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Community
Days Hymnology Sermon
By
Rev. Spencer Homan
Edited
by Pastor Craig Ferguson
Good
morning and welcome to Geneseo United Methodist Church Community
days service of celebration. This
morning we invite each of you to join in the festivities, sing along
with the hymns, and stick around for the picture and some food.
Now let us begin the service with a very traditional hymn.
Hymn
# 71 – Glory be to the Father – 3-4th Century
(Ah
Sound)
Now
you may be saying to yourself, “what a funny way to start a
service, why did we start by singing that song?”
Many of you may associate that song as the doxology.
Often it is sung after the offering is taken.
But do we know why that is the tradition, what is a doxology?
Well,
simply put, doxa in the Greek means the glory grandeur and splendor
of God. So when we sing
the doxology we are singing about the glory of God.
But there is another reason today that we begin with that
hymn. Have you ever
wondered why there are so many different churches; why they all have
different styles, music, liturgy?
Today we are going to spend a little time looking at the
history of worship through music, how hymns developed and what
impact they make on our worship service.
As
we worship today, I would like to give credit where it is due and
point out that the service today was originally written by my
pastoral friend Rev. Spencer Homan, whom many of you have heard
preach. So if you
don’t like the service today, at least I have someone else to pin
some of the blame upon. However
if you do like it, it is ok to note that I did a fair amount of
editing for the service here at Geneseo today.
Now, the first
hymn we sang, whether you knew it or not was written sometime during
the third or fourth centuries. (of
course the melody we sang it to is a little more modern, in fact
most of the ancient songs we have, have been molded to new tunes)
It was originally sung without instrumentation as a way of
beginning a worship service. It
was considered a most important thing to acknowledge the glory of
God above and before anything else.
Music was the primary way that was done.
Music
is such an important part of a worship service.
Music is a very amazing thing, it has the power to instantly
transport us back in time.
You hear that certain
song and you are instantly transported back to your first date,
sharing that first dance… that first kiss.
You hear that certain
song and you are back driving in your first car with your best
friend. You hear that certain song and you are back curled up on the floor of your
parents’ living room.
It is probably
no surprise that music does the same thing for us in church.
We hear a good old standard and remember our Grandparents,
remember our parents, remember growing up in the church.
We hear the hymns and feel like we are in a small rural
church sanctuary where we remember looking up at the cross and
seeing Jesus for the first time.
We feel like we are a part of something that has been around
a long… long time.
So… needless
to say, whenever the church talks about introducing new music, new
songs, new hymns, new styles… people get very
uncomfortable. And
rightfully so… we fear losing that part of the worship service
that touches us in a very spiritual way, that helps us remember who
we are and why we are here.
However… one
thing that might surprise you… is that the same song you hold so
dearly and so closely to your heart as a “good old standard” was
once a source of great stress that almost tore the church apart.
You see… the tension of change is not anything new.
It is something we have been dealing with as a church for
well over 1600 years!
Now we do not
know a whole lot about the worship music during the ancient times,
but what we do know is that they were simple songs usually
accompanied by a harp, lyre, or lute.
Yes folks, the first instrument in the church… was a
guitar.
One such song
that entered the Christian sphere on a stringed instrument in the
8-9th century was…
Hymn
# 280 – All Glory Laud & Honor – 8-9th Century
(Guitar
Vs. 1 & 4)
By
the middle ages, the church had developed a rich source of hymns
that closely resembled what we would call Gregorian Chanting today.
One song, the words written by St. Francis of Assisi sang the
praise of all God’s creation.
Hymn
# 62 – All Creatures of Our God and King – 1225 A.D.
(Voice
Vs. 1 & 2)
However,
by the 1400s, we have a lot more information, and the culture around
the church was beginning to blossom with brand new music coming
from… an organ! And a
few worship leaders decided to use the passion and vibrance found in
the popularity of organ music and bring it into the church.
Well the Gregorian Chant people were simply outraged!
That’s not how we do things around here!
If it’s not a guitar… we don’t want it!
But the mass
popularity of the organ won the day, and soon almost every church
had an organ… and we saw the birth of the first hymns as you and I
know them today.
The 14 &
1500’s specifically were a time where the Psalms were considered
the only appropriate music to be sung in worship… after all…
they are the only examples of music we have in our Bible.
