Jesus: The King and His Kingdom

Sermon by John Turner

August 23, 2009

Matthew 6:19-34

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

The Praise and Worship Movement

Slowly in the 1960’s, then rapidly in the 1970’s and following, came one of the greatest outbreaks of Christian musical creativity in history, the praise and worship movement. Its early phase was marked by simple choruses. The great strength of praise and worship choruses is that the good ones have the power to encapsulate simple, but profound truths that can get inside our souls and change our lives, and then give us a language, often the language of Scripture itself, for expressing our devotion to God.

Karen Lafferty

Karen Lafferty, from New Mexico, with a music education degree from New Mexico State, was first runner-up in the Miss New Mexico pageant, which set aside scholarship money that she could use for continuing education at an accredited university. She was eager to work on her career as a professional singer and so let the prize money sit for a time. She was a believer all her life, but while she was earning her living singing in a New Orleans night club, a Christian friend challenged her that she was not taking a Christian lifestyle seriously. Karen moved to California, still singing in clubs, but now trying to witness to customers. She began to attend the founding Calvary Chapel congregation in Cosa Mesa. Calvary Chapel was an outreach mission to Jesus People, fresh converts from the false spiritualities and other sins of the day who were in need of grounding in the word. By the time Karen arrived, Calvary Chapel was drawing crowds from around the world. Soon, Karen called her mother and told her that she had quit her club job to pursue ministry. After a pause,

Mom: This does mean that your church is paying you, doesn’t it?
Karen: Well, no, I’m sort of living by faith.
Longer pause. Karen: Mom, I thought you would be happy for me.
Mom: “You do remember that I co-signed your car loan, don’t you?”

Karen wasn’t earning much money teaching guitar lessons. Without the clubs, she could not see where the rent money or car money was going to come from. Karen had already learned an important truth. Say it after me: “When we have problems/we do not run from God/we run to God.” The text at church was the one I read at the beginning of this sermon. The part that struck Karen’s heart was, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” She decided to seek God’s full will for her life and to trust his provision. She went back to her apartment and began to play on her guitar a melody that was coming into her head. She suddenly recognized that the meter of the melody exactly fit the text she had just heard. She added an Alleluia refrain and descant and recorded it.

For the moment the chorus simply reinforced that she had decided to seek God’s will and to trust God’s provision.

The first step in provision was that a few days later she received a letter from the Miss New Mexico pageant. For some time she had been pleading with them to let her use her scholarship money on non-accredited training for missions and ministry. The letter said that they were making their first exception to their policy, that she could pursue her non-accredited training, and that the money could also be used for her living expenses while she did so.

The second step in provision was that “Seek Ye First” made her career. Karen soon had a job helping produce records for Calvary Chapel’s spin-off Maranatha! Music, the most influential force in introducing praise and worship music to the world. Her song went on their first Praise and Worship album. “Seek Ye First” still provides for about forty per cent of Karen’s living and missions expenses.

Karen began to see the worldwide evangelistic potential of praise and worship music. She trained with Youth with a Mission (Y-WAM) in their Amsterdam center and founded Musicians for Missions International as a ministry of that center. Calling herself a “musicianary,” she seeks and trains musicians in other countries who can help evangelize their own people. In 1995, she moved her headquarters to Santa Fe, but she continues to travel the world in her work. Karen remembers a time in Europe when she was discouraged, lonely, and homesick. A group of nuns passed her, singing in French “Seek Ye First.” She knew then that her work was not fruitless, nor was she ever really alone anywhere in the world. “When we have problems/we do not run from God/we run to God.”

Leona Von Brethorst

Most of us have seen David Bell enthusiastically urging us to clap to the chorus “He Has Made Me Glad.” This praise and worship chorus was not written by a young person. Leona Von Brethorst was born in 1923 in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee and was raised in abject poverty, going to school without shoes and walking three miles to church.

Von Brethorst's childhood faith faded as she took a job in the World War II defense plants of Detroit, then marrying and giving birth to two children. When her toddler became critically ill with polio-related seizures, she cried out to God, "If You don't let him die, I'll give the rest of my life to You." God did heal the child, and doctors confirmed the miracle that awakened Leona’s hibernating faith. Her husband laid down an ultimatum: “Choose between me and Jesus.” Leona chose Jesus. As a single mom, battling exhaustion and clinical depression, she worked odd jobs and raised her children to know the Lord.

As worship leader in her church, she wrote dozens of praise songs. She says, "I don't know a note of music or how to play any instrument, but God gives me the melodies!" "He Has Made Me Glad" sprang out of one last trial, the loneliness of an empty nest. She put into song her learning that we can enter God’s presence with thanksgiving in our hearts even when we are lonely and sad. When we have problems/we do not run from God/we run to God.

Leonard “Lenny” Smith, Jr.

