Southwood Lutheran Church

Live Christ

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20 NIV)

At the beginning of June, I attended the Nebraska Synod Assembly. The guest performer for the assembly was Celia Whitler, a singer/songwriter from Tennessee. She travels around the United States performing for many Christian events especially youth gatherings. One of the songs that she taught us at the assembly is called “Live Christ.” It is a simple song with beautiful lyrics. She said she was inspired to write the song by the life of a young girl from Virginia who was killed a week before she was to attend a youth gathering in which Celia was to perform. After the tragedy, testimonies about the life of faith that Nerissa (“Ner”) Hackman had lived flowed in . . .

According to someone who attended her memorial service, “Nerissa’s church had just finished 40 Days of Purpose and Ner provided leadership through several videotaped skits that were playing on a monitor. The skits were hilarious, and she was upbeat and funny. There was also a slide show and scrapbooks of her life. They opened the microphone during the service. Teenager after teenager went forward and talked about Ner—the friend, the encourager, the comforter, the clown, the light in a dark place. No fewer than five girls called Ner their best friend. Many said she was the first person to reach out to them when they came to that school.”¹

Celia says that she was “blown away” by these testimonies. She learned that Nerissa was “born in Germany, she was the younger sister to two brothers. She was a best friend to all, and her faith was her rock.”1 Celia said that “closing the retreat that Sunday morning (at the youth gathering) I knew I had to talk about Ner and our challenge to be inspired by her story. She lived what Jesus taught. She didn’t have to preach it. People followed her example. . . I was captured by Ner’s beauty, not only her outward appearance but also the inner beauty of her faith. Ner knew her purpose—to share Christ—and it continues even after her death.”¹

Hear Celia sing this song on her website: http://www.celiamusic.net/livechrist/

1. Whitler, Celia. On the Way to Somewhere. (Abingdon Press: Nashville, TN, 2006). Pp. 79-80

Give Thanks

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. (Isaiah 40:29 NIV)

This Sunday we sing the worship song “Give Thanks” during communion. It is especially appropriate to “Give Thanks” as we celebrate the meal together that Christ blessed and whose gift of love we remember. Notice also the lyric that says “let the weak say ‘I am strong’”—it reminds me of a line from the childhood song “Jesus Loves Me” . . . “they are weak but he is strong . . .”

“Human-made religions center on what people can do for their god. But Christianity centers on what God has done for us. He gives us His Son, as a continual source of comfort and freedom, even when we have nothing to offer in return. To receive Him, we only need to let go of trying to save ourselves and rely on Him alone to save us.

This requires admitting our weaknesses and allowing God to use them to show Himself strong. That’s humbling! And oh how we fight it. We want to be loved for being so good, not for being so needy. Yet God knows this is exactly what we are. Instead of being put off by our inabilities, He encourages us to come to Him. He knows that only people who have come to the end of themselves rely on Him. God has a limitless supply of hope and strength for people who recognize their need. No matter now ‘poor’ we may feel, we are the richest people in the world, all because of what the Lord has done for us. For this we give thanks.”¹

1. Carsten, Debbie. Open the Eyes of My Heart: Daily Devotions. (Brentwood, TN: Integrity Publishers, 2002.) Pg. 181.

I Surrender All

“Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:38-39 NRSV)

“I Surrender All” was written by Judson Wheeler Van De Venter, an artist and musician from Michigan. After he felt God leading him to switch his career to evangelism, he fell to his knees and prayed: “Lord, if you want me to give my full time to Thy work, I’ll do it, I surrender all to Thee.”¹ He would later write this hymn in remembrance of that experience. What does it mean to “surrender all”? Are you willing to “surrender all?"

“Surrender is an odd word. In common usage, there is no sense of the word that has positive connotations. We surrender our legal rights in contractual disputes. We surrender ourselves to loss and grief. And although surrendering ourselves to our enemies in war may in fact save lives—even our own—deep down we know that what we have surrendered is our dignity, our pride. To surrender is to diminish ourselves; to become less than what we were.

