Worship Weblog
Monday, November 28, 2005
The Eschatology of a Preposition in “Now Thank We All Our God”
[Cross-posted with my Bringing Heaven blog]
At Thanksgiving chapel last week, we sang, appropriately enough, “Now Thank We All Our God.”
In verse 2, we sang, according to the words on the overhead:
“and free us from all ills, in this world and the next”
I thought the line was supposed to end with “IN the next.” That’s a weighty eschatological preposition; it clarifies that we do not seek immunity from all ills in this current, broken world, but expect perfect bliss only in the next world, on the new earth. (It also gets around the question of why ills would exist in the next life to be delivered from.)
The latest edition of The Psalter Hymnal does indeed read “IN the next.” But when we sang the hymn in church yesterday, I listened hard and noticed that, even with this text in front of them, most of the congregation sang “AND the next.” Meanwhile, cyberhymnal.org has “and the next.”
So I asked my colleague Emily Brink for her perspective on the eschatology of this preposition (or conjunction, in the case of “and”). Emily doesn’t deal with this in the Psalter Hymnal Handbook she co-edited, but she does have the inside scoop on this:
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WOWAW 22: “A vocabulary ... that is sufficiently personal and adequately wide-ranging”
This week’s Words Of Wisdom About Worship:
We acquire facility in personal language that is accurately responsive to what we hear God say to us out of his word in Scripture and in Christ in our changing situations and various levels of faith. We need a vocabulary and syntax that is sufficiently personal and adequately wide-ranging to answer everything that God says from wherever we happen to hear it within every developing stage of our pilgrimage across the entire spectrum of our lives.
-Eugene Peterson, Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity
• Listen to a reading of this quote(mp3)
by Howard Vanderwell
Earlier: WOWAW 21
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Wednesday, November 23, 2005
“We Gather Together” History in WSJ
Emily Brink of CICW, Calvin Theologial Seminary, and Reformed Worship magazine was a resource for two national newspapers last week. Last weekend, the Wall Street Journal quoted her in an article on the history of the hymn “We Gather Together”:
So how did “We Gather Together” get from a 17th-century Dutch songbook to 20th-century American churches and schoolrooms?
One answer is Dutch settlers, who brought it with them to the New World, perhaps as early as the 1620s. The hymn stayed alive in the Dutch-American community throughout the centuries, says Emily Brink of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship in Grand Rapids, Mich. In 1937, when the Christian Reformed Church in North America—a denomination that began with Dutch immigrants who sang only Psalms—made the then-controversial decision to permit hymns to be sung at church, “We Gather Together” was chosen as the opening hymn in the first hymnal.
Earlier, USA Today printed a picture of Emily with pastor Du Fengjing in front of Gang Wa Shi Christian Church, credited to CICW (the picture does not appear on the online version of the article). We are grateful for these opportunities for the media to draw on Emily’s knowledge and experiences!
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Monday, November 21, 2005
Thanksgiving gratitude at Princeton Church
During the week the CICW staff learns about worship and ministry from congregations throughout the world. But on Sunday each of us worships in a local congregation. This Sunday, at Princeton Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids we gave thanks for God’s gift of Annie and her family who have come to us from Liberia.
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JTS latest issue now online
Cool stuff from the latest issue of the Journal of Theological Studies:
(online access is restricted, but print and online access is available at the Calvin Library - details)
Review of Isaiah as Liturgy. By MICHAEL D. GOULDER. Pp. x + 153. (Society for Old Testament Study Monographs.) Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004. ISBN 0 7546 3848 0. £45
(Related article from CICW)
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WOWAW 21: ‘The Bible [is] a liturgical book’
This week’s Words Of Wisdom About Worship:
The structure of [liturgical] celebration is a given that comes with Scripture itself. In terms of both origin and use the Bible can be called a liturgical book. This fact is self-evident when it comes to the five books of the Psalms. It is less well known that, apart from the Psalms, some seventy additional songs occur in Scripture, among which are the familiar canticles of Miriam, Hezekiah, Simeon, Zechariah, and others. In addition, many stories have a liturgical “setting,” such as the story of the Exodus, the story of the entry into Canaan (Joshua), and the many liturgical moments (and fragments) in the book of Revelation.
