Tacky Hymns 111

That's not a Roman Numeral up there. Wow, has this thread endured. And for the last little bit of it, we've been looking at the hymnal supplement All Creation Sings, whereof we resume with the "Sending" (i.e., close of worship) section.

983 is "Now the meal is over" by Paul Andress (b. 1956), words and music. It's notated without accompaniment as a three-part round, with different lyrics to each line. The first line sends you out with peace. The second, calls you to "go forward with strength and courage ... to heal a broken world." And the third states that when you leave the table, "fed and nourished, love will be our lasting call." So, OK, some exhortation isn't out of order, but healing a broken world is a big ask and I think it would be sufficient to exhort the "fed and nourished" to live out their vocation in love, and leave the establishment of millennial utopias to Someone higher up on the pay scale. Also, who's actually going to sing this? Has someone tested the feasibility of leading the parishioners at Shepherd of the Cornfield in a three-part round? Just asking. 2 tacks.

984 is "May the God of hope go with us" by Alvin Schutmaat (†1988), "alt." The tune, given without accompaniment, is of Argentine folk origin. It has some pop-musicky rhythms at the ends of its phrases and, perhaps only in my imagination, a certain ring of propaganda jingle. And also a line of Spanish lyrics above the English that prompts me, once again, to observe that this isn't actually a Spanish-language hymnal. Once again everybody is being sent out to to bring good news to the world, working for peace, etc. – which is all right, I suppose, for people whose vocation that is, but let's not mix them up with everybody. Most people had best be sent home from worship with the simple exhortation to live in accord with the grace and peace they have received, so far as their station in life is concerned. "Working for a world that's new" is a ridiculously big ask for people of whom, most likely, it is more than enough to hope that they'll try to live a life that's new. 3 tacks.

985 is "Let us enter in" (to the song) is by Ray Makeever (cf. 945, 955), words and music, accompaniment omitted. Its three stanzas, again, give strong exhortation to those departing from worship – ironically, in terms of "entering in" to the work outside the house of worship. Understood within each Christian's vocation, it would be all right. But can it be understood that way? How are we entering into "the heart of a world that is broken"? Why is this hymn – why are all these "Sending" hymns – speaking about Christians like they're a means of grace instead of emphasizing, like, the actual means of grace? 2 tacks.

986 is "May God bless us" (and keep us), a Swahili folk hymn based on the Aaronic benediction (Numbers 6:24), to its own tune, with one line of Swahili lyrics above the English. The accompaniment is provided, except for a phrase earmarked for "Leader," the better (I suppose) to showcase the African traditional style of part singing – not to mention rhythms that in the context of Shepherd of the Cornfield probably mean the choir and a soloist will be singing this at the congregation. And I may have mentioned memories of struggling to teach such rhythms even to the church choir. Such are the times we live in, the state of education, etc. As for the lyrics, they don't get any further in the Aaronic than multiple repeats of "May God bless us and keep us" except for an "evermore" and the Leader's "Revere the Lord," which hits me as a blown opportunity to set the whole verse to music. It wouldn't take any more notes than are already on the page, I'd think. 3 tacks.

987 is "Guide my feet," an African-American spiritual with its own tune. Crafted to a call-and-response design, "Leader" gets most of the lyrics (five stanzas!) with All (most likely meaning Choir) part-singing the unvarying response, "while I run this race." A couple of times, the bass section gets a solo at the end of a phrase ("Yes, my Lord"). Apart from that, everything is repeated three times, concluding with the refrain, "for I don't want to run this race in vain." Each stanza adds all of three syllables worth of material to the cumulative whole. So, typically, it's a fine work of cultural art but, compared to hymns that can economically put a lot of valuable content through the mouths of the congregation, this is an opportunity for them to sit back and listen to a miniscule amount of content being stretched out over the same amount of time. 3 tacks.

988 is "The Spirit sends us forth to serve" by Delores Dufner (I'm not going to repeat her citations again), set to Robert A. Hobby's (b. 1962) tune SANTA MONICA, without accompaniment. Again, the lyrics depict us all being sent to do the ministry when, really, most of us are sent to live Christian lives in our various vocations while the ministerium does the ministry. I suppose you could read this as what "the Church" does, and what each Christian might once in a while find an occasion to do if he or she is looking out for it. But mostly, we don't "go" to proclaim the gospel; we come to church to hear it proclaimed; and if we want it to be proclaimed to more people, we should invite them along with us. Let's not blur away the distinctiveness of the office of pastor or conflate the living of Christian lives with the means of grace. I hate to say it, but Dufner disappoints with this one. 2 tacks.

989 is "Let your peace rain upon us," a Palestinian traditional piece entirely consisting of three phrases (one of them repeated), yet crediting two translators (Mark Swanson, b. 1955, and Mark Sedio, b. 1954). It very briefly, simply and emphatically prays for God's peace. I'm giving it 1 tack for omitting the accompaniment.

990 is "We will go with God," a Swaziland traditional piece (it's actually called Eswatini now), with a line of lyrics in the Xhosa language above David Dargie's (b. 1938) English translation, set to his arrangement of the traditional tune. The page has a footnote explaining an "approximate pronunciation" the Xhosa lyrics, which would be more helpful if it weren't in a font size akin to sports agate. The setting leads off with a phrase for Leader, followed by a part-singy answer including the words "Ho! ho! ho!" and repeat. A couple of phrases give the bass section a brief solo ("This day, oh!") and the only lyrics on top of what you already know are "On this day of great joy," repeated twice. I'm not such a Eurocentric bigot that I won't admit that what this hymn says, little as it is, is better than most of the "Sending" hymns above. It is, however, another case of a tiny amount of content, stretched out over an amount of time that could be better used to the nourishment and edifying of the congregation, to whom (not by whom) it will probably be sung. 2 tacks.

991 is "Go to the world" by United Church of Christ minister Sylvia G. Dunstan (cf. 915, 916, 954), set to Ralph Vaughan Williams' SINE NOMINE (cf. "For all the saints who from their labors rest"), accompaniment omitted. Again, it's one of those hymns that I think would be better earmarked for a seminary graduation service, or the commissioning of a missionary, or a farewell to a departing minister, etc., rather than "Sending" as in close of worship. It exhorts its target audience to "go into all the earth" to "preach the cross," which I suppose you could say of the Church as a whole but that doesn't apply individually to everyone departing from Sunday morning worship. Also, I'm underwhelmed about Stanza 1's stated view of the cross as "where Christ renews life's worth" (oh, hooray) and baptism as "the sign of our rebirth." Stanza 2 mentions "redeeming grace" and "God's presence" as part of the message; St. 3 vaguely supports the theory that we're talking about the Church and not each individual member of it. St. 4 puts on quotation marks and references the concluding words of Christ's commission to the apostles in Matthew 28:20. But if we've been alluding to Matthew 28 all along, why does the message seem so reductionistic vs. "all things whatsoever I have commanded you"? And why are we baptizing people into a sign vs. the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit? I get that you can't say everything in four stanzas of essentially three lines of poetry. It's a matter of priorities. And for misplaced ones, plus that accompaniment thing, 3 tacks.

As I write this, morning is coming on. And so is the "Morning" section of this book. But I'm going to stop here, while the hours are still wee, so that perhaps I may get some sleep in the hours that remain before my alarm clock goes beep. We've added another 21 tacks, bringing the running total to 169 tacks in 91 hymns – an average tackiness of about 186 percent. It keeps climbing! How high can this go?