Uriah's Song

A friend of mine died recently. Suddenly. Accidentally. Harry and Wini were on their annual extended vacation away from Illinois, and just a few days before his death, Harry had sent an email to a number of his friends—smiling on the Atlantic beach, trying not to rub it in.

Harry Hoffner was a bass in the choir at College Church in Wheaton. He was there before I came, and he was there after I left. He loved College Church, sang with joy, and along with Wini faithfully taught the Choir Bible Study Sunday School class. We became friends, and found a little time (never enough) to have coffee and talk about many things. These are the bare facts of our relationship.

Harry was a renowned Hittitologist. He retired in 2000 from teaching at the University of Chicago, where he oversaw the Chicago Hittite Dictionary which will forever be associated with his name (along with others). Sounds dull, do you think? Harry was anything but dull. He was an avid Chicago Cubs fan, but a remarkably joyous man in spite of it. He loved sports, and was passionate about his teams. He loved music, and had sung not only in church choirs, but in the Chicago Symphony Chorus under its founding director, Margaret Hillis. Harry Hoffner, on Grammy award winning recordings.

Harry was a skilled Bible teacher. You might think that a Hittitologist would make a dry Bible teacher. You’d be wrong. He taught Bible Study Fellowship for many years, and in our Choir Bible Study we found him not only detailed (well, of course we was that) but deeply personal. I envied his ability to draw personal application out of arguably obscure Old Testament passages. Harry loved Jesus . . . so he loved God’s Word, and this came through in his teaching.

In 2005 the College Church Choir worked with Chinese musician Timothy Su, to learn and sing a song or two in Mandarin. During that time Harry sent me an email with a photo of himself sitting in a tent in Turkey. In 2003 Harry was flown to Turkey as an advisor on a film about the Hittites; in the photo he is reading aloud some script he had written for the actors, for verisimilitude in the project, apparently. In reply to his email, I wrote:

 Now that we have wrapped our mouths around Mandarin, maybe it's time to learn a Hittite praise song? I don't mean a Canaanite idol song, but a culturally apt worship song sung by Hittites who became Old Testament believers. Like, what would Uriah have sung?

That was February 10, 2005, a Thursday. That night Harry showed up for choir with “Uriah’s Song.” Later he reformatted his work into the more professional look you see below.

Here is the lovely poetry Harry dashed off that day. I assume it is as lovely in Hittite as in English. You can see his true poetic nature, as he provides a literal translation of the Hittite that is every bit as engaging as the official song:

Uriah’s Song

Far from my home I

Came to His temple.

There in that house was the True God.

Hittite lips sang His praises.

     [literally: From a distant land I came to His temple. His house became my joy. I sing (to Him) in Hittite.]

Not to Him foreign,

Enemy neither –

Enemies He makes His servants.

He swept away my resistance.

     [literally: Not to Him foreign, nor enemy – He makes enemies into servants. He conquers my heart completely.]

Scorned by a wife and

Killed by a king – yet

God is my Spouse and my Sov’reign.

E’er will He love and rule me.

     [literally: Betrayed by a woman, murdered by a king – God is my marriage partner (and) ruler. He will not forsake me.]

© Harry Hoffner, 2/10/2005

Thank you, Harry, for all the ways you enriched my life, and my walk with Jesus. I hope you’ve had a chance to meet Uriah already, and to sing with him! 

Music in the Castle of Heaven

I am not the fastest reader you will meet. Then again, John Eliot Gardiner's biography of Bach is not meant to be rushed. Still, last year's Christmas gift from my Karen has been my companion for the better part of the past year (and I do mean the better part). It is with some regret that I came to the end yesterday.

J. S. Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven was much anticipated last year. It was published and released whilst I was working away at my theology thesis on Bach. I worried that it would come out soon enough that I would have to take it into account at the 11th hour. Then I worried that if I started reading it during the editing process, I would lose heart. So I (wisely? cravenly?) chose not to begin reading it until I had submitted my own to my readers.