Yet for Christians, it is in the essence of this word that we find redemption and renewal. It should tell us something about the God we serve that even language itself becomes redeemed through the cross of Christ. To the believer, words like ‘less,’ ‘weak,’ die,’ and ‘surrender’—words that normally denote failure—convey instead the very life of God. But if language itself undergoes conversion, it is only because there is real, ontological change that occurs when God acts.”²

1. Morgan, Robert. Then Sings My Soul. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003) pg. 239.
2. Schulz-Widmar, Russell, editor. Praises Abound. (New York: Church Publishing, 2012) pp. 45-46.

Thy Word

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. (Psalm 119:105 NIV)

“Thy Word” is a very popular song written by Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith many years ago now. It is based directly this verse from Psalm 119. It is one of those songs that many of our youth know and so listen for those young voices singing this song in worship. It is good that they have learned this psalm verse by singing this song and I hope that is also helps them to know that they can trust God to give them Light for the journey.

"'Thy word is a lamp.’ God’s word helps me find my way in the dark and not get lost. Sometimes we want to know what God has in store next week, next month, next year, for the rest of my life. Why doesn’t God reveal the whole blueprint right now? But how far can you see with just a lamp? In Bible times, to get around you had to carry fire, a torch, a lantern, or you’d fall on the rocks or traipse off into a hole. And with a Bronze Age lantern—not one of those brilliant outdoor beacons campers use nowadays—how far ahead could you see? Not far. But far enough. You see well enough to take the next step, and the next step. The end of the road is all darkness. But it will be lit when you get near enough. . .

Where will God lead you and me? We do not know yet. Faith is risky: we leave the cocoon of our preplanned, carefully managed lives and go—where? We do not know yet. Wherever God leads, that is where we will go. But we know whom we are following, and we want to be near him, and that is enough, for he is the fullness of life; he is the way, the truth, and the life.”¹

1. Howell, James C. 40 Treasured Bible Verses: A Devotional. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011) pg. 97.

Amen, We Praise Your Name

This Sunday in worship we will sing a song the kids learned at Vacation Bible School this year, “Amen Siakudumisa.” The VBS mission project this year was to create prayer postcards for children in Tanzania. Singing a song from Africa helped kids continue that connection to a new culture in an exciting way! The kids learned the song both in Xhosa and in English. Today we’ll ask the congregation to begin learning this song in English! The Xhosa text “Amen Siakudumisa” means “Amen praise the name of the Lord.”

We know this composition by Stephen Cuthbert Molefe (1917-1987) through the work of David Dargie (b. 1937), one of South Africa’s most influential ethnomusicologists. A Roman Catholic priest for many years, Fr. Dargie observed that many priests resorted to using European or North American melodies they knew and ignored the rich heritage of South African music, especially the music of the Xhosa and Zulu peoples. For example, the venerable Latin chant “Tantum Ergo Sacramentum” (a communion hymn attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas), was sung in one parish to “My Darling Clementine”!

For Fr. Dargie, a white South African of Scots-Irish lineage, part of the liberation of black South Africans from the political oppression of apartheid was to encourage them to sing their Christian faith with their own music rather than in the musical idioms of their colonial oppressors. In the decades immediately following the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), Fr. Dargie was among many who encouraged Africans to find their own voice in congregational singing. He sponsored workshops throughout southern Africa with indigenous musicians, giving them specific texts from the Mass and asking them to compose music to fit the melodic contour and rhythmic structure of the words. Since most African languages are tonal, a melodic shape emerges directly from speaking the text.

Stephen Molefe was among the first South African musicians that Fr. Dargie worked with in these workshops. Molefe was born of Sotho descent in the Transkei area of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. A choirmaster at the Catholic Church, he was not only a skilled musician but also fluent in a variety of South African languages including Sotho, Xhosa, Zulu, Tswana, Afrikaans and English. Fr. Dargie met Molefe in 1977 at a composition workshop and transcribed a number of his works into staff notation. They include a wide variety of musical styles, “Amen Siakudumisa” being among the simplest. Designed to be sung as the “Amen” at the conclusion of the Great Thanksgiving (the Eucharist liturgy), it was an instant hit, with the whole parish singing it at Holy Week services. “Amen, Siakudumisa” is included very often in Western hymnal collections alongside famous South African freedom songs like “Siyahamba (We are Marching in the Light of God).” In 1978, Molefe was attacked, robbed and struck with a brick to the head. He started to go blind after that, and was unable to work again. Molefe died in 1987.¹

1. Hawn, C. Michael. “HISTORY OF HYMNS: Hymn expresses rhythm, harmony of African legacy.” The United Methodist Reporter website: http://www.umportal.org/article.asp?id=2583 Site visited June 26, 2012.

