Hymns

I took a class my final semester of undergrad called “History of Christian Worship.” We learned about various liturgies, creeds, and movements in the church, but what I wanted to learn was hymnology.

I want to know why I hummed “How Great Thou Art” as I was curled up with a rather large needle in my back to get a kidney biopsy and MRI. I want to know what it is about “Amazing Grace” that makes lots of people cry at funerals, but stand a little taller at baptisms. I want to know why my high school youth leader felt it was of the utmost importance for us to learn all the words of “Come thou fount” and why we don’t sing the “battleshield” verse in “Be Thou My Vision.”

I know that I come from an unusual church background. I feel very blessed that I grew up reciting the Apostle’s Creed every week, and that my first response to “What do you believe?” is “I believe in God the Father, Maker of Heaven and Earth and in Jesus Christ…” We sang hymns and there were times in my childhood that we rocked out to 80’s and early 90’s praise choruses. I learned the gamut of children’s praise and bible verse songs and, due to my tenure at rather hip churches and a school that desired to prepare us for worship in the real world, I’ve learned the latest praise songs.

But what is it about the hymnists? I want to meet Fanny Crosby someday (not just because Adventures in Odyssey made her sound awesome) and I’d like to spend an afternoon or seven with the Wesleys. I want to thank Martin Luther for all of his contributions to theology, but mostly for “Almighty Fortress is our God.”