What was that hymn?
I’m sure there have been weeks when you left church wondering where on earth did that hymn come from, and some weeks we sing everyone’s favorites. There is a pattern to the hymns that we sing each week. I would love to pick my favorite hymns each week, but the hymns are chosen based not only on the season of the church year but the lessons for the day. Our opening hymn prepares us for worship. It invokes God, the Holy Spirit, to dwell with us as we gather and hear God’s word. It often addresses our need to enter into worship with open hearts and confessing our need for our savior.
The hymn of the day, which we sing just after the sermon, is chosen by the pastor to support the message for the day. All of the lessons and the psalm tie together to support the theme of the day. The prayer of the day just before the children’s sermon usually gives an idea of how the lessons all tie together. The hymn of the day does the same. We also sing hymns during communion.
As I stated in a previous article, the church body joins as one when it raises its voice in song with all the saints on earth and with the heavenly hosts gathered around the throne of God. As one we come forward to receive the body and blood of Christ. Although many think of communion as a very personal experience, just as its name suggests, it is a communal act. We gather as the first Christians did, and as Jesus and his disciples in the upper room, and we confess our sins and are fed with the body and blood of Christ. We join our voices in song at communion to join with each other for the feast. These hymns are almost always about Jesus our savior.
Finally, the closing hymn is a hymn of praise. We have been forgiven of our sins, God’s word has been opened for us just as Jesus did for his disciples on the road to Emmaus, and we have received the body and blood of Christ. We leave the church praising God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and profess our commitment to go into the world and share his good news.
The hymns we sing each Sunday are chosen very carefully to reflect all the elements I have listed above. I often find it helps to read the hymns without singing to truly get the full message of the words. I encourage you to pay attention to the words we are singing. What is it that we are saying through our music. We are not simply enhancing our worship with music. We are speaking to God as we lift our voices in song. If you are not familiar with a particular hymn and are having difficulty singing it, read it to yourself as the congregation sings. What are the words saying to
you and to God?
Through the centuries we have been blessed with a rich abundance of hymns. There are many like Amazing Grace, that we can sing by heart, but there are also many hymns we are less familiar with that can enrich our worship and our under-
standing of the Word.
Starting this month we will have a hymn of the month to help us learn some of these less familiar hymns. This hymn will be sung at communion and we will sing this same hymn each week for a month. Please sing along with us and learn the music that God has blessed us with.
In Christ,
Angela