Wisely, I think. (And yes, cravenly, too, alas.) There are a number of points, ideas, and illustrations that would have served me nicely in the thesis. Indeed, the chapter, "Collision and Collusion," addresses the main point of my thesis - the relationship of Bach's musical choices to articulate meaning. Sure, I'll use that whenever I talk about my thesis!

But the most personal response I take away from this excellent, magisterial work, is the cheek - the sheer gall - that I would attempt a thesis on the master and his work. Albert Schweitzer, in his landmark two-volume work on Bach, famously said (vol.2, p. 52) "No one can conduct one cantata properly unless he knows them all." Well, and now in our day there is John Eliot Gardiner, among the tiny elite who can be said to truly qualify. He is our day's Schweitzer; our generation's appropriate biographer.

Like Schweitzer, he may be proved wrong on certain points. Astonishingly, there are still documents and artifacts that surface related to Bach. But also like Schweitzer, this work will be read a century hence.

More to say later. For now, it is good enough for me that I finished this book during Christmas, during the season of contemplation of the Incarnation. Gardiner (no traditional Christian believer, by his own admission) concludes the book thus: But it is Bach, making music in the Castle of Heaven, who gives us the voice of God - in human form. He is the one who blazes a trail, showing us how to overcome our imperfections through the perfections of his music: to make divine things human and human things divine. (558)

A feast for the soul

I won't even try to re-do the post from January 1, 2014. Every year it's the same . . . and this year it's different.

January 1, the 8th day of Christmas: the day (if not the date) when the baby, Jesus, was formally named. Though we don't know what day/date Jesus was born, the Bible is very specific about when he was named. And no normal "name day," either! Mary and Joseph named him under divine orders, and the witnesses were saints and prophets in the place God established for "God's name" to dwell. Here is a truly Evangelical Feast.

So, Happy New Year, and enjoy the football games, and make your resolutions. Me? I'm working on a low-key New Years Day which will probably involve a little bit of all that. But I can't shake the Festival aspect that the Church teaches me to stop and listen to. In these days of reflecting on Incarnation, I am thankful that the God who took on flesh was given a name both human and divine. A name above all names. A name before which all heaven and earth will bow. "Jesus" - the Lord God saves.

Oh, what a Wonderful Child!

For a good playlist, look back at last year's post. But for the song going through my head today, check this out. It is from a New York production of Langston Hughes' "Black Nativity." A little hotter than our Minnesota memories, but the closest I can find online.

And then there's this classic, obviously the model for the version we love from Penumbra Theater's production.

Looking Back

So much to say, so little time . . .

Immersed in my (new? temporary? tenuous? unlikely?) teaching role, I find that I have little time to sit and write. Lots of time to think, with nearly 10 hours of week commuting by car. Lots to write about, with my head in music and related subject areas. Lots to write for, with some potential conference/article uses of my thesis. (A hint of that here on an excellent blog.) But not a lot of margin to reflect and write about some things that are important to me.

Happily, thanks to social media, I am able to keep up with others who are writing the good fight. I would particularly draw your attention to my friend Jonathan Aigner, whose work at Ponder Anew is getting noticed, shared, re-blogged, and commented on. Bookmark it, and join the conversation.

I'm also enjoying an ongoing discussion about Millennials and liturgical worship . . . or why run-of-the-mill Evangelicalism is losing young people to churches with historic liturgy. This is just the most recent post I've appreciated. If you're not tracking this conversation, just do a search on those key words. Intriguing. It seems that a couple of generations of pragmatism is coming home to roost. Or rather, driving young people out of the nest.

This past Sunday, October 5, marked a full two years since I left my full-time role as a pastor for music. I miss many aspects of that life, and perhaps I will again serve the church in that way. For two years now, I have been on a path that has kept me open to surprise. I am learning to trust God in ways that I haven't "had to" for a long time. And my Karen and I are being nicely cared for by our faithful, covenant-keeping Lord.

