The sixth sola.
written by Julie R. Neidlinger 5 comments link this postThe sixth sola has, for too long, been ignored: Sola Hymn.
Hymns are the music of the angels. They had been waiting hundreds of years for the early church to shove off the lutes, flutes and tambourines in favor of serious organ chords, five verses and a chorus. Though I have yet to make it to heaven and hear the music there, I'm pretty sure it's a hymn. It's only a matter of time before the church around the world in other cultures and countries adopts our European music stylings and sees that it's time to put down the drum and the oud and the didjeridoo and pick up a chord progression and a couple of 'thees' and 'thous'. God hears those chords and words best above all other music in the world, my friend, and we need to sing our theology in full every time we worship.
Maybe make it six verses and don't you raise your hands or move in the pew or aisle. Make it seven verses and your crown will be large, indeed.
Yes, none of this simple chorus nonsense with such blasphemous words of repeated things like "I love you Lord, and I lift my voice to worship you." Obviously He can tell we're lifting our voice to worship Him so we need to get right to the point and sing not what we're doing but rather, sing the words to a theology text book or something from Charles Spurgeon. That's the point. The sixth point, to be exact, which is, of course, hymns.
Sola hymn.
If you're feeling so moved in your worship that you can't even find the words to express your love for God in your heart, there are two things to remember: 1) avoid the Pentecostal trap of speaking in tongues, and by all means 2) find something deep to say about substitutionary atonement and forgo overly vapid phrases of "I love you, Lord" that want to spring from your mouth, and anything similarly fifth grade level. Rise above your baser instincts of simple expressions of love and faith and fight the good fight of five verses and a chorus with two measures that are just a bit out of your vocal range.
In order to avoid the terribly empty "Jesus is my boyfriend" music that passes for worship in too many churches, or the 3-4-5's (three words, four chords, five hours) that say little of relevance but allow mediocre guitar players to play the only chords they know, we must returned to what God surely intended all along, we must go to the other extreme: hymns. Hymns only. That's it. No mixing of hymns with modern choruses.
Sola hymn.
After all, how else do we do battle against evil, the evil of song lyrics that can go either way and require little commitment of the singer, but choose the opposite extreme? Surely one extreme is better than another. It's not extremes we avoid; this extreme is blessed. The others are not. We must be extreme, and we must pick the right extreme.
Looking down through the history of music, it is clear that God has blessed this one style of singing that was birthed in one geographic location during a time of reform and that we need to stick with what works. He must have shook his head sadly at the music coming from the world until hymns were birthed in Europe; at last, true worship was found!
Because hymns lift my soul, they surely must be lifting yours as well. Because it is part of my culture and I am comfortable with it, it is the right way to worship God. If you don't understand this, you must be part of the lost generation and I pray for your wayward soul to get back in the hymnal. Because I don't like that other kinds of music and worship out there, I'm pretty sure your heart isn't right when you sing it and you're not truly worshipping, after all. Because I am naturally reserved and more comfortable that way, so ought you be.
Sola hymn.
And we are not to sing just any hymns, but the hymns found only in seriously reformed hymnals. There must be a two-chord "amen" at the end before God even takes notice. None of these peppy, clapping camp-meeting hymns the Pentecostals sing.
What's in your heart? Who cares, as long as you're singing or playing a hymn. If you want God to truly hear your worship, sing or play a hymn. It's the only music He hears. He loves jumping through our hoops. He only created the complexity of music and instruments that vary around the world and through time and spring differently from everyone's soul for the sole purpose of making the gate narrower as we try to find our way with the map of our hymnal.
You want through the narrow gate?
Sola Hymn.
::This blog post has been written with sarcasm. I like hymns very much. I'm trying to make a point, however.::
Labels: religion, slice of laodicea
Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger 8/25/2006 11:46:00 AM
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5 Comments:
Julie: I think you are a Johnny Cash fan. If you have a chance pick up one of the last CD's he did called "My Mother's Hymn Book".
To say it is stunning is an understatement.. Particularly, "In the Garden" and "I'll Fly Away".
By 
, at
25/8/06 15:50
Good to have you back posting again, I am sure others missed you as well while you away on your trip.
By Will Humes, at
25/8/06 18:51
AMEN, Julie!
...
Wait, you meant that to be over the top?
Heretic.
By 
HeavyDluxe, at
25/8/06 22:25
(Laughing.)
Heretic indeed.
By Julie, at
25/8/06 22:36
I'm betting that you're moving your blog since all these old posts are showing up in my reader again.
Nonethless, this is one of my all-time favorite blog posts evar!!!!111! So I figured I'd comment...
Again...
By HeavyDluxe, at
28/12/06 14:58
