- Feb 5, 2002
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We need our old hymns*. They are beautiful and uplifting -- and one under-rated quality of time-tested hymns is their, for lack of a better word, information. They are catechetical. They teach, winsomely, without didactic heaviness. Teach is the wrong word, maybe. They just infuse knowledge -- one comes away with understanding.
Maybe you saw this revealing post from Dallas Jenkins, producer of the hit TV series The Chosen.
It's revealing in so many ways. Ignorance, yes, but also a strange lack of humility combined with a determinedly earth-bound vision. Mystery, hiddenness, the cloud of unknowing, the literal voice of God -- these things don't fit into his paradigm of what constitutes a story of Jesus's life.
"It's just TV, Leila" -- I guess! But interesting how one's Christology will creep in...
Anyway, back to hymns.
An English-speaking person of yore who worshipped liturgically would have sung 'Tis Good, Lord, to Be Here perhaps two times a year. The melody is lovely and singable (of course -- it's composed by Johann S. Bach; Tune: Potsdam)
If Dallas Jenkins -- not to mention many other Christians, including Catholics -- sang 'Tis Good, Lord, to Be Here, he might begin to grasp the importance of this Gospel. I first heard the hymn at the Anglican Use Mass I went to, on the feast day, some years ago. The economy of expression struck me -- the poetry manages to convey an essay's worth of exegesis in a few verses!
Continued below.
happydespitethem.blogspot.com
Maybe you saw this revealing post from Dallas Jenkins, producer of the hit TV series The Chosen.
It's revealing in so many ways. Ignorance, yes, but also a strange lack of humility combined with a determinedly earth-bound vision. Mystery, hiddenness, the cloud of unknowing, the literal voice of God -- these things don't fit into his paradigm of what constitutes a story of Jesus's life.
"It's just TV, Leila" -- I guess! But interesting how one's Christology will creep in...
Anyway, back to hymns.
An English-speaking person of yore who worshipped liturgically would have sung 'Tis Good, Lord, to Be Here perhaps two times a year. The melody is lovely and singable (of course -- it's composed by Johann S. Bach; Tune: Potsdam)
If Dallas Jenkins -- not to mention many other Christians, including Catholics -- sang 'Tis Good, Lord, to Be Here, he might begin to grasp the importance of this Gospel. I first heard the hymn at the Anglican Use Mass I went to, on the feast day, some years ago. The economy of expression struck me -- the poetry manages to convey an essay's worth of exegesis in a few verses!
Continued below.
Hymns do matter: 'Tis Good, Lord, to Be Here!
happydespitethem.blogspot.com
