Had
I a Thousand Tongues, I Would Praise Him With Them All
Sermon preached by the Reverend Patricia Farris
May 22, 2005
Scripture:
Psalm 150
On this our annual
Choir Recognition Sunday we take a few moments to do what most of
us do in our hearts and prayers every Sunday and that is give thanks
for the incredible talent and commitment of all the musicians of our
music program. What makes this different today is that we do it publicly
and we thank them all and we thank God for them and for the way their
music increases our faith.
As part of our services
today, we will sing a hymn we love, “O For a Thousand Tongues
to Sing.” This hymn has been the opening hymn in Methodist hymnals
since 1780 and our first hymnal, which was Wesley’s “Collection
of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists.”
The brothers John
and Charles Wesley initiated the Methodist renewal movement in the
Church of England. John was the preacher and Charles was the hymn-writer.
It was a brilliant collaboration. They taught Methodist theology by
presenting it both spoken and sung. To this day, Methodists are known
as a singing people. Charles wrote some 6500 hymn texts and John gave
clear instructions on the importance of how we sing. You can find
these at the very beginning of the hymnal on page vii: “Directions
for Singing.” Because these hymns were teaching his theology,
he wanted them all sung and sung exactly as they were printed. “Sing
lustily and with good courage,” he said. “Sing modestly.
Sing in time. And above all,” he concluded, “sing spiritually.
Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more
than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly
to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried
away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your
singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when
he cometh in the clouds of heaven.”
One of these beloved
hymns for the “People Called Methodists,” text by Charles
Wesley, is
(continued...)
"Had
I a Thousand Tongues..." Sermon by Rev. Patricia Farris, May 22,
2005
“O
For a Thousand Tongues to Sing.” It is said that Charles wrote
this hymn text on the occasion of the eleventh anniversary of his conversion
experience at Aldersgate, in which both brothers came to know personally
and profoundly the amazing grace of the love of Jesus Christ. They were
inspired at the time by Moravian Christians, who were especially warm,
enthusiastic and joyful in faith. In one of its many verses, Charles
wrote: “On this glad day the glorious Sun of Righteousness arose;
on my benighted soul he shone and filled it with repose. Then with my
heart I first believed, believed with faith divine, power with the Holy
Ghost received to call the Savior mine.”
In
words that inspired the original seventh verse, one of the Moravians,
Peter Bohler, expressed the depth of his own faith, remarking to Charles:
“Brother Wesley, had I a thousand tongues, I would praise Christ
Jesus with them all.”
This
evocative poetic hyperbole was Bohler’s way of saying two things—first,
of expressing his desire to love God and praise God with all his heart
and mind and soul and strength. Even a thousand tongues would not have
been enough to express God’s great love for him in Christ Jesus.
To this day, our choirs and musicians strive to make the most beautiful
music possible all for the praise of God, knowing all the while that
even the most accomplished of our efforts still barely come close to
all that we would offer to God in thanksgiving and praise. O for a thousand
organ pipes! O for a thousand trumpets! O for a thousand hand-bells!
“O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise!
The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace.”
Secondly,
Bohler’s statement expressed his heartfelt desire for hundreds
of believers to join together in praising God in song. When all the
pastors and lay representatives from all the churches in our California-Pacific
Conference gather in June, the chapel at the University of Redlands
where we meet will be filled with well over a thousand people. There
is nothing like singing this very hymn with over a thousand voices all
praising God and proclaiming our faith. A thousand tongues will unite
in harmony. And just like on that day of the first Pentecost that we
heard about last Sunday, when the faithful from all over the known world
gathered, there will be in our company a great diversity of languages
and cultures, all singing together in harmony and praise. A thousand
tongues—Anglo, Hispanic, African-American, German, Japanese, Chinese,
Hawaiian, Filipino, Tongan, Samoan, Native American, Korean, young,
old, male, female, traditional, contemporary, old-fashioned and very
hip, trained musicians and earnest wannabes, a thousand tongues! We
will raise the roof in music and praise.
(continued...)
"Had
I a Thousand Tongues..." Sermon by Rev. Patricia Farris, May
22,
2005
What we are privileged to remember when we gather there each year
is that there are many ways to praise God, many languages and tongues
that speak God’s name. There are many styles and flavors, many
arrangements and instrumentations, many tempos and keys. What unites
us all, just as it does here every Sunday, through the unifying and
animating power of the Holy Spirit, is our love of God and our most
earnest desire to praise.
On
this, our Choir Recognition Sunday, we give thanks to God, for the
variety of our expression and the inexhaustible scope of our heart’s
desire to show forth our love. May all our music be pleasing to God
and may it carry us to greater heights of faith and joy. “My
gracious master and my God, assist me to proclaim, to spread through
all the earth abroad the honors of thy name. Glory to God and praise
and love be ever, ever given, by saints below and saints above, the
church in earth and heaven!”
Let
us now thank all those who, week in and week out, assist us in proclaiming
God’s praise and helping us feel part of a great thousand tongues
spreading through all the earth the glories of God’s name.
© Patricia Farris, 2005. Permission is given for brief quotation
with attribution. All other rights reserved.
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