Holy, Holy, Holy (Hosanna) -- Peter Scholtes

What would it be like to encounter a seraph? (See here St. Francis' vision of a seraph, entitled Stigmatization of St Francis [fresco attributed to Giotto; [1267–1337].) We know what one might say, even if its appearance might be something quite unfamiliar, apart from the six wings that Isaiah (6:3) noted were on the seraphim he observed. Peter Scholtes echoed these seraphim calling out “Holy, Holy, Holy” in 1966. It was part of Peter’s determination to bring God into the community where he lived that made him take the words of the seraphim and repeat them, so that they might ring more clearly in the world of 1966 South Side Chicago. How could what angels said to Isaiah be relevant to a culturally diverse neighborhood where Peter’s church resided, and where he tried to minister through a youth choir in a basement? Some people might have thought the rhythm style that Peter chose to accompany the seraphim’s words was rather unusual, maybe even a bit irreverent. It suggested that God could hear people in unconventional ways. Is God conventional? And, is the God of Isaiah’s time connected to other times? Peter answered that in the lyrics he pulled from both bible testaments.

 

Peter probably would have answered ‘no’ to the above question about God’s supposed predictability, when he put together his version of what the seraphim said. He appeared to Isaiah in a vision, after all, a method that God uses with not just anybody. He had a mission for Isaiah, one of prophecy. ‘Deliver my message’, God essentially said. It began with a reassertion of God’s nature, as testified by His servants -the seraphim. God is love, and is also holy. That was not something confined to the 7^th/8^th Century B.C. (700s/600s), as Peter’s words help us recall when he repeated what the crowds said about Jesus Christ when He entered Jerusalem (Matthew 21:9/Mark 11:9/Luke 19:38/John 12:13); with words like ‘Hosanna’ and ‘blessed is the One’, Peter reminded the people in that Chicago basement and in the surrounding community that God has not been confined to one time, nor to one place, and certainly not to just one people. With this kind of diversity, Peter surmised that God should not be restricted to one type of music to accompany the words about Him. The Missa Bossa Nova that Peter used was his way of connecting a Catholic mass with a bossa nova rhythm that would be familiar to those Chicagoans of 1966, though it originated on another continent (in Brazil). To some traditionalists in Christendom, this syncopated samba mingled with American jazz while singing ancient words to laud God was probably a bit too out-of-the-box, at least at first. You can listen for yourself (see the link below), but perhaps Peter was really just using what his observation of Jesus had already taught him. He upset everyone’s applecart with His methods, but did He stop? No, His was a resolute conviction (Luke 9:51).

 

Nothing was going to stop Jesus’ message, and that’s still true today. Only discomfort and stubborn natures can suspend temporarily what He wants done. He’s already spoken loudly in so many ways – like through His creation and through the bible -- that only the spiritually deaf, blind, and unrepentant would reject Him. ‘Bossa Nova’ in Portuguese means "new wave" or "new trend/knack", and that certainly spoke of Jesus. Even people today, particularly of other faiths, still cannot fathom or accept that this God would allow Himself to be sacrificed for our sins. With such utter power, and even after the crowds hailed Him as king, why would Jesus have to die? If you have ever tried to relate to people of a different culture, perhaps you have felt the divide that seems like it cannot be bridged. Is there anything that connects all of us, that overcomes the babel we use with each other? Human nature does indeed connect, and Jesus knew that – that’s why He came, to be like us. All of us humans have needs, which only a Divine Provider can meet. So, don’t let a different style get in the way of communicating a message that’s got a common foundation. Jesus had a different style, but He was still God, still love, and still holy. Now isn’t that something to celebrate with a bit of samba and jazz?        

 

Read about the song/album background here: https://vulcanhammer.org/2013/03/04/peter-scholtes-theyll-know-we-are-christians-by-our-love/ (hear the song here beginning at 15:30 in the distinctive bossa nova beat) and here: https://hymnary.org/person/Scholtes_P

 

Read about the author here: https://pscholtes.com/obituary.htm

 

See more information about the image here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giotto_-_Legend_of_St_Francis_-_-19-_-_Stigmatization_of_St_Francis.jpg …The author died in