Leonard “Lenny” Smith, Jr., was an English teacher in the public schools, where, among other things, he taught the Bible as literature, but he could not confine himself to the official neutral approach to the material. He kept taking students to the river to baptize them. He lost three teaching jobs in three years and became unemployable as a public school teacher. He ended up painting houses, but was not patching an adequate living together for his growing family.

Discouraged, he read his Bible, happening on Isaiah 52:7, which, abbreviated, says, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news that our God reigns.” Encouraged, Lenny turned the passage into the chorus, “Our God Reigns.” A few years later, he added four verses relating the passage to the death and resurrection of Jesus. The song took off.

In fact, it is so widely known that it became one of the favorite hymns of Pope John Paul II. Lenny enjoyed processing requests from the Vatican to use it on the Pope’s trips.

Lenny says, “[The real message of this song is not just that] God reigns over great events, but also that he reigns over the details of what we call accidents and coincidences. His permissive will is his perfect will, too, and it’s all for the good.” When we have problems/we do not run from God/we run to God.

Laurie Klein

In 1974, Laurie Klein was a young wife and mother living in an isolated trailer house in the Oregon high desert. Her husband was a full-time college student, and the couple was surviving on $400.00 a month. They had not found a home church, had no close friends in the area, and Laurie did not drive. Even the cost of a long distance phone call could have meant that they did not have necessary food and supplies for their toddler.

Laurie says that she was hopeless and depressed. “I felt the poverty of my own life keenly at that point, both emotionally and physically. That morning I was so empty [that as I went to the Lord] I knew I didn't have anything to offer Him. I asked if He would like to hear me sing...if He would just give me something He would be in the mood to hear.” I sang two phrases and put the chords with it with no effort [I love You Lord and I lift my voice to worship You. O my soul, rejoice!]. She stopped long enough to get a pen and write those phrases down. When she continued, the last two phrases came just as easily [Take joy, my King in what you hear. May it be a sweet, sweet sound in Your ear].

Laurie's husband, Bill, recognized the simple beauty of the song and encouraged her to play it for a local pastor and some visiting musicians who carried it to a national convention and, from there, it went across the country. The influential Church on the Way sang it, Annie Herring of the Second Chapter of Acts heard it and put it on a children’s album, and Maranatha! Music published it on the fourth album of their influential Praise and Worship series. From there, it took off. When we have problems/we do not run from God/we run to God.

Henry Smith

As a teenager, Henry Smith played in a secular band, but while in college, he had a spiritual awakening. He headed off to a mainline Presbyterian seminary planning to become a pastor. He was disturbed by what he was taught in seminary. Furthermore, after he graduated, he had to take odd jobs because his degenerative eye problem was limiting his career options. He began to attend a vital church.

One Sunday his pastor quoted 2 Corinthians 8:9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” Henry decided to write a song expressing what the text spoke to his heart. “Give thanks with a grateful heart; give thanks to the Holy One, Give thanks because He’s given Jesus Christ His Son. And now, let the weak say, “I am strong” Let the poor say “I am rich.” Because of what the Lord has done for us.” He might as well have said, “Let the blind say I can see.” He was soon blind, but he still saw the important truths.

Henry’s song got away from him. It was making its way around the world, and he had no knowledge of the fact that it was becoming a hit song until Integrity Music published it eight years later with the disclaimer “author unknown.” Someone called it to Henry’s attention, and he called Integrity who expressed delight at finding him so that he could receive his royalties.

Today, Henry operates a recording studio in Virginia, serves as worship leader at his church, and continues to write Christian songs. Someone once asked Henry how to promote a song so that it became a hit. He answered that he had no idea; his one hit went worldwide before he even knew anyone was singing it. "It’s a God thing," he says. When we have problems/we do not run from God/we run to God.

Eddie Espinosa

Sometimes the problems that confront us are hidden. Eddie Espinosa was the worship leader for John Wimber’s founding Anaheim congregation of Vineyard Christian Fellowship, sort of the next decade’s Calvary Chapel. No one could tell anything was wrong in Espinosa’s life. But he says, “Sin and attitudes of the heart were suddenly glaring me in the face. I realized that in order for me to walk uprightly before the Lord, I needed a heart transplant. I desperately needed for God to change my heart in order to love the things that He loves and to hate the things that He hates. I also was aware that only He could change my heart. I began to sing without paying attention to the melody, it just flowed from the depths of my being.” The chorus, “Change My Heart, O God” was born. When we have problems/we do not run from God/we run to God.

Marty Nystrom

Marty Nystrom was a 24-year-old music teacher who had made plans to attend a summer training session in Dallas. I am telling part of his story as I remember hearing him tell it some years ago at a worship conference, so that part is only as accurate as my memory (ahem). His motivation was that the love of his heart was going to be there, and he planned to ask her to marry him. There was an airline strike, but, undeterred he spent three days of torture riding a bus so as not to miss this moment. When he arrived, his true love announced to him her engagement to marry another. The campus was unattractive, the summer weather was sweltering, and Marty was crushed. Furthermore, he was in a spiritual crisis. He recognized that he did not really want more of God in his life; he just wanted more human approval.

