If you know me very well at all, you know that I've come to have a tremendous amount of respect for the traditions of the Christian Church, especially the (relatively) recent tradition of singing hymns. Even a year ago, that was not the case, but it is now, even if I cannot exactly pinpoint the reason why (though I plan to expound upon the beauty of the hymn in contrast with the advent of contemporary worship music in a later post).
This morning in the traditional old
Lutheran church of my youth, we celebrated the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and sang the hymn
"Holy Spirit, Light Divine." One verse in particular made me think of
some diagrams used by CCC. The verse reads:
Holy Spirit, all divine, dwell within this heart of mine
Cast down ev'ry idol throne, reign supreme, and reign alone.
Amen.
I too have a love and respect for the hymns. Since becoming a born-again Christian I have put away the contemporary popular "Christian" music for the hymns. I think it's because a lot of the guys who wrote those songs knew exactly what they were about. They didn't have top 40 radio hits and touring vans. They faced persecution, and hardship, and many were soldiers who faced war. There's some good theology in the hymns too that really lacks in todays music. It's really funny because I used to hate singing hymns but the more I grow the more I love `em.
ReplyDeleteI liked this line we sang this morning and wrote it down, from Standing on the Promises, "overcoming daily with the Spirits Sword".