Music for Good Friday

One of the hymns we'll be singing at our Good Friday service, is this wonderful text by Isaac Watts newly set by Henry Owen.

Not all the blood of beasts On Jewish altars slain

Could give the guilty conscience peace Or wash away the stain.
But Christ, the heav’nly Lamb, Takes all our sins away;

A sacrifice of nobler name And richer blood than they.

My faith would lay her hand On that dear head of Thine,

While, like a penitent, I stand, And there confess my sin.
My soul looks back to see The burdens Thou didst bear

When hanging on the cursèd tree, And hopes her guilt was there.

Not all the blood of beasts On Jewish altars slain

Could give the guilty conscience peace Or wash away the stain.
Believing, we rejoice To see the curse remove;

We bless the Lamb with cheerful voice, And sing His bleeding love.

Text: Isaac Watts, 1709; Music: Henry Owen, 2008.
© 2008 Greyfriars Press, Used by Permission.

Advent Carol

The choir at Parish Presbyterian sang this text as part of our Lessons and Carols service on December 9.

When Jordan hushed his waters still,
And silence slept on Zion’s hill;
When Salem’s shepherds through the night
Watched o’er their flocks by starry light,
Hark! From the midnight hills around,
A voice, of more than mortal sound,
In distant hallelujahs stole,
Wild murmuring o’er the raptured soul.

The swift to ev’ry startled eye,
New beams of glory gild the sky;
Heav’n bursts her azure gates,
to pour Her spirits to the midnight hour.
On wheels of light, on wings of flame,
The glorious hosts to Zion came;
High heav’n with songs of triumph rung,
While thus they smote their harps and sung:

O Zion! Lift thy raptured eye:
The long-expected hour is nigh;
The joys of nature rise again;
The Prince of Salem comes to reign.
See Mercy, from her golden urn,
Pours a rich stream on them that mourn;
Behold, she binds, with tender care,
The bleeding bosom of Despair.

He comes to cheer the trembling heart,
Bid Satan and his host depart;
Again the Daystar gilds the gloom,
Again the bowers of Eden bloom.
O Zion! Lift thy raptured eye:
The long-expected hour is nigh;
The joys of nature rise again;
The Prince of Salem comes to reign.

Text: Thomas Campbell, 1777-1844

The Return of Chant

Pope Benedict is moving the Vatican, and by extension the whole of the Catholic Church, back towards Gregorian chant. As for his reasons, I appreciate his understanding of the power of music, the inherent morality in music itself, and the need for an ecclesiastical aesthetic. However, turning back the clock is not the answer. Re-connecting to the past heritage of the Church is something that both Protestants and Catholics should embrace, but, in addition, we ought to be about the business of continuing to create from a historically informed position. Hopefully this move will at least spark some discussion in the Church at large about suitability and spirituality when it comes to musical composition for the Church.

The Gospel Flow of Worship

The word liturgy means “the work of the people.” As such, all worship services are liturgical if they include any congregational participation. The issue is not whether a service is liturgical or not; the issue is what organizes and informs the liturgy and on what basis.

The order of worship that we employ at Parish Pres consciously seeks to accomplish several aims. As you’ve probably noticed, each section of the bulletin begins with God and His initiation. It is God who calls His people to worship, it is God who speaks to us through His Word, it is God who calls us to repentance and reconciliation, it is God who beckons us to His table, and it is God who sends us out equipped for the calling He has placed on us. It’s all about Him!

It is God who calls us, but as His people we respond with praise, attentive hearts, confession, joy, and thanksgiving. This pattern of call and response is one of the reasons we utilize Scripture-based responsive readings in worship. God calls us through His Word, and we literally respond with His words.

This pattern of worship moves the congregation from an exaltation of the nature of God, instruction from His Word, an understanding of His law and our inability to keep it, confession of sin and the need for a Redeemer, a restoration into the fellowship of God and other believers, a foretaste of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, and a sending forth into the world as His representative. Thus, the worship service itself echoes the Gospel—God calls unbelievers to Himself, reveals Himself through His Word, repentance follows with an invitation to the Marriage Feast culminating with God sending forth the believer into the world. This is the flow of the gospel; this is the flow of worship.

