Thoughts – Page 5 – hymnsandbooks

All of us are valued by God…a hymn…This goal of equality

All of us are valued by God – Matthew records these words of Jesus:
 
10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
30 And even the hairs of your head are all counted.
31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

And a hymn…

This goal of equality laid out before us,
where each one is valued and no-one denied,
is given, through loving, to those who will listen,
yet, while we should welcome, we often deride.

We look at our neighbours and judge by appearance:
the colour of skin or the cadence of voice,
the cut of a jacket or youthful confusion,
while prejudice beckons our ultimate choice.

Yet love would compel to see Christ clothe our neighbour,
the ragged and ugly gain elegant grace;
enabling discernment, refined understanding:
the future is present and all have a place.

Andrew Pratt Words © 2001 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk . Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd
Metre; 12 11 12 11
Tune: ST CATHERINE’S COURT

Transcendent tunes…The music of the spheres?

I was sitting in a fellowship group some years ago. We took turns at leading it. On one occasion a member of the group chose some music. I’d not heard it before – Saint Saens 3^rd Symphony, the Organ Symphony. I closed my eyes and found myself transported by the music to, what I can only describe as, a spiritual plane. In my mind I was somewhere other than the simple room in which we were sitting. And for me, this was worship.

At the centre of worship is the expectation of meeting with God, that which is other than ourselves. It is incomprehensible that such a meeting should leave us untouched. Years later I used this same music with images of nebulae from the Hubble Telescope to imagine and reflect on creation. My intention was to engender something transcendent and, for me, that is the essence of worship. Every act of worship should be predicated on that possibility, the expectation, of just such an encounter.

But what music should I choose? Just what music is sacred?

On another occasion, in another place, I wanted to introduce the topic of spirituality in music. As the group were assembling I played a piece by Giacinto FrancescoMaria Scelsi. He was Italian and best known for composing music based around only one pitch as in his Quattro pezzi su una nota sola (‘Four Pieces on a single note’, 1959, you can find it on YouTube). To me it seemed discordant. A person walked in and simply exclaimed, ’what beautiful music’! Not all music has the effect that you expect!

I was asked on one occasion which Rolling Stones’ track could be used for someone’s father’s funeral. My response, partly facetiously, was ‘anything but Sympathy for the Devil’. They had asked because the music of the Stones linked them immutably with ‘Dad’. For them, for this moment, it was right, appropriate, religious to my mind. But we are conservative and held captive to tradition.

A few weeks ago the person leading worship in our local Methodist Church chose to use: Richard Bewes, hymn based on Psalm 46[1] ‘God is our strength and refuge’. This is set to THE DAMBUSTERS’ MARCH. For many the tune will make us think of Lancaster Bombers breaking dams with bouncing bombs in the Ruhr in the Second World War. For some that precludes the use of this tune.

But should it? Just what music is sacred? Albert Blackwell in The Sacred in Music[2]suggests that no music is inherently religious, or secular. Our feelings in relation to music come, not from the music itself, but from the things which we associate with it, images linked to it, the occasion when we heard it, the words sung to it. So the music of a hymn, as much as the words, can produce feelings which are positive or negative.

It appears that, for the most part, the editors of the Methodist Hymn Book (1933) were conservative rather than innovative. Following the Great War there was a great need to regain the equilibrium that had been lost. There is comfort to be found in those things that are familiar and safe. Edwardian and Victorian music predominated, rather than the contemporary music of the 1930s. While that is understandable it is also a block to progress in the field of hymnody, textually and musically. Anyone who has tried to use Erik Routely’s ABINGDON to ‘And can it be’, for which it was written, rather than SAGINA, which is too triumphant for the meditative open lines, will have felt that resistance.

Past experience and present context will enable one person to gain a sense of the ‘other’ from music that will leave a different person cold. What works for one may be intensely unhelpful for another. Different learning styles, traditions and expectations frame our ability to participate, or prevent such participation. How often do we take this into account when we lead, or curate worship, when we choose music? Perhaps we should think on that when we select our hymns, or the music, recorded or otherwise, used in worship. And even silent prayer is, perhaps sometimes better left silent, than accompanied by music which may bring to mind unhelpful associations, or which may jar; veiling that religious atmosphere which it is our task to engender.

