Petitions and Resolutions: Reclaiming Our Methodist Musical Heritage
-
Hannah’s Prayer
2 Hannah prayed and said,
“My heart exults in the Lord;
my strength is exalted in my God.[a]
My mouth derides my enemies
because I rejoice in your victory.2 There is no Holy One like the Lord,
no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.
3 Talk no more so very proudly;
let not arrogance come from your mouth,
for the Lord is a God of knowledge,
and by him actions are weighed.
4 The bows of the mighty are broken,
but the feeble gird on strength.
5 Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
but those who were hungry are fat with spoil.
The barren has borne seven,
but she who has many children is forlorn.
6 The Lord kills and brings to life;
he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
7 The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
he brings low; he also exalts.
8 He raises up the poor from the dust;
he lifts the needy from the ash heap
to make them sit with princes
and inherit a seat of honor.
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s,
and on them he has set the world.9 He will guard the feet of his faithful ones,
but the wicked will perish in darkness,
for not by might does one prevail.
10 The Lord! His adversaries will be shattered;
the Most High[b] will thunder in heaven.
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth;
he will give strength to his king
and exalt the power of his anointed.” -
Mary’s Song of Praise
46 And Mary[a] said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant.
Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name;
50 indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty.
54 He has come to the aid of his child Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
You may or may not have noticed when you read this week’s e-news, which is something that I know you all do, but there was homework for today. Today is the start of our worship series for the next few weeks, based on a few of the petitions and resolutions that were addressed at Annual Conference this past May. If you didn’t do the reading for today, that’s alright. This first one is short enough that I can read the whole thing for you now. The next few weeks’ readings are a little more dense, so I won’t be reading those word for work, though I will read excerpts. So, if you’d like to study each of the readings for the next few weeks, you can check the e-news when it comes out. Or, if you don’t feel like reading, that’s fine. I’m sure you can still get something out of the sermons anyway. Now, without further ado, here is our first petition: Reclaiming Our Methodist Musical Heritage.
Brief Rationale:
For years, worship at Annual Conference sessions has consisted primarily of contemporary music from non-Methodist sources, the content of which at times conflicts with our doctrine and theology
Whereas, the Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church tells us that it is our responsibility “to foster the use of the best resources for worship at conference meetings and in all the churches of the conference, promote the use of The United Methodist Hymnal (1989)” (¶629.4b), and
Whereas, the Book of Discipline tells us that “The Wesley brothers also composed hymns that were rich in doctrinal and experiential content. The hymns, especially those of Charles Wesley, not only are among the best-loved within Methodism but also are major resources for doctrinal instruction” (¶103), and
Whereas, the Book of Discipline tells us that “Lists of recommended doctrinal resources vary from generation to generation but generally acknowledge the importance of the hymnbook, the ecumenical creeds, and the General Rules” (¶103), and
Whereas, the Book of Discipline tells us that “The Wesleyan hymnody served in practice as the most important single means of communicating and preserving the doctrinal substance of the gospel” (¶103), and
Whereas, the Book of Discipline tells us that “With other Christians, we declare the essential oneness of the church in Christ Jesus. This rich heritage of shared Christian belief finds expression in our hymnody and liturgies” (¶102), and
Whereas, the United Methodist Publishing House has published three hymnals and four supplemental hymn books for use by United Methodists, containing in total over two thousand hymns and spirituals,
Therefore be it resolved that the music selected for worship at Annual Conference Sessions should primarily consist of hymns found in United Methodist published material, such as The United Methodist Hymnal, The Faith We Sing, and Worship & Song.
Submitted by Dorothy Jayne Smith (yes, relation).
What are the people called Methodists known for? What sets us apart from other churches? For some, it’s our love of fellowship. The stereotype has long been that wherever two or three Methodists are gathered, you can usually find a potluck dinner. When my dad and I were attending Mass every Saturday while I was in seminary, our friend, the priest, once told us that he could tell we were Methodists from the first time we showed up there, because we took our coats off for the service and hung around afterwards to socialize. Or maybe it’s our long history of social action. From the days of John Wesley and his Oxford Holy Club visiting prisons, to the Methodist deaconesses who walked with immigrants through Ellis Island, to those who have marched in the streets for justice for generations. From neighborhood food pantries, to Community Outreach Centers, to the United Methodist Committee on Relief. For many, being a Methodist means doing, helping, putting love into action. Others might point to distinct Methodist ideas about grace and freewill, or our particular way of organizing on local, regional, and international levels. But there’s something else that Methodists still tend to be known for, and for good reason: our singing. In ecumenical spaces, where Christians from various denominations come together, Methodists have long been marked by our rich musical tradition, and our tradition of strong congregational singing.
Our music is one of the things that sets us apart, and that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Charles Wesley, one of the founders of the Methodist movement, wrote over 65 hundred hymns in his lifetime, dozens of which are in the hymnals that we use each week. There are also a few hymns that John Wesley wrote, but we don’t talk about those as much. Charles, though, wrote many of the hymns that are standard throughout the year, including “Come, Though Long-Expected Jesus” each Advent, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” each Christmas Eve, “Christ The Lord Is Risen Today” every Easter, and “Love Divine All Loves Excelling” regularly, so we don’t forget it. And, of course, one of my personal favorites, “O For a Thousand Tongues To Sing,” which I love so much, we’re singing it twice today. Even if you don’t know these hymns by name or by heart, even if you come from different denominations or from no faith community in particular, many of these are probably familiar tunes—“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” at least. And, even if you don’t consciously know it, these hymns carry not only a sense of familiarity for many, but also a sung catechism of sorts. They reflect the particular social and theological beliefs that the Wesley brothers organized around almost three hundred years ago—the idea that Christ is our liberator, the one who sets us free from chains and from sin. The idea that we, as humans, are not destined to remain as we are, that we are not fatally flawed, but that we can embrace God’s grace and find wholeness and transformation in it.
