Theology and Hymnody

Editor's Note: The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel is away this month on his vacation. While he is away our Associate Rector, the Rev. Anne Thatcher, will be writing for the Rector's Note.

Young Choir Campers in the chancel at St. Martin's, are led by co-teacher Rae Ann Anderson. The nave of the church is in the background with two girls singing from open folders in the main ground, and other seated campers in the foreground.

Both the parish house and the sanctuary have been filled this week with music, children’s voices, joy, and laughter. Choir Camp is in full swing. St. Martin’s, under the leadership of our Director of Music, Erik Meyer, is focused on giving the gift of choir music to our young people.

The other week I preached on the power of committing scripture to memory and how we often don’t realize that we already know a verse or even a Psalm by heart. Both words and music form us unconsciously. Hymnody is full of theology that we absorb each time we sing a particular hymn or worship tune. Poetry, theology, and scripture are the bedrock of the ancient and modern hymns of the church.

It is easier to see when you can read the verses without the musical notes lining the entire text…

“Of the Father’s love begotten 

‘Er the worlds began to be 

He is Alpha and Omega 

He the Source the Ending he 

Of the things that are, that have been, 

And that future years shall see 

Evermore and evermore.”

I realized after high school that I had Psalm 23 memorized, along with the hymn I just quoted above, because we sang them set to music in the North Salem High School concert choir. We often learn more quickly when the words or lessons are set to music or rhythms. I still remember chanting my times tables for my mother when I was seven. I can still remember three of the first choir songs I learned in fourth grade with my elementary school choir. All three, while secular, had messages of unity, inclusion, and love.

Giving the gift of music to children is incredibly important for their artistic development and music in the Christian tradition is tremendous for their spiritual development. The theology in our music enfolds and permeates the soul. They are learning that God is love in a multitude of musical settings, surrounded by the voices of friends and peers. The seeds are planted and who knows how and when they will grow?

Sometimes on visits to St. Martin’s members in the hospital I have looked up their favorite hymns on YouTube and played them in the room on my phone. We have sung together the old favorites that people remember from their childhood and youth. These hymns provide comfort in the midst of affliction and anxiety. The ability to connect with a loved one continues through music even when speaking is no longer possible. Some people are still able to sing and respond to music. Music embedded with theology is a balm for the soul.

Next time you pick up a hymnal, take a few minutes to ponder the theological foundation of the verses that you are singing. Do you have a favorite hymn or verse? Why is it so important to you and why do you carry it close to your heart? May you raise your Ebenezer, mourn by the waters of Babylon, claim the almighty fortress of God, and find comfort in the music of the Messiah.

Blessings,
The Rev. Anne Thatcher
Associate Rector

Thank God for Ear Worms

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

Some people sing in the shower. I confess that I sing in the car.

When I sing along with the car radio, my son Tim likes to ask me, “Who sings this song?”

“Bob Dylan,” I answer.

“Let’s keep it that way,” responds Tim.

I laugh and, much to his chagrin, I keep on singing.

Even worse for my children is when my wife and I both sing along to songs we love from the 70s. We know every word of every AM radio hit of that decadent decade. Queen, Frampton, Bee Gees, the Spinners, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, and Springsteen; we know every word, chord change, tempo change, and grunt. Never did we study or even glance at the lyrics. Yet we know every word.

This is the power of music. It is the same reason that School House Rock engraved the Preamble of the Constitution in my memory forever. Music is the greatest teaching device ever gifted to us by God. At church, our hymns serve to praise God and they also serve to form us, imprint in us the story of God’s love and grace. Hymns are marvelous delivery devices for knowledge of God, that, if we are lucky, stick with us through every stage of life.

Church attendance for my children was non-negotiable for just this reason. My wife and I wanted them to stew in the rich broth of hymnody and prayer so it would be there when they need it. More about God was communicated to them by hymn singing and choir anthems than any argument or testimony we had at home.

Our work with our children is to expose them to what we know is good food so they develop a taste for it that outlasts their love of mac and cheese. Baptism is the first step in the pickling process, where the new life of grace infuses their lives, and ours, transforming us from cucumber to pickle across a lifetime of growth. Be sure to immerse yourself and your family in regular baths of great hymnody and prayer so we will all be able to sing along with the angels and archangels when the time comes.

Blessings,

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

Rector

Check out these opportunities this Advent season to immerse yourself and your family in song. Don't forget to share them with your friends, too!

Carol Sing - 9:15 a.m. Sunday, December 16

Messiah Sing Along - 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, December 19

Read Erik Meyer's blog about Advent Hymns here

Christmas Worship - visit StMartinEC.org/christmas for the full schedule

So what's this Choir Pilgrimage about anyway?

Exeter Cathedral

Exactly three months after Easter Sunday, our choir will embark on our 125^th anniversary pilgrimage to England, where we’ll sing as choir-in-residence at Exeter Cathedral and at our namesake church, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London. I am honored to be able to take our choir on this trip, and am counting the days until departure. I am very fortunate to have attended two similar choral pilgrimages with the Choir of St. Paul’s Cathedral in Erie PA; these trips moved me deeply, and remain in the forefront my memory. I am eager to add to these memories this summer.

