1238AFC092112
Read it online here, please.
Colossians 3:16 – Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Aloha nui loa, Beloved! We’re still “On The Road Again,” in New Mexico. I’ve got just a little moment to tell you that it’s been good to see family again, to eat chili with every meal, and to see the most unique and enchanting sky on the mainland, the New Mexico Blue sky. We’ve done a little shopping (well, OK some MAJOR shopping) and some traveling around the Española Valley area including a visit to Ojo Caliente – a centuries-old hot springs with a wide variety of mineral baths. Did the old boy good to soak for several hours! Kudos and MAHALO NUI LOA + MUCHIMAS GRACIAS go out to Crucita’s classmates UC and JC for their hospitality as well. We spent a wonderful day at their little ranchita just outside Dixon.
One thing I have noticed on this trip is background music. Everywhere you go, there’s some kind of music playing, and – to me at least – it is nerve-grating. One of the things I most often grouse about is being forced to listen to someone else’s music. Maybe it’s a neighbor out on the law washing his or her pickup and blaring hip-hop, rap, or country music so loud my jalousies shake. Maybe it’s in Safeway, or Wal-Mart, or Ace Hardware, and the music is loud enough that it cannot be ignored but not so loud that it hampers conversation – as long as you shout at each other. At the Outlet Mall yesterday, the speakers along the breezeway in the mall were blasting out 60’s tunes and inside the stores each had their own choice of music – reggae, pop, rap, Spanish/Mariachi, and loud enough to entertain the workers, but also loud enough to … well, make grouchy old men grouchier.
You know from previous messages here that I love music; it’s been a major part of my life since the age when I learned to talk – l love to sing. Songs that I love to sing differ widely, but hymns and Gospel choruses are always near the top of the list. I remember one time seeing Orel Leonard Hershiser IV on TV one time sitting in the dug-out singing the Doxology – “Praise God from whom all blessings flow./ Praise him all creatures here below./ Praise him above ye heavenly host./ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! AMEN.” (sorry for the odd symbols there. This copy of Word is set to put in “smart quotes” and I haven’t been able to turn it off.) Hershiser was certainly well known for his pitching abilities, but also well-known for his deep and abiding faith which often expressed itself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
Do you have a favorite hymn of Psalm, or spiritual song? You can bet I do! My favorite Psalm is 138: In the presence of the angels I will sing your praise. My favorite Gospel chorus Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before. My favorite hymn is harder to choose because I love so many of them. My dad’s was Ivory Palaces. My Grandmother’s was The Old Rugged Cross. Mom’s was Amazing Grace, and I think that’s Crucita’s favorite, too. Do you have a favorite hymn? Can you sort of hear it in your head right now if you think about it for a moment? If you were in your car driving to work or taking a trip or going shopping, could you “play” that hymn in your mind and in your heart? I think that is what Paul means when he encourages us so often to sing hymns and songs of praise; but, they have to be sung with an attitude of love and respect for the God who not only created us but who also saves us day by day.
In Amos 5:23 we read Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. God was tired of heavily-orchestrated hymns as if something more complex and climactic, something more dramatic would be more pleasing. Instead God says, Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living. And that is still what he wants from us. If you listen to contemporary Christian music, you will often notice that the song begins with a solo singer or a small group, and gradually crescendos toward a measure or two of drum tones followed by a key change and the addition of more voices until at the very end every voice is at maximum value and it’s time to go for the final high-pitch ending. Sometimes it’s original music, sometimes it’s the old hymns that get that treatment, or maybe Old Rugged Cross is done with a calypso or bosanova beat. I’m not opposed to expressing music in different ways – after all, as they say, different strokes for different folks – but sometimes I think we try too hard to make things pleasing to everyone but God.
I want you to think about your favorite hymns and songs, and Psalms and find a way to sing them in your heat quietly, but clearly. Would you do that for a moment right now, please? Just let your mind and heart hear the music, and maybe even feel the reasons you love that song so much. Now, when you have that all going along, offer that moment of praise to God – to the Holy Trinity – and as a descant – a little song over the main song – just say, “Thank you Lord.” Please practice doing that all this week. You will find that going to that place in your heart where those songs live will restore Peace and Joy in your life. It can become a tool to help you stay closer to the Light of your Life.
Speaking of tools, I want to pass along something I got from Sunday’s homily at Santa Cruz (Holy Cross) Church here is Española. There is only one tool for salvation, only one tool for redemption, one and only one tool to set everything right: The Cross. There is no other way, no other choice, no other tool; it is only the Cross. It has always been that way since the first Word of Creation, and it will continue that way until the Great Resurrection. So, Beloved, as you sing your favorite psalms, songs, hymns, and choruses this week, see if there is one that centers on the cross. If not, then sing your song and imagine standing at the foot of the Cross with John and Mary, and you are singing that to Jesus in that dark hour. You know, as he hung there dying, he knew our sins, and gave every remaining second, every struggling breath, every drop of blood in remission for those sins. The Cross and only the Cross is what makes it possible to sing a hymn of praise and love to our Triune God with the purity that only the redemption of the cross can bring.
Share-A-Prayer
We have many new persons who have requested prayers of healing, especially for cancer. Today, as you sing your hymns and songs, think of those who are facing this deadly disease that attacks us in so many forms. If you are a person with cancer, think about all the people who are praying for you right now and thank God for that. Today, make your background music the Music of the Spheres; sing your favorite hymn, gospel chorus, or even just make up one! Try it! You’ll like it!
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved.
chick
1238AFC092112
Read it online here, please.