So, the Psalms were put to organ music and we had our very
first hymnal. Lets take
a moment now to glance back 500 years on a Hymn that was penned
after Psalm 100:
Hymn
# 75 All People That on Earth Do Dwell – 1561
(Organ
Vs. 1 & 2)
This was also a
time of great conflict in the church as the Protestant Reformation
took place and the church split forming all kinds of new
denominations. With
these splits… also came new styles of music and two major new
lines of thought: Those
who believed in the regulative principle to hymns… that if it was
not specifically from the bible (i.e. scriptural)… it was heathen
and had no place in the worship service, vs. the group that followed
the normative principle to hymns… believing that as long the words
were in line with our beliefs they could be beneficial to our faith.
They even went so far as to use allegory and metaphor! (Jesus
would have never done anything like that, haha)
Let’s hear now… an example from each of these camps…
first… the regulative folks and a hymn based upon Psalm 23:
Hymn
# 128 He Leadeth Me - Based on Psalm 23 – 1584
(Organ
Vs. 1)
In contrast to
the Regulatives… the Normatives used both words and music that
many believed uncouth. One
of the most famous hymns of the reformation was based a famous bar
tune… a tune that all of the locals knew quite well from the hours
spent at the tavern… a tune that was baptized and brought into the
church by that rebel Martin Luther to give us one of our best known
hymns ever.
Hymn
#110 A Mighty Fortress
Is our God - 1529
(Pipe Organ Vs. 1 & 2)
The new wave of music
ripped through the countryside and caused quite a stir!
A few churches were so offended by these bawdy hymns that
they went so far as to tear the organ from their church… pipe by
pipe… declaring it an instrument of the devil!
However… the outrage didn’t last terribly long and soon
both styles became a standard for the church.
Let’s fast
forward again a few years to the 1600s.
Here we find another growth spurt, when hymn writers began to
ask the question… why must we only sing hymns that express our
beliefs? Why can’t we
sing about our personal experiences?
And so a new kind of hymn was born!
Hymn
# 131 We Gather Together – 1625
(Organ
Vs. 1)
Again we saw outrage as
the words shifted away from our core beliefs and began to center on
our feelings instead. I
think it is possible that these hymns mark the first historical
records of a man actually talking about his feelings!
And that is one thing that we do as we bring to God our
prayers.
Testimonies
of Prayer
The
Sharing of Joys and Concerns
Pastoral
Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer
Fast forward
again a few more years… to the 1700s.
Up until now… while the focus of the words in hymns have
changed, the music for the most part… has sounded like a hymn.
A very basic 4-4 time, very metrical in its singing…
nothing fancy… nothing too uncouth!
And then came Charles Wesley, brother to John and the
unwilling co-founder of Methodism.
He asked the question… well we can sing words that have
great feeling and meaning… why can’t we sing to music that has
great feeling and meaning too!!! Thus we get great hymns like the
one that has traditionally been the opening hymn in Methodist
Hymnals.
Hymn
# 57 O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing – 1740
(Piano
/ Guitar Vs. 1 & 3)
Out of this
Methodist movement we get John Wesley’s directions for singing
first printed in 1761. They
are listed in your hymnal on Roman numeral page vii.
I will not read them all, but there are a couple that merit
mention. Specifically
number four which warns us to: Sing lustily and with good courage.
Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep.
Or number three which tells us to join the congregation as
frequently as possible not letting weakness or weariness hinder us.
Or number six which tells us not to sing to slowly, and
number seven that says: Above all sing spiritually.
Have an eye to God in every word you sing.
Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other
creature. Hmm, words of
wisdom when it comes to church singing that we could all learn from.
Fast
forward to the 1800s, and we see that Charles Wesley’s
contribution to music was still making its ripple effects felt.
His new kind of music was exciting indeed, and people flocked
to hear these contemporary worship services!
However, not everyone was impressed.
In 1819 in England, one group specifically rebelled
against this new style and took their case to the courts. The case
was heard by the Chancellor of York who, in a typical Anglican
compromise, concluded that the new hymns were indeed illegal in
Anglican liturgy but, because their use was so widespread, he felt
entirely unable to enforce his decision!
And the new music stayed!
Some 70 years spent squabbling over Wesley’s heretical
music. Terrible… bawdy
music like “Christ the Lord is Risen Today,”
“Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus,”
“Rejoice the Lord is King,”
“Ye Servants of God,” or even… dare I say it, “Hark,
the Herald Angels Sing!”
However, his contribution… opened up the door to embrace
the music of the culture and make it our own.
