[The following is an essay I wrote for the Hymns and Christian Tradition class at Capital University, where I am seeking a minor degree in religion.]
Jesse Harmon
RELIG 380
Dr. Bryant
January 9, 2013
My Soul, My Life, My All
As
a hymn lover, I find it very hard to pick a particular favorite hymn of mine.
Old traditional hymns like “All Hail The Pow’r Of Jesus’ Name,” “Love Divine,
All Loves Excelling,” or, “Rock Of Ages, Cleft For Me,” have special
significance to me. Popular hymns are
what I call ‘pork chop’ hymns. Everyone
knows what pork chops taste like, and everyone knows what these hymns sound
like. Christmas hymns like “Joy To The
World,” and “What Child Is This?” fall into this category. Some of the newer hymns that I like are, “Oh
Lord, My God, When I In Awesome Wonder (How Great Thou Art),” and, “Baptized In
Water, Sealed By The Spirit.” These
hymns provoke thought in me. Some lines
from “How Great Thou Art,” include, “When
Christ shall come with shouts of acclamation, And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart...Then I
shall bow in humble adoration, and then proclaim, “My God How Great Thou
Art! Then sings my soul, my Savior God,
to thee…” (Lutheran Book of Worship
532). Only God knows what joy I will be
filled with when Jesus returns.
There
is one particular hymn that I am not a fan of, and I honestly don’t know
why. I don’t like the old hymn, “I Hear
The Savior Say (Jesus Paid It All).” I
think I’ve narrowed down why, but I’ll get into that later. The message of the song is fine. “For nothing good
have I, Whereby Thy grace to claim, I’ll wash my garments white, In the blood
of Calv’ry’s Lamb,” (jesuspaiditall.png). That, to
me, is gorgeous poetry. I couldn’t have come
up with something better myself. I
once attended a particularly bad Bible study group, and this was one of the
songs that they sung on occasion. I figure
this really boils down to my irrational prejudice against taking an old hymn
like this, and reworking it to sound contemporary, (I’ve always had this
thought that if I wanted to see a rock concert, I’ll go to Tootsies Bar on Friday
and Saturday nights; not to church on Sunday mornings.) This group I attended was awful for my
pursuit of a relationship with Christ.
The people didn’t seem to want to take it seriously. They had bad theology. “Jesus Paid It All,” will forever, in my
mind, be linked to this group, and it’s unfortunate that it is. There is a minor 6th (the words “it all,” and “a crim[son]” in the chorus).
This is somewhat difficult for me, as I have a tendency to overshoot
notes at times.
As
I mentioned before, it’s hard for me to buckle down and pick a specific hymn
that I like the most, although “When I Survey The Wondrous Cross,” first came
to mind. I have two versions of this
hymn, one from the green Lutheran Book of
Worship (copyright 1978), and another from the cranberry Evangelical Lutheran Worship hymnal
(copyright 2006). In the green LBW, the hymn setting is “Rockingham Old,”
by Edward Miller, (number 482). I am
more used to singing this one in church because we still use these hymnals
fairly regularly, (alongside With One
Voice, and the Baptist inspired Worship
Hymnal, published by LifeWay Christian Resources). Two semesters ago in April 2012, the
Chordsmen, the all-male ensemble at Capital University, and the Women’s Chorus
at Capital University did a version of “When I Survey The Wondrous Cross,” that
used the tune, “Hamburg,” by Lowell Mason.
I realized how much better a tune this was than “Rockingham.” I pulled out the ELW and found “Hamburg” in it, (number 803). I find “Hamburg” to be easier to sing to the
lyrics. In “Rockingham,” the note for
the word ‘died’ is suspended over
into the next beat, which I find more difficult at the end of a phrase. It sounds as if the singer stumbled on a rock
and fell. There are also some difficult
intervals in this version such as on the word ‘count but,’ which goes from a D to an F, (major 6th) to
a G#, (minor 3rd). There is no larger interval in “Hamburg” than
a major 3rd. Everything seems
to fit together perfectly. “Rockingham,” sounds like it was written at one
time, and the lyrics were written at another time, and then slopped together
and stuck in a book. “Hamburg” seems to
have been written with the
lyrics.
The
Gilbert Martin version that the Chordsmen and Women’s Chorus sang was
absolutely beautiful. I knew this would
be one that stuck with me forever. It slowly builds to the final “My soul, my life, my all!” When we did this in April of 2012, I knew it
would be a while before I sang in a choir for a long time. I was taking a semester off from Capital
University to attend another school for a while, and then go to Nashville,
Tennessee for an internship at a recording studio. There were many times that I wonder, “Why am
I doing this? What is the point in all
this college crap?” I sometimes feel God
say, “I understand. I know what you’re
going through.” Then I remember the
opening verse to this hymn, “When I
survey the wondrous cross, on which the prince
of glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.”
Why do I stress about sissy stuff like college work, when God put his
very own son to death?
Both hymns deal
with Jesus’ death on the cross, and how his love for us put him on it. “Sin
had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow,” comes from “Jesus
Paid It All.” “Sorrow and love flow mingled down…” comes from verse from “When I
Survey The Wondrous Cross.” Paul says to
the city of Corinth, “For
what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for
our sins according to the Scriptures…” (1 Corinthians 15:3). These two hymns express what Paul, and many
people for two thousand years have been saying; Jesus died for you. I think, as a nation, we are trying to
shove the cross away from us, when we really need to bring it back, and remember
why Jesus died on it, and why God put his own son to death. Jesus did this for you. He died for me. He died for Lowell Mason. He died for 26 children killed last month in
Connecticut, their families, and for everyone.
If the whole world could be mine, it would not be as big a gift as the
extraordinary love that Jesus had when he put down his life, and rose again,
for me.
Works Cited
Evangelical Lutheran Worship. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg
Fortress, 2006. Print.
"Jesus Paid It All." Jesus Paid It All.
CyberHymnal, 21 Oct. 2007. Web. 08 Jan. 2013.
jesuspaiditall.png. N.d. Free HymnalWeb. 8 Jan 2013. <http://www.freehymnal.com/png/jesuspaiditall.png>.
Lutheran
Book of Worship. Minneapolis: Augsburg Pub. House, 1978. Print.
