Words and Worship Part I

So, first, sorry about the long delay in posts. A combination of family, graduate school, and work keeps me pretty tied up! However, I've been meaning to write a post about this topic for a long, long time. The end result is that I have way too much to say for one post, which means I'll probably be write a few blogs about this topic. For those who haven't figured it out yet, I have a small love affair with words and that is what the topic of this blog will be about: how we use our words in the worship of Christ.

For those who would argue that words are not important, I will make a few, brief, points before I begin:

1. James warns us about controlling our tongue (what we say, our words), as our words are insight to our hearts (James 3:1-12)
2. God spoke the world into existence; everything in creation was originally spoken (with the exception of people, who were formed) (Genesis 1)
3. Jesus is called the Word (John 1:1)

The point being that words, and how we use them and what we say, are vastly important to our worship and our lives. Therefore, in this episode of Words and Worship, let's consider Madeline L'Engle's point that as our vocabulary decreases so does our intelligence (Walking on Water, 1995). I have to agree with her in general, and, as an application of this point in our worship, will use the example of the beautiful old hymn, "Come Thou Fount". (For those unfamiliar with the song, I suggest you look it up: http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh400.sht).

My point lies in the second verse of the hymn. Traditionally, the second verse begins "here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I'm come. And I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home". I've noticed, recently, in most churches, the second verse has been changed to "here I raise to thee an alter", thus eliminating the reference to Ebenezer all together.

To those well meaning, but poorly educated souls who thought this change was a brilliant idea, I say, look it up: 1 Samuel 7 (specifically verse 12). To give the story of Ebenezer in brief: the Israelites had gathered at Mizpah, under the direction of their leader, Samuel, to make sacrifices and repent of their sins before God. While they were there, practically unarmed and defenseless, their enemies, the Philistines, decided that would be an excellent time to attack and destroy the nation of Israel. Naturally, when the people of Israel got wind of the impending attack, they were upset. They cried out to Samuel, who cried out to God. God led the Israelites in a resounding victory. The end result being that Samuel set up a large and called it Ebenezer, meaning stone of help, saying that the Lord was their help. Ebenezer served as a type of monument to a time when God saved His people from certain destruction.

The point being that 1. Ebenezer is not an alter (seriously, what do Christians, living under the new covenant, need an alter for anyway; wasn't Jesus' sacrifice enough?); and 2. Ebenezer means more than just a place of worship. It is a place of remembrance.

The point, then, of the second verse in the song isn't about sacrifice, it's about remembering the saving power of Christ. It is about being at a point in one's life when there was no other option but to cry out to God for help, and God hearing, and God saving from certain destruction. That is the meaning of the second verse. But in removing all reference to Ebenezer, we remove that story, that point, from the verse and completely change (for the worse I think, see the point above about Christ's sacrifice negating the need for an alter) the intent. When singing this song then, the goal is to make us remember when the Lord was our help. The point is to worship God because we remember the point (or points) in our lives when we needed Him most, and what he has done to save us.

That brings us back to the reasoning behind the change in the second verse. Some well meaning person thought to make the hymn more approachable by "modernizing" the second verse (and possibly because "Ebenezer" and "pleasure" is really bad half rhyme). Let's face it, how many people really know what Ebenezer means without reading the story? I remember singing this song in church as a young girl, and wondering what it meant to "raise my Ebenezer". Being me, I went home and looked it up in the encyclopedia (yes, I am a nerd). Which lead me back to the Old Testament story in 1 Samuel 7 and to the realizations listed above. Not many people know what Ebenezer is without being told the story. However, that should not deter us from looking up the story. If we don't teach others about it, how will they learn, and how will we remember it? The point then, is not to forget the story, rather to teach it to others. How about, instead of changing the words of the hymn, we tell the story of how the Lord saved his people before singing the song?

So, the next time you sing this song, loudly sing the original words of the second verse and remember when you were at a point in your life where you needed God's saving grace, where nothing but God's love could deliver you, and raise an Ebenezer in your heart as a monument to His unfailing love.

Gweli i chi
Amy

P.s. for another fascinating reference of this story, Mizpah, the area in question, was originally created and named by Jacob and Laban. It means "May the Lord keep watch between you and me" (Genesis 31:38-39)