I am working full time again, teaching music subjects, including music & worship, and directing the band at Trinity College, the undergraduate college of Trinity International University. I direct a little church choir at the Evangelical Covenant Church of Hinsdale, Illinois. And this fall I am guest chorus master for the Fox Valley Orchestra. It's thrilling, and tiring, and probably temporary, and I am having a ball.

Some people, two years ago, assumed this was what I was off to. I have to say, they knew better than I did. Is this where I belong? Well, all I know is that it is where I am now, by God's grace, and what is to come we don't really know. But when we need to know, we will.

And the prayers

Apropos yesterday’s post, two prayers from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer also have recently shaped my prayers for the Church in troubled spots.

From the collect assigned to “Proper 13” (Sunday, August 3), note the highlighted portion especially:

Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

And the prayer that ends morning devotions:

Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Sadly, it took me a couple of days into last week, praying the first collect, before I made the connection to praying it on behalf of the persecuted church. I find I can no longer pray the daily morning prayer routinely. I will not take for granted that I have been brought safely to any new day; and I pray that the church in Iraq will also be safe, and preserved, and overcome.

BWV 178 and the Persecuted Church

Since the start of this church year (which happened to align with the completion of my thesis) I have been listening each week to a Bach cantata appropriate to the liturgical Sunday. I am listening through the second Leipzig cantata cycle, since my case study cantata (BWV 5, Wo soll ich fliehen hin) is from late in that year (1723–24).

So today I turned to BWV 178, Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält (If the Lord God does not stay with us) and was not only refreshed (as I am each Sunday), not only amazed at Bach’s inventive treatment of texts (a source of constant delight), not only keeping up with a discipline/commitment (as only an obsessive can and must). No, today I was floored by the timeliness of this cantata text in light of world events.

For the past couple of weeks we have been hearing about the brutal beheading of Christian children in ISIS controlled Iraq. We are mourning the persecution of Iraqi Christians (Chaldean Catholics). And this on top of ongoing terror in Nigeria, Somalia, and elsewhere.

In 1524, Justus Jonas wrote a chorale based on Psalm 124. Two hundred years later Bach set the words of that hymn in Cantata 178, for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity. The Scripture readings for the day were

Romans 8:12–17 (“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”) and Matthew 7: 15–23 (not all who say “Lord, Lord” belongs to God, and that “by their fruit you shall know them.”). Combined with Psalm 124 (“If the Lord had not been at our side . . . Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”) and Jonas’ chorale, this Cantata is an extended meditation on the focus, hope, and consolation of persecuted Christians.

Mind you, in Jonas’ day the persecution was from one group of Christians against another. And God knows over the centuries (before and since) that has been a sad reality. I recall the old Mennonite Central Committee poster from my college days.

 

Fair enough; and sad enough.

So, this is not a rant against Islam. It is simply pointing out that one of the virtues of the arts—and of the musico-prophetic art in particular—is that words written 490 years ago, paired with music written 290 years ago, provided perspective to me today, as I consider world events. They teach me how to pray today. They remind me where my Christian hope lies. And they unite me in some strange, unexpected way, with Iraqi Christians.

If you want to enter into this musical devotion . . .

Text:

The Bach Cantata website, with German text and English translation, in parallel.

The Bach Cantata website, with German text, and the English translation interleaved. Scroll to the bottom of this page for some notes on the Jonas chorale, and Bach’s setting.

From both these pages you can delve more deeply into the cantata.

Recordings: Ton Koopman on YouTube

I’ve been listening to as many of the cantatas as I can by John Eliot Gardiner, on Spotify.

And if you can lay your hands on the recordings by Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan, enjoy!

Listen to a recording while following along the text. I like to read through the full text in English first (since my German is very weak), then track the movements with the recording.

