It is not unusual for music to be the thing that hits me emotionally, especially in worship, and it really hit me this week.
This past Sunday was the Sunday after George Floyd was killed by a Police officer in Minneapolis. The officer knelt on Floyd’s throat causing him to utter “I can’t breathe,” and then pass out, until he did not breathe again. This past Sunday was a Sunday where cities across North America were filled with protests, many of them peaceful, even some where the police joined protesters, but also where many of the protests were violent or were met with violence from authorities.
And this past week comes at a time where the world is dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. It is also just 5 weeks after a terrible mass shooting in Nova Scotia. I am in Canada and Canada is not immune to violence. Nor are we immune to racism in our country.
This past Sunday was also Pentecost. We chose our music according to the day in the Church calendar. It is a day when we celebrate the Holy Spirit showing up with a mighty wind and tongues of fire, causing Jesus’ closest followers to speak in a multitude of languages.
We began with a song called “Praise Your Name”. I almost cut this song, because honestly, I didn’t feel like praising too much. It is a fast moving song that has a little drive to it. It’s one of those clap along to the beat songs, and I didn’t feel like a happy-clappy praise song. But, I’m glad we kept it. The verse speaks of Praising God’s name among the nations and the big reminder for me here was that “Nations” is plural. We are among the nations, and it is all nations. God has wisely made the Church diverse, though it is not always reflected in individual congregations. The story of Pentecost starts this off. The Spirit did not make everyone understand a common language. The Spirit enabled the differing languages of the nations to be spoken for all to hear. As the book of Acs moves on, the Church becomes more and more diverse with the message about Jesus being taken farther throughout the known world. This is not just about adapting or translating a message for people to understand. This is about a deep and radical racial inclusion in the people of God like nothing ever seen before.
Next we sang “Spirit of Gentleness.” I joked earlier in the week that the Spirit isn’t very gentle in the Pentecost story. However, though this is a gentle flowing melody, the lyrics have more to them than meets the eye. “Stir me from placidness” is on the the lyrics that jumped out at me as we sang. Wow! Am I really praying for the Spirit to stir me up and move me away from being simply placid, especially in the face of injustice? The chorus might be the most familiar, but the verses are powerful as a word of hope. Verse three has this lyric: “and down in the city you called once again, when you blew through your people on the rush of the wind.” It is a direct reference to Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, but it is also any of our cities. God calls “down in the city” and the city is a place for everyone.
Verse four is perhaps the most pressing verse for us today: You call from tomorrow; You break ancient schemes; From the bondage of sorrow The captives dream dreams; Our women see visions, our men clear their eyes, with bold new decisions your people arise.
This harkens back to the roots of the people of God. They were slaves in Egypt and they gained freedom. God “breaks ancient schemes” and yes, those schemes are still around. There are still people who subjugate others, we have outright racism in the form of violence, and we have the cultural and generational repercussions of a colonial history.
Many of our systems are not the result of “breaking ancient schemes,” but have been years of compromise making slight adjustments along the way, slowly renaming, re-working things. If I’m honest, that’s my style. I’d rather have things adjusted over time, slowly, getting everyone on board. But this hymn declares that God “breaks ancient schemes.” When Moses led God’s people out of Egypt it was monumental and terrifying, no doubt. When William Wilberforce argued to abolish slavery it was unpopular. When Martin Luther King Jr. gave his speeches it was not met with unilateral agreement. The breaking of “ancient schemes” is not easy, and here we declare that God does this very thing.
Yes, the Spirit is gentle too, but this hymn shows that the Spirit is dramatic, decisive, takes action, makes people uncomfortable (including me), and calls us to a new way to be in the world.
Next up was “All is Made Well” by Canadian Presbyterian Minister, Glen Soderholm. This is the song that really got to me and in rehearsal, I had to stop singing several times because I was too emotional to get the words out. Somehow, with the Spirit’s help, I made it through the song in worship. Here are the lyrics in full..
The Holy Spirit comes and shows us the Father,
and sings His dream over His sons and daughters.
The Holy Spirit comes and shows us the Son,
And breathes his mercy over everyone.
And all is made well, it is well.
In this embrace the world is placed
And all things are new.
The Holy Spirit comes and shows us wisdom
And strengthens her people for the kingdom.
The Holy Spirit comes and shows us each other
And moves us to live as sisters and brothers.
And all is made well, it is well.
In this embrace the world is placed
And all things are new.
I find this song heartbreaking because it is just like the kingdom of God – both now and not yet. We’ve been seeing a lot of the “not yet” lately, but the vision that is painted here is one we long for, where all is made well.
I love the idea of the Holy Spirit showing us each other. We need to see each other and we need to be moved to live as sisters and brothers. As I sang this in rehearsal, I couldn’t help picturing my brothers and sisters from African decent and the embrace of God reaching for them in their hurt. I don’t mean this in a sentimental or trite way, but a way of moving me to see another person and realize that we are in the same embrace of the Spirit.
Our second to last song was “O breath of life come sweeping through us.” It is a classic sounding hymn, with incredibly powerful words. Here is verse 2:
O Wind of God, come bend us, break us,
till humbly we confess our need;
then in your tenderness remake us,
revive, restore, for this we plead.
Wow. Yes, we chose this song for Pentecost, but what does it mean for us to be bent and broken in order to confess our need? What does it mean for God to remake us, and revive and restore us right now? I couldn’t help thinking about all those who are already broken, who have lost lives, who have been victims, who have been crying out. And so, for me, whose life is pretty good, whose needs are not as urgent as not having enough food, or not feeling safe because of my skin colour, what does it mean for me to sing, “come bend me, break me, till humbly I confess my need?”
And then, verse 3:
O Breath of love, come breathe within us,
renewing thought and will and heart;
come, Love of Christ, afresh to win us,
revive your church in every part.
And this is the verse that was like a knife in my heart. “Come breathe within us.” There has been a lot of talking about breathing lately. We have to be careful where we breathe right now because of a devastating virus. If we are not careful, more people will need respirators. In many places in the world there have not been enough respirators to go around and people have died because they couldn’t breath. And then, of course, there are George Floyd’s words just before he died: “I can’t breathe.”
To this we cry out to God “O breath of love, come breathe within us.” Revive us. We need your breath of life and love!
But our service wasn’t over. We had one more song, and we had chosen “Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying” because it has the line “Lord, send your Spirit in this place.” The song has the feel of a spiritual, but it was actually written in 1970 by Ken Medema, who is not Afrian-American. The song is no less powerful, though.
As people take to the streets in protest and cry out against racism, as people cry out because of loss of lives, loss of jobs, the personal challenges of a pandemic, as we continue to cry, we say “Lord, listen. Lord, listen. Lord, listen!”
You can watch the replay of this worship service on the Prairie Presbyterian YouTube Channel here.
Thank you for this. These words truly moved me – the words in the hymns take on a new significance within the context of these times. I will recall them every time we sing the hymns from hereon.