September 5, 2023
Beulah UMC, Monthly Social Gathering
Topic: Pastor Robert’s “Favorite Hymns”
Thank you for the opportunity to share with you today. I spent some time brainstorming possible topics that would be interesting.
I didn’t really want to preach at you because you get that on Sunday mornings. And since I’m still the new pastor, I was thinking that this might be a good time for Penny and me to share a little bit more about who we are.
Now, I knew that you probably wouldn’t want to spend an hour looking at our most recent vacation pictures, although how fun would that be?? I also knew that as much as some of you may be dog lovers, you probably wouldn’t want to look at all 1,000 pictures of our two westies, Blu and Tipsy.
So, I kept coming back to what would be a good topic to share today, and that’s when I thought of just how important music and the hymns of faith are to us. And as a pastor of several congregations over the years, I have discovered again and again just how important the hymns of the church are to all of us in our faith journey.
This past spring at the church I recently retired from in Ohio, I led a memorial service that was held at the church for a member of our congregation who had died suddenly from a heart issue. She was only in her early 60s and was part of our church’s bell choir. In fact, she died two days after she had practiced with the Bell Choir.
And like I always do, when it was time to plan the service, I met with the family to see what they would like me to include. Now, there are times when families simply want the pastor to just go ahead and plan the service, but this family had a lot of ideas of what they wanted me to include.
And it was at this meeting with Erin’s family, which included her now widowed husband, their daughter who is in her mid 20s, and Erin’s mother and brother-in-law, that they wanted the service to reflect Erin’s very strong Methodist faith. Erin’s father is a retired United Methodist pastor, so Methodism was in Erin’s blood from an early age. Erin’s husband shared how much she loved the hymns of Charles Wesley, so the entire service included several of those hymns.
And since Erin was in the bell choir, the bell choir wanted to play an anthem in her memory at the memorial service. And for this bell choir piece, they played an arrangement of the hymn, “Here I Am, Lord” which was the last piece Erin practiced with the Bell Choir two days before her unexpected passing.
During the memorial service, the bell choir members left a space behind one of the bell choir tables empty that would have been occupied by Erin. And so Erin’s two choir bells sat silently on that table during the anthem. It was one of the most memorable holy moments I have ever experienced, a powerful symbol of how important music was to Erin’s faith.
I share this with you because this is just one of many, many examples of how important the hymns of faith are to us.
My older brother, also an ordained United Methodist Pastor, recently retired as the Director of Music at our home church in Pennsylvania. We both were raised in that church and so the Methodist hymns of faith have always been an important part of our lives.
Penny also attended a Methodist Church in Pennsylvania where she was raised and so music has been a big part of her life as well. I will often ask her opinion on using a certain hymn for worship. My rule of thumb in selecting hymns is to pick hymns that will reflect the main theme of that Sunday worship, but they also need to be singable. That’s when you get into that gray area in choosing hymns.
Have you noticed that there are some hymns in the hymnal that are just hard to sing? And even though I want to broaden our horizons in selecting hymns that might not be as familiar, I also don’t want worship to be a struggle because that can be distracting.
So having said all of that, during our time together today, I want to share with you some of my favorite hymns and Penny will share a couple of her favorites as well. And then at the end, I would also like to give you an opportunity to share any of your favorite hymns and maybe why there are your favorite hymns.
By the way, since we Methodist preachers tend to move from church to church, just for fun, I jotted down some hymns one day that would be inappropriate to include on a pastor’s last Sunday at that church. My list was similar to David Letterman’s top 10 list that he used to do. So here we go…
The 10th most inappropriate hymn to sing for a pastor’s last Sunday at a church is… “Hail Thee, Festive Day.”
The 9th most inappropriate hymn for a pastor’s last Sunday… “Good Christian Friends, Rejoice.”
Coming in at the #8 most inappropriate hymn for a pastor’s last Sunday… “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come.”