A roommate convinced him that he needed to fast, so his sole source of nourishment was Dallas tapwater…that, and the Bible and the Holy Spirit. As he was reading the Psalms, he noticed that he could pray Psalm 42 with sincerity. “As the Deer,” his resulting song written to worship God, has spoken to many hearts through the years. But most of all it indicates something that was more important than the love of that young woman, God’s love for him and his own love for God.

He had gone to Dallas to establish a life covoenat with his true love, and in an odd way he did. He now knows that closeness to God is far more important than any human approval.

Nystrom has since written and co-written many successful praise and worship songs. He also worked for some years for the influential Integrity Music, helping to select the songs to which they would give success. He says that, when he met the woman who became his wife, he was glad that things had not worked out for his earlier infatuation. When we have problems/we do not run from God/we run to God.

From World Changers to Life Nudgers

The kinds of praise and worship choruses we are considering today served as midwives in Judy’s and my awakenings from sterile religion to vital faith. I know that we cannot recreate that era, but the best of those choruses will serve ongoing roles in the worship repertoire of the church. They may never again move the world as they once did, but they will continue to nudge hearts awake. Especially, they may remind us that, “when we have problems/we do not run from God/we run to God.”

Jesus: Our Victory

Sermon by John Turner
August 16, 2009
1 Corinthians 15:50-58

I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

What Kind of Victory?

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. What kind of victory does God give us through Jesus Christ? God gives us victory over the guilt of sin through Jesus’ self-giving love on the cross. God gives us victory over the power of sin through the Holy Spirit who is available to those who believe in Jesus and who helps transform our lives into Christlikeness. God gives us victory over the greatest consequences of sin, death and hell, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a resurrection that is shared with all who believe in him. God gives us victory over meaninglessness and despair through the mission of Jesus Christ’s redeeming love. Thanks be to God for the victory in Jesus. The hymns we will examine today in various ways celebrate that victory.

From Carl Boberg to Stuart Hine

“How Great Thou Art” has an interesting and complicated history. In 1885 Carl Gustav Boberg of Sweden was walking home from church with friends. They had to hurry for shelter as there came an awesome storm with lightning, thunder, strong winds, driving rain, followed by a rainbow and inspiring calm. Boberg looked out an open window across an ocean bay and heard the song of a thrush and the playing of a hymn on church bells. As he reflected on the sights and sounds and meditated on Psalm 8, the idea came to him for a nine-stanza poem the title of which translates as "O Mighty God.” It was set to a Swedish folk tune.

A German Baptist living in Estonia translated it into German; a Russian Baptist, who was jailed and eventually exiled for his efforts, translated it into Russian. Its first English translation in 1925 in Chicago was by Eric Gustav Johnson of the Swedish heritage Evangelical Covenant denomination, but I am not aware that it was much used outside that denomination.

Stuart Hine, born in England in 1899, came to Christ under the ministry of a woman evangelist. He and his wife became missionaries in Eastern Europe, traveling and ministering in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and the Ukraine. Hine first heard the Russian translation of “O Mighty God” during his travels. One day, a mountain thunderstorm brought the hymn to his awareness, and he began to alter the words in his mind, plus he arranged the tune differently. His version took shape over many years in both Russian and English. He ultimately wrote six verses. He added imagery and inspiration from his own experiences. Verses 3 and 4 are substantially original with him.

Arriving in one town, Stuart and his wife Edith inquired where they might find a Christian home. The home to which they were directed contained a woman who some years earlier had acquired a Bible left behind by a Russian soldier and used it to teach herself to read. As the Hines approached the house, they heard her reading aloud to a houseful of guests from the Gospel of John about the crucifixion of Christ. To avoid disrupting the event, the Hines waited outside, with Stuart listening as the guests expressed aloud their wonder at Christ’s dying for their sins and as they began to repent of their sins. Hine was inspired to turn his notes into the verse: “And when I think that God, His Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in; that on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin.”

Some years later, after World War 2, Stuart Hine was back in England ministering to Polish and Russian exiles who were anxious to return home. A Russian man had not seen his Russian Christian wife in several years and longed to see her to tell her that he also had become a Christian. He doubted that he would ever see her in this life, but longed for the day that they would meet in heaven to share Life Eternal and to praise their Lord together. Hine then wrote: "When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation to take me home, what joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall bow in humble adoration and there proclaim, ‘My God, how great Thou art!’”

Hine first published his hymn in 1949, but sold it to Manna Music whose editors changed a couple of words. The version we sing therefore bears Manna’s 1953 copyright. “How Great Thou Art” was first introduced to the United States in the 1950’s by J. Edwin Orr and became known to general audiences as sung by George Beverly Shea of the Billy Graham evangelistic crusades. It has ever since been among the favorite hymns in both America and Great Britain, usually ranking first or second in popularity.