Traditions of Pentecost

The word “Pentecost” comes from the Greek meaning “fiftieth” and refers to the days following Easter. The term Whitsun, or Whitsuntide, is applied to the week following Pentecost and derives from the older spelling of “wit” referring to the gift of wisdom from the coming of the Holy Spirit. The color red is most often associated with Pentecost to represent the fire of the Holy Spirit. The Monday after Pentecost used to be a traditional holiday throughout the world. Some of the other traditions of Pentecost are as follows:

France: Musicians played trumpets in the Church service to remind the congregants of the sound of the mighty wind that accompanied the descent of the Holy Spirit.

England: Whitsun Ales, or festivals, were held which included horse races and presentation of Whitsun plays. This weekend remains a favorite time for brass band competitions.

Italy: To commemorate the tongues of fire, rose petals were scattered from the ceiling of churches.

Poland: People decorate their houses with green branches for the “Green Holiday” to represent to gift of new life in the Spirit. The blessing of crops was also associated with the festivities.

Ukraine: The Church celebrates “Green Sunday” by decorating the church and the door of people’s homes with tree branches. Clergy and congregants wear green as a reminder of the gift of life in the Spirit and the literal birthday of the Church as 3000 people were baptized into the Church on the first Pentecost.

In Defense of Written Prayers

The Puritans were adamantly opposed to the prayers in the English Prayer book—not that the prayers were heretical, but because they feared the rote manner of the prayers. They feared that prayer would become mechanical, without thought, repetitious, and without meaning if congregations recited the same prayers again and again.

Ironically, this appropriate fear of the Puritans is manifest in the opposite direction in the modern evangelical church. It is the extemporaneous prayers of our time that are mechanical, without thought, repetitious, and consequently, without meaning. How many time have you heard, “Dear Lord, we just come before, Lord, to thank you, Lord, for your bounteous favor. And Lord, we beseech you…” (“Bounteous” and “beseech” are good “prayer words”—words that show up in prayers but rarely in common speech)

How often do you ask the blessing for food using 90% of the same words?

We fall into patterns whether they be written or spoken, but promiscuous change for the sake of change is not the answer. The “holy ruts” of Proverbs 3 are not of themselves bad things. It is the unthinking repetition that makes prayers mechanical.

In our age, the written, thoughtful prayers of past centuries provide a tonic to shake us from our complacency and to challenge our own thinking about prayer, sin, forgiveness, the work of the cross, and the nature and character of Almighty God. This is not the ultimate solution, but could be part of the process of increasing our understanding of the nature of prayer.

Tradition without thought is dead orthodoxy, but the infusion of life that comes from knowledge, understanding, and wisdom through the work of the Spirit, makes ancient and modern traditions an opportunity for spiritual maturity.

The other lesson is that we need to be careful before we import the doctrines of a tradition without understanding the theological context of those ideas. Otherwise, we may find ourselves opposing the very things we say we uphold.

Worship Notes 13 April 2007

Liturgy is a deliberate attempt to portray the Gospel in the very order in which we worship. Worship starts with God’s initiated call to enter into His presence followed by a recognition of who He is—not what He’s done for us or what we think about Him, but rather the nature and character of God as He has revealed Himself in Scripture. This recognition is continued by instruction in His Word through the singing of Scripture, the reading of the Word, and instruction through the preaching of the Word. With a further understanding of who God is and the efficacious proclamation of the Gospel, God then calls us to repentance and to be reconciled through the blood of Christ shed in our place. We further rejoice with Him in a foretaste of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb at the Lord’s Table before God sends His people out into the world for His glory.

Easter Hymns

There are more Easter carols than there are Christmas carols--we just don't know very many of them. John of Damascus (675-749) wrote this Easter hymn, and John Mason Neale translated it from the Greek in 1862:

The day of resurrection! Earth, tell it out abroad;
The Passover of gladness, the Passover of God.
From death to life eternal, from earth unto the sky,
Our Christ hath brought us over, with hymns of victory.

Our hearts be pure from evil, that we may see aright
The Lord in rays eternal of resurrection light;
And listening to His accents, may hear, so calm and plain,
His own “All hail!” and, hearing, may raise the victor strain.

