It is good news that the 217th General Assembly approved the production of a new denominational hymnbook by Presbyterian Publishing. Although The Presbyterian Hymnal has been an excellent tool for worship and praise it is sixteen years old and it is time for its retirement. The publication of new hymns and updated arrangements of old favorites will be a welcome complement to the many worship resources already available. The addition of an e-mail version, one that presumably will permit the quick publication of new hymns on a periodic basis, is especially needed. Since many churches now use computers and projectors to display hymns in church, digital versions will be very useful on a weekly basis.
Although most of us enjoy singing well-known hymns that bring back fond memories and awaken the beginnings of faith, we also need composers and poets who will commit themselves to the systematic writing of hymns that are contemporary, as fresh from the oven as daily bread. Most of our hymns refer to outdated concepts and events that young people today find totally foreign to their own experiences. Seldom do we sing spiritual songs that contain references to recent events or current scientific discoveries, much less images of things we take for granted, like cell phones, DVDs, digital cameras, or explorations of outer space.
I often think of Bach’s work at the St. Thomas church in Leipzig, writing fresh cantatas every week. Although his great gifts are beyond our talents, today’s musicians and writers in our churches should not hesitate to learn from his example and dare to create fresh texts and tunes for each week or each month that give expression to what we believe and experience right now. At the very least, we could compose new verses for familiar music already written. If we cannot do it in every congregation, perhaps each presbytery could form a creative committee to write one new hymn a month that could be shared in each of its churches.
This summer while I was attending a Writers’ Asylum in Collegeville, Minnesota, sponsored by the Louisville Institute, I tried my hand again at writing a new hymn to an old tune. It has always bothered me that our hymns to God’s creative power take so little account of all that we are learning through space exploration and are sung as if we have not yet ventured beyond our own solar system.
In the hymn (link), I started with Psalm 8 and Psalm 139 but quickly decided to go beyond biblical imagery to borrow scientific terms from NASA, its Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Cosmic Background Imager funded by the National Science Foundation and Caltech. The latter is searching for the light from the first microsecond of creation. After a little research on their Web pages I was surprised how much the language of physics and space engineering have in common with our vocabulary of faith (“first light”, star “cradles” or “nurseries,” space “dust” etc.). The photographs from space are awe-inspiring and one can hardly comprehend the varied shapes of different galaxies (whirlpool, boomerang, etc.) or the overwhelming beauty of the massive stellar spire of the Eagle Nebula. Recent research demonstrates, moreover, that as massive as the Milky Way is (200 billion stars), others have suns that number in the trillions, and our home is really quite small.
My concepts of God and creation are not based on any arguments used by those who oppose theories of evolution or espouse the concept of Intelligent Design. Instead, they assume an alliance between the Christian faith and modern science and demonstrate that we may all be searching for the same origins and the same Creator.
You are welcome to use this hymn in your own services. It may be supplemented by further sermon research.
My hope is that you will be critical of what I have written and conclude that you can do better. If you can, it would be great if you would share your daily bread with members of your church, your presbytery, or this publication.
Earl S. Johnson Jr. is the pastor of First Church, Johnstown, N. Y.