Colossians 3:16 – Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Aloha nui loa, Beloved! We’re still “On The Road Again,” in New Mexico. I’ve got just a little moment to tell you that it’s been good to see family again, to eat chili with every meal, and to see the most unique and enchanting sky on the mainland, the New Mexico Blue sky. We’ve done a little shopping (well, OK some MAJOR shopping) and some traveling around the Española Valley area including a visit to Ojo Caliente – a centuries-old hot springs with a wide variety of mineral baths. Did the old boy good to soak for several hours! Kudos and MAHALO NUI LOA + MUCHIMAS GRACIAS go out to Crucita’s classmates UC and JC for their hospitality as well. We spent a wonderful day at their little ranchita just outside Dixon.
One thing I have noticed on this trip is background music. Everywhere you go, there’s some kind of music playing, and – to me at least – it is nerve-grating. One of the things I most often grouse about is being forced to listen to someone else’s music. Maybe it’s a neighbor out on the law washing his or her pickup and blaring hip-hop, rap, or country music so loud my jalousies shake. Maybe it’s in Safeway, or Wal-Mart, or Ace Hardware, and the music is loud enough that it cannot be ignored but not so loud that it hampers conversation – as long as you shout at each other. At the Outlet Mall yesterday, the speakers along the breezeway in the mall were blasting out 60’s tunes and inside the stores each had their own choice of music – reggae, pop, rap, Spanish/Mariachi, and loud enough to entertain the workers, but also loud enough to … well, make grouchy old men grouchier.
You know from previous messages here that I love music; it’s been a major part of my life since the age when I learned to talk – l love to sing. Songs that I love to sing differ widely, but hymns and Gospel choruses are always near the top of the list. I remember one time seeing Orel Leonard Hershiser IV on TV one time sitting in the dug-out singing the Doxology – “Praise God from whom all blessings flow./ Praise him all creatures here below./ Praise him above ye heavenly host./ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! AMEN.” (sorry for the odd symbols there. This copy of Word is set to put in “smart quotes” and I haven’t been able to turn it off.) Hershiser was certainly well known for his pitching abilities, but also well-known for his deep and abiding faith which often expressed itself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
Do you have a favorite hymn of Psalm, or spiritual song? You can bet I do! My favorite Psalm is 138: In the presence of the angels I will sing your praise. My favorite Gospel chorus Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before. My favorite hymn is harder to choose because I love so many of them. My dad’s was Ivory Palaces. My Grandmother’s was The Old Rugged Cross. Mom’s was Amazing Grace, and I think that’s Crucita’s favorite, too. Do you have a favorite hymn? Can you sort of hear it in your head right now if you think about it for a moment? If you were in your car driving to work or taking a trip or going shopping, could you “play” that hymn in your mind and in your heart? I think that is what Paul means when he encourages us so often to sing hymns and songs of praise; but, they have to be sung with an attitude of love and respect for the God who not only created us but who also saves us day by day.
In Amos 5:23 we read Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. God was tired of heavily-orchestrated hymns as if something more complex and climactic, something more dramatic would be more pleasing. Instead God says, Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living. And that is still what he wants from us. If you listen to contemporary Christian music, you will often notice that the song begins with a solo singer or a small group, and gradually crescendos toward a measure or two of drum tones followed by a key change and the addition of more voices until at the very end every voice is at maximum value and it’s time to go for the final high-pitch ending. Sometimes it’s original music, sometimes it’s the old hymns that get that treatment, or maybe Old Rugged Cross is done with a calypso or bosanova beat. I’m not opposed to expressing music in different ways – after all, as they say, different strokes for different folks – but sometimes I think we try too hard to make things pleasing to everyone but God.
I want you to think about your favorite hymns and songs, and Psalms and find a way to sing them in your heat quietly, but clearly. Would you do that for a moment right now, please? Just let your mind and heart hear the music, and maybe even feel the reasons you love that song so much. Now, when you have that all going along, offer that moment of praise to God – to the Holy Trinity – and as a descant – a little song over the main song – just say, “Thank you Lord.” Please practice doing that all this week. You will find that going to that place in your heart where those songs live will restore Peace and Joy in your life. It can become a tool to help you stay closer to the Light of your Life.
Speaking of tools, I want to pass along something I got from Sunday’s homily at Santa Cruz (Holy Cross) Church here is Española. There is only one tool for salvation, only one tool for redemption, one and only one tool to set everything right: The Cross. There is no other way, no other choice, no other tool; it is only the Cross. It has always been that way since the first Word of Creation, and it will continue that way until the Great Resurrection. So, Beloved, as you sing your favorite psalms, songs, hymns, and choruses this week, see if there is one that centers on the cross. If not, then sing your song and imagine standing at the foot of the Cross with John and Mary, and you are singing that to Jesus in that dark hour. You know, as he hung there dying, he knew our sins, and gave every remaining second, every struggling breath, every drop of blood in remission for those sins. The Cross and only the Cross is what makes it possible to sing a hymn of praise and love to our Triune God with the purity that only the redemption of the cross can bring.
Share-A-Prayer
We have many new persons who have requested prayers of healing, especially for cancer. Today, as you sing your hymns and songs, think of those who are facing this deadly disease that attacks us in so many forms. If you are a person with cancer, think about all the people who are praying for you right now and thank God for that. Today, make your background music the Music of the Spheres; sing your favorite hymn, gospel chorus, or even just make up one! Try it! You’ll like it!
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved.
chick
About Chick Todd
American Roman Catholic reared as a "Baptiterian" in Denver Colorado. Now living on Kauaʻi. USAF Vet. Married for over 50 years. Scripture study has been my passion ever since my first "Bible talk" at age 6 in VBS.