Now let the heavens be joyful! Let earth the song begin!
Let the round world keep triumph, and all that is therein!
Let all things seen and unseen their notes in gladness blend,
For Christ the Lord hath risen, our joy that hath no end.

Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted

Following are the lyrics to Thomas Kelly's hymn based on Isaiah 53. He wrote the following in 1804:

Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
See Him dying on the tree!
’Tis the Christ by man rejected;
Yes, my soul, ’tis He, ’tis He!
’Tis the long expected prophet,
David’s Son, yet David’s Lord;
Proofs I see sufficient of it:
’Tis a true and faithful Word.

Tell me, ye who hear Him groaning,
Was there ever grief like His?
Friends through fear His cause disowning,
Foes insulting his distress:
Many hands were raised to wound Him,
None would interpose to save;
But the deepest stroke that pierced Him
Was the stroke that Justice gave.

Ye who think of sin but lightly,
Nor suppose the evil great,
Here may view its nature rightly,
Here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the Sacrifice appointed!
See Who bears the awful load!
’Tis the Word, the Lord’s Anointed,
Son of Man, and Son of God.

Here we have a firm foundation,
Here the refuge of the lost.
Christ the Rock of our salvation,
Christ the Name of which we boast.
Lamb of God for sinners wounded!
Sacrifice to cancel guilt!
None shall ever be confounded
Who on Him their hope have built.

Worship Notes: Good Friday Service

From the early days of her worship, the Church utilized the Passion story either sung or recited from scripture. These passages formed an important element of their Holy Week observances.

In the fourth century, a Spanish nun named Egeria took a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. One of the foremost elements in her travel journal was the liturgy and worship observed in Jerusalem. “Her account of the services held during Holy Week includes the earliest surviving reference to the chanting of the Passion story.” Sometime at the end of the fourth or beginning of the fifth century, Augustine of Hippo made a reference to this same tradition, and by the middle of the fifth century, Pope Leo the Great codified the use of the Passion narrative during Holy Week. According to his directives, the Passion story from St. Matthew’s gospel should be chanted in the services for Palm Sunday and Wednesday of Holy Week and the Passion narrative from St. John’s gospel should be utilized on Good Friday.

Subsequent changes over the next five hundred years included the addition of the Passion according to St. Luke on Wednesday and the St. Mark Passion story on Tuesday of Holy Week. The height of musical settings of the Passion occurred during the 18th century with Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion and St. Matthew Passion.

Our service at Parish Pres next week continues the great tradition of the Church. We will gather on Good Friday in order to contemplate the death of Christ, mourn for our sins, and seek forgiveness in preparation for the celebration of Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday morning. The service includes the reading of the Passion story from the book of John as well as congregational hymns, responses, choral music, and communion.

Worship Notes 16 March 2007

Mothering Sunday or Laetare

The fourth Sunday of Lent is known as Mothering Sunday, Refreshment Sunday, or Laetare Sunday. The opening words of the service on this day were traditionally “O be joyful, Jerusalem” (Laetare Jerusalem). In addition, the Gospel reading for this Sunday was the story of the miracle of the five loaves and fishes—the refreshment given to the people following Jesus. As such, this day also consists of a relaxation of Lenten fasts.

Since at least the 16th century, English churches celebrated the refreshment aspect of the fourth Sunday of Lent as Mothering Sunday—our equivalent to Mother’s Day. The celebration consisted of giving workers a day off to visit their “mother church” where their family and mother lived and worshiped. This was known as going “a mothering.” The occasion for family reunions inspired certain traditions to honor one’s mother such as flowers, eggs, or cakes.

Simnel cakes became the favored cake for Mothering Sunday. A simnel cake is a fruit cake (sultanas, currants, cherries, orange and lemon peel) covered with a flat layer of marzipan decorated with eleven marzipan balls—representing the twelve disciples minus Judas.

“I’ll to thee a Simnell bring ‘Gainst thou go’st a mothering,
So that, when she blesseth thee, Half that blessing thou’lt give to me”
—Robert Herrick, 1648

Art for Lent

For the season of Lent at Parish Pres, we are using different selections of etchings on the cover of the bulletin all by Albrecht Dürer—the great artist of the Reformation.

