Tacky Hymns 116

Returning to our tour of hymnal supplement All Creation Sings ...

As the section titled "Community in Christ" begins, 1036 is "Commonwealth is God's commandment" by Mary Louise Bringle (b. 1953), set to the Southern Harmony tune RESTORATION (cf. "All for Christ I have forsaken" in LSB, only in a modified form). There's also a refrain, which modifies the tune another way. There's a line in the refrain that says "Shanti, pax, shalom, maslaha" and a tiny, agate-type footnote explaining that these are "words meaning peace from other religious traditions"; in other words, blatant syncretism. Yes, the refrain states, shanti is used in Hindu and Buddhist traditions. While it acknowledges the Hebrew and Arabic origins of the other words it doesn't go quite as far toward making Judaism and Islam sound like Christian denominations. Nevertheless, the selection of these particular languages and the way the hymn and the footnote play off each other suggests that the author, and the editors of this book, want us to think thoughts of religious unity with worshipers in those "traditions." There's this line in stanza 2 as well: "God has sheep of many folds." Stanza 3 puts "genders" along with "races, tribes, and nations" among those the Holy Spirit calls to be one and, again, I could be reading into this but given the politics of the current millisecond, I would question the assumption that "male and female" exhaust what Bringle means. For being a bunch of hippie-dippie, syncretistic, Christian communist, let's-be-the-first-to-lay-down-our-religious-principles-in-good-faith bull****, the full complement of 5 tacks.

1037 is "Christ, our peace", words and music by Marty Haugen: a refrain without stanzas/verses, emphasizing how Christ breaks down the walls that divide us and asking Him to come, make us one body in Him. Only without capitalized pronouns. And that's it. It's so short that again I have to question its place in the worship hour and, consequently, what its inclusion in a pew book says about the ELCA's notion of hymnody. 2 tacks.

1038 is "God, we gather as your people", words and (rather uninspired) music by David Lohman (b. 1961). It's kind of a cross between a hymn and a protest song that gradually reveals itself to be a prayer that God would help gay people accept (and be accepted as) who they are. And of course, to open our hearts and minds, and the church, to them. For being diametrically opposed to Scripture's teaching and the form of sound doctrine (and also, for what it's worth, omitting the accompaniment), 5 tacks.

1039 is "Hine ma tov," Psalm 133:1 in Hebrew (not translated into English; you'll just have to look it up), set to the traditional Israeli tune. I know what it means and I've even set an English version of this Psalm to music myself. But I would far rather prophesy in the language my audience speaks, so that all may be edified, than to speak in the tongues of angels (cf. 1 Corinthians 14). Also, I'm unsure whether this inclusion of a couple lines of Hebrew is indicative of one of those triumphalistic, see-how-we-love-the-Jews-and-minister-to-them moments or whether I smell another syncretistic rat in the manger. And though I'm not sure there even is an accompaniment for this tune, it isn't included here. So I'm giving it 3 tacks.

1040 is "Love has brought us here together" by Bringle, set to HYFRYDOL (cf. "Love divine, all loves excelling," "Alleluia, sing to Jesus," "Lord of glory, You have brought us" and "Gracious Savior, grant Your blessing" in LSB; the latter a marriage hymn by Stephen Starke). Bringle's hymn is kind of a paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13, the "love" chapter, also commonly linked to weddings although, in context, it forms part of Paul's argument against going overboard with the tongues-speaking craze. And indeed, the hymn wraps up with talk of two people pledging their union, which as it were sacramentally renews all who witness it. Despite the inward cringe at seeing Bringle's name in the credit line after what I've seen of her work so far, 0 tacks.

1041 is "God is love," words and music by Mark Mummert (b. 1965), "based on 1 John 4:11, 16, 19." I'm not sure where verse 19 comes into it, because the reference to verses 11 and 16 are sufficient to source all the lyrics in this very brief hymn. Besides multiple repeats of its first line, all there is to it is "Let us love one another as God first loved us." Again, we're not seeing a thought being developed, as we ought to and, really, realistically can expect out of a hymn. I recently confessed to someone in a Facebook hymnwriters' group who had written and posted a marvelous new hymn translation that going through this book had nearly gaslighted me out of believing that good hymns are possible and actually exist. It's in the growing prevalence of this type of non-hymn that I feel this process of gaslighting at work. It's almost as if it's what this book is all about. 2 tacks.

1042 is "May this church be like a tree" by Pablo D. Sosa (†2020), both in his original Spanish and in Andrew Donaldson's (b. 1951) English translation, set to Sosa's own tune. Again, begging your pardon, but an English-speaking congregation doesn't need Spanish lyrics and as for a Spanish-speaking congregation, this isn't the book they need. So those Spanish lyrics are somewhere between a costly sacrifice of page space and a tacky expression of some triumphalistic impulse. Also, omitting the accompaniment is especially unfortunate when it's a new, unfamiliar, culturally remote and therefore rather tricky tune. I approach the lyrics last of all. Using a running tree metaphor to describe the church, Sosa reveals what he thinks church is all about and, almost from the first, it seems to be about works of social justice. Also (stanza 1) to gather in "simple prayer"; (st. 2) to embrace the weary pilgrim; to "show the way (st. 3) of loving and self-giving" (i.e., more works) and only at the very last, to name God "a tree of life eternal." It's a pretty law-oriented tree, this church, and the ministry of proclaiming the gospel and performing the sacraments is barely part of it. 4 tacks.

1043 is "Spirit open my heart" (to the joy and pain of living) by Ruth Duck (b. 1947), to Alfred V. Fedak's (b. 1953) adaptation of the Irish tune WILD MOUNTAIN THYME. Thank you, ACS, for reminding me of a movie in which Chrisopher Walken delivers the worst excuse for an Irish accent ever recorded and Jamie Dornan, as his son, plays a man who believes he is a bee. (I have it on DVD. Drop me a line if you're interested. First come, first served.) The refrain calls on the Spirit to help us, individually, to love "in receiving and in giving." There follow three stanzas that expand on this desire to be energized to works of love that glorify God and serve the neighbor. For what it is, my only real objection is that the accompaniment is omitted and, at bottom, turning Irish traditional tunes like this into hymns isn't the best idea. For what it isn't – I almost cringe to say it but that's the gaslighting at work I'm sure – Where is Christ in this hymn? 3 tacks.

1044 is "Not for tongues of heaven's angels" by Timothy Dudley-Smith (b. 1926), set to Peter Cutts' (b. 1937) tune BRIDEGROOM; cf. LSB 695. See me comment on that number here. 1 tack for omitting the accompaniment.

That's that section, and that's this post. That's 25 tacks in nine hymns, one of which (you may recall) got zero tacks. That gives us a running total of 281 tacks in 144 hymns, or a tackiness score of 195 percent. Pee-yew!