If you missed the Broadway Showcase with Tyler Gruttemeyer and Friends, it is available on demand by clicking HERE. Be sure to tune in for an evening with Jules and Joe, this Friday, July 10th, at 7pm on our YouTube channel or our home page.
The first three songs are the prelude for today’s service. If you are watching on KMTV and would like to view the prelude, you can do so on our YouTube page. The prelude will take place live on YouTube at 10:50 each Sunday.
In Her Family – Pat Metheny
Like a Mother Who has Borne Us
Like a mother who has borne us, held us close in her delight,
fed us freely from her body, God has called us into life.
Like a father who has taught us, grasped our hand and been our guide,
Lifted us and healed our sorrows, God has walked with us in life.
Though as children we have wandered, placed our trust in power and might,
Left behind our brothers, sisters, God still calls us into life.
When we offer food and comfort, grasp our neighbor’s hand in love,
Tread the path of peace and justice, God still walks with us in life.
Talkin’ About a Revolution – Tracy Chapman
Don’t you know, they’re talkin’ ’bout a revolution
It sounds like a whisper
While they’re standing in the welfare lines
Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation
Wasting time in the unemployment lines
Sitting around waiting for a promotion
Don’t you know, they’re talkin’ ’bout a revolution
It sounds like a whisper
Poor people gonna rise up and get their share
Poor people gonna rise up and take what’s theirs
Don’t you know tou better run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run
Oh I said you better run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run
‘Cause finally the tables are starting to turn
Talkin’ bout a revolution
Yes, finally the tables are starting to turn
While they’re standing in the welfare lines
Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation
Wasting time in the unemployment lines
Sitting around waiting for a promotion
Don’t you know, they’re talkin’ ’bout a revolution
It sounds like a whisper
And finally the tables are starting to turn
Talkin’ bout a revolution
Yes, finally the tables are starting to turn
Talkin’ bout a revolution, oh no
Talkin’ bout a revolution, oh no
Talkin’ bout a revolution, oh no
This is My Creator’s World
It’s not often that a hymn written over 100 years ago is more relevant to our world today than it was at its conception. This is My Father’s World was inspired by hymnist Maltbie Babcock’s morning walks which he described as “going to see my Father’s world.” Though it has fallen out of favor to some extent due to its gendered references to God, it was ahead of its time in many other ways.
The majority of American hymnody contains themes of escapism – the notion that we should look forward to leaving this mess on earth to go home to heaven – which encourages “passive acceptance of the unacceptable present.” Fortunately, these sorts of hymns only make up a small portion of our hymnal, but if you take a look at a Southern Baptist hymnal, you will find page after page of them.
This is My Father’s World strikes a substantially different tone, emphasizing that the earth is our home and will always be, and that we will not leave earth for heaven, but heaven and earth will be one. This creation theology – that God is unwilling to give up on creation – is particularly relevant to our time.
The text also mentions “the music of the spheres,” an ancient Greek philosophy that movements of the planets and the stars are a perfect form of music, inaudible to human ears (scientists did eventually confirm that there was some truth to this – for example, a distinct sound associated with the Big Bang). This dovetails with another theory of the physics of sound – that every soundwave reverberates forever – another conception of creation’s harmony.
This is my Creator’s world, and to my listening ears
all nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.
This is my Creator’s world: I rest me in the thought
of rocks and trees, of skies and seas his hand the wonders wrought.
This is my Creator’s world: the birds their carols raise;
the morning light, the flowers bright, declare their Maker’s praise.
Our God has made this world and shines in all that’s fair;
in the rustling grass I hear God pass, who speaks to me everywhere.
Our God has made this world: oh, let us ne’er forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
God trusts us with this world, to keep it clean and fair.
All earth and trees, the skies and seas, God’s creatures everywhere.