Oh, Sing to the Lord

Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds among mortals. He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot. (Psalm 66:5-6 NRSV)

“O Sing to the Lord” is a hymn that celebrates the wondrous acts of God and “calls forth exuberant praise from God’s people.”¹ The melody is infectious and joyful, but it also suggests a longing for God’s justice and shalom to be completed. It is a song of Brazilian origin, which was made available by Gerhard Cartford. Cartford was born in Madagascar, educated in the United States, and is an “influential Lutheran church musician, writer, and professor of music and liturgics (Texas Lutheran College and Luther-Northwestern Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota). He also was a Fulbright scholar studying folk music and hymnody and lived for many years in South America.”¹

“In November 1982 Gerhard Cartford and his wife went to a meeting of Brazilian Lutheran pastors in Itupuranga, Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil. The new hymnal Hinos do Povo de Deus (1981) they were using contained this hymn, and they sang it. Cartford says that ‘the song was well known in Brazil and sung frequently. I was strongly attracted to it, so when we got back to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where we were living then, I translated it from Portuguese to Spanish, and we began to sing it in Argentine Lutheran churches. Later, I translated it also to English and introduced it in the U.S. when we were home on furlough.’”²

1. Sing! A New Creation, Leader’s Edition. (Faith Alive Christian Resource: Grand Rapids, MI, 2002) Hymn No. 224
2. Westermeyer, Paul. Hymnal Companion: Evangelical Lutheran Worship. (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 2010.) pg. 698.

Sing to the Mountains

This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:24 NIV)

This week we begin singing the song “Sing to the Mountains” as our hymn of praise in worship. Part of the refrain is from Psalm 118: “This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it (vs. 24 NIV).” How do you begin your day? When the alarm clocks tolls, what is your first thought? Do your thoughts race to all that needs to be done during the day. . .appointments to be kept . . .getting kids ready for school? Author James Howell makes these suggestions:

“A day can feel onerous, or perhaps like a leaky sieve, minutes slipping away, too much to do, rushing. But God made the day. The sun comes up and sets because God planned it; there is a divine rhythm to life. Each day is a precious gift, not for you to consume or cram full, but to delight in God the giver of the day; to serve the God who gave you the time. . .

Some simple habits might strangely transform (and calm down) the balance of the day. When you are first jostled from sleep, notice your very first breath—and say, ‘Thank you, Lord.’ The grace of God has added another day to your life; that breath is a divine gift. Focus your eyes, and reflect for a nanosecond on the gift of sight. Hear a cricket, taste the juice, look into the face of your roommate, spouse, child (or your own in the mirror) and for a millisecond thank God for the beauty of that face (even it etched with a crease from the pillow or still devoid of makeup). Develop the habit of momentary gratitude for all the small details that make life worth getting out of bed. . . As you walk downstairs or back out of the driveway, whisper, ‘This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” However briefly, never start any day without praying, ‘Lord, use me today. Sharpen my vision so I may notice your presence.”¹

1. Howell, James C. 40 Treasured Bible Verses: A Devotional. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011) pg. 15-16.

Lord, When You Came to the Lakeshore

"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him. (Matthew 4:19-20 NIV)

We will sing the hymn “Lord When you Came to the Lakeshore” in worship this Sunday. This hymn was written by a Spanish priest named Cesáreo Gabaraín in 1979. He wrote it just after returning from a trip to the Holy land where he visited Galilee. This hymn has become very popular and has been translated into over eighty languages.¹

As Jesus came down to the lakeshore of Galilee, he found Peter and Andrew, James and John. Jesus was looking for volunteers. He was conducting his own job fair. For Jesus, a specialist in job placement, this was personal. The recruits would be working for, with, around and under his direct supervision. We do not know what conversation took place that day. Only the words of Jesus: “Come, follow me; I will make you fishers of people.” (Matt. 4:19 NIV)