Dürer was born in 1471 in Nuremburg. The son of a goldsmith, at the age of thirteen, Dürer apprenticed with his father, and by the age of fifteen, he entered another apprenticeship with a local painter and wood cut artisan. By his early twenties, Dürer earned his living as book illustrator, and after a visit to Venice, he returned to Nuremburg and established his own workshop. By the turn of the century, Dürer enjoyed widespread acclaim and commissions for paintings as well as great demand for his printed works. In 1511 he published two versions of the passion story—the Large Passion and the Small Passion because of the size paper used in the printing process. His artistic interest was vast, and he excelled in many different forms and subject matter from self-portraits, to nature and animal studies, to biblical themes.

Dürer was a follower of the Reformation. When he heard that Martin Luther had been arrested, he exclaimed, “Oh, God, is Luther dead? Who henceforth is to expound to us the holy Gospel with such clarity!” One of his greatest paintings, The Four Apostles, is considered by many to be a symbolic representation of the Reformation and its principal proponents. Dürer spent the last years of his life publishing his theoretical writings on art, and he died on April 6, 1528—just before his fifty-seventh birthday.

During the season of Lent, each week features a different illustration from the Passion story. So as we progressively move through Lent, we are also progressively moving through the episodes of Holy Week.

For the first Sunday of Lent, the depiction of Christ washing the feet of Peter reminds us of the humility of Christ—the theme for the sermon that morning. Last week the etching of the Last Supper was a reminder of the nature of true worship in Spirit and in Truth. This week, the Agony in the Garden focuses on Christ’s prayer for believers and the miracle of the incarnation in that God was made flesh in order to fulfill the Law and be the propitiation for our sins. Subsequent images will move us through the rest of Holy Week culminating in the crucifixion on Good Friday and the Resurrection on Easter Sunday morning.

Lenten Traditions: Pretzels

The pretzel is a traditional Lenten bread that dates back to the early 4th century. Christians in the Roman Empire maintained a strict fast during Lent that excluded from their diet milk, butter, cheese, eggs, cream, and meat. In the late 6th century, Pope Gregory confirmed this when he wrote to Augustine of Canterbury regarding dietary rules in Lent: “We abstain from flesh, meat, and from all things that come from flesh, as milk, cheese and eggs.” In order to preserve strength throughout the day, people would eat one meal in the evening or in the middle of the afternoon with smaller snacks throughout the day. The pretzel fulfilled the need for a simple food that met abstinence and fasting concerns.

By making breads of water, four, and salt, early Christians were reminded of the penitential nature of Lent and fasting. By shaping the bread in the form of crossed arms, they were also reminded of prayer. The Latin word for “little arms” is bracellae. Eventually invading German tribes corrupted the Latin to “brezel” or “prezel.”

From medieval times, the people of Germany, Austria, and Poland introduced pretzels annually on Ash Wednesday. In addition to giving out pretzels to the poor during Lent, other traditions include hanging pretzels from palm branches on Palm Sunday. Despite the fact that pretzels are now readily available throughout the year, there are still places in Europe that only serve pretzels from Ash Wednesday to Easter in keeping with the former symbolism.

A fifth century manuscript contains the earliest picture and description of the pretzel.

Giving Up and Adding On for Lent

The framers of the Westminster Shorter Catechism were well aware of not only man’s sin nature in transgressing the laws of God but also of the proclivity to not do those things to which He has called us. Sins of omission and commission. As they put it, “Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.” It is that lack of conformity to the law of God which we most easily excuse and dismiss. After all, I have not murdered anyone, used the name of God in vain, committed adultery, stolen property, etc. today so I must be doing okay with the commandments. Again and again we are reminded that we may tithe our mint and dill and cumin but that we have neglected the weightier matters of justice, mercy, and faithfulness (humility).

So in this time of Lent, what shall I give up to remind me of my fallen state and my need for forgiveness as I seek to become more holy? Chocolate? TV and mass media? How often do we try to affect holiness by screwing up our resolve, making promises, and trying to make it under our own power? To be sure, there is a place and call for fasting—from food, from situations, from elements of the world.

