"Grasp the Thing Itself"

Ulrich Zwingli, leader of the Protestant church in Zurich in the 1520’s was an accomplished musician — he sang beautifully, and he played the harp, lute, viol, flute, reedpipe, and cornett. Yet he banished all music from Zurich’s worship services. He believed it was hard enough to keep “mind and mouth on the same track, much less so mind and song.” In other words, either you could sing well, he felt, but not understand what you were singing — or you could concentrate on what you were singing, and not sing very well. His solution: forget the singing, and concentrate on the Word of God.

OK, so it was an over-reaction. It’s hard to see how a Bible that gives us David, the “Sweet Psalmist of Israel” (2 Samuel 23:2), would warrant such a bold move. Moreover, as the other Reformers of Zwingli’s day realized, Paul told us we should be able to sing “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” The question is how to do so in such a way that we are indeed “giving thanks in our hearts to the Lord.” (See Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 5:19-20).

But what Zwingli did do was focus people’s attention on the simple reading of the Word of God. For instance, during Communion, silence would prevail, except for one thing: the reading of Scripture. This Sunday (1 May 2005) at Orangewood Presbyterian Church, in the spirit of our 16th century brothers and sisters in Zurich, during the passing of the bread, we’ll hear nothing but the reading of Isaiah 53.

May our contemplation of the combination of Word and Table lead us, as Zwingli said it should, to “grasp the thing itself”: the wonder of the goodness of God manifest in the Cross of Christ.

050424 Worship Orangewood -- Ain't Misbehavin'

Worship this week was about rolling with the punches. Jeff (senior pastor) called Saturday night: "I think the Lord's telling me to go in a different direction. Sexual misbehavior's been all over the paper this week, and we've been dealing with some really rough cases in the church all week ... I can't not speak to it. So scrap the series on James for this week. We're on 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 tomorrow: 'Sexual Purity in a Sex-Crazed Society.'"

Hmm. Everything we planned for the service seemed like it would work, except the closing song: the Youngbloods' "Get Together" (from the '60's ... remember? ... if so, so the cliche goes, you can't have been there). Somehow, "Come on, people, now. Smile on your brother, everybody get together and love one another right now," didn't seem like it would provide quite the right coda to this message. Jeff suggested "Holy, Holy, Holy." Good choice.

We started the service with "Be Glorified" (Passion) ... a little on the lite side for my taste, but worship's not about my taste ... folks love the song, and it got us gathered. Then: "Immortal, Invisible" (the Claire Cloninger arrangement with the "Come, stars in space" verses interspersed ... folks love singing it, and so do I).

Then I introduced Jeff's change of plans for the day, as well as the Geneva version of the Ten Commandments with the "Kyrie Eleison." I sort of played the role of the synagogue cantor, working through the commandments with the congregation responding, "Kyrie Eleison." I prayed then after the fashion of Hebrews 4:15-16 ("Thank you that we don't have a high priest who's unable to sympathize with our weakness" ... the Bible's best litotes!). And then we went to "Before the Throne" and "To Him Who Sits on the Throne."

Sometimes, I'm on the outside looking in during worship ... it's just a part of the cost of the worship leading job, I suppose. Your charge is to help others get there, so you worry about all the stuff it takes to help them do so. This week, though, I was on the inside with everybody else ... a sweet gift from God.

As part of the offertory we offered Kyle's really lovely arrangement of "Though I May Speak with Bravest Fire." He and Tony (on his sunburst Lakland fretless bass) did the finest piano/bass duet for 2 verses first.

It's hard to know how to strike the right note about sex, especially when it's a day for saying, "If you're messing around, stop it! And if you're feeling superior to people to who are messing around, stop that too!" But Jeff did a great job!

And "Holy, Holy, Holy" was the perfect ending for the morning's service ... or, rather, beginning for the week's service.

Confessing the Commandments

While ministering in Geneva in the 1530’s, John Calvin became convinced that God meant for his people to sing their faith “through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,” the way Paul said they should (which apparently they weren’t doing in Geneva at the time). In the late 30’s, Calvin was forced to live in Strasbourg for a few years, where churches under Martin Bucer’s leadership were singing loud and long.

In Strasbourg, Calvin recruited Clement Marot, one of the most gifted French poets of his day, and together they started writing songs to take back to Geneva. One of the things that especially touched Calvin was the way “liturgical” texts like the Creeds and the Commandments took on new life when they were sung rather than merely recited (or mumbled?).

One of the songs Calvin and Marot brought back to Geneva in 1539 was the arrangement of the 10 Commandments we sang yesterday morning (24 April 2005) at Orangewood Presbyterian Church. Its minor mode gives it a feeling of confession. In between verses, the congregation sings, “Kyrie eleison,” which is Greek for “Lord, have mercy.” That was the prayer to Jesus that began with blind Bartimaeus and the Canaanite woman whose daughter was demon-possessed (Mark 10:47-48; Matthew 15:22).

It’s a prayer that rings true today, regardless of the language. We’re big sinners. We need a big Savior. We’re overcome by evil within us and all around us. We need a God whose mercy turned the worst of human rebellion to his glory at the cross. We need a God whose grace broke sin’s destructiveness in the resurrection of his Son. “Lord, have mercy.”

050417 Worship Orangewood PCA

I was surprised at how smoothly the flow at the top of this week's service went: "Doxology," "Praise the King" (the congregation picked it up grandly, even though it was new to them), Reggie prays (via Romans 5:6,8,10,1; Isaiah 26:3), "Like a River Glorious," "And Can It Be" (in the style of GLAD), and "When I Remember." Powerful spot.

The ladies in our ensemble did a very, very nice job with Fernando Ortega's "Sing to Jesus" for the offertory too.

And I liked the close of service. We did Frank Houghton's lovely hymn "Thou Who Wast Rich Beyond All Splendor," followed by the Lost Dogs' "Breathe Deep." (For which, Greg Davis [www.writeclik.com] did the coolest graphic montage, including this panel featuring my '73 afro!)

The message was on James 2:1-6, about how people of the glorious Lord Jesus ought not to show favoritism to the "radiant" ones of this life, but rather should care for the poor whom God has chosen to be rich in faith. What better way to close such a message than with songs remembering that the One who was rich became poor to make us rich, and that he calls us to care for the poor in spirit, whether they are "politicians, morticians, philistines, homophobes ... long hairs, short hairs, no hairs, everybody, everywhere, 'Breathe deep, breathe deep the breath of God!'"