“Lex orandi, lex credendi.” Or so goes the ancient Christian maxim, loosely translated, “As we worship, so we believe.” If the songs we sing shape the way we think, we should be very thoughtful about the way our churches are led in worship.
Songs are short, memorable, and have the capacity to pack in a lot of ideas. Arius, the brilliant 5th century heretic, popularized his ideas with catchy songs and hymns. Marketing teams have been writing jingles ever since. Think about how many times you’ve listened to your favorite sermon. How about your favorite song? Why do you think so many Christians believe that our ultimate destiny is a mansion in the clouds? Consider these lines from popular hymns:
But Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul.
And another:
Some glad morning when this life is o’er,
I’ll fly away.
To that home on God’s celestial shore,
I’ll fly away.
The way we imagine the world ending determines what we do now. What if your church re-wrote some of their favorite songs in order to sing, and therefore believe, better theology? Let me walk you through an example of a stanza I just added to “Of the Father’s Love Begotten” that demonstrates the relationship between our daily labor and our future hope:
Take ye courage, sons of Adam
Cultivate the curséd land
Naught is vain if we’re abiding
In the Risen Son of Man
Who will fill his new creation
With the work of holy hands
Evermore and evermore
There’s a lot behind those lines. Here are some of the things you might realize if you sang it every couple of weeks in church and hummed it on Monday mornings at the office.
(1-2) The word “courage” at the beginning asserts the virtue it takes to do difficult work in hope. It also connects our identity to “Adam” (1 Cor. 45-49), recalling the “cultivation” mandate (Gen. 2:15) and the “cursing” of the earth that makes it so wearisome (Gen. 3:17).
(3-4) These lines begin an explanation of why courageous work is worth doing. Implicitly, it recalls the “bear fruit” mandate of Gen. 1:26 but reminds us, as John 15 does, that we can only bear fruit when we “abide” in Christ. The stanza begins to ground the worthwhileness of labor in the resurrection (“Risen”), which 1 Cor. 15:58 also does.
(5-6) The most explicit encouragement to work comes from the expectation that Jesus is using and will continue to use “the work of our hands” in his plan for renewal. Our daily labor is active participation in new creation.
In seven lines, you have a filled out biblical theology of work grounded in the core theological categories Creation, Resurrection, and Eschatology. That’s like a three-part sermon series that you can sing in 30 seconds! Imagine with me that it’s Monday morning and you’re frustrated at work. Which lyric will better help you contemplate gospel truth: “I’m getting out of here, soon!” or “Work is difficult, but God has invited me to participate in building his kingdom?”
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