However, as Thomas Chalmers reminds us in his sermon, “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” the rooting out of the sinful elements of the world is best accomplished by replacing that desire with something more powerful and desirable—the Gospel. Holiness is not just turning away from wickedness but rather it is the ontological declaration of righteousness in Christ manifested, and growing through, the disciplines of grace as a new affection. You can never replace something with nothing.

With that in mind, I have decided this year to not be so caught up in the idea of giving things up for Lent as much as adding on the disciplines of grace—prayer, fasting, meditating on the Word of God, gifts of mercy, the sacraments, the communion of the saints. May the Lord shape my affections in such a manner that I have fewer things in my life from which to abstain. How joyous it is to embrace the Gospel!

Worship Notes 16 February 2007

Augustus Toplady (1740-1778) is probably best known for his hymn “Rock of Ages.” Originally a follower of Wesley, in 1758, he adopted Calvinist doctrine. In his early twenties he was ordained an Anglican priest after his studies in London and Dublin. In 1775, he left the Church of England and began to preach at a French Calvinist church in London. A staunch Calvinist, he wrote such books as The Doctrine of Absolute Predestination Stated and Asserted and Historic Proof of the Doctrinal Calvinism of the Church of England. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 38. Banner of Truth has a great short article on Toplady which includes a poem he wrote at the age of 15 about the nature and character of God.

Toplady wrote the following hymn in 1774 which we will sing at Parish Pres on Sunday. It beautifully weaves the themes of substitutionary atonement, imputed sin, imputed righteousness, the need for the Incarnation, and the joy of salvation in Christ.

Fountain of never ceasing grace,
Thy saints’ exhaustless theme,
Great object of immortal praise,
Essentially supreme;
We bless Thee for the glorious fruits
Thine incarnation gives;
The righteousness which grace imputes,
And faith alone receives.

Whom heaven’s angelic host adores,
Was slaughtered for our sin;
The guilt, O Lord was wholly ours,
The punishment was Thine:
Our God in the flesh, to set us free,
Was manifested here;
And meekly bare our sins, that we
His righteousness might wear.

Imputatively guilty then
Our substitute was made,
That we the blessings might obtain
For which His blood was shed:
Himself He offered on the cross,
Our sorrows to remove;
And all He suffered was for us,
And all He did was love.

In Him we have a righteousness,
By God Himself approved;
Our rock, our sure foundation this,
Which never can be moved.
Our ransom by His death He paid,
For all His people giv’n,
The law He perfectly obeyed,
That they might enter Heav’n.

As all, when Adam sinned alone,
In his transgression died,
So by the righteousness of One,
Are sinners justified,
We to Thy merit, gracious Lord,
With humblest joy submit,
Again to Paradise restored,
In Thee alone complete.

Our souls His watchful love retrieves,
Nor lets them go astray,
His righteousness to us He gives,
And takes our sins away:
We claim salvation in His right,
Adopted and forgiv’n,
His merit is our robe of light,
His death the gate of Heav’n.

Worship Notes 9 February

• Beauty is best understood in its relationship and balance to goodness and truth—otherwise it can be trite, transient, trendy, temporary, deceptive, insubstantial, or gimmicky. There is a significance and weight to true beauty.

• The very fact that something is beautiful is an apologetic of the Gospel and of the realities of truth and goodness. All beauty is God’s beauty. In addition, beauty can be a winsome adornment, and it can be a challenging stumbling block. Beauty can also open the heart to that inexpressible sense of the transcendence of God that causes great desire for the Truth.

The Order of Worship

When music is selected by style in order that it “speak to the worshiper” in a cultural sense or that it fulfills the subjective requirements of being music that “helps me to worship,” the music and the worship become self-indulgent, appealing to the needs and wants of the individual as opposed to focusing exclusively on God-–the sole object of worship. The music and structure of worship must be consistent with a Biblical objective standard of what God desires and with what is appropriate to enter his presence. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our "God is a consuming fire." (Hebrews 12:28-29)

The medium of worship must fit the message in its execution and purpose. Truth should be stated in a manner worthy of the Truth, and the form of the worship is inseparable from its content. Therefore, we ought to carefully consider the congruous nature, philosophy, and worldview of the lyrics with music and of the other elements that comprise worship. This means that we will often not be in accord with current tastes, trends, and preferences; however, worship should elevate our thoughts beyond the temporal things of this world and to the throne of God.

