To accompany the spoken word, the song leader chose a variety of “name” hymns. Two stuck out at me, one (“There’s a New Name Written Down in Glory”) that was a frequent favorite at the little church in the valley where as a youngster I lived briefly, and another that got it all sort of wrong.
The latter hymn is called “Is My Name Written There.” Here below I’ve copied select lines, lines that gave me pause as we sang, from the text from a helpful website that even, um, plays the melody for the visitor.
1. For me to sing “Lord, I care not for riches, neither silver nor gold” would be a flat-out lie. I’m loving the economic stimulus package (now tucked away in our savings account awaiting future material conquests).
2. It is probably an equally false falsehood to sing that “Lord, my sins they are many, like the sands of the sea.” There is a l-o-t of sand in the sea, no doubt more grains than seconds in my life thus far or ever. (But could it be possible that I am actually sinning every second? Even twice every second? Even thrice every second? I don’t have that kind of energy!)
3. Of course, too, the hymn is a blood song (“Thy blood, O my Savior, is sufficient for me”), propagation of a theology I find counter to the teachings of Jesus. But I’ll let that rest for the moment, as one yet-unpublished novel (which I’ve been lucky to read) deals thoroughly with that sort of schizoid understanding of The Loving God.
4. Finally, while the song’s question in the first verses, “Tell me, Jesus, my Savior, is my name written there?” is, I think, a valid one for all of us concerned that we are living the kingdom, the song’s final verse requires its vocalists to commit the most egregious of sins–playing God: “Yes, my name’s written there.” Really? Can we just up and decide this? Is that really our decision to make? How judgmental!
Perhaps at the base of this critical hymnology is a discomfort with theology far removed from Jesus’ teachings about life’s nuts and bolts, teachings relevant to so many of us nuts and dolts who perhaps need new names.
4 Comments
Second Sister
these seem fairly literal responses.
current typist
Yes. But isn’t the whole idea of “naming” a matter of making literal? At the same time, my discomfort goes beyond literal and includes even most figurative understandings of this sort of hymn and theology. “Washed in the Blood,” for example, is grotesque imagery, regardless of its literal- or figurative-ness.
Second Sister
life is grotesque.
current typist
Yes. Perhaps I should have used “gory” instead. Corinna, I’m interested in your understanding of such “blood” songs.