This is NOT Finland's National Anthem -

But wouldn't it be cool if it were?  The words were written by Lloyd Stone in 1934 to the tune of Finlandia

This is my song, Oh God of all the nations,

A song of peace for lands afar and mine.

This is my home, the country where my heart is;

Here are my hopes, my dreams, my sacred shrine.

But other hearts in other lands are beating,

With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean,

And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine.

But other lands have sunlight too and clover,

And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.

Oh hear my song, oh God of all the nations,

A song of peace for their land and for mine.

May truth and freedom come to every nation;

may peace abound where strife has raged so long;

that each may seek to love and build together,

a world united, righting every wrong;

a world united in its love for freedom,

proclaiming peace together in one song.

Now Thank We All Our God

Now thank we all our God,
With hearts, and hands, and voices
Who wondrous things hath done,
In whom His world rejoices
Who, from our mothers' arms, 

Hath blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, 

And still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God Through all our life be near us,
With ever-joyful hearts And blessed peace to cheer us,
And keep us in His grace,
And guide us when perplexed,
And free us from all ills In this world and the next.

All praise and thanks to God The Father now to be given,
The Son, and Him who reigns With Them in highest heaven:
The one eternal God, Whom earth and heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, And shall be evermore.

Martin Rinkart was a Pastor in a German town called Eilenbrug for 32 years. 

Much of his ministry took place during the terrible years of the Thirty-Year War. 

Pastor Rinkart saw a lot of suffering during this time and no one would blame him for wondering what he had to be thankful for. Eilenburg was a walled city and refuges from the war sought refuge there, leading to the same kinds of conditions we see in refugee camps around the world today. 

But there was no international Red Cross or other relief agencies to provide relief. The overcrowding led to famine, starvation, and disease. Eventually every other pastor in the city died and he was left alone to minister to the city. 

Sometimes he would have to conduct fifty funerals in one day. 

Then his own wife died.

And when the plagues were over, he was not thanked or appreciated; in fact he was harassed by the townspeople until he died of exhaustion at the age of 63.

And in the midst of all this sorrow he wrote:

Who, from our mothers' arms,
Hath blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love, And still is ours today.

I'll be going to my sister-in-laws for Thanksgiving tomorrow. She is my late husband's sister. He was their baby brother. He died in a car accident on the way to visit his father who had been hospitalized with a stroke. Their mother died of cancer before I met my husband. His other sister lost her husband a few years ago to Diabetes. My husband's nephew at age 49 (the same age my husband died) suffered two strokes a few weeks ago and his on a long hard road to recovery. They still have a son in school.

There have been more than one occasion when I thought to myself "Thank God Loren is not alive to see this." I thought about how much it would upset him to see his nephew (whom he babysat for his sister who worked) like this. See there's always something to be thankful for.

How do you be grateful in such a time? 

You have to be grateful. In the difficult and dark times it is essential that you be grateful. You MUST focus on what you have and what is good in your life. 

If you let yourself get caught up in thinking about all the things you don't have you will find yourself in a bottomless hole that will suck you in deeper and deeper. Gratitude is the only way out of that hole.

Thanksgiving is for us.      

It's not for God. God isn't like us – you know how we get all sulky and pouty because we didn't get a thank you note from that niece or godchild who honestly just doesn't think enough about you to sit down and write a thank you note.

God doesn't need our gratitude. Gratitude is for our sake. To get us out of that sink hole of despair and negativity.

I always open my confirmation class by having the kids go around and do "highs and lows". I have one rule. EVERYONE must share a high. If they can't think of a low part of their day, that's fine. But they MUST come up with something good about their day. 

Because no matter how bad your day is, there is something good. 

It's a good exercise for them to see that there is good in their lives.

Ten years ago I faced the holidays for the first time without my best friend, the love of my life. 

I had two children who needed to see that it was not just okay, it was in fact, a wonderful thing to be joyful and celebrate the holidays. 

And I simply did not allow myself the indulgence of self-pity and resentment about what I didn't have during this season. I turned my sights on what was good in my life.

And there was so much good. There were so many people whose hearts reached out to my children. The football team/Luther League who climbed on my roof to put Christmas lights. Help to put up my tree. Presents for my kids. 

I saw how beautiful the snow was and how lucky to give my kids a Christmas card Christmas. How lucky we had heat. How lucky I was to have a job. 

It was an amazing Christmas because I focused on the good like I had never done before. 

And that gaping bottomless pit that threatens anyone who has known grief did not take over. And it was the gift of gratitude that kept me out of that pit.

Yea I know you can find a lot to bitch about this holiday season. Just stop it. Find the good and thank God for it. 

And then thank God for the gift of being thankful.

Friday Five - Music

The RevGalBlogPals are talking about music:

I have no use for cranks who despise music, because it is a gift of God. Music drives away the Devil and makes people gay; they forget thereby all wrath, unchastity, arrogance, and the like. Next after theology, I give to music the highest place and the greatest honor." - Martin Luther

On this Friday before Reformation Sunday, let's talk about music. Share with us five pieces of music that draw you closer to the Divine, that elevate your mood or take you to your happy place

So here goes - in no particular order:

1. Handel's Messiah - THE WHOLE THING, and I prefer it at Easter time to Christmas. I try to listen to the whole thing during Holy Week.