Our God is a God of order, and our worship should reflect that divine attribute. As such, worship should be organized with a liturgy that reflects, encourages, and fosters a better understanding of our relationship with God. From the Call to Worship through the Eucharist, the worshipper will move from an exaltation of the nature of God, an understanding of God’s law and his inability to keep it, confession of sin and the personal need for a redeemer, a restoration into the fellowship of God and other believers, and a sending forth into the world as His representative sustained by the food of heaven. Creation, Fall, Redemption, Consummation. This is the flow of the gospel; this is the flow of worship.

Worship Notes 2 February

• Beauty is an attribute of God and is therefore a theological issue. God is the standard of beauty as well as its source; therefore, there is an objective standard for what is beautiful. Aesthetics is the study of beauty and the ability to apprehend it. From a theological perspective, the Word of God is the rule by which we make aesthetic judgments. God speaks to the role of artists in the description He gives of the artists for the tabernacle: filled with the Spirit, ability, intelligence, knowledge, craftsmanship, and able to teach others. Good art and music should be the product of these types of characteristics.

• The cultural mandate to take dominion over and subdue the earth has direct application to the arts. Music, poetry, literature, dance, painting, sculpture, etc. are manifestations of dominion over sound, time, language, movement, color, etc.

Water into Wine

Yesterday at Parish Pres, the service focused on the wedding feast at Cana and the broader application of the joy and festivity that should abound in the New Covenant. I was thrilled to find this hymn by Charles Spurgeon (1866) that I set to a new arrangement of a 16th c. German melody.


Amidst us our Belovèd stands,

And bids us view His piercèd hands;

Points to the wounded feet and side,

Blest emblems of the Crucified.

What food luxurious loads the board,

When at His table sits the Lord!

The wine how rich, the bread how sweet,

When Jesus deigns the guests to meet!

If now, with eyes defiled and dim,

We see the signs, but see not Him;

O may His love the scales displace,

And bid us see Him face to face!

Our former transports we recount,

When with Him in the holy mount,

These cause our souls to thirst anew,

His marred but lovely face to view.

Thou glorious Bridegroom of our hearts,

Thy present smile a heav’n imparts!

Oh lift the veil, if veil there be,

Let every saint Thy beauties see!

Worship Notes 26 January

God has placed us here in this time and place for a purpose, and our corporate worship should reflect that reality within the context of redemptive history. We are reformational, not revolutionary. We are confessional, not traditional or modern. In order to be truly contemporary, “with the time,” we must understand our place in the lineage of the Church—which necessitates an understanding of what has gone on before. We should appreciate and utilize the wisdom and artistic excellence of the past without worshipping the forms; we should seek to create new work, without divorcing ourselves from our history. In all, the controlling factor is the worship of God through that which is excellent.

Worship Notes 19 January

Following are some of the controlling principles with regard to the leading of worship that should be helpful from the congregational perspective as well:

• Worship is not performance
• The role of leading and facilitating worship is for the purpose of encouraging the congregation in worship, not to worship “at” them
• Arrangements and songs should be chosen that are ecclesiastically appropriate—what is appropriate in other venues may not be appropriate for corporate worship
• The criteria for what is ecclesiastically appropriate refers to text, music, the combination text and music, arrangements, and execution
• Worship should be accessible yet excellent
• As musicians, we should be growing in skill and depth—musically and theologically
• Craftsmanship is a biblical concept; originality is a humanist concept
• How we play and lead should be different than how we play and sing at a recital, coffeehouse, or concert
• God is the standard of beauty and excellence—our worship should seek after biblical excellence and objective beauty, goodness, and truth

More Thoughts on Worship

I still maintain that we often ask the wrong questions about issues of theology and worship. As a result, we create opposing categories which are not really in opposition because they both contain the same erroneous thinking. As such, I offer a critique of both modern and traditional worship with the caveat that despite the surface negativity, the affirmation of those things which are good and true and beauty about worship should be apparent.

