Happy Father's Day

The weather has been hot and muggy leading up to Father's Day. We're also approaching the longest day of the summer, which has both fallen into a pattern and seems to be flying by.

In honor of the holiday, we'll be singing several of the great hymns about fathers: "Children of the Heavenly Father" and "Faith of our Fathers." I'm expecting to hear enthusiastic singing on such old favorites!

I just finished reading the Percy Jackson novels this summer. They're excellent children's literature. (If you enjoyed Harry Potter, I definitely suggest that you check them out.) But rather than being magical, the stories are about demigods, children of the Greek gods. The overarching plot involves the rebellion of demigods in the face of the indifference of their immortal parents. The story draws out the contrast between the greek gods with their uncaring, distant relationship with their mortal children and the loving Father depicted in so many Christian stories. Greek demigods might truly claim to be "playthings of an angry god" while we view ourselves like the characters of "Children of Eden" - rebellious children of a loving Father. The image and the relationship of Father are always complex, but we are fortunate to have one who guarantees us unconditional love.

Father's Day music

I want to highlight two musical moments for this Sunday's music.

First, Joanne will be singing a solo, "Peace Be Still" during the offering. With the absence of the choir over the summer, it's wonderful that some of our members will volunteer to sing and enrich our services. We can honor God and our fellow congregants with offerings of music as well. When you prayerfully consider your own contributions to the church, be sure to ask if God has blessed you with gifts that you can share. We're always happy to welcome "special music" as well as new choir members!

Second, I'll be playing an arrangement of "This is My Father's World" during communion. It will be a jazzier sound from the piano than you normally hear from me. That's partly an homage to my father, who always appreciates an eclectic music mix. It's also become a part of my own music philosophy to seek out worthy music in all styles.

On many Sundays, we hear Bach and Luther, classical music and chorales. Joanne and I have prepared two decidedly more contemporary pieces for this week, and I hope you enjoy.

Faith of Our Fathers

As part of our summer liturgy, we're singing the hymn "Faithful Hearts and Voices Raise," which will be better known to most people as "Thank the Lord, and Sing His Praise." Since Father's Day weekend is approaching I'll go out on a limb and suggest that the rewrite of this hymn is an abomination of poetry and the English language in the name of political correctness against the imagery of God as Father.

That isn't to say that Western Civ and American history aren't full of repression and over-representation of the male perspective. No one would argue that. Nor am I here arguing that striving to recognize that paradigm bias is a good thing; we should indeed strive to combat it. One of my favorite pastors from years past would end the service with a blessing "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God, Mother and Creator of us all." Some people loved it, some disagreed, but I hope all agree it has a worthy goal.

My problem with ELW 204 is twofold. First, it's impractical to expect congregants to flip open a hymnal for a liturgical piece that they have known and sung for years. We've had a generation who has known no hymnal other than the LBW, and so we all trip over the new words and rightly grow frustrated.

Second, the new text mangles the English language by starting in the imperative mood, exhorting the congregation to sing, spread the good news, and rejoice. In line three, however, the text reads "Send us with your promises." Whom are we addressing with that imperative? Well, God, it would seem by the following "Lead your people forth in joy." That leads me to ask why we aren't capitalizing "Your," why we think people will understand the shift in address in line 3, and also (to a lesser extent) who we think we are to address God with an imperative verb. (Didn't a voice from a whirlwind have something to say about such hubris in the book of Job?) It's simple laziness to replace 3rd person masculine pronouns with the 2nd person imperative. It's just bad text, despite any noble intentions. I think it was originally piece of music, but I'd rather see it gone than mangled. Your thoughts?