It's been a good day for nostalgia. While grilling tonight I found a radio station that played 70's pop music and I was surprised how I could slip back into time and sing along almost verbatim. Our worship was done as a Hymn Sing which meant that almost every component was interpreted through the words and tune of a hymn; most were hymns that I knew at least one verse by heart. One of the hymns was "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" and it immediately took our Associate Pastor back to visiting church with his grandparents where the hymn was regularly a part of worship. If you didn't get enough old-time hymn singing in today then you need to buy a CD for those Sunday's when it's totally contemporary. Of course today's contemporary is part of tomorrow's nostalgia. If you find a hymn book from the 1920's you might know 1/3 of the songs. Go back to the 1800's and you might be lucky to know 1/8 of the songs. Most of the songs from my grandparent's era would not encourage me to join in song today; I would be glassy-eyed and tuning out. Nostalgia means "a bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past." I guess the question is, how far back is the past? And how much do we hold those earlier times as idealistic and without fault? Movies such as "Pleasantville" and "Back to the Future" give examples of yearning for the past but realizing the times were not without flaws.
My prayer for the congregation?
Dear God, We are thankful for hymns of old that come to us as naturally as lullabies bringing comfort and peace. We welcome old hymns as a reunion with childhood friends. Let us be mindful of the ever-changing world and the passage of time that stops for no one. Even if we manage to suspend our activities, time goes on. Even if we cease to be, time goes on. O God, transplant us from a people filled with bittersweet longings to a people filled with a hunger for the lovely, delectable, anticipatory new day. Let us grow towards your eternal kingdom, knowing that we cannot pack all of our accumulations if we expect to keep pace. We can sing familiar songs along the journey, but let us rejoice that a new voice finds a different expression of faith and praise, and that we are asked to participate and share in worshipful adoration. Amen
Speaking of "What a friend ...," I wonder about the line that says, "Do your friends despise, forsake you?" Isn't that a sort of oxymoron? By definition, it seems to me, friends would not despise, forsake you.
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