We are rehearsing to sing six Evensongs and one Eucharist in one week – that’s 27 choral pieces, not including psalms and hymns. The musical preparations are exhausting, but very much part of the journey, and just as important as the actual services. Singing in a massive, ancient Cathedral will be a powerful experience, but the routine of daily Evensong will make an indelible mark on each of us.

A word about Evensong – this is something that no other church has. Other denominations have similar services such as Vespers or Evening Prayer, but Evensong is much more than a service. It is a culture. While the Church of England reports low attendance generally, Evensong, especially in Cathedrals, remains attended, and is broadcasted on radio and television. In fact, a recent rise in Cathedral attendance is said to be directly related to daily Evensong: http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2014/03/cathedral-choirs

There is much to be said about this. Every Evensong, two canticles are sung, the Magnificat (Song of Mary) and the Nunc Dimittis (Song of Simeon) – I’m going to focus on the Magnificat.

My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
For he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden.
For behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath magnified me, and holy is his Name.
And his mercy is on them that fear him throughout all generations.
He hath showed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek.
He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away.
He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel, as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed for ever.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London

What weighty words Mary has given us to pray! It’s the whole Bible in a handful of verses: God, doing the unexpected, turning the tables on the powerful, exalting the lowly. Everything that we know about the world is wrong – the rich get nothing, the poor get everything. God’s ways are not our own. There is something deeply mystical about singing the Magnificat every day for a week. At our church, singing Evensong only once a month, the Magnificat takes a tone of joy and praise, a loud cry of exultation. When sung every day, it becomes a powerful rhythm, so slow and so deep that we can barely hear it. This rhythm has pulsed every day for centuries, for millennia even. It pulsed from the earliest stories of Genesis, in the Exodus from Egypt, through the resurrection of Christ, and continues to pulse today. It pulses whenever we find God in a way we didn’t expect, doing things that we didn’t expect to happen. I was first able to hear this unfathomable rhythm only after a week of singing the Magnificat. The implication of the words becomes quieter, but much more pronounced, when this is a daily routine; you begin to notice things you didn’t see before when Mary’s words continuously swirl in your head. I genuinely hope that everyone on our pilgrimage will pick up on this rhythm, and follow its beat for the rest of our lives. Once you’ve heard it, you begin to hear it everywhere.

                  A few more thoughts – it’s easy to look at this trip as a pleasure-tour, seeing the sights and singing in an exotic space. This tour will be great fun, and we will be sight-seeing. But at the same time, during our residency, WE will be the Cathedral choir. We will be the mouth of the church, proclaiming God’s earth-shaking message through Mary’s words. Maybe the church will be filled, and maybe we’ll be singing for a dozen souls. Either way, God will be with us, using our voices to feed others and ourselves – we can expect that God will work in ways we don’t expect. 

- Erik Meyer, Music Director

St. Martin's Chancel Choir sings Evensong monthly, on the first Sunday of the month, from October to June. The music sung at the spring Evensongs is being prepared for the Choir's Pilgrimage in July in honor of St. Martin's 125th anniversary. 

The final two Evesongs of the season will be held at 5:00 p.m. on May 4 and June 1. On May 4, join us immediately following the Evensong for a Silent Auction fundraiser in support of the trip. More information and a list of items may be found here. On June 1st join us to wish the choir well as we commission them for their journey. The pilgrimage will take place July 19-28, 2014.

Learning to Clap

Voices of POWER featured 10 choirs from POWER
congregations, ranging from gospel music to jazz to
recitation from the Quran.

I delight in church music! I am lifted up by singing the words, by hearing the choir and the organ playing. You may not notice – I rather hope you don’t – that my head is nodding to the beat of just about any hymn. If not my head, then my foot. Sometimes I try to stop because I’m worried it looks goofy to have my head nodding like a metronome. But it doesn’t work. Something inside me just responds that way to music. Often I think it’s a way of praying. Even when I am standing waiting in the gospel procession listening to you all sing my toes are keeping time inside my shoes. I can’t help it. It’s my spirit uplifted in praise.

So, here’s the thing. I can’t clap in time to gospel music. Maybe because I’m left-handed, but probably not. No, it’s probably because I never had the chance to learn this different kind of rhythm from most of the hymns I know. But I love gospel music. So here is a great thing that happened for me:

On January 26th, over 400 Philadelphians from diverse faiths and backgrounds attended POWER’s first annual musical fundraiser, Voices of POWER. The event celebrated POWER’s work thus far for its three campaigns: expanding living wages for workers, increasing equity in public school funding, and promoting more humane immigration policies.

I heard ten choirs pouring out their hearts for love of the Lord. The beat was irresistible. Everyone around me was clapping on the off beat. My hands wouldn’t do it. I could nod my head and sway my body to join the music, but not my hands. I felt stymied, short-circuited. I tried watching my neighbor very closely to clap when she did. But she was an inveterate praise singer. She leaped to her feet because she just could not sit still. I would have like to follow her, but I probably would have tripped over my feet. It was the kind of music that made one want to rise up.

