All of me. . . all of you. . .

I must admit that I have had about enough of the goofy songs we write to praise God.  It is bad enough that we teach these little ditties to our kids instead of the sturdy hymns that will become their lifelong song.  We entertain our own aloof and arrogant desires by singing them as adults.  We presume that God likes what we like and we like the stuff that tugs at the heart but dulls the mind.  There are those who get all up in a tiff about a couple of those hymns/songs chosen for Lutheran Service Book but we are relatively insulated from the worst of it all -- at least in our official worship books.  Rome has surrendered their all to God and some of the things that pass for worship songs in their congregations hardly sound any different than John Legend singing All of Me.  The sappy syrupy sentiment of these love songs used in worship would be laughable if we were not so pathetic.  

Nearly everything that is wrong with these worship songs is that they get the verbs wrong, as Nagel might put it.  They put us in the driver's seat and God in the passenger seat.  The emotional claptrap is not nearly as destructive as this switching of places in the front seat.  The whole idea that the Church is ours has terrible consequences.  It is, as I have oft complained, the whole idea that God came up with the idea and it is up to us to franchise our way to success in His name.  For the faithful, it turns the attention off of the work once for all accomplished in the death and resurrection of Christ and onto the work we do ever fresh, ever new, ever hopeful, ever possible -- as we build upon the foundation of what Christ has done.  The problem is that every foundation lies buried in the ground and is unseen to the eye and out of mind -- except when it crumbles.  And crumble it has.  We have built upon no foundation at all when we build upon our feelings, our desires, our hopes, our dreams, our gifts, and our abilities.  Do you suppose this is what our Lord meant with that little story of a house built upon sand versus that build upon Christ the rock?

A song I recall is in its death throes not because of its terrible theology but for one thing it got right.  Amid all the puff and stuff that passes for noble truth, there is a grain of truth hidden in this song now thirty years old that will not pass muster today.  male and female in God's image, male and female, God's delight.  That should sink this song's boat soon enough in our world of people as a many gendered thing.  How odd that one of the things this song got right will be the reason why it is left by the wayside in the pursuit of worse things to sing in worship!

Summoned by the God who made us rich in our diversity,
gathered in the name of Jesus, richer still in unity.

    Refrain: Let us bring the gifts that differ and, in splendid, varied ways,
                  sing a new church into being, one in faith and love and praise.

Radiant risen from the water, robed in holiness and light,
male and female in God's image, male and female, God's delight.

Trust the goodness of creation; trust the Spirit strong within.
Dare to dream the vision promised, sprung from seed of what has been.

Bring the hopes of every nation; bring the art of every race.
Weave a song of peace and justice; let it sound through time and space.

Draw together at one table, all the human family;
shape a circle ever wider and a people ever free.

© 1993 Jeffrey Honore/Dolores Dufner/ OCP Publications