Things I dislike about "Modern" Worship:
• Rejection of the past through chronological arrogance
• Effeminate music
• Lack of printed music to encourage part singing
• Being "worshipped at" instead of led in worship
• Instruments played in a secular, instead of Biblical, manner
• Disjointed images and truth conveyed in unbeautiful ways
• The following of cultural trends
• Lack of intentionality
• Lack of holy ruts
• Slave to tradition


Things I dislike about "Traditional" Worship:
• Acceptance of the past through chronological arrogance
• Stodgy music
• 1950's form of liturgy—three hymns and a sermon
• Empty traditionalism; focus on externals
• The discouraging of children in church
• Failure to be constantly reforming
• Formality for formalities sake
• Solemn and funereal communion
• Stuck in non-holy ruts
• Slave to tradition

Effeminate Music

Now before I get blasted before I even get started, there is nothing wrong with feminine music; however, since Yahweh created Man male and female, the current lack of masculine music in the Church is troubling.

The ancient Greeks were highly concerned with the power of music to shape character. Wimpy music would produce effeminate men feared Plato. I believe such a thing has occurred in the modern evangelical church.

The use, or misuse, of bass lines is one of the most egregious examples. In the feminization of the American church, we’ve eliminated strong bass lines and thus have eliminated the need and place for men to sing manly music. In some songs we’ve removed bass vocal lines altogether. I have even been in church situations in which worship teams have sung hymns a capella but without a bass line!

Another element that weakens ecclesiastical music is poor vocal technique that makes breathy singing the norm. The full use of the voice, vocal projection, and good breath support is unnecessary, and actually undesirable, when microphones and amplification are used.

In addition, theology that presents God as a cosmic teddy bear who longs to have us climb in his lap and run his fingers through our hair while telling us he loves us is a far cry from singing the psalms that ask God to destroy his enemies. How many modern hymnals leave out the third verse of “Be Thou My Vision” (Be thou my battle shield, Sword for my fight) or “The Son of God Goes Forth to War” because they are too militaristic?

All of these elements leave church-going men without a vocal line to sing, no opportunity to sing robustly, and lyrics that major on emotional theology and not a balanced approach of emotional and intellectual truth.

Worship Notes 12 January

The concept of confessional worship creates an unfamiliar category
that challenges the better known ideas of contemporary or traditional.
Practically speaking, what is called contemporary or traditional can
be very subjective depending on time and place. As such, confessional
worship offers a corrective which transcends both categories. The
following thoughts may begin to help point us towards what that really
means:
—Worship is the work of the Church—all other ministry flows out of
biblical worship
—Worship is coming before the throne of God and joining in worship with
the Church visible and invisible
—Worship provides joy, rest, and peace. It is restorative and
preparation for Godly living
—Worship is an efficacious tool in the process of sanctification
There is no substitute for corporate worship in the Christian life
—Worship is about what God requires, not what we like or prefer

The King Shall Come

Tomorrow at Parish Pres we’ll be singing the following hymn translated from the Greek. It’s a wonderful text that captures all of the essence of this season: from the first to the second advent, the anticipation of the Lord’s coming, the images of light, glory, triumph over sin, and the revealing of Christ. My favorite tune for this text is “Morning Song” from Kentucky Harmony.

The King shall come when morning dawns,
And light triumphant breaks;
When beauty gilds the eastern hills,
And life to joy awakes.

Not as of old a little child
To bear, and fight, and die,
But crowned with glory like the sun
That lights the morning sky.

O brighter than the rising morn
When He, victorious, rose,
And left the lonesome place of death,
Despite the rage of foes.

O brighter than that glorious morn
Shall this fair morning be,
When Christ, our King, in beauty comes,
And we His face shall see.

The King shall come when morning dawns,
And earth’s dark night is past;
O haste the rising of that morn,
The day that aye shall last.

And let the endless bliss begin,
By weary saints foretold,
When right shall triumph over wrong,
And truth shall be extolled.

The King shall come when morning dawns,
And light and beauty brings:
Hail, Christ the Lord! Thy people pray,
Come quickly, King of kings.

The Christmas Oratorio

On January 6, 1735, J.S. Bach premiered the sixth, and final section, of his Christmas Oratorio.