Three-Plus Kinds of Gospel Music

The remaining hymns we are considering today could be classified as gospel music. Three forces that emerged in this time period were black gospel, Southern country gospel, and pop gospel. Let’s touch each of those.

Black Gospel

No one knows who wrote, “Just a Closer Walk with Thee,” but the earliest known time it was sung was at a black gospel singing convention in the early 1930’s. It has been very popular among white folks as well as black, expressing the deep aspirations that many people have for a closer relationship with the living, loving God.

We know more about “Precious Lord, Take My Hand.” We do not have copyright permission to duplicate it, but it appears in your pew hymnals as No. 628 if you want to take a look. Thomas Dorsey, not the big band leader, was born in Georgia in 1899, the son of a preacher. He didn’t show his religious background at first focusing his career on the dance hall and blues music. He had a conversion experience in 1921, but it was in the 1930’s that his faith began to show consistently in his life and work. He was attending a gospel conference and revival in St. Louis when he received word that his pregnant wife back in Chicago had died giving premature birth to a son who also had died. Stunned and deeply grieved, he cried out to God, “God, you aren’t worth a dime to me right now.” A few weeks later, however, he knew differently and wrote the hymn, “Precious Lord, Take My Hand.” This hymn has had the enduring capacity to touch people at a very deep level.

Dorsey wrote many other gospel songs, including, “Peace in the Valley.” He became known as the “father of black gospel music.” As a mature Christian, Dorsey wrote, “My business is to try to bring people to Christ instead of leaving them where they are. I write for all of God’s people. All people are my people. What I share with people is love. I try to lift their spirits and let them know that God still loves them. He’s still saving, and he can still give that power.” Dorsey died in 1993. He had become an important voice for the victory that comes to us through Jesus Christ.

Southern Country Gospel

Some of the dominant songs of Southern country gospel come close to home for us here in the Ozarks. Eugene Bartlett was born on Christmas Eve, 1884, in Waynesville, Missouri. He attended two Baptist schools, Hall-Moody In­sti­tute, in northwest Ten­nes­see, and Will­iam Jew­ell Acad­e­my, near Kansas City, Mis­sou­ri. He moved to Hartford, Arkansas, south of Ft. Smith, where he worked for the Central Music Company until that company relocated in 1918. He stayed put and co-founded the Hartford Music Company, the Hartford Music Institute, and the Herald of Song journal as well as sponsoring singing schools and gospel quartets. Bartlett wrote a number of gospel songs, but the one that appears in hymnals is “Victory in Jesus” which Bartlett wrote in 1939, just two years before his rather early death.

In 1926, a young man from Oklahoma by the name of Albert Brumley showed up at Bartlett’s office wanting to attend the Hartford Music Institute, but having no money for tuition or room and board. Somehow, he talked Bartlett into offering to take him on without tuition and to provide his room and board in his own home. Brumley was a member of a non-instrumental Church of Christ, but the prohibition of musical instruments only applied to official worship services of his church, and so he was able to pursue his career in Southern gospel music. In 1931, still connected with the Hartford enterprises, Brumley met a young woman in Powell, MO, married her, and resettled there. The nest year, at the urging of his wife, he sent one of his compositions back to Hartford to see if it could be published. It was, “I’ll Fly Away.” Brumley says that the idea for the song came to him while he was picking cotton and wishing he weren’t. Heaven sounded pretty good right then.

Brumley had a pretty sketchy education and began to study English grammar and vocabulary on his own to help him write better songs. He often checked the words of his songs with his father-in-law to make sure that they did not violate any scriptural teaching. Brumley lived mostly in Powell, MO, except for two years when he lived in Harrison, AR. He eventually bought the Hartford Music Company and moved it to Powell where it still operates under the leadership of his son, mostly under the name of the Brumley Music Company. Besides, “I’ll Fly Away,” he wrote a number of gospel songs. I am guessing that the best known is, “Turn Your Radio On,” which a member of our Harrison congregation told me was written when Brumley was living in Harrison.

Pop Gospel

What do I mean by pop gospel? Well, it is not black gospel, and it is not Southern country gospel. It is aimed more toward suburban, middle class, popular tastes. John W. Peterson was born in 1921 in the Swedish-settled musical and artistic town of Lindsborg, Kansas, but grew up in nearby Salina. After serving in World War II, he studied at Moody Bible Institute and worked for Moody Radio for many years, graduating from the American Conservatory of Music in 1953. Our worship service today includes three of his hymns: “It Took a Miracle,” “Heaven Came Down”, and his co-written “Surely Goodness and Mercy.” In the 1950’s through 1970’s he was a dominant force in Christian music. It is hard to overstate his influence in that time period. He headed the Singspiration sacred music publishing company, then in Grand Rapids, MI, for over ten years. He wrote over 1,200 songs and 35 cantatas. A few of his hymns will survive, but one of the characteristics of pop gospel is that, however much it may flourish for a time, it all too soon starts to feel a bit like a forty-year-old polyester leisure suit. The very current appeal that gives it power in the beginning does it in over time. Nonetheless, pop gospel has an important place in drawing people into Christian discipleship.