And that is what we see in the 1800s, a renewed effort to
embrace the music of the culture and baptize it for the church.
And so, as we take time now to return God’s tithes and our
offering to God, let us listen to one of the most famous hymns that
we all know.
Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound – 1831
(Jazz arrangement – Piano Solo)
Another very
famous song that rose to the surface out of a very different culture
began in merchant ships and cotton fields of the south.
These songs, sung by the slaves as if a cry from their heart,
without instruments, their voices clung to the hope of God as they
kept their eyes focused on the eternal kingdom.
Hymn
# 703 Swing Low Sweet Chariot
(Accapella
Vs. 1))
Somewhere
during this time Geneseo entered the picture.
As a frontier church, they didn’t have much for
instruments. Most
churches began in homes and sang hymns just like the slaves in the
fields, from the depths of their heart.
In fact, although most of us assume that every church ever
built has had an organ in it from its very inception, for most
frontier churches, it was actually a small battle to get them
installed in the first place.
The United
Methodist history book on the Iowa Annual Conference called,
“Between the Rivers” includes a couple stories that I think
deserve mention in regard to this thought.
During the
pastorate of O.C. Shelton at Agency in 1854… a controversy arose
over the installation of a small reed organ.
One group was very much opposed to the idea.
They were sure that the devil would be let loose.
Others prevailed, and the “wooden music” instrument was
installed.
In another
account, Michael See who had a circuit near Iowa City came to the
church after a short absence and was horrified to find a small reed
organ in the sanctuary. He
promptly rolled it out to the wood shed and chopped it up with an
ax. When people came to
the church that evening, the service was opened by the normal
“lining out” of the hymns as usual.
Nothing was said about the organ.
The one who had installed the organ must have had a guilty
conscience… Opposition to musical instruments continued as late as
1900. (Pg. 25)
The 1900s saw
much of the change, as popular music from places like “The
Lawrence Whelk Show” and the “Big Band” sound made its way
into the church! Let me
tell you… great great grandma rolled over in her grave when they
brought a drumset into the church.
But it brought to us music like this.
Hymn
# 77 How Great Thou Art - 1949
(Big
Band – Vs. 1)
By the 1970s, Christian
music began to embrace the cultural sounds of “rock and roll”
and a whole new conflict began arise.
Christian Radio began to make its impact when people could
listen to their worship music all week long and make it a part of
their everyday lives. From
this era, we got beautiful songs like this one.
Hymn
# 593 Here I am Lord – 1981
(Piano
/ Guitar – Vs. 1)
However, many
felt and continue to feel that this new music with its very simple
4-4 format and repetitive lyrics was at best… bubblegum for the
brain! … something
that many new songwriters have been conscious of.
In the 1990’s
Matt Redman was a worship director who felt the struggle in the lack
of depth and sense of apathy found in “contemporary” worship, as
his congregation struggled to find its meaning within its worship
music.
“There was a
dynamic missing, so the pastor did a pretty brave thing,” he
recalls. “He decided to get rid of the sound system and band for
an entire season, and we gathered together with just our voices. His
point was that we’d lost our way in worship, and the way to get
back to the heart would be to strip everything away.”
Reminding his
church family to be producers in worship, not just consumers, the
pastor, Mike Pilavachi, asked, “When you come through the doors on
a Sunday, what are you bringing as your offering to God?”
Matt says the
question initially led to some embarrassing silence, but eventually
people broke into a cappella songs and heartfelt prayers,
encountering God in a fresh way.
“Before long,
we reintroduced the musicians and sound system, as we’d gained a
new perspective that worship is all about Jesus, and He commands a
response in the depths of our souls no matter what the circumstance
and setting. This next song, was born out of that experience.
The
Heart of Worship – 1991
(Guitar)
Every
century has brought its own conflict, its own style, its own
emphasis… and today… all throughout our hymnal you can still see
their fingerprints… you see… after all is said and done… it
doesn’t matter what you are singing to, whether organ, piano, or
guitar… it doesn’t matter if the words are scriptural or written
about our feelings as Christians… it doesn’t even matter the
style of music you sing… as long as we bring it into a house of
worship… and it helps us to WORSHIP God!
With that I
invite the kids to lead us in our last song, a song that they
learned this week in Bible School, a song that speaks to their
culture, and their language:
Made to Worship
(Kids)
Now may the
Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord make his face sign upon
you and be gracious unto you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon
you and give you peace. Amen.
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