through our hymns. Therefore, I am proud to announce that the UCC has produced a new hymnal (lift up a copy of SING!).  Over the next few weeks, we will be bringing several new songs to our worship experience through this exciting resource which was unveiled at the 27^th United Church of Christ General Synod this past month. All of your staff members have copies and are happy to share them with you, as well as invite you to explore the hymnal through the website, www.ucc.org.

Now, we turn back to our “old” New Century Hymnals to hymn selection number 8, let us sing the first verse of a hymn which relates to our Psalm for today. We will also then sing the first verse of hymn number 600, which is also tied to this psalm text.  Join me in singing now, from hymn number 8, Praise to the Living God. (sing)

Praise to the Living God, #8

Praise to the living God, the God of love and light,

Whose word brought forth the myriad suns and set the worlds in flight

Whose infinite design, which we but dimly see,

Pervades al nature, making all a cosmic unity.

How Lovely Is Your Dwelling #600

How lovely is your dwelling, O God, my hope and strength

My spirit longs for shelter, my flesh cries out for home,

Where even swallows nesting beside your altar resting

are ever praising you.

Scripture and Meditation #2                      

2 Samuel 6:1-5,12b-19

David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. David and all the people with him set out and went from Baale-judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who is enthroned on the cherubim. They carried the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart with the ark of God; and Ahio went in front of the ark. David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the Lord with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.

So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing; and when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. David danced before the Lord with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart. They brought in the ark of the Lord, and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it; and David offered burnt offerings and offerings of well-being before the Lord. When David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the offerings of well-being, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts, and distributed food among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, to each a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins. Then all the people went back to their homes.

You have probably noticed now that our scriptures are related to one another thematically. I see them as providing suggestions for ways we can offer our praise and thanks to God in worship.  Singing is certainly more central to our worship time together than dance, although perhaps one day we will move more as a congregation or even have a dance choir for our worship services. For now, we use some simple movements, or what I refer to as “Body Prayer” at the beginning of our services sometimes.

As we look at Psalm 84 and now this text from 2 Samuel, we are called to remember how important it is to praise God.  The psalmist celebrates the act of worship and praise throughout...”Happy are those who live in your house”, the psalmist declares, “and sing your praises.” We plan on doing a lot of that this morning.

As I turned to the scripture reference index in the back of the New Century Hymnal, I noticed there were no references for this text from Second Samuel. I was therefore “on my own”. I then seek a theological connection to the hymn I choose, hoping to move each of us to a deeper understanding of the text through song...and thus moving us closer to God during our worship experience together.

It was time to find a new and different hymn, one that is not currently in our hymnal.  This is where my musical background serves me well and I also rely on Kristin’s broad experience and musical talent as a resource.

We chose to use Lord of the Dance, do some of you know it? New words were written to this old Shaker tune, “Simple Gifts” by Sydney Carter.  They touch on the idea that we are all called to dance before God, as King David did before the Ark of the Covenant. Dancing is an ancient form of worship and celebration. I invite us to think about the dance of life, the dance we are all engaged in as Christians and followers of Jesus the Christ as we sing our next hymn together. (sing)

“Dance, then, wherever you may be;

I am the Lord of the Dance, said he.

And I’ll lead you all wherever you may be,

And I’ll lead you all in the dance, said He.”

Scripture and Meditation #3

Ephesians 1:3-14

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

Now this hymn selection is one of personal preference by a member of our congregation. For three weeks now, I have invited you to share your requests with us.  I received this request last Sunday and chose to incorporate it as my last meditation.  We have sung the first half of this beautiful hymn and will sing the last half following my meditation.

Borning Cry is a hymn that comes alive for each of us in different ways at different times of our lives.  The first line refers to the birth of a child.  I was recently blessed by a visit from Jacob and Fiona Zaretzka, the four-week old twins of Jennifer and Dan Zaretzka. I got to feed and hold tiny baby Jacob for several hours. Needless to say, I was “in heaven”.  I love babies, as many of you know, I often encourage our younger couples to go home and make more of them on Sunday afternoons...we need to keep that church nursery full!  Anyway, the delight we all received from the birth of a child is not only lifted up in this hymn, but also in the scriptures today from Paul’s letter to his church in Ephesus.  Paul writes that God “adopts us” as his children through our faith in Jesus. In this context, we lift up not only the young children in our midst, but also our own child like faith and trust in God. We celebrate the child-like way we are invited into God’s incredibly mysterious presence. We come before our Lord with the awe of a child.

This hymn is often used on Confirmation Sundays, as well as when we celebrate baptisms. I want to show you a stole that our youth recently purchased and gave to me to show their gratitude for my ministry to them. I want to thank Caitlin, Liana, Lauren, Zach, Gordon and Jameson for this lovely gift and for their love and support of their church family.  Many of them were confirmed in the past several years and this church has supported our ministry to our youth with a variety of mission trip and conference retreat experiences. This stole belongs to all of us, to our entire community. This is a church that celebrates the confirmation, active participation and full membership of our young people.  As we sing this hymn, as we read our scripture texts this morning, let us all celebrate our youth.

In a bit, you will then sing the final two verses of Borning Cry. They focus on the middle and later years of our lives. Again, in Ephesians, Paul refers to our lives as being blessed by an inheritance from God through Jesus the Christ.  As we grow old together, let us reflect on the passage in Ephesians and on this beautiful hymn.  It promises presence, I think, more than anything. As we have move into and through a season of grief here at DCC, celebrating the lives of many of our saints – Dorothy Erickson, Doug Krutilek, Glen Gierke, Larry Hill and soon, Tom McGovern – we realize the significance of their lives upon our collective ministry. I will never forget Tom’s line in our “Share the Vision” film, where he mentions the only thing that will fix our back building would be a hand grenade! What a great sense of humor he had!

So, as we move in and out of these celebrations of life – baptism, confirmation, marriages and deaths – let us remember that our scriptures and our hymns are woven into the fabric of these events, and of our lives. We stand here today, singing, reading and praying together – creating memories. This community of worshippers, this small part of the greater body of Christ, is better informed and lifted up when we are all here.  Our music sounds better when the entire body sings in one voice. Our worship is enlivened by our participation.  We will all be there to hear the borning cry and we will all be here when you shut your weary eyes.  God’s peace be upon you. Amen

I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry  #351

I was there to hear your borning cry,

I'll be there when you are old.

I rejoiced the day you were baptized,

to see your life unfold.

I was there when you were but a child,

with a faith to suit you well;

In a blaze of light you wandered off

to find where demons dwell."

"When you heard the wonder of the Word

I was there to cheer you on;

You were raised to praise the living Lord,

If you find someone to share your time

and you join your hearts as one,

I'll be there to make your verses rhyme

from dusk 'till rising sun.

In the middle ages of your life,

to whom you now belong.

not too old, no longer young,

I'll be there to guide you through the night,

complete what I've begun.

When the evening gently closes in,

and you shut your weary eyes,

I'll be there as I have always been

with just one more surprise.

I was there to hear your borning cry,

I'll be there when you are old.

I rejoiced the day you were baptized,

to see your life unfold.