My favorite Peterson story concerns his work with Albert Smith, who had a similar theological and musical education (Wheaton and Juilliard, in Smith’s case). Peterson and Smith each worked on both the words and music of the songs they wrote together, taking turns suggesting ideas. Smith reports on their work on “Surely Goodness and Mercy,” that they were inspired to write it after receiving a letter from a descendant of Philip Bliss, whose hymn-writing we have discussed earlier in our summer study. Apparently young Bliss loved his first country school teacher, Miss Murphy. Before teaching her young students to read and write, she taught them to recite the 23rd Psalm from memory. When they came to the “surely goodness and mercy” part of the Psalm, little Philip thought that it said, “Surely good Miss Murphy shall follow me all the days of my life.” Smith reports that this amusing 19th century story caused the 20th century songwriting duo to focus on that phrase which became the heart and title of their song. The Peterson and Smith hymn interprets Jesus as the Divine Shepherd-Redeemer who seeks out his lost sheep and helps them find their way to an eternal home. It is the refrain that carries the message that Jesus sustains us all the days of our lives. Peterson’s “Heaven Came Down” focuses on the moment of Jesus finding us and entering our lives to begin our transformation. Our victory in Jesus covers all dimensions of our lives.

Just Plain Gospel

I want to finish with a simple, homey, humble song written by a Pennsylvania pastor’s wife for a weekly radio show that simply invited the audience to sit in on their family devotions. I am not sure what kind of gospel song to call this. It was widely sung by George Beverly Shea. It has adapted itself readily from its white origins to black gospel use which is where I have heard it most often, but it works with most audiences and congregations. It speaks of a victory in Jesus that we can hardly do without, one that anchors us through the storms of life, that comes in times like these—no matter when in history we live.
It is called “In Times like These.”

Are you sure that your anchor grips the Solid Rock? Are you sure that you are connected to Jesus, your Victory? Be very sure for these times and all times.

Jesus: Our Commander

Robert Lowry

Horatio Spafford

Philip Bliss

Daniel Whittle

James McGranahan

Jesus: Our Commander

Sermon by John Turner

August 2, 2009

Matthew 28:16-20

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The Great Commission

As promised, the risen Jesus appeared to his disciples in their former mission field of Galilee and gave them a mission for the whole world. They were to know two things and to do three things:
Here is what they were to know: (1) All authority in both the material and the spiritual realms had been given to Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth. (2) The risen Jesus would be with them in their service to him at all times and places, until he brought all things to fulfillment. Here is what they were to do: (1) They were to go forth to make disciples of people from all nations. (2) They were to baptize the new disciples in the name and identity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (3) They were to teach the new disciples to observe and obey all the commandments of Jesus, most specifically loving God, loving neighbor, and loving fellow believers as Jesus has loved us. We call this passage of scripture the Great Commission. The late 19th century emphasis on the Great Commission took place on three fronts: world missions, large evangelistic crusades, and Sunday schools. I am going to illustrate that emphasis by talking of two men who, so far as I know, never wrote a hymn.

Dr. Livingstone, I Presume

Scottish Congregational medical missionary, Dr. David Livingstone, served in Africa most of the time from 1841 until his death in 1873. Livingstone’s missionary endeavors are variously evaluated today, but, whatever his flaws, he was a man of faith and of heroic proportion. In the scale of news coverage, and in that way alone, David Livingstone was the Michael Jackson of his day. His endeavors captured the public imagination, especially in Great Britain and North America, greatly fueling missionary enthusiasm in the late 19th century.

Dwight Moody

Dwight Moody was raised in an impoverished family, under tough circumstances, with little formal education, little religious upbringing and little encouragement. Due to a change of jobs at age seventeen, he became an evangelical Christian. He moved to Chicago and started a Sunday school for poor children of all races and ethnic backgrounds. He was still barely literate and had to skip over a lot of the words as he read the scriptures to the children. He learned as he went and soon had the biggest Sunday school in the world. Moody’s heart was in reaching large numbers of people for Jesus Christ, and he pursued that goal in many directions with extraordinary discipline, dedication, shrewdness, love, and prayer, prayer, prayer. In a short time, he was the world’s most famous evangelist and head of a mammoth organization that still thrives today.

The Church’s Loss of Nerve

Much of the Christian music of the late 19th century, the kinds of hymns that we are singing in today’s worship service, partook of the enthusiasm for world missions and evangelism. By the time I was in seminary in the 1970’s, some mainline seminary professors, apparently more interested in academic fads and cultural snobbery than in spreading the gospel, were embarrassed and appalled by such hymns. They called them triumphalistic and insensitive to the complexities and injustices of life. Those seminary professors helped create ministers and churches without enough confidence to stand for anything, and it should not be surprising that the churches with those ministers are for the most part dying. The cause of Jesus Christ is a great cause, and we need to be proud to stand for Jesus. We will not endure and do not deserve to endure if we are ashamed of the gospel for which Jesus died.

