Metaphors, parables, hymns and psalms

6 Pentecost

Proper 12

 July 24, 2011

This past week I had a friend send me one of those emails that wants you to come up with a description of the sender with the 3^rd letter of your last name.  My friend happened to be an Episcopal Priest so I labeled her “trinitarian” since “t” is the letter I needed to use.  Another email this week asked me to fill in the blanks on what I was doing in the moment with one and ONLY ONE descriptive word. 

Sunday’s gospel reading may sound as if Jesus has just been asked to explain God’s kingdom in ten sentences or less, as Matthew has recorded for us a series of mini-parables.  We’ll hear about the mustard seed, some yeast, a treasure in the field, a pearl and a fishing net.  We’ll hear about sowers, birds, bread bakers, treasure hunters, pearl merchants and fish. 

Christians need not be ashamed of the many ways we think and speak of the triune God and the working of the kingdom.  May of our metaphors come right from scripture; others from disciples of distant times and cultures.  And many new ones are graciously offered to us for our consideration and inspiration.  We continue to discover that good metaphoric language does not disguise or distort the truth-- reveals it.

There is even one more mini-parable in this package from Matthew.  Jesus tells the crowd, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the Kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”  We, too, are truly rich when we treasure the best poetic images from the past as well as make room for new ones that express the wide diversity of God’s world and God’s people.  Hymnody continues to be both a classroom and a playground for new images to mingle with the old.  We will experience the old and the new in the music at Grace this Sunday.

Our processional hymn, God of Grace and God of Glory is one of the most popular hymns of the twentieth century. Harry Emerson Fosdick, a preacher of international acclaim, wrote the words at his summer home at Boothbay Harbor, Maine.  The hymn was sung the following fall at the opening of the Riverside Church in New York, October 5, 1930.   So, this is a fairly contemporary hymn, especially when we consider the sequence hymn next.

God Moves in a Mysterious Way – our sequence hymn -- was written by William Cowper in the year 1772.  Unfortunately, this was about a year before the onset of an intense period of depression that led to attempted suicide in October1773, and brought his major hymn writing to an end. 

The Lofty Pew Singers will chant Psalm 105 in SATB Anglican chant.  You are invited to join them in singing the printed antiphon available at the door.

What God Ordains is Good Indeed (Was Gott tut, das ist woblgetan), by JS Bach will be the Eucharist anthem.  While Bach, sung in German or Latin might be preferable from a stylistic and musical standpoint, it is perhaps not always the best choice.  For that reason we will sing this Bach piece in both German and English, in case you don’t understand or speak German.  Following is the text in English:

What God ordains is good indeed,

For all life well providing.

The will of God is best for me,

The ground of my confiding.

My faithful God,

On every road

You know the way unfolding;

Your strong hand I am holding.

What God ordains is good indeed.

My friend will never fail me

On danger’s path, in deepest need,

When death in grief shall veil me.

My God so dear,

O, draw me near;

In loving arms now hold me;

At last in light enfold me.

Here is a link to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Slidell,La, singing this piece, October 25, 2009 on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1h4fTNIcAE

 If Thou But Trust in God to Guide Thee will be our recessional hymn.  This hymn is a classic example of the hymns of “German Pietism,” but that is misleading, since it was written at least a generation before the Pietist movement was begun by Philipp Jacob Spener in the mid-1670s.  It is rather a classic example of the intense and personal hymnody that developed and grew during and following the devastation of the Thirty Years War. 

Both the text and melody of the hymn were written by Georg Neumark in the winter of 1640-41.  The original 7 stanzas appeared after the heading:  “A Song of Comfort.  That God, in His own time will care for and preserve His own.  After the verse:  ‘Cast thy burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain thee’ [Ps. 55:22].”  Catherine Winkworth translated the hymn which has had extensive use, especially in American Lutheranism from the last quarter of the nineteenth century. 

Will all the metaphors in Sunday’s lessons bring even more confusion to our task of understanding God’s kingdom?  Not if we realize that it is not an identity complex we have—what we have as Christians are richly complex identities. Serving God is a mystery. May god guide our paths as we serve him in submission and mystery and trust God to guide us as we process into the streets of Boise this week. 

Sources:

Youtube

Hymnal 1982 Companion

Tune My Heart to Sing

Deacon Ron Jutzy

Bach for All Seasons