- E.H. van Olst, The Bible and Liturgy, trans. by John Vriend
• Listen to a reading of this quote(mp3) by Nathan Bierma
Earlier: WOWAW 20
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Friday, November 18, 2005
Preparing to Pray in Thanksgiving Worship
In preparation for Thanksgiving worship, we learn from Sharon Veltema of Unity Christian High School, who observes in this Thanksgiving chapel service that the most appropriate and meaningful first step in thanksgiving can be—perhaps counterintuitively—confession.
• Audio(mp3)/Transcript of interview with Sharon Veltema about this chapel
Excerpt from the service:
Monday, November 14, 2005
‘Christ Plays’ 200-212
Staff discussion proceeded along the lines of these two questions:
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Hymns and Praise Choruses: A Parody
This popular e-mail forward has popped up in the inboxes of many of our readers. Although it caricatures both music styles, there is some instructive value in how this parody captures the differences—and the dangers—in the language of hymns and the language praise choruses.
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Dorm worship workshop featured in Chimes
Earlier this month, Paul Ryan led a workshop on campus on the topic of worship in the residence halls. Chimes, the Calvin College student newspaper, covered the workshop and wrote this report and took the above picture.
Paul’s worksheets are now posted. Also note this excerpt from the Chimes article:
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WOWAW 20: Revelation and Response
This week’s Words of Wisdom about Worship:
One of the most attractive definitions of Christian worship can be found in a sermon preached by Martin Luther at the dedication of the first church built for Protestant worship, Torgau Castle, in 1544. Luther says of Christian worship “that nothing else can be done in it than that our dear Lord Himself talk (rede) to us through His holy word and that we, in turn, talk (reden) to him in prayer and song of praise.” A similar approach appears in the Large Catechism where Luther says that in worship the people “assemble to hear and discuss God’s Word and then praise God with song and prayer.” Thus worship has a duality, revelation and response—both of them empowered by the Holy Spirit.
-James White, Introduction to Christian Worship, 3rd ed., pp. 22-23
• Listen to a reading of this quote(mp3) by CICW’s Nathan Bierma
Earlier: WOWAW 19
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Friday, November 11, 2005
Preparing to Pray 11/11/05
Lord God,
you have declared that your kingdom is among us.
Open our eyes to see it, our ears to hear it,
our hearts to hold it, our hands to serve it
as we worship you this week.
This we pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
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Congregational Stress
A helpful look from the Alban Institute at dealing with stress in congregations:
Congregational stress, like the personal and professional varieties, can both help and harm. Too little stress often means a congregation is not adequately experimenting, taking risks, or exercising creativity about its potential for ministry. A congregation under too much stress is overwhelmed and irritable; over time it can become demoralized and unhealthy. The result in either case is diminished effectiveness in ministry. Clearly the key is keeping the creative pressure high enough to maintain the healthy stress needed for effective ministry, while managing the stress to prevent it from leading to despair and burnout. Continued…
Also see this address by Kathy Smith on congregational leadership for worship renewal.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Preparing to Pray 11/2/05
O Lord, open our eyes, that we may see the needs of others.
Open our ears, that we may hear their cries.
Open our hearts, that they need not be without help.
Let us not be afraid to defend the weak
because of the anger of the strong,
nor afraid to defend the poor
because of the anger of the rich.
Show us where love and hope are needed,
and use us to bring them to those places.
Open our eyes and ears, that this day we may
do some work of peace for you. Amen.
—from The Worship Sourcebook, p. 221, in observance of World Hunger Sunday (see below).
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