2. Bach's St. Matthew Choral

3. Any spiritual sung by Mahalia Jackson. The greatest Gospel singer. EVER.

4. The old Swedish hymn, "Thy Holy Wings" I used to sing that for my babies. One time my daughter sang it as a solo in church and I thought about singing it to her as a baby and I just about lost it.

5. The music from Les Miserables- especially the ending chorus of "Do you hear the people sing?" The first chorus of it is very inspiring but it's about the hope in the transformation human beings can accomplish. And of course it ends in miserable failure...but this reprise at the end speaks of a great hope of transformation. And it's not like Marcus Borg says, it's not pie in the sky in the great by and bye --it what keeps me working for transformation in this life

Do you hear the people sing
Lost in the valley of the night?
It is the music of a people
Who are climbing to the light.

For the wretched of the earth
There is a flame that never dies.
Even the darkest night will end
And the sun will rise.

They will live again in freedom
In the garden of the Lord.
They will walk behind the plough-share,
They will put away the sword.
The chain will be broken
And all men will have their reward.

Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring
When tomorrow comes!

Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring
When tomorrow comes...
Tomorrow comes!

Rachmaninoff in Honour of Mary

"Virgin Birthgiver of God, rejoice! Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee! Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, for thou hast borne the Saviour of our souls!"

Can I Get my Choir to do this?

Probably not...

Veni Creator Spirtus

I love this hymn

A Favorite Easter Hymn We Didn't Sing

Welcome Happy Morning

We don't have a Lutheran Worship book ...it's a long story and has a lot to do with Hauge....and this is not a song most Lutherans are familiar with but it is one of my favorite Easter hymns...


Welcome Happy Morning age to age shall say
Hell to day is vanquished heaven is won today
Christ once dead, is living, God forever more
Him, their true creator, all his works adore

Maker and redeemer life and heath of all
God from heav'n beholding human nature's fall
You the true and only Son of God above
Died as mortal man to save us by your love

Source of all things living, you came down to die
Plumbed the depths of hell to raise us up on high
Come then true and faithful; come fulfill thy word;
This is your third morning; Rise O buried Lord!

Free the souls long prisoned bound with Satan's chain
All that once had fallen raise to life again;
Show your face in brightness shine in every land
As in Eden's garden when the world began

Welcome happy morning, age to age shall say!

Venantius Fortunatus, c. 590, tr. by John Ellerton, 1868
Tune Fortunatus, Arthur Sullivan, 1842-1900

All Glory Laud and Honor

All glory, laud, and honor to you, Redeemer, King,
to whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring!

You are the King of Israel, and David's royal Son,
Now in the Lord's name coming, the King and blessed One!

The company of angels are praising you on High
Creation and all mortals in chorus make reply.

The multitude of pilgrims with palms before you went
Our praise and prayer and anthems before thee we present.

To you, before your passion, they sang their hymns of praise,
To you now high exalted, our melody we raise.

Their praises you accepted; accept the prayers we bring,
Great Author of all goodness, O good and gracious King!

All glory, laud, and honor to you, Redeemer, King,
To whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring!

For me, it's not Palm Sunday (Or on our church calendar - the Sunday of the Passion) until we sing this ancient hymn. It was written by Theodolph, Bishop of Orleans while he was imprisoned around 820. He had been accused of plotting against against Louis I the Pious (who was anything but pious) who became emperor after Charlemagne.

Legend has it that Louis was visiting the area and heard the bishop singing this song to himself in prison and was so moved that he released Theodolph.

The composer of the tune "St. Theodolph" was Melchio Teschner, a Lutheran pastor. He wrote this tune for another text in 1611. Bach later used the tune for his St. John Passion.

Stupid Hymns?

Ben Meyer on the Faith and Theology Blog is asking Are our hymns becoming stupider?
He refers to a rant of John Stack on his blog where he seems to be only going after Chris Tomlin - Chris Tomlin's Worship Songs: We Have Got to Do Better

Okay I confess, I don't even know who Christ Tomlin is so maybe I shouldn't even be opining about this. I am not up on my contemporary Christians music. I don't like most of it. I'll be kinder and say I find most of it trite, rather than stupid. It's repetitive. And most of the theology sucks. It's all about me and how I feel about God. I find a spirituality that is based on me and how I feel about God will eventually fail. Because I don't always feel lovey dovey about God and even when I am feeling good about God I think some of these songs that talk about God or Jesus as if he were my boyfriend kind of creepy.

I think the great hymns talk about God and what God has done, not me and how I feel about it.

On Faith and Theology, Ben Meyer claims that most of our hymns have always been stupid. It's true there are a lot of old hymns that are about "me and Jesus" "In the Garden" is probably one of the most egregious examples. He has a point but I wish he would have mentioned the great Lutheran hymnody tradition as an exception to "stupid hymns".

Now I'm reading N.T. Wright's book Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church and he takes on some questionable understandings of heaven in many many hymns, including some of my favorites.

The thing is if, we only used hymns without any questionable theology we'd be much poorer for it. But we do have to be careful. If people are singing a steady diet of "it's all about how I feel about Jesus" they are going to think it's all about them and how they feel.

This is why the task of choosing hymns shouldn't be just left to the organist to pick her favorites. But those who do have the task, whether it be the pastor (I choose all the hymns where I am) or a well trained and educated committee, need to think about these issues and make sure the hymns Sunday after Sunday are not contradicting your sermons.