Counter-Example

Critics frequently charge that late 19th century missions were tied in with the imperialistic greed of powerful nations desiring to exploit poor nations and that they were insensitive to the needs of poor people. Sometimes those charges were true, but not predominantly so. As a counter-example, consider the so-called Clapham Sect, an informal group of mostly evangelical Anglicans who met in the London suburb of Clapham and sought to apply Christian values to social life, advocating against slavery, child labor, animal cruelty and many dozens of similar causes, and advocating for world missions and evangelism precisely because of their concern for the poor and forgotten. The most famous and influential member of the first generation of the Clapham Sect was William Wilberforce who may have done more for social justice than any Christian in history. Katherine Hankey, born into a prosperous titled family about the time Wilberforce died, was a late second generation Claphamite and was dedicated to their causes. She organized and taught Sunday schools for the poor in London. She traveled to South Africa as a medical nurse to assist her brother in his missions work. During a prolonged illness, she wrote a lengthy poem from which the verses for two hymns have been selected and set to music: “Tell Me the Old, Old Story,” and “I Love to Tell the Story.” I fail to see the evidence of anything triumphalistic or insensitive about her. Although Katherine Hankey was from privileged background, her hymns connected with the hearts of real people from all walks of life helped them find meaning and purpose in serving Jesus.

The Value of a Great Cause

Some seminary professors were disdainful of Sunday school Christianity; they could not say “Sunday school” without a sneer. Sunday schools were powerful institutions in the late 19th century for putting order and purpose into the lives of unchurched children and adults, many of them poor. Two of the commissioning hymns we are singing today were written for Sunday schools. Priscilla J. Owens, of Baltimore Maryland, wrote “We Have Heard the Joyful Sound (Jesus Saves)” and Ernest Nichol, an Oxford educated British musician, wrote “We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations,” both for their respective Sunday schools. In the latter part of the 19th century, children and adults were being taught in Sunday schools to be dedicated to world missions and evangelism. I wonder if we could learn from that.

Educated Bible-Believers

Some seminary professors scorned Bible-believing Christians such as Moody as ignorant and simplistic. Perhaps they were jealous of Moody’s popular touch; far more people listened to Moody than would listen to them. But there were also well-educated people in the Bible-believing camp; some of them wrote hymns.

Robert Lowry, a Baptist preacher and Sunday school advocate, was also literature professor and chancellor at the University of Lewisburg, now known as Bucknell University. He was one of the most influential hymn-writers, composers, and hymnal editors of the period (“Christ Arose,” “Nothing but the Blood,” “Shall We Gather at the River,” the refrain and tune of “We’re Marching to Zion,” tunes to a handful of Fanny Crosby hymns, and many others)

No one could dismiss R. Kelso Carter as ignorant: college-level professor of physical sciences, mathematics, and engineering, with advanced professional degrees in both ministry and medicine, and a writer, composer, and editor of hymns. He wrote both the words and music for “Standing on the Promises.”

Nor could one dismiss the broad intellect of Francis Rowley. He was a prominent Baptist minister, educated at a respected graduate theological seminary, and dedicated to public causes such as the prevention of cruelty to animals. He was reluctantly persuaded to write a revival poem for his song leader to set to music. His “I Will Sing the Wondrous Story,” still shows up in hymnals today.

Vulnerability Alongside Victory

My seminary professors did not notice that, mixed with bold confidence in the gospel, many late 19th century hymns also have a confessional humility about human weakness. Hear Rowley’s words: “I was lost, but Jesus found me, found the sheep that went astray, threw His loving arms around me, drew me back into His way. I was bruised, but Jesus healed me, faint was I from many a fall, sight was gone, and fears possessed me, but He freed me from them all. Days of darkness still come o’er me, sorrow’s path I often tread, but His presence still is with me; by His guiding hand I’m led.” Rowley proves that education, spiritual honesty, humility, and strong faith can go together.

Nitty-Gritty Faith

My seminary professors seemed to think that enthusiastic hymns were symbolic of a “feel-good” Christianity that would not engage the real problems of life. There is certainly a feel-good Christianity in more recent times of which that charge may be partly true (Norman Vincent Peale, Robert Schuler, Joel Osteen), but it is simply not true that late 19th century Christianity and its hymns were feel-good Christianity, removed from the pains of ordinary life. This point may be illustrated by a chain of events and associations surrounding the hymn, “I Will Sing of My Redeemer.” All of the people in this story—Horatio Spafford, Philip Bliss, Daniel Whittle, James McGranahan--were associated with Dwight Moody and his song leader Ira Sankey.

