26/09/2012 by sevennotesofgrace

Impossible to be silent

Although my 16 year old daughter is well acquainted with the distinctive features of different film genre, there is one filmmaking convention with which she cannot abide: the Hollywood musical – with the notion that normal people could just burst into song in the middle of a conversation. It doesn’t matter where they are or who they are with, they just sing! Now don’t get me wrong. She and I both love watching these musicals, Singing in the Rain, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and The Sound of Music all being on our favourites list. But for her, this ‘random singing in real life’ just lacks all credibility. We have some hilarious debates about it!

Victor Hugo is credited with saying, “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”

In these film narratives the characters literally burst into song because they can’t help it! Simple dialogue just will not do for these characters (or for that matter opera singers and Broadway actors, or the composers and screenplay writers behind all these). Words cannot express the largeness of their thoughts and emotions. They are compelled to sing.
Is it any different in real life? We sing at the football (well I have heard people do!), at birthdays, to our babies. My husband sings strange songs to our girls at times, most often in the morning when trying to get them out of bed.

So is it any wonder that God’s gathered people must sing. How could we NOT sing?
The gratitude we feel because our sins are forgiven, the awe we have for God’s amazing grace, the freedom from shame. . . All this cannot be expressed adequately by mere words. The wonders of our God must be sung! He is beyond the limits of our spoken words and imaginations. So too the astonishing nature of his salvation plan for mankind. If I could find a statistic about how many new praise songs are written about and to God each day I would include it here – but Google was no help. Probably the number was beyond the grasp of Google’s search engines.

So think then….what is the effect of encouraging people to sing God’s praise, when they don’t feel like it? Or when they don’t really know God? Does this work in reverse? Does singing the words inspire the feelings that would have made us burst out into to song in the first place? And what about churches who do not sing when they gather? What does that say to them? to us?
Comments welcome, as always.

Angels long to understand the story of Grace

¹⁰Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, ¹¹trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. ¹²It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things. (1 Peter 1:10-12)

Whenever I’m feeling a little confused by God’s mysterious ways I find it comforting to remember that even angelic beings do not fully understand the mind of God. We imagine that since angels are in God’s presence, they would know why God is doing what He is doing. But they don’t. Peter spoke of this in his letter above. He says angels long to look into ‘these things’, to fully comprehend God’s mysterious plan of redemption, in which they SERVE us! What an amazing thought! They obey God, they follow the plan, without fully understanding why.

We humans are so privileged. Not only have we have been told the story of God’s grace, shown in his Son coming to redeem us and restore us to relationship with God, we also benefit from this grace! We have eternal life. Steven Curtis Chapman’s song, ANGELS WISH, develops these thoughts in a beautiful way. He looks forward to the time when he will sit down with his angel friends and explain to them the “story of grace”. I know things angels only wish they knew!
How privileged am I?

ANGELS WISH:

Was God smiling when He spoke the words and made the world?
And did he cry about the flood?
And what does God’s voice sound like when He sings, or when He’s angry?
These are just a few things that the angels have on me

Well, I can’t fly, at least not yet
I’ve got no halo on my head
And I can’t even start to picture Heaven’s beauty
But I’ve been shown the Savior’s love
The grace of God has raised me up
To show me things the angels long to look into
And I know things the Angels only wish they knew

I have seen the dark and desperate place where sin will take you
I’ve felt loneliness and shame
And I have watched the blinding light of grace
Come breaking through with a sweetness
Only tasted by the forgiven and redeemed

And someday I’ll sit down with my angel friends
Up in Heaven
They’ll tell me about creation
And I’ll tell them a story of grace

17/09/2012 by sevennotesofgrace

What is so amazing about “Amazing Grace”?

It just dawned on me that though I have been blogging for almost a year now on the subject of music and grace, I haven’t even made a single mention of that most famous combination of music and grace: John Newton’s “Amazing Grace“. It has been an anthem of hope and faith for generations.
But why has this hymn had such an impact? What does Newton point out about God’s grace that resonates with us so strongly? Is there something in the music which made it so popular?

At the time Newton penned Amazing Grace, hymnbooks did not contain music; they were simply religious poetry books. The first time Newton’s lines were joined to music was in 1808, in A Companion to the Countess of Huntingdon’s Hymns, set to the tune “Hephzibah” by English composer John Jenkins Husband. More than twenty musical settings of “Amazing Grace” circulated with varying popularity until 1835 when William Walker assigned Newton’s words to a traditional song named “New Britain”.

According to author Steve Turner, the joining of these words and melody was a “marriage made in heaven . . . There was a rise at the point of confession, as though the author was stepping out into the open and making a bold declaration, but a corresponding fall when admitting his blindness.”

Sing through the lyrics at the end (if you need them to test his theory). I think Turner is quite right. It is at this very point we can see why the hymn works so well in communal praise. As we sing this appropriately-shaped melody together, we step out into the open and make a public and communal confession of our wretchedness, our need for God’s forgiving grace. We declare we have moved from ‘lost’ to ‘found’, from hopeless to being filled with hope! As we declare this together, the Spirit works.

It probably has a lot to do with the truth which James expresses here:
“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” (James 5:16)

This hymn is a prayer! We pray together as we sing. We confess (our wretched need for God’s grace) to one another, and look with eyes of faith to the glorious future for us who are ‘found’. The power of this prayer-song transcends time, culture and place. I would predict that there are many more centuries of life in Newton’s hymn.

(Nb. If you are so young that you only know of Amazing Grace as being part of Chris Tomlin’s “My Chains are gone” then you should note how skilfully Tomlin has mimicked the rise and fall of the “New Britain” melody in his additional chorus. In this way he moves our focus to the flood of mercy experienced by all who are in Christ. Such amazing grace!)

Here are the 6 verses of the hymn:

Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind but now I see

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed

The Lord has promised good to me
His Word my hope secures
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures

Through many dangers toils and snares
I have already come
‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far
And grace will lead me home

Yea when this flesh and heart shall fail
And mortal life shall cease
I shall possess within the veil
A life of joy and peace

When we’ve been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun

And Tomlin’s clever chorus:

My chains are gone, I’ve been set free
My God my Saviour has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy rains
Unending love, Amazing Grace!

If you want to think a bit more about this grace, watch the film trailer . . . or the whole film AMAZING GRACE (2006).

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