Is it sometimes right that we simply hear God’s still, small voice?

Rev Dr Andrew Pratt – originally published in the Methodist Recorder for ArtServe

[1] Richard Bewes (1934-2019) based on Psalm 46m © Jubilate Hymns

[2] Blackwell, A., The Sacred in Music (1999) Lutterworth Press.

Reflection for Ascension Day

Thanks to the Northwich & Winsford Guardian Camera Club

Reflection on Ezekiel 37 and the raising of Lazarus

Reflection on Words taken from Ezekiel 37: 1-14 and the story of the raising of Lazarus.

To set the scene - The people of Israel had been taken into exile. The temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed. They thought that God had deserted them. Then a prophet called Ezekiel came and spoke to the people and this is what he said:

Reflection 1: Some people think that faith is rigid. You learn facts. You believe them. You’re saved. That’s it. The trouble with that is that life intervenes, birth and death and all that’s in between. That’s what is means to be human. Things happen. Sometimes they’re bad. So called faith can be shattered. Some folk say its wrong to doubt. Life has shown me that doubt is often the only sane response to what is going on.
The people of Israel, taken into Israel, thought God had abandoned them, been destroyed. God lived in the temple. The temple had gone. They had been taken into slavery…end of!! Doubt big time. Then this prophet has a dream, a vision if you like, and says, actually its not like that. These bones coming back to life were a sign that God was with them where they were. They had not been abandoned. But God is in his temple was their mantra. Clearly what they had learnt, what they had put their faith in was wrong. And the proof came when the nation was restored, returned and Jerusalem was rebuilt. Think Ukraine…
Through doubt they had learnt something new and far more amazing than what they had lost. That God was not constrained to a place, a building but was, to quote an old Beatles’ song – ‘here, there and everywhere’! Unsettling that and, I think this is something that we as Christians, with the way we treat our buildings, still need to learn.

So God is everywhere. As the Psalmist said, ‘there is nowhere we can go from you presence. Here’s part of a story of Jesus. You may know it. Joanne and Susie are going to share it…John 11: 1-45

To set the scene - Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead.

Reflection 2: If you find this story hard to believe you are not alone. A friend of mine imagined the scene:

They said he was dead, but it seems a bit suspicious to me. How can they prove it?
I know we’d had all the weeping and wailing and the body put in the tomb and the door sealed to keep him in and the animals out, but they could have played a trick on us,

They’re just trying to convince people that their friend is a marvellous magician who can bring dead people back to life. They’ve already convinced hundreds of other people that he’s a healer, but how do we really know that?

I think it’s all an act. And I think those three were in on it.

And so it goes on. You may be thinking similar thoughts. We pick at details and miss the wider picture. Put aside the queries and doubts, the need for explanation, if any in this story for a moment. Allow me to think of it as a parable, a story with a message.

If Jesus gives us a window into God, which I believe he does, then this God is love in totality. This Love is not limited by geography or walls. This love is not fettered by a creed, or constrained by people who say, ‘if you believe this’ or unless you say these words you are not going to heaven.
This love meets us in the joy of a wedding offering wine, but in this story is with us in our grief, shares our weeping and is beside us, holding us and those we love, even in death. Seal the tomb and you do not seal it from the height and depth, the length and breadth, the totality of the love of God.
I am convinced that nothing in all creation in life or death can separate us, or our loved ones, from Love which we see expressed in Jesus. As John Wesley put it as he was dying, ‘Best of all is God is with us’, always from birth, in life, through death and beyond.

1 Best of all is God is with us,
God will hold and never fail.
Keep that truth when storms are raging,
God remains though faith is frail.

2 Best of all is God is with us,
life goes on and needs are met,
God is strongest in our weakness.
Love renews, will not forget.

3 Best of all is God is with us,
hearts are challenged, strangely warmed,
faith is deepened, courage strengthened,
grace received and hope reformed.

4 Best of all is God is with us,
in our joy and through our pain,
till that final acclamation:
'life is Christ, but death is gain'.

5 Best of all is God is with us
as we scale eternal heights,
love grows stronger, undiminished;
earth grows dim by heaven's lights.