“When Peace Like a River…”

Horatio Spafford was a wealthy Chicago lawyer and real estate investor who took a deep interest in Moody’s evangelistic enterprises. He lost a four year old son to scarlet fever in 1870; most of his real estate holdings were wiped out in the Chicago fire of 1871. Two years later, the Spafford family had enough resources restored to plan a lengthy vacation to Europe, where they also planned to help with a Moody revival. Some last minute business problems detained Horatio, but his wife and four daughters kept their reservations on an ocean liner. The ship was struck by another ship and sank off the coast of Wales. The four daughters were lost. His wife cabled, “Saved only.” Horatio took ship to meet her and on the way penned the words to “It Is Well with My Soul,” an extraordinary statement of faith in the face of tragedy. The Spaffords had three later children, a son and two daughters, but the second son likewise died of scarlet fever at age four. Of eight children, two daughters lived to adulthood. If anyone needed the “peace like a river” of which Spafford wrote, his family did.

You can read widely varying accounts of the emotional and spiritual balance of the Spaffords in their latter years. I have read just enough to conclude that it would take doctoral level research to sort it all out. In the end, Horatio died of malaria in Jerusalem where they had moved to found the perfectionistic, communitarian, benevolent society, the American Colony, which ministered to people in need without regard to their religious persuasion. Horatio Spafford’s own words should be written across the last page of their story: “Tho’ Satan should buffet, tho’ trials should come, let this blest assurance control, that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate, and hath shed his own blood for my soul.”

Introducing Bliss

Spafford’s poem was set to music by Philip P. Bliss, a widely admired and powerful young singer, musician, composer, and poet, a soloist for Moody revivals and the song leader for Moody protégé, evangelist Daniel Whittle, who was also a hymn writer. Bliss composed the tunes for many other hymns. His own words appear in “Wonderful Words of Life,” “The Light of the World Is Jesus,” “Let the Lower Lights Be Burning,” “Hallelujah! What a Savior!” and many more.

The One-Armed Preacher

Daniel Whittle as a young man had shown an interest in religion, but he had never made a real faith commitment. He served in the Civil War, becoming a major before being seriously wounded at the battle of Vicksburg, resulting in the amputation of his right arm. While recovering in a Confederate prisoner of war hospital, he looked for some­thing to read, found a New Test­a­ment, and read until he fell asleep. A hos­pit­al or­der­ly woke him and said a dy­ing pris­on­er want­ed some­one to pray with him. Whit­tle de­clined, but the or­der­ly said, “I thought you were a Christ­ian; you were reading the Bible.” Whit­tle then agreed to go.

He re­cord­ed what took place at the dy­ing youth’s bedside:
“I dropped on my knees and held the boy’s hand in mine. In a few brok­en words I con­fessed my sins and asked Christ to for­give me. I be­lieved right there that He did for­give me. I then prayed ear­nest­ly for the boy. He be­came qui­et and pressed my hand as I prayed and plead­ed God’s prom­ises. When I arose from my knees, he was dead. A look of peace had come over his trou­bled face, and I can­not but be­lieve that God who used him to bring me to the Sav­ior, used me to lead him to trust Christ’s pre­cious blood and find par­don. I hope to meet him in hea­ven.”

The Almost Opera Singer

James McGranahan was a Pennsylvania farm boy with a marvelous tenor voice who had spent some years instructing singing schools for churches, but was tempted to follow suggestions that he should pursue a career in opera. Bliss discussed McGranahan with Daniel Whittle, asked if Whittle thought McGranahan could find an evangelist with whom to work, and got Whittle’s approval of a letter that he was sending McGranahan urging him toward dedicating himself to sacred music rather than opera.

How the Narrative Comes Together

A few weeks later, Bliss and his wife were en route from Pennsylvania back to Chicago so that Bliss could take part in a Moody revival when a bridge in Ohio collapsed under their train and their train fell sixty feet and burst into flame. The Blisses’ bodies were consumed in the fire. The story received major news coverage because of Bliss’ renown.

The day after the wreck both Whittle and McGranahan showed up to sift through the wreckage and ashes of the train. Philip Bliss’ trunk was found unharmed, and in it was an unpublished poem, “My Redeemer.” The poem was entrusted to McGranahan who composed a tune for it. The hymn became very popular. A few decades later, “I Will Sing of My Redeemer” was one of the first songs ever recorded on an Edison phonograph.

Whittle believed that Bliss’ conversations with him about McGranahan had been divinely guided to direct him to Bliss’ own replacement as his song leader. McGranahan was persuaded to heed the advice Bliss had given him a few weeks before his death.

Whittle and McGranahan formed a partnership that produced many hymns of which “I Know Whom I Have Believéd” stands out as declaring a faith that is good in the face of life’s many tragedies uncertainties. The hymn emphasizes that there are many things we do not know, but that we know Jesus who can make all turn out right in the end.