Even today Jesus continues to seek out those who will follow him. It does not matter who we are — man or woman, child, teenager, senior citizen — or where we have been in our lives. Jesus calls us to follow. As common, ordinary people, we are called to carry the Gospel message, the good news of Christ, to all the world. And the greatest job benefit ever offered is in the words of Jesus: “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt. 28:20b NIV)

The call to discipleship, to follow Jesus, is for each and every one of us. Jesus is looking for personnel in a very personal way. “You have come to call me.” From the very beginning, the coming of Jesus was personal. The angel said to the shepherds: “I am bringing you good news, for to you this day is born a Savior who is Christ the Lord.” And, in the words of our baptism: “I baptize you.” And as Jesus comes to us in Holy Communion: “This is my body, my blood, given and shed for you.”

Jesus, still today, is personally looking, searching, asking us to follow him. The first disciples had no idea what they were getting into when they began to follow Jesus. Nor do we. So, will we say “yes”? Will we answer his call to “follow me”?²

1. Sing! A New Creation, Leader’s Edition. (Faith Alive Christian Resource: Grand Rapids, MI, 2002) Hymn No. 269.
2. Frank, Larry. “You Have Come Down to the Lakeshore.” Reformation Lutheran Church (Wichita, KS) Website: http://www.reformation-lutheran.org/lent/2008/lent-all.html Date visited: June 25, 2012.

Precious Lord, Take My Hand

For I am the LORD, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. (Isaiah 41:13 NIV)

“Precious Lord, Take My Hand” is a hymn written by Thomas A. Dorsey after a tragedy. Knowing the story behind the hymn helps bring new meaning and shares a powerful testimony:

“Out of a broken heart after his wife and newly born son had both died, Thomas A. Dorsey cried to his Lord to lead him ‘through the storm, through the night.’ In doing so, he created lines that have since ministered to others in an unusual way. This tender song, written by a black gospel musician in 1932, has since been a favorite with Christians everywhere.

Thomas A. Dorsey grew up in Georgia as a ‘preacher’s kid.’ As he began to be successful as a composer of jazz and blues songs, however, he drifted away from God. After it seemed to him that he was miraculously spared in brushes with death, Dorsey came back to the Lord. As his life dramatically changed he began to write gospel songs and to sing in church services. It was during a revival meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, that he received a telegram telling the tragic news of his wife and infant son. Stunned and grief-stricken, Dorsey cried, ‘God, you aren’t worth a dime to me right now!’

A few weeks later, however, as Dorsey fingered the keyboard of a piano, he created the lines of ‘Precious Lord’ to fit a tune that was familiar to him. The following Sunday the choir of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in South Chicago, Illinois, sang the new song with Dorsey playing the accompaniment. ‘It tore up the church!’ God continued to lead Thomas Dorsey by the hand until he had written more than two hundred fifty gospel songs. ¹

1. Osbeck, Kenneth W. Amazing Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1990, 2002), pg. 251.

Jesus Loves Me

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." (Matthew 19:14 NIV)

This Sunday our Adult and Youth Summer Choirs will join together in singing a version of the beloved song “Jesus Loves Me.” The lyrics are timeless and speak not only to children, but whole great truth for adults as well. May we never outgrow the joy of singing this song!

“Jesus loves me! He who died, Heaven’s gates to open wide. He will wash away my sin, Let His little child come in.” “For the little child in all of us, this hymn was found in an old hymnal listed under “The Life of Christ—Love and Gratitude.” That means it was not always relegated to children’s church and Sunday School. At one time it was a regular hymn like the rest. And well it should be. If the kingdom of heaven is made up of such as the little ones, then we must never outgrow this song. As children, the Father meets us and affirms His love. As children, we are accepted before any attempts at earning His love. As children, we believe with total trust. As children, we worship in wide-eyed wonder. As His children, we react to our Father with unguarded emotions and uncalculated joy. As children, we cry when we are hurt. And as children, we are comforted. Little ones to Him belong. Time to revel in our unabashed littleness. In a world of big, it’s nice to come to God and be little again.” ¹

1. Fischer, John. Be Thou My Vision. (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Servant Publications) pg. 311.