One of the things that I appreciate about the music of Sebastian Bach is the liturgical context of his work which integrated with worship services. This fact is true with regard to the six-part Christmas Oratorio (1734-35)—a work written and conceived as a whole but designed to be performed on significant dates during the twelve days of Christmas. This unfolding of the Christmas story, compiled primarily from the biblical narrative, includes details about the Annunciation, the adoration of the shepherds, the circumcision, and the arrival of the Magi. Bach wrote the sections of the oratorio to be performed during services on the First, Second, and Third days of Christmas, the Feast of the Circumcision (January 1), the First Sunday of the New Year, and the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6).

The technical mastery, personal devotion and faith, liturgical application, and accessibility of Bach’s music is unmatched by any other composer. Even Handel’s Messiah is not a work for the church service, and the successive generations of composers after Bach (including Handel) wrote primarily for the concert stage—not the sanctuary.

As such, Bach’s music, and the Christmas Oratorio in particular, offers a rich feast of theology and worship. It’s a shame that these works (including the 200 church cantatas) are so under-utilized in worship, but at least we have recordings.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and January 1

One of the elements of modern academia is either the wanton disregard or attempt to discredit Christian influence on literature, or the lack of ability to notice it when it is indeed there. Critiques of medieval literature should always keep in mind the context of Christendom in which the authors wrote. This is why the following remark is puzzling concerning the manuscript of Gawain, Patience, Pearl, and Purity: All the poems except Sir Gawain and the Green Knight deal with overtly Christian subject matter, and it remains unclear why Sir Gawain, an Arthurian romance, was included in an otherwise religious manuscript.

The answer, of course, is that Gawain is indeed an overtly religious poem. One of the most obvious religious features of the poem is that significant events occur on liturgical feast days: Christmas, All Saints, and most importantly, the Feast of the Circumcision—January 1. The first antiphon sung during Lauds on January 1 is:

O wonderful exchange, wonderful trade:
The Creator of human kind, assuming an inspirited body,
Deigned to be born of a Virgin;
And coming forth as a man without admixture of seed,
He bestowed upon us his godhead.

This highlights the sin of Gawain. All of the virtues represented by the pentangle are subsequently discarded in Gawain’s sojourn in the Castle of Bertilak. He fails in his five fingers, in courtesy and chastity, and he fails to pray. His response to the seduction of the Lady is to value his own life above the morals and virtues he so proudly claims. The antiphon is a reminder that Christ fully accepted his humanity, but that Gawain refuses to submit to mortality at the potential cost of his own soul.

Ironically, Gawain glories in his outward virtues (through false humility), but inwardly he is corrupt. His sin which drives him to a full assessing of his character is outwardly minor, but inwardly significant because it reveals his motivations and desires above his public personae. In a sermon, Gregory the Great preached the following about chastity and lust that could hardly fit the circumstances of Gawain any better:

There is one kind of lust, namely of the flesh, by which we corrupt chastity, another, however, namely of the heart, by which we glory in our chastity. Hence God says to Job: “Gird up your loins like a man” [Job 38. 3], so that whoever first conquers the lust of corruption may now restrain the lust of glorying, lest becoming proud of his patience and chastity, he live so much the worse lustful within, before the eyes of God, as he appears the more both patient and chaste, before the eyes of man. Hence well is it said by Moses: ‘Circumcise the foreskin of your hearts’ (Deut. 10.16), that is, after you douse the lust arising from the flesh, cut off also the excesses of thought and imagination.

The climax of the story occurs on the Feast of the Circumcision, and the word used to describe the nick of the blade on Gawain’s neck, the nirt, is also a term used in discussing circumcision. Significantly, the Green Knight bestows Gawain’s name back on him after the acknowledgment of sin and guilt. The nick of the blade becomes a sacramental action that symbolizes the cleansing of baptism and a new name.

Much more could be said of the parallel between the hunting scenes and the seduction scenes with the animals involved, the separating of Gawain from Arthur’s court for testing just like the doe was separated from the herd during the hunt, the fact that Gawain wears blue, the color of fidelity, when withholding the gift of the girdle from his Host, and the maturity and connection to the earth of the Host’s castle versus the youth and artificiality of Arthur’s court. All of these things make a rich and wonderful tapestry in a substantive story of redemption and chivalry.