#7 most inappropriate hymn? “Nobody Knows the Trouble I See”
#6 – “The Strife is O’er, the Battle Done”
The 5th most inappropriate hymn to be used for a pastor’s last Sunday… “He Never Said a Mumbalin’ Word”
Coming in at #4 is the hymn, “Rock-a-Bye, My Dear Little Boy”
The 3rd most inappropriate hymn for a pastor’s last Sunday – “Filled with Excitement, All the Happy Throng”
The 2nd most inappropriate hymn – “When the Church of Jesus Shuts It’s Outer Door”
And the #1 most inappropriate hymn to include in a pastor’s last Sunday at a church? Drum roll, please…. It’s the hymn, “Move Me, Move Me”
Ok, let’s get a little more serious now.
Back in 2010, the United Methodist Church conducted a survey of United Methodists inviting them to share their favorite hymns. Over 1,500 people of a variety of ages responded to the survey.
And by the way, there are 677 hymns in our United Methodist hymnal so when we are talking about a top 20, this represents a very small collection of hymns in the hymnal.
Here are our top 20 hymns beginning with the most favorite hymn and working down to the 20th favorite hymn:
1) Here I am Lord 2) How Great Thou Art 3) Amazing Grace 4) Hymn of Promise 5) In the Garden 6) Lord of the Dance 7) It is Well with My Soul 8) Be Thou My Vision 9) Great Is Thy Faithfulness 10) A Tie! Blessed Assurance & Because He Lives 11) The Old Rugged Cross 12) Holy, Holy, Holy 13) O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing 14) Spirit Song 15) Victory in Jesus 16) Pass It On 17) What a Friend We Have in Jesus 18) Christ the Lord is Risen Today 19) Lord, You Have Come to the Lakeshore 20) A tie! Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee & Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
So, for me, it’s not helpful to think of hymns in terms of “favorites” because I love them all and a lot of times, one will speak to me more than another because of whatever I may be going through at the time.
Another part of ranking the hymns for me has to do with their attachment to a significant event in my life. In other words, if that event didn’t happen where that hymn became helpful to me, then I don’t know that it would have been one of my favorites. Our experiences can often lead us to having a hymn be more meaningful than others.
With some of those thoughts about hymns, here are my top 5 hymns and a brief explanation why these are my favorites even though I don’t like using that word, “favorite.” At least for today, September 5, 2023, these are my top five hymns beginning with #5:
#5 – “Joy to the World” – So obviously that’s a seasonal hymn sung during Christmas but for me, there is something so powerful about singing that hymn at the end of a Christmas Eve service.
#4 – “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today” – This is also a seasonal hymn which I always, always include as the opening hymn on Easter Sunday. And it’s a Charles Wesley hymn as well! This hymn also made it into the top 20 of the favorite hymn survey.
#3 – “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing” – Another great Charles Wesley hymn! Also, it is the 1st hymn in our hymnal. It’s such a great hymn of praise and thanksgiving.
#2 – “Lift High the Cross” – The reason this hymn is so meaningful to me and is #2 on my list is because it is connected to a couple of powerful memories in my life separated by only a couple of weeks.
This hymn was played at my father’s funeral service two weeks before I was ordained. And the banner that I used for my ordination service included the title of this hymn.
I thought of my dad during that entire ordination service. And it was also the opening hymn that was used during the service when the ordinands process down the aisle. That was definitely one of those “Thin Place Moments” for me.
And my #1 favorite hymn at least for today but probably most days is the powerful hymn, “For All the Saints.” This one didn’t even make the top 20 in the survey!
I always use this hymn for All saints’ Sunday which is typically the 1st Sunday of November. That Sunday is so powerful because we are remembering all of God’s faithful people who have gone before us and their example of faith for us. That’s a hymn that always gives me goose bumps! And the lyrics are just so incredible!
Before Penny shares a couple of her favorite hymns, I just want to share this about the hymns of faith. The hymn writers that we find in our hymnal are some of the most creative, poetic, and gifted writers who can help us to grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ. They help us to express what is often times inexpressible.
Isaac Watts is maybe the most well known of all the hymn writers. Isaac Watts lived during the early part of the 1700s in England. And I love this story about him when he was a little boy.
