Posted on 08/29/2006 1:08:37 PM PDT by NYer
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For classic Lutheran theology, hymns are a theological "source:" not up there with Scripture, of course, but ranking not-so-far below Luther's "Small Catechism." Hymns, in this tradition, are not liturgical filler. Hymns are distinct forms of confessing the Church's faith. Old school Lutherans take their hymns very seriously.
Most Catholics don't. Instead, we settle for hymns musically indistinguishable from "Les Mis" and hymns of saccharine textual sentimentality. Moreover, some hymn texts in today's Catholic "worship resources" are, to put it bluntly, heretical. Yet Catholics once knew how to write great hymns; and there are great hymns to be borrowed, with gratitude, from Anglican, Lutheran, and other Christian sources. There being a finite amount of material that can fit into a hymnal, however, the first thing to do is clean the stables of today's hymnals.
Thus, with tongue only half in cheek, I propose the Index Canticorum Prohibitorum, the "Index of Forbidden Hymns." Herewith, some examples.
The first hymns to go should be hymns that teach heresy. If hymns are more than liturgical filler, hymns that teach ideas contrary to Christian truth have no business in the liturgy. "Ashes" is the prime example here: "We rise again from ashes to create ourselves anew." No, we don't. Christ creates us anew. (Unless Augustine was wrong and Pelagius right). Then there's "For the Healing of the Nations," which, addressing God, deplores "Dogmas that obscure your plan." Say what? Dogma illuminates God's plan and liberates us in doing so. That, at least, is what the Catholic Church teaches. What's a text that flatly contradicts that teaching doing in hymnals published with official approval?
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The first hymns to go should be hymns that teach heresy. If hymns are more than liturgical filler, hymns that teach ideas contrary to Christian truth have no business in the liturgy. |
Next to go should be those "We are Jesus" hymns in which the congregation (for the first time in two millennia of Christian hymnology) pretends that it's Christ. "Love one another as I have loved you/Care for each other, I have cared for you/Bear each other's burdens, bind each other's wounds/and so you will know my return." Who's praying to whom here? And is the Lord's "return" to be confined to our doing of his will? St. John didn't think so. "Be Not Afraid" and "You Are Mine" fit this category, as does the ubiquitous "I Am the Bread of Life," to which I was recently subjected on, of all days, Corpus Christi — the one day in the Church year completely devoted to the fact that we are not a self-feeding community giving each other "the bread of life" but a Eucharistic people nourished by the Lord's free gift of himself. "I am the bread of life" inverts that entire imagery, indeed falsifies it.
Then there are hymns that have been flogged to death, to the point where they've lost any evocative power. For one hundred forty years, the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony sent shivers down audiences' spines; does anyone sense its power when it's morphed into the vastly over-used "Joyful, Joyful We Adore You," complete with "chanting bird and flowing fountain"? A fifty-year ban is in order here. As it is for "Gift of Finest Wheat." The late Omer Westendorf did a lot for liturgical renewal, but he was no poet (as his attempt to improve on Luther in his rewrite of "A Mighty Fortress" — "the guns and nuclear might/stand withered in his sight" — should have demonstrated). Why Mr. Westendorf was commissioned to write the official hymn for the 1976 International Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia is one of the minor mysteries of recent years. "You satisfy the hungry heart with gift of finest wheat/Come give to us, O saving Lord, the bread of life to eat" isn't heresy. But it's awful poetry, and it can be read in ways that intensify today's confusions over the Real Presence. It, too, goes under the fifty-year ban.
Hymns are important. Catholics should start treating them seriously.
All right, I've read'em, and I don't see anything about "grace ALONE" in the lyrics. And Catholic teaching IS that we are saved by grace, with works themselves being gifts of grace.
In neither of your posts to me have you made any attempt to respond to the substance of my comment.
Enough said.
A little self-deprecating humor there?
I did some looking around, and found the midi file.
Pure lounge music. Poor Father Jolly!
Jesus is my boyfriend music.......haha that's what I call it and people always say "WHAT are you talking about????"
They sound like love/romantic songs. Words and all.
Ditto. Our traditional service still uses the red TLH.
We added a contemporary service about 5 years ago and I have yet to attend and don't ever plan to in the future.
The contemporary service has also created a lot of conflict in the church. I believe it has hurt more than helped.
Well, there's no real substance. And that's true of much of the contemporary music today. It's 'feel good' fluff with little-to-no doctrinal substance, and no memorable essence.
Our Church has been involved in a program focused on growth and development. As part of that program we've approved a new mission statement. The group that spearheads this effort actually came up with a song to assist in presenting the statement to the congregation, and help making it a significant issue. That's an effort I applaud. It has substance because it reinforces the mission statement, which is doctrinally relevant. Secondly, it reflects the focused efforts of members of the Congregation.
But that is one thing. Contemporary music in general is another; and something I find mindless (for the most part).
We returned to the LCMS from the ELCA last year over doctrinal issues with the ELCA. That Synod was far more liberal, and much more into contemporary 'pap' than our LCMS congregation. Don't miss it at all (except for some of our friends that are still there).
BTW, good looking Lab! Ours is a 2 yo (almost) German Shorthair (my wife says we now have two of them in the house :) ).
The truth is that it has not produced sustained membership. The traditional, long time members had to have their service made earlier because after all, these new folks have to have everything designed around their lifestyle. GRRRRRRRRRRR
Hardly anyone from the contemporary crowd is involved in the church in other ways. Most would likely be happy with drive-by church.
We should never change church to suit the desires of man. When the altar becomes a place of entertainment, the church has lost its way.
Unfortunately, it seems to be the only piece anyone knows for the bagpipe, anymore. For my funeral, "The Flowers of the Forest", please.
Check this link, and scroll down the page to click the link to a bagpipe solo:
http://www.contemplator.com/scotland/forest.html
I attend an excellent protestant church with a passion for evangelism, worship, and discipleship.
Unfortunately, our hymns remind me of people playing with disposable plastic trinkets while ignoring the real and weighty treasure accumulated over the last few millenia.
That's a great name for it. The modern "worship" music is guilty of this. If you're a South Park fan, you probably know the episode where Cartman decides to cash in on the modern evangelical "worship" music. He just takes soft rock love songs and plugs in the word "Jesus" from time to time.
One of our Lab's good friends at the GA coast (where my parents live) is a GSP. She is a field type, so she can actually keep up with a GSP.
Here is her most recent portrait (sans pancake):
Somebody told me about an old SNL sketch or something like it that had a girl sitting at a piano at the foot of the cross looking up at Jesus hanging there and singing "Jesus is my boyfriend." I don't know if that's true or apocryphal
You echo a sentiment I've said often to people: "Church is meant to change peoples lives, not change itself just to suit people's lives".
And I agree with your assessment that many who join because of the 'Kumbaya' feeling that such services provide don't actively participate in the daily functions of the Church. They spend that one hour on Sunday then go on with their lives as though that one hour they spent has no further meaning nor value to their existence. Sad!
He's my good buddy, and the best darned dog we've ever had.
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