Faith from the Depths of Despair

On his death bed, Whittle was struck by the musical chiming of a bedside clock, and he thought of the bells on the robe of an Old Testament priest that told of his coming. He dictated the poem which you can read in the previous blog entry.

Do not tell me that the faith of these 19th century hymn-writers was removed from the hard challenges of everyday life. Rather, their faith’s triumphs shone most brightly from the depths of human despair.

The hymns of the late 19th century are bold and confident about Jesus, his message, and his mission. They are also honest about human vulnerability and compassionate about human struggles. We do not need to back off boldness and confidence in order to be honest and compassionate. In fact, backing off from the one hope of all the world makes us less honest and less compassionate.

Worship Themes for June and Early July

The picture shows a version of the hymn we know as "Amazing Grace" as it was published by its author John Newton under the title, "Faith's Review and Expectation" with the scriptural basis given as 1 Chronicles 17:16-17. The verse that begins, "When we've been there ten thousand years," is not there because Newton did not write it. It was added later. See the whole hymn at
http://nethymnal.org/htm/a/m/a/amazing_grace.htm

WHEN THE OLD HYMNS WERE NEW

When June comes, and the choir is taking a bit of a break, we have come to expect:

1. that we will have guest soloists from the Opera of the Ozarks, and



2. that we will sing “old favorite” hymns.

That will happen again this year, but we will go a step further and organize our worship themes around the old hymns, why they were written, and what they still add to our spiritual enrichment.

You may find it interesting and instructive that the opposition in the 18th century to the hymns of Isaac Watts or Charles Wesley was every bit as strong as late 20th century opposition was to contemporary choruses. Yet how much poorer we would be if the 18th century opposition had crushed these grand old hymns!

The sermons in this series will focus on what each era of Christian hymns contributes to our understanding of Jesus.

June 7 “Jesus: Lord of Our Hearts” Hymns influenced by Celtic Christian spirituality
are marked by the conviction that all creation reveals the presence of its Creator and Redeemer, that all parts of life are spiritually significant, and that Christ may be seen as the glory of it all. This spirituality was in the monasteries of Patrick’s Ireland and then moved back across the British Isles (Scotland, Wales, England) and the European continent. Theme hymn: “Be Thou My Vision.”

June 14 “Jesus: Lord of Angelic Armies.” Hymns of the Protestant Reformation era are marked by deep gratitude even in hard times for the power and providence of God and by a firm confidence that faithful followers of Jesus will ultimately be on the winning side in the battle for truth. Theme hymn: “A Mighty Fortress Is My God.”

June 21 “Jesus: Lord of All the Earth.” Hymns by Isaac Watts are rich and varied. Watts’ greatest hymn is probably “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” but the joint theme hymns for this service are “Jesus Shall Reign” and, to cool us off on the first day of summer, “Joy to the World,” emphasizing the worldwide reign of our Lord.

June 28 “Jesus: Liberator of Our Hearts.” Hymns by Charles Wesley cover even more themes than those of Watts, but the core in many of them is how Jesus through the Holy Spirit transforms our hearts to be like his. The theme hymn is, “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.”

July 5 “Jesus: Power to Save.” Hymns of the late 18th century, especially those by John Newton and William Cowper, are focused on how Jesus delivers us from unbelief. What could the theme hymn be except Newton’s “Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound”? But we will not overlook how Cowper’s hymns reveal his battle with depression, a theme strangely contemporary.

July 12 “Jesus: Lamb and Shepherd,” hymns of the early 19th century, especially Reginald Heber, James Montgomery, and Charlotte Elliott. The focus is on how the Lamb of Calvary bridges the gap between sinful humanity and the holy God. The theme hymns will be Heber’s “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty,” and Elliott’s “Just As I Am without One Plea.”

If you enjoy this series, we may keep moving the hymns closer to our own time.

Want to warm up a bit on the old hymns? Try the Net Hymnal.

To find an old hymn by title, click this link: http://nethymnal.org/ttl/ttl.htm and then click the first letter of the title andd finally the title itself. For some, you wil have a choice of several tunes.

To find old hymns by the author or composer, similarly click this link: http://nethymnal.org/bio/bio.htm?b and then click the letter of the person's last name, and the name itself. You will then be able to browse some of the better known hymns associated with that person.

For more yet on specific authors, here are some links:

Isaac Watts:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Watts

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/watts/psalmshymns.toc.html

http://nethymnal.org/bio/w/a/t/watts_i.htm

Charles Wesley:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Wesley

http://nethymnal.org/bio/w/e/s/wesley_c.htm

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Charles_Wesley

John Newton and William Cowper:

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/newton/olneyhymns.html

http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/cnm (The Cowper and Newton Museum)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olney_Hymns

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Newton

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cowper

http://nethymnal.org/bio/n/e/w/newton_j.htm

http://nethymnal.org/bio/c/o/w/cowper_w.htm

Want more yet? There is always Google!

Have fun.