Even as a young boy, he had the annoying habit of speaking in rhyme. He did this all the time. One day, his father who was a preacher grew exasperated and said, “Son, I am going to spank the poetry out of you!”
The young boy responded, “Oh father, do some pity take, and no more poetry shall I make.”
That little boy ended up writing 750 hymns of faith. 15 of them are in our United Methodist hymnal including the hymns, “Joy to the World” and “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.”
Charles Wesley who lived around the same time as Isaac Watts and who himself wrote 6,500 hymns offered high praise for Watt’s hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.” He said that he would have been willing to give up all of his own hymns if he could have written just this one hymn. Many hymn scholars will tell you that this just might be the greatest Christian hymn ever written because of the depth of the lyrics as well as the melody. So just wanted to offer that shout-out to Mr. Isaac Watts.
Speaking of Charles Wesley, I think it’s important for us to remember that it wasn’t just his brother, John who started the Methodist movement back in 18thcentury, England. It was also Charles who through his gift of hymn writing was able to put the distinctive Methodist theology into hymn form. So, during the week, those early Methodists grew in their faith through the singing of these hymns.
Our United Methodist hymnal divides our hymns into different sections that are based on Wesleyan theology and so we have hymns about Prevenient Grace; God’s grace that goes before us; Justifying Grace; God’s grace that justifies us; and Sanctifying Grace which is God’s grace that sanctifies us and continues to shape and mold us throughout our lives.
And this is why I want to emphasize the importance of paying attention to the lyrics of the hymns and not just the melody. Both are important but I think it’s important to notice how the hymn writer has each verse of his or her hymn build on the previous verse through their use of creative poetry and use of metaphors.
One of my daily spiritual disciplines is to read the words of a hymn each day and I’m always amazed at how the words speak to my soul. I don’t sing it to myself because I really want to focus on the lyrics. Here are a couple of examples of hymn lyrics that have really spoken to me during my morning devotional time.
One morning, I was reading the verses of Charles Wesley’s hymn, “O Thou, Who Camest from Above,” and I noticed this wonderful phrase that he includes in verse 3 of that hymn. He uses the phrase “stir up.” Listen for this phrase in verse 3:
“Jesus, confirm my heart's desire to work and speak and think for thee; still let me guard the holy fire, and still stir up thy gift in me.” There it is. “And still stir up thy gift in me.”
So, think about this metaphor. When Penny is cooking one of her awesome dinners, she will put in all of these wonderful ingredients and seasonings in a frying pan. And as it is heating on the stove, she’ll ask me, “Can you stir up what’s in that pan?”
By stirring it, I’m helping to bring out all of the wonderful flavors and helping it to consolidate into what will soon be a great meal. In this fun little analogy, think of God as the one who places the gift of grace in our souls. And you and I are simply called to stir up God’s grace which is already within us. If we don’t stir it up, it won’t reach its fullest potential.
What a great image of God’s grace! “Still let me guard the holy fire, and still stir up thy gift in me.” That’s going to make it into a sermon someday so please act surprised when I use it!
I ran across this hymn one day that was written by a present-day Scottish hymn writer, John Bell. It’s not in our hymnal because it was written in 1989, the same year that our hymnal was published. The melody of this hymn is so beautiful, but the lyrics are also so creative and meaningful. Here are the four verses:
1. Today I awake and God is before me. At night, as I dreamt, he summoned the day. For God never sleeps, but patterns the morning. With slithers of gold or glory in grey.
2. Today I arise and Christ is beside me. He walked through the dark to scatter new light. Yes, Christ is alive, and beckons his people. To hope and to heal, resist and invite.
3. Today I affirm the Spirit within me. At worship and work, in struggle and rest. The Spirit inspires all life which is changing. From fearing to faith, from broken to blessed.
4. Today I enjoy the Trinity round me. Above and beneath, before and behind. The Maker, the Son, the Spirit together. They called me to life and call me their friend.
What a great way to begin your day by reading and reflecting on hymn lyrics like these. May the hymns of faith continue to be an important resource in our walk with Christ.
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