While not every hymn in our hymnals can be said to capture a distinct Wesleyan Methodist theology (“Trust and Obey” is one that comes to mind), many of our hymns do. From the earliest hymns of John and Charles, to the nineteenth- and twentieth-century hymns by Fanny Crosby and Charles Albert Tindley, to the works of Georgia Harkness, through to today’s Mark Miller. Our hymnbooks, in their multiplicity, contain hymns that speak to us of Christ’s liberating power, of God’s transforming grace, and of our call to gather together as Christ’s body for the transformation of the world. These hymns draw from our shared theology, and bring in lived experiences, references to scripture (“when the storms of life are raging, stand by me…”), and tie these things together with reason. And, wouldn’t you know it, those are the four parts of our distinctly Methodist theological framework: the Wesleyan Quadrilateral (Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience). Our hymns are theological documents, not simply sources of entertainment for us. They help us to pray and praise God, but also to teach and reinforce what it is that we teach about God and God’s call on our lives. So, it matters what we sing, as much as it matters why and how we sing.
This petition caused quite a stir at Annual Conference. It was funny, we passed a resolution calling for a just resolution to the atrocities taking place in Gaza and acknowledging that we, as the church, have not done enough to advocate for those who are being made to suffer without any debate or discussion. But when it came to our church music, everyone had something to say. And it was funnier still, when many of the…ahem…older folks at the Conference rose to speak against this petition, arguing that we need to leave behind our hymns and go all in on Contemporary Christian Music in order to attract younger people to the church—ignoring the fact that the person who wrote the petition is my younger sister, who’s 22. Multiple speakers invoked Psalm 96 in their arguments, which tells us to “sing to the Lord a new song,” and insisted that God must surely get tired of hearing the same songs over and over and over again. But we forget that it is old songs that arise again and again in scripture, in the stories that teach us about the way that Christ walked. We forget, or perhaps never learned, that when Jesus was bleeding on the cross, gasping his final breaths, he cried out “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” not a new song at all, but a quote from Psalm 22, the old songs the he would have grown up hearing.
We forget, or perhaps never made the connection, that when Mary learns that she is going to have a baby, and that baby is going to be Jesus, that she sings a song that is not new or original. She sings an old song, the same song that Hannah sang when she learned that she was going to have a baby. Mary echoes this song from her own faith tradition not only because the message is appropriate—that God has brought down the powerful, lifted up the lowly, and is turning the world upside-down—but because in this moment of emotion, of upheaval, of probably too much going on all at once, there was a sense of comfort in singing the words that came from a familiar place. Going through something that no one she knew had ever gone through, she found the words written by a woman whose experiences were similar. She found comfort in words that she had heard sung in worship or at home by her mother or grandmother. In that moment, when there were no words, Mary found words from her people. She found words of comfort for that very moment that connected her to a people more than any genealogy could ever have.
Our hymns and sacred songs are our connection, both to one another and to those who have sung them before us. When we sing, whether we grew up in the church or are singing them for the first time, we are joining our voices with all our ancestors of faith who have sung them before us. We are embodying the memory of all these saints who have shared these songs. And, in sharing together these common hymnals, we are embodying our connection to other United Methodists around the world, who sing many of the same hymns. Our hymns are one of the tangible and lived expressions of our capital-C Connection, the theology we live out in the United Methodist Church that holds that we don’t walk this road by ourselves.
I want to end by affirming that this reclamation of our Methodist musical heritage is not to say that we can’t sing hymns from other traditions, or that we can’t sing new hymns, or that we can’t sing songs that aren’t in the hymnal. I mean, “It Is Well With My Soul” is a great hymn, and it was written by a Presbyterian. And in a few weeks, on “AI Sunday,” we’re going to be singing a hymn that was written by one of my favorite contemporary hymn writers, Ruth Duck, that isn’t in any of our hymnals. Duck was United Church of Christ, but she graduated from a United Methodist seminary and taught at one, too! I love singing hymns from a variety of times, places, and people. From the great English classics to hymns I’ve only learned in the last few years from Zimbabwe and South Africa. The statement that we must reclaim our Methodist musical heritage is not to say that we should ignore other voices, other artists, other traditions. It’s to remind us that what we sing matters. It’s to remind us of the importance of our connection, both to one another and to the past. And it’s to remind us that God doesn’t always need a brand new song or prayer or idea or accomplishment or anything else. Sometimes, the words that are written on our hearts are the words that were written tens, hundreds, or even thousands of years ago. May we remember that we are here for a reason: to be the people called Methodists. Not better or worse than any other denomination or tradition. But still, a people marked by our love of community, our hunger to see the world made new, and yes, by our rich and rooted musical heritage. May we claim this with passion, may we allow it to feed us, challenge us, and comfort us, and may we find new songs still along the way. Amen.