I Also Wanted to Say...
We sang "Lift High the Cross" in church yesterday (yes, I made it for a change - I had to take the world's fastest shower to do it, but I made it).
These are the lyrics that we sang. Now, we sang this in the Catholic Church, too, but with different lyrics. I never realized how...martial this hymn was.
I admit, I don't like hymns that use military imagery to begin with. But I was struck by the dichotomy in this one this week. The same hymn that exhorts Christians with "the love of Christ proclaim" talks about "the hosts of God/in conquering ranks combine." I have issues with that.
But beyond the fact that it seems to suggest that Christians should go on a no-holds-barred attempt to convert the world, this is one of my favorite hymns.
OK. Really, I just like the music and the refrain.
OK. Just the music.
Sigh.
3 comments:
One of my fave hymns (Onward Christian Soldiers) got the old boot from the new hymnal for this very reason (too martial). Sigh.
We just got the our first chance to look through the red hymnal this week (we'll start using them the 1st. Odd date, that). I didn't much pay attention to what was in there and what wasn't. Then again, a lot of these hymns are new to me, as we didn't sing them in the Catholic Church, and if we did, the words were often changed so that credit for the lyrics wouldn't go to the Reformers who wrote them.
That's funny...I was in a Roman Cahtolic Church and we sang " A Mighty Fortress." My Lutheran heart was made glad, but I had to try not to chuckle and say, "Dudes, he wrote that song when he was mad at you guys!"
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