In recent weeks during worship, we have sung a few hymns from a new hymnal supplement called All Creation Sings, which is meant to add meaningful music selections to our red Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW) hymnals in our pews. I suppose our Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) worship team leaders are intentional about the whole “hymnal supplement” word choice to perhaps lessen our Lutheran stereotype of scared-the-heck-out-of-our-mind-over-change, especially with music. If they were to call it a new hymnal altogether, that might be a bit much, particularly for the European-descendent Luther-adorers.
Regardless, the few hymns we have sung so far have not been too far out of our musical left field, singing tunes that have been part of many congregations’ repertoires for years; just with different words. And not just different words for something new sake, but words that are meaning-filled, that can hit just the right soul spot for us in 2024, as words from aged hymns could do in the 1500’s and 1700’s and 1900’s, when the then-“new” musicians tried to add to their respective audience repertoire to better understand the magnificent depth of a wondrous God and beautiful Creation.
Part of that magnificent depth of God carries over to our humanity, even if we have our fair share of brokenness, to put mildly. Nevertheless, there is still magnificence in us, including our talents and gifts that enhance our congregational life, for starters. We give thanks that at Divinity, for instance, we are blessed with incredible musical talent engaging a variety of instrumental means, which inspires us to enter a deeper appreciation of this joyous and loving God beyond our wildest imagination. With that in mind, it is also helpful to remember that there are numerous other talented children of God in the wider church as well, so much so that we cannot help but take advantage of their dedicated contributions by singing their songs.
It is also important to remember that we cannot take such amazing talent for granted, for as much as our wider church of the ELCA continues to experience a clergy shortage, that massively pales in comparison to the lessening of church musicians. We do not need to take time now to go into detail over the various reasons, but suffice it to say, not as many children of God are interested in playing the piano or organ or handbells, let alone wanting to teach others how to play any of the above or other instruments. It has reached the point that even my collegiate alma-mater, an ELCA-affiliated institution of higher learning, has eliminated its music department altogether. Needless to say, we cannot take for granted not just the gifts and the talents, but the desire to share such gifts and talents in the realm of worship.
One of the hymns in the All Creation Sings hymnal supplement is called “Christ Is the Life” (ACS 927), written by a fellow alum of that ELCA-affiliated college with no music department to shape future Susan Palo Cherwien’s (a native of Ashtabula as well). The text and the music combine to not only lift up our Lord of Life, but also helping us to remember that even in death, Christ goes with us too. Such complexities of our human story need a little assistance from the talented artists on organ benches and behind handbell tables and those who compose as well to help us feel the magnificent depth of the wondrous God. The hymn begins with these words from Cherwien, who unfortunately died a few years ago:
Christ is the life of all that is,
God’s pure creative Word,
whose pow’r beyond and through all space
the worlds to Being stirred.
Christ is the life beyond all time,
Creation’s birth and breath,
whose labor brings all things to be
and brings all things to death.
Of course, the music doesn’t stop there, not just for the hymn, but for the eternal score of God. Death will not have the finale. Life has and always will reign victorious, and maybe we still need all the organ and trumpet and whatever other instrument blasts to help us still believe that the Resurrection Life is most certainly alive and well. Amen (so let it be)!
In Christ,
Pastor Brad
To hear the music, and for a brief background on the text from Susan Palo Cherwien herself, please visit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHPFdm9N_Jw
For a brief article about the development of All Creation Sings, please visit:
https://www.livinglutheran.org/2020/10/all-creation-sings/