A Reading List for Music in Worship

I am preparing to teach my first collegiate course in the subject I have lived for three decades: Music in Worship. So now I take three decades of attention, and shelves of reading, and pare it down to a “reasonable” Reading List for undergraduate seniors and seminary students. This is a bit like answering the question, “What is your favorite hymn?” Well now, that depends, doesn’t it! So many to choose from, and context is everything.

Music in Worship will meet as a seminar for three hours on Monday nights. Undergrads will read up to 100 pages per week; seminary students a little more. We will spend four weeks on basic definitions (worship, liturgy, church music, congregational song), eight weeks on historical matters (biblical times through today), then have three weeks of symposia (hermeneutics, history, and culture). In the final class meeting students will present, defend, and lead the class through their designs of a musical segment of public worship.

The Reading List

Required 

• Begbie, Jeremy S. Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007.
• Block, Daniel A. For the Glory of God: Recovering a Biblical Theology of Worship. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2014.
• Dowley, Tim. Christian Music: A Global History. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2011.
• Pinsor, J. Matthew, ed. Perspectives on Worship: Five Views. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2009.

Dan Block’s book is to be released just in time for us to use this semester. His comprehensive view of worship, and his thorough treatment of biblical materials, makes this a must-have book in this discipline. Dowley’s Christian Music provides a chronological and global look at music and the Church. Pinsor’s Perspectives sticks with evangelical practice (appropriate for TIU and the students who will take this course), and puts the five practitioners in dialogue with each other. Begbie’s philosophical, historical, and theological reading of music is something that students (and worship leaders, and pastors) ought to be aware of and grapple with.

            In addition to these, seminary students will also be required to read the following, and to work through the question of whether or how music gives insight into theology:

• Begbie, Jeremy S. and Steven R. Guthrie, eds. Resonant Witness: Conversations between Music and Theology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011. 

Recommended/Suggested 

From the following titles students will select one book to read on their own.

• Best, Harold M. Unceasing Worship: Biblical Perspectives on Worship and the Arts. Downers Grove: IVP, 2003.
• Best, Harold M. Music Through the Eyes of Faith. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.
• Brown, Frank Burch. Inclusive Yet Discerning: Navigating Worship Artfully. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009.
• Day, Thomas. Why Catholics Can’t Sing: The Culture of Catholicism and the Triumph of Bad Taste. New York: Crossroad, 1993.
• Gordon, T. David. Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns: How Pop Culture Rewrote the Hymnal. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2010.
• Hustad, Donald P. Jubilate II: Church Music in Worship and Renewal. Carol Stream: Hope Publishing, 1993.
• Johansson, Calvin. Music and Ministry: A Biblical Counterpoint. 2^nd edition. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998.
• Jones, Paul S. Singing and Making Music: Issues in Church Music Today. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2006.
• Kidd, Reggie. With One Voice: Discovering Christ’s Song in Our Worship. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005.
• Myers, Kenneth A. All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes: Christians and Popular Culture. Wheaton: Crossway, 1989. (2012 with new Introduction by the author)
• Niebuhr, H. Richard. Christ and Culture. New York: Harper & Row, 1951. (2001 edition by HarperCollins) with (or without) Carson, Donald A. Christ and Culture Revisited. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008. Recommended reading for seminary students. I do not want them to read Carson without reading Niebuhr first.
• O’Donnell, Douglas Sean. God’s Lyrics: Rediscovering Worship Through Old Testament Songs. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2010.

This list is more clearly weighted to reflect my personal/professional/pastoral concerns, and I don’t apologize for that. (The list will almost certainly be changed, if not abridged, before the syllabus goes to print.) I will give the students a précis of each item on the list so they can choose according to their interests, questions, or taste. This course is designed to get students to wrestle with the issues of music in worship. The following semester course in worship is much more practical and focused on worship resources of all kinds.

There are still many books that I would like students to know about and read. But I have to remember that I’ve been at this a long time, and they are just getting started!