June 5, 2011
This past Thursday was celebrated in Anglican churches around the world as Ascension Day. Although GAC did not have our usual service that evening, we know that the strong number of 40 is always held up for that service commemorating the Ascension of Our Lord forty days after His day of resurrection. It is one of the high days in our Christian calendar. We have had 40 days of rejoicing, learning, and eating with the Risen One and now, through Him, with His disciples throughout history. He has been carried up into heaven, but promises to still be with us in new and better ways. We know that things will never be quite the same.
There are many who are troubled with some aspects of the Ascension story. I know some people that have difficulty in the concept of heaven as up in the sky, someplace above the clouds. Our space travel has taken us to the heavens and now there is a less literal belief in the location of heaven. So, where do we look if not up to heaven? Do we cast our eyes downward or even close them altogether?
Looking up seems the best bet to me. The disciples looked upward on that day and witnessed His departure with bittersweet emotions. But, they received His blessing, His promise to send power from on high and they went back to Jerusalem rejoicing. Such is the power of the Ascended One. Look up! The time for singing has come!
All Hail the Power will be our processional hymn for this day and it is matched with the Season of Easter and the opening Collect, where we will hear “O God, the King of Glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven….”.
The author of the words of this hymn was Rev. Edward Perronet. Edward’s Protestant grandparents had fled Roman Catholic France, going first to Switzerland, then to England. Edward’s father had become a vicar in the Anglican Church, and Edward followed in his footsteps. I find this interesting as our son Geoff will be marrying Maia Peponnet, the daughter of Jean Jacques Peponnet, from Bordeaux, France in the fall. I wonder if this is a derivation of their ancient family name and shall ask!
Back now to Edward Perronet’s story. For several years, he became closely allied with the Wesleys, traveling with them and sometimes caught up in their adventures. In John Wesley’s journal, we find this entry: “Edward Perronet was thrown down and rolled in mud and mire. Stones were hurled and windows broken.” In time, however, Edward broke with the Wesleys over various Methodist policies. John Wesley even excluded his hymns from Methodist hymnals. Edward pastored a small independent church in Canterbury, where he died on January 22, 1792.
Since several of our parishioners have spent time as missionaries in India, I think they’ll like the following story. The hymn was greatly used in evangelistic endeavors, earning Perronet a place in missionary history. Rev. E P Scott, missionary to India, wrote of trying to reach a savage tribe in the Indian subcontinent. Ignoring the pleadings of his friends, he set off into dangerous territory. Several days later, he met a large party of warriors who surrounded him, their spears pointed at his heart. Expecting to die at any moment, Scott took out his violin, breathed a prayer, closed his eyes, and began singing, “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name!” When he reached the words, “Let every kindred, every tribe,” he opened his eyes. There stood the warriors, some in tears, every spear lowered. Scott spent the next two years evangelizing the tribe.
The Head that once was Crowned with Thorns is often associated with the Feast of the Ascension and rich with imagery of the Epistle to the Hebrews. It is based on Hebrews 2:10, not one of our readings of this Sunday and paired for this day with the 1 Peter reading. The poet, Thomas Kelly’s inspiration was a poem of John Bunyan, “One Thing is Needful, or Serious Meditations upon the Four Last Things,” which includes the lines:
The head that once was crowned with thorns,
Shall now with glory shine;
The heart that broken was with scorns,
Shall flow with life divine.
Eric Routley says of this hymn that it “…is perhaps the finest of all hymns; Thomas Kelly has here comprehended the whole Gospel, and he tells the Good News and of the mysterious mercy by which we may lay hold on it.”
Our recessional hymn will be Crown Him with many Crowns again a reference to the Season of Easter. The original form of this hymn was written by Matthew Bridges and consisted of 6 stanzas. He thought of his hymn as a sermon in song, based on Revelation 19:12 “…and on His head were many crowns.” Matthew, who once wrote a book condemning Roman Catholics, ended up converting to Catholicism in 1848, following John Henry Newman out of the Church of England.
In 1874, Godfrey Thring, a staunch Anglican clergyman feared that some of Bridges’ verses smacked too much of Catholic doctrine, so he wrote six new verses for the same song. Over the years, these twelve stanzas have become intermingled in hymn books, with editors mixing and matching the verses. I found that to be true in the 3 hymnals I referenced for this note. The hymn tune, DIADEMATA (Crowns), was especially composed by Sir George Elvey for the hymn, Soldiers of Christ Arise by Charles Wesley in 1868. Elvey believed that church music should be as stately, uplifting and inspiring as the soaring arches and stained-glass windows of the cathedrals in which it would be rendered. You might recall Sir Elvey’s desire as we sing this closing hymn in the little chapel of stained glass windows where we worship today.
In the gospel reading, this final Sunday of the Easter season, we will hear these first 7 words, “Jesus looked up to heaven and said….” -- another reference to looking up – as He prays what is often called His “high priestly prayer.” This prayer actually took place before Jesus’ crucifixion, but says so much to us when proclaimed these days around Ascension, and as we look forward to Pentecost, next Sunday.
A key theme in this Sunday’s portion of the prayer is unity. Jesus speaks of His unity with the Father and with all people. And He prays that God will make known this unity so that we, too, will know of the unity which is ours with the Father and with each other. We probably do not feel very much at unity in the world we live in today. We know of so many world religions, so many denominations within Christianity, so many differences between congregations, and so many rifts between parishioners. Still, Jesus not only prays for unity, He claims it is already here.
In our church at Grace Anglican, we are often called to be in unity. We may need to stand or sit or move as one body. We recite or read our liturgy together. We even see our acolytes and clergy wearing vestments that take away their individuality and give way to visual unity. And what could be more exciting for many, than a good unison sound when we sing together? If you ask the Lofty Pew Singers they will undoubtedly say they prefer to sing in parts, or SATB. A singing congregation and a choir are lessons in themselves on unity.
Two voices are never exactly alike. They have different timbres and ranges. There are times when we sing louder and softer. Sometimes we sing in harmony with each other and sometimes at counterpoint. These examples do not negate the lesson on unity; they make it even stronger. Unity does not require identical sounds but a common goal. Unity does not deny diversity, but rather celebrates it.
Fights and schisms among Christians do harm the message we proclaim, but rejoicing in the diversity of God’s people proclaims the gospel. When we sing in parts we demonstrate the beauty of diversity and model harmonious living. When we sing polyphony*we share in the excitement of different melodies, beautiful on their own, complementing each other when combined, and creating a glorious tapestry of sound that is much more colorful than any individual part. This, too, manifests the gospel.
The Lofty Pew Singers will sing the joyful anthem, “Now Let Us All Praise God and Sing”, by Gordon Young. Take note of how we will start in unison and then separate yet blend and “in one accord our joyful voices raise.” Yet another example of the unity that Jesus calls for.
Here is a link to a small choir singing the Eucharist Anthem to be sung by the Lofty Pew Singers tomorrow:
May our prayer be for the eyes of faith to see the unity that transcends diversity—and to feel it, work for it, and to rejoice in it. Our prayer is that of the hymn writer Jeffrey Rowthorn:
Give us all new fervor, draw us closer in community.
With the Spirit’s gifts empower us for the work of ministry.
“Lord, You Give the Great Commission”
**Definition of POLYPHONY: a style of musical composition employing two or more simultaneous but relatively independent melodic lines
Sources:
Hymns and Human Life, Erik Routley
Companion to the SDA Hymnal
Hymnal 1982 Companion
Then Sings My Soul, Morgan
Webster’s Dictionary
www.youtube.com
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