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