Words for Worship

Ministry Today

Texts:

 

Acts 16.16-24

Acts 16.25-34

 

Often when Church of Scotland ministers

are at ecumenical gatherings

they strike a dull note.

 

Not I hasten to say

as a result of their sparkling personalities.

 

No – it’s just that

their traditional black robes

look positively funereal

against the colourful get-ups

of other denominations.

 

But the Calvinist reformers

chose such drab garb

for a reason.

 

It was to cover up

the preacher

so that the congregation

would only focus

on the words spoken.

 

Well, I rather forgot all that

when I started to write

the first

in a new series of sermons

in which I propose

to feature famous hymn writers.

 

Because when researched them,

I found their lives

were not hugely colourful.

 

However, the key point was

it was not the person

who was important

it was his or her words.

 

Because it what they wrote,

why they wrote

and for whom they wrote

that alone influences us today.

 

Yet before we get to the works

of any hymn writer,

we need to ask

what is a hymn

and what purpose does it serve?

 

Well the singing of religious songs

is as old as the hills.

 

For nearly 3000 years ago,

Egyptians gave voice

To the great hymn to the Aten.

 

The ancient practices of Hinduism

include hymns

and the Greece of antiquity too

had hymns to various deities.

 

And the idea of the religious song

was not wasted on

the earliest Christians.

 

Probably modelled on the psalms,

these

as we heard in this morning lessons

were used to bring comfort in trouble.

 

But they were also deployed

to express the good times

as well.

 

Additionally, they could be acts

of personal faith seeking understanding.

 

But above all,

they were words

that when sung together

affirmed the unity of the church

in its corporate worship of God

as personified in Jesus Christ.

 

Or as one of the greatest hymn writers,

Charles Wesley, wrote:

 

Where shall my wondering soul begin?

How shall I all to heaven aspire?

 

How shall I equal triumphs raise

Or sing my great deliverer’s praise.

 

 

So let us take Charles Wesley

as our first hymn smith

and look at a few of his great words.

 

For in 1738,

he baptised a woman

and immediately

had his authority questioned

by the Church of England.

 

As a result

he was not only forcibly kept

from his pulpit

but was also dragged

before magistrates

and fined nearly £20 –

a fearsome sum in those days.

 

Yet this did not stop him

moving from parish to parish

accompanied by his wife

riding pinion of their horse.

 

And in each,

they sang lustily

his newly penned hymns

with those who responded

his uncluttered message

of Christ’s

love and salvation.

 

For in one of his last we read:

 

In age and feebleness extreme

Who shall a sinful world redeem?

 

Jesus, my only hope thou art,

Strength of my failing flesh and heart:

Oh! Could I catch a smile from thee,

And drop into eternity.

 

Let us then

in time of trouble,

worry and challenge

not just pray

but keep a hymn in our heart.

 

This was certainly

the imprisoned Paul’s strategy.

 

Since he knew to do so

is to turn

our maybes to yeses;

our fears to peace

and our dark confinement

into the open space of God.

 

Now Charles Wesley’s itinerant ministry

started

when he took

his brother Johns’ place

at Bristol

where he preached

to the city’s weavers.

 

And over the next 18 years

he ministered to working families

across the nation

such as the tinners of Cornwall.

 

Indeed, he even

crossed to Ireland

where he was often ill used.

 

Yet he later remarked

that Presbyterians

say I am Presbyterian

and Roman Catholics

consider me a good catholic in my heart.

 

But where ever he went,

he made sure his hymns

spoke relevantly to those he met.

 

Take when he was with

the Newcastle colliers.

 

It with them he wrote;

 

See how great the flame aspires.

 

Language which Stephenson said

suggested the blast furnaces

that were thickly scattered

over the North east of England

and whose fires illuminated

the whole neighbourhood

for miles around.

 

Well, in the week ahead,

you may need to offer

sustenance

to someone

caught in a  struggle for faith.

 

If so

don’t forget the words

of your favourite hymn.

 

Because, these could well

start the ball rolling

in your God given task.

 

Since a hymn

helped Paul to convert

a pretty hard nosed jailer.

 

They then will allow you

to bring freedom

to someone imprisoned

by a hard nosed problem.

 

For did not Charles Wesley write:

 

Jesus, lover of my soul

Let me to thy bosom fly

While nearer the waters roll,

While tempest still is high:

Hide me, o my saviour, hide

Till the storm of life is past

Safe into thy haven guide

O receive my soul at last.

 

Yet many said that Paul

should not have offered

Christ’s salvation

to the likes of his jailer.

 

Charles Wesley too

was often derided,

mocked and ill treated

for creating communities

of believers

amongst the least of the land.

 

However, in both cases,

hymns had work to do.

 

For not only did they

bring God’s comfort

and give a way of expressing

that comfort,

they were also

the building blocks

of the place of comfort.

 

They were indeed

The sinews of a new church unity.

 

Put another way,

it could be said

a fellowship

that prays together

stays together.

 

But one that sings together –

saves together.

 

Well, we do not know

if Paul taught

his new converts

a few simple hymns.

 

I suspect

he probably did.

 

Because surely,

as we sing  out

our the hopes,

the aspirations

and the tenants

of our faith

to a shared tune,

we are giving flesh and blood

to what Jesus demands of us all –

the harmonious fellowship

 one with another

no matter who they are.

 

The mutual support

one for another

no matter what they have done.

 

Aye and when there

is the occasional duff note –

the loving forbearance one

for another

no matter how out of tune

we are.

 

For did not Wesley

write in one of his most famous hymns –

O for a thousand tongues:

 

Jesus the name that charms our fears

That bids our sorrows cease.

Tis music in the sinner’s ears

Tis life and health and peace.

 

 

If you ever see

the French foreign legion

marching

you will be surprised

how slow their pace is.

 

The other thing

that strikes you

is that they also

sing slow cadence songs

as they trek.

 

Now these habits

grew out

of their long years of service

in the deserts of North Africa.

 

For as they moved

together

through the blazing heat,

their singing gave

personal encouragement

through the torment,

it challenged each other

to keep going

and reminded of the unity

upon which the whole squad

depended.

 

 

 

 

And it was all these purposes

that the hymns

we heard of in Acts

also fulfilled.

 

For their voicing

encouraged Paul

in the dark prison cell;

it was their hearing

by the jailer

that start his journey to hope

and it’s their continued singing

that cemented

their common salvation

found in Jesus Christ.

 

It was for all these reasons

that Charles Wesley

ministered through

his hymn writing.

 

Because his own words

must have inspired him

on the hostile road,

they too started

the downtrodden

on their journey

towards an understanding Christ

and his hymns

repeated voiced

then built a greater harmony

into the church.

 

Let us too,

this very day,

all sing for these reason

 

Because then alone

are we singing

from same hymn sheet.

 

Amen

 

Offering

 

HYMN…………..

 

 

Charles Wesley