Every once in a while, at my former church, we’d break out the old (and I mean old literally) hymnbooks for a Wednesday evening hymn sing. People would call out the numbers of their favorite hymns to the songleader and we’d all turn to the page and sing the old favorites. As the evening went on the yelling got louder and more competitive as folks feared that we’d run out of time before getting to their favorite hymn. It was interesting to see “newbies,†and the younger generations at those events. They’d grown up after many of those hymns passed from favor, replaced by more contemporary hymns and tune, praise songs (don’t get me started) or revisionist PC versions that stripped the elegance, meaning, and dignity from the text.
But, I rant… The point is, I was always taken at how the newbies would take to those old hymns. Rather than be put off, bored, or dismissive, they could not get enough of the experience of being drawn into the corporate memory of a church a generation removed. Even for the teenagers in the room, the evening of corporate hymn singing from those musty old hymnbooks ended too soon.
It’s no secret that music and hymn texts teach. And corporate singing also “teaches” in the modality of corporate formation. It’s worth thinking about what it is we are teaching in and through the corporate music and text we choose for our congregational members.
Here’s an interesting interpretation of an old favorite, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” from Sufjan Stevens. I don’t really get the animals (an interesting juxtaposition to say the least), but the photographs are beautiful and he’s retained the original text. Enjoy.
I’m with you on two points, at least. Hymn texts and music DO teach, powerfully. That’s part of what makes Taize services effective, with the contemplative setting and the repetition, over and over, of simple words from scripture. And those old chestnuts ARE wonderful; I can belt them out with joy andd enthusiasm as my mind travels back through the years – – singing words that reflect a theology that isn’t mine any more but that’s okay; some strange kind of inner translation process goes on and I get past the theological language without gagging. Music cuts across all kinds of divides. However, that very power of our hymnody to teach, and the way in which music gets right to our hearts, is what makes gender-inclusive language so critical in our hymns. Thanks be to God for all the new great hymnwriters that “get” it in this regard.
“Come Thou Fount” is one of my all-time favorites – – and I think I did “get” the animals. I found the video incredibly moving. Part of this may be due to the fact that I just finished writing for the issue of FaithLink for use on August 26th, “Caring for God’s Creatures”, which took the Michael Vick animal abuse case as its “hook” – – we always have to have a news-hook. That meant I spent a good bit of time with scripture and saw things I’d either never noticed before, or long forgotten, like God breathing the breath of life into all living things at Creation, including the animals – – and the story of Noah and the ark and, as the waters rise, God “remembering” Noah and all the animals, and the covenant is made with the whole menagerie!
Scholars, I discovered, have often debated the question of whether animals have souls. Thomas Moore, in Care of the Soul, describes soul as “not a thing, but a quality or a dimension of experiencing life and ourselves. It has to do with depth, value, relatedness, heart, and personal substance.†He also says that “at different times in our history we have denied soul to classes of beings we have wanted to control,†including women and slaves – – and now, he says caring for our own souls calls for giving up “our illusion that our consciousness is the only sign of soul in the universe, and our desire for dominance over nature.â€
I find the work being done with primates, particularly gorillas like Koko who has a sign language vocabulary of over a thousand words which “she uses in complex statements and questionsâ€, absolutely fascinating. I discovered reports on other studies showing that chimpanzees, dogs and rats show emotions, can laugh and “appear to chase, tickle and show affection for each other,†and farm animals like pigs, cows and chickens “can feel friendship, anger, happiness and loneliness.†It was ironic that, as I worked on this piece, Newsweek came out with the horrifying reports on the brutal killing of families of gorillas in a national park in Congo, solely to satisfy the “bushmeat†market in Europe and North America. A conservation expert commented on the brutality and senselessness of the killings and said, “the most dangerous animal in the world had found yet another excuse to slaughter the creatures with whom we share the planet.â€
So – – put all of that “stuff” together with scripture passages like Psalm 148 and I’m ready to sing another old chestnut, “All Creatures of Our God and King” or, maybe, something that is becoming a new chestnut – – “God of the Sparrow”. Anyone ready to join me?
Judy Bennett