So then I tried following the person sitting in front of me. That worked better. By about the fourth choir I was getting it at least half the time. I would go along, but then stumble and lose it. It’s like learning to ride a bicycle, a new kind of balance.

Then about the sixth number, I could sort of let go of copying. My hands were starting to know when to clap. On the seventh song I got it. I didn’t need to think about it or watch anyone else. It was thrilling to me. I slipped into being part of the whole. Something broke loose in me and I could swim in the music. It was a revelation of unity. I hope it really is like riding a bike, and I can keep this new kind of balance.

I urge everyone to come to next year’s Voices of POWER. It is a great experience.

Oh, and I also got one of the 30 awards they gave out. It was the “Show Me the Money Award” because I was the first to commit to a monthly contribution. POWER is doing great work. I hope many St. Martin’s parishioners will join me in supporting fair wages, good schools and welcoming immigrants.

- The Rev. Carol Dunan (far left in photo to the right)


CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THE CONCERT

“… Not in that poor lowly stable …”

“Christmas is coming, the goose (gander?) is getting fat …” It is an interesting time of year.  Without going into details, December always feels two-faced to me – an ideal image of warm sentimentality and good-will juxtaposed against a more realistic frenzy of greed, being overcommitted, and exhaustion.  I’m sure everyone deals with these or similar emotions; but this season takes a unique toll on musicians (and especially church musicians).

While I’m fond of our Christmas hymns, I often have difficulty enjoying them, because in my mind they’ve become associated with stress, panic, and quite frankly, fear (fear of playing something wrong, omitting that special carol and therefore ruining someone’s holiday, or not playing it “the way it’s supposed to be played”.)  Eventually, we musicians build up defenses to help deflect the stress and keep our sanity.  This can take the form of alternate words to carols, hilarious Facebook posts about playing “The Nutcracker” 19 times in 12 days, or being able to play Handel’s “Messiah” in retrograde inversion.  (I can completely play Bach’s “Wachet auf” with the right hand starting one eighth-beat behind.  In college I would sing “All We Like Sheep have Gone Astray” one beat behind and a whole step down (under my breath and only in rehearsal, of course)).

So how do I deal with the season?  I reckon that I’ve performed “O Come All Ye Faithful” over 500 times, and that’s not an exaggeration.  It’s become difficult to enjoy the more sentimental carols.  And what’s worse, I get a sick sense of superiority when I point out that “We Three Kings” is incorrect, as the Magi were in fact not kings, and that there’s actually no biblical reference to three of them (just three gifts).  I also love to roll my eyes when the angels appear “singing sweetly through the night”, because if the heavenly host appeared before me I would probably need a new pair of underpants.  And of course, there’s the countless references to snow, which rarely falls in Bethlehem.  (but it does on rare occasion, and when it does, it’s beautiful.)

Again – I love these hymns and the cultural train which flows from them.  But my eyes will be dry when we sing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” or even “Silent Night” (if these give you tears of joy, that’s wonderful.)  HOWEVER – there still are a few Christmas carols that can strike me in the heart; these usually go far beyond the image of a cuddly baby in a snow-covered manger with cherub angels hovering around.

Everyone knows the iconic first verse of “Once in Royal David’s City.”  But this hymn is less about the birth of Christ, and more suited to Christ’s second coming:

And our eyes at last shall see him, through his own redeeming love;
For that child who seemed so helpless is our Lord in heaven above;
And he leads his children on to the place where he is gone. 

Not in that poor lowly stable, with the oxen standing round,
We shall see him; but in heaven, where his saints his throne surround:
Christ, revealed to faithful eye, set at God’s right hand on high.

A modern hymn by American composer David Hurd, “A Stable Lamp is Lighted” is in our hymnal (#104) – the text is written by Richard Wilbur (© GIA Publications). Again, the first verse paints a gentle image of the stable, but the hymn is really about Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross (maybe this is why this hymn struggles to become a popular Christmas carol?)  What strikes me most is the subtle change in the meaning of “and every stone shall cry”, from verse to verse: 

A stable-lamp is lighted whose glow shall wake the sky;
The stars shall bend their voices, and every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry, and straw like gold shall shine;
A barn shall harbor heaven, a stall become a shrine. 

 This child through David’s city shall ride in triumph by;
The palm shall strew its branches, and every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry, though heavy, dull, and dumb,
And lie within the roadway to pave his kingdom come. 

Yet he shall be forsaken, and yielded up to die;
The sky shall groan and darken, and every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry for stony hearts of men:
God’s blood upon the spearhead, God’s love refused again. 

 But now, as at the ending, the low is lifted high;
The stars shall bend their voices, and every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry, in praises of the child,
By whose descent among us, the worlds are reconciled.

Finally, although Christina Rossetti’s most famous hymn begins with a very English (ie: not Middle Eastern) “earth stood hard as iron … snow had fallen, snow on snow”.  The last verse is simply perfect: 

What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man, I would do my part;
yet what I can I give him: give my heart.

- Erik Meyer