“Please” and “Thank You”
I am sure your parents were like mine and made sure you knew “the two most important words you’ll ever need to get through life.” These words may also work together to form the shortest worship service outline ever! During our worship service we offer petitions and prayers for family, friends, community, and even for people we may have never met in person. We also raise our voices in songs of praise and thanksgiving.
Music is an essential element of our worship at St. Andrew. It may be instrumental or vocal. It may come in the form of a prelude or postlude, to prepare our minds or stir us to action. It may be a choir anthem or a congregational hymn or even a liturgical chant. For centuries, songs and simple rhymes have helped us memorize and pass long information from one generation to the next. There are melodies to help us recite all of the Presidents, States (and State Capitals), and even the English alphabet.
Music is also a way to express emotions and unite people. Personally, I feel the struggle and perseverance inside a traditional African-American spiritual, and the infectious joy in the lively rhythms of new African or Latin-American hymns. Our hymnal is filled with wonderful music to accompany us during all of life’s journeys. Take note of the “section heading” printed just above each hymn number or consult the index to discover how God relates to your current feelings.
This weekend we celebrate our “Church Music” through instruments and voices. Several hymns will probably be selected from the ELW section on Praise and Thanksgiving. One of those hymns is #833 “Oh, That I had a Thousand Voices” which begins and ends with these verses:
Oh, that I had a thousand voices
to praise my God with thousand tongues!
My heart, which in the Lord rejoices,
would then proclaim in grateful songs
to all, wherever I might be, what great things God has done for me!
Creator, humbly I implore you
to listen to my earthly song
until that day when I adore you,
when I will join the angel throng
and raise to you with joyful cry ten thousand hallelujahs high!
The imagery in the text found between these verses is also a poetic treasure, but I’ll leave that for you to discover!
Thanks be to God!
David Krueger