Hymns and Hymnwriting     •     Echoes of Creation

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In Zion is a Shadow I approached the problem of the language surrounding the term "heaven" in prophetic vision. Supposing that the biblical terms were meant to convey something other than "interior decoration for the home in the afterlife", I tried to explore what that might be. This text approaches the same issue on the other side. If "heaven" is not a biblical term for the afterlife, then what is? And one obvious answer is "Paradise".¹

The Persion word "Pardes" simply means "garden". And, for that matter, the word "Eden" comes from a word that also means "garden." We have a few songs that use "Eden" (or "Aidenn") or "garden" in this (biblical) sense, but they do not explicitly show any conscious recognition² of that important linguistic/semantic connection between Genesis 2 and Revelation 21. This text is clearly about that relationship.

By a happy coincidence, the critical path from Eden to Paradise traverses another garden: an opportunity to address the subject of sinning³ -- which is absent from so many of our songs about either "salvation" or "heaven".

The subject is general enough to fit easily into our services. I would suggest that its confession of sin makes a refreshing change from the Pharasaical⁴ "look at how well we do the ritual, God!" songs that are too often used as "preparation for the Lord's Supper."

Some traditions include a verbal "confession of sin" as part of the standard "preparation of the Lord's Supper." I do not propose that as a requirement, but surely obedience to Paul's command "let each one examine himself" is an attitude leading to confession of sins. But one looks through our books in vain for hymns expressing that attitude in this context: even such common hymns⁵ as Alone thou goest forth, O Lord ("...Is this thy sorrow naught to us who pass unheeding by?"); Go to dark Gethsemane ("ye that feel the tempter's power"); Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended? ("...my treason hath undone thee: I it was denied thee; I crucified thee"); O Sacred head, now wounded (omitting the verse "...mine, mine was the transgression"!).

Music

This contemplative Victorian tune, "Redhead 76", is sung in England with Rock of ages, cleft for me (and therefore also called "Petra"). In both England and America, it may be sung for various other texts: notably Go to dark Gethsemane; in our books, it is perhaps least rarely sung with Gracious Spirit, dwell with me.

Notes

¹Note the significant difference between this term and the term "heaven": As the Jehovah's Witnesses are fond of repeating, the Bible never speaks of "dying and going to heaven" (although they ignore the inconvenient fact that humans are seen in John's vision). But the reasons for the Biblical linguistic reticence are surely well-founded; and we ought to respect them even where we do not understand. If we were really determined to "speak as the oracles of the Lord" in song, these songs that are so "popular" are not what we would be singing.

²In other words, the words are without meaning; they are merely vain repetition. This should also be a matter of some concern to all of us.

³Even where sin is even mentioned in songs, it is often merely an attribute or state, not an action: I never "sinned", but once upon a time, nonetheless I "was a sinner": This is crypto-Calvinism in attribute and, I suspect, in action as well.

⁴Who can read the parable of the "Pharisee and Publican at Prayer", and not wonder whether our emphasis is really in the right place? From a handy hymnal, I list all the communion songs written by members of the church: When WE meet in sweet communion; On this Lord's day WE assemble; 'Tis set, the feast Divine; WE gather now on this Lord's day; Precious Communion ... WE honor ...; Dear Lord, WE break the bread; By faith I see. They're all about what we do, not about what our Lord did.
I can't draw hard and fast distinctions. Not all Pharisaical songs are written by members of the church. And there is nothing inherently wrong with a song mentioning the Lord's Supper itself. I think By Christ redeemed, by Christ restored is a good song: but putting Christ up front marks a significant shift in emphasis. When my love to Christ grows weak, When I survey the wondrous cross, and I will remember thee⁶ are about what I do and think, and yet they express a profound reverence. Perhaps the critical difference is that they are responses to Christ's death, not merely proclamations ritualistic of obedience to Christ's command. But our regular diet remains (to borrow a slogan) "almost all about the season, and hardly at all about the reason for the season."
Our books contain a few exceptions -- less ritual-oriented and more Christ-oriented (not written by members of the church): Bread of the World is in Great Songs of the Church. But within the context of the current songbooks, we have only the option of focusing on those less-ritualistic hymns, or expanding our concept of "preparation" to include bible readings or devotionals -- probably a good idea on independent grounds.

⁵This list was drawn from a denominational hymnal picked at random (but a non-provincial hymnal that provided a good cross-section of material.) Now, if only some of the well-known hymns were missing, or if we had other songs on the same theme, there would be nothing to remark: an editor must pick and choose. But such a systematic avoidance of a whole class of biblical, spiritual hymns in all of our hymnals, in conjunction with such an consistently opposite attitude in our original songs, can only be ritualism and sectarianism. Whether it is deliberate, or whether we are simply so blind as to not recognize what we lack, is ... a question not comfortable to contemplate or easy to answer. But in That Day, in one form or another, answer it we must.

⁶Which, in any case, I have never heard sung. And Hymns for Worship omits its climactic last verse -- Montgomery would be horrified.

This text, © Stephen Hutcheson, 2005, and offered freely for use under a Creative Commons License. These studies are created by members of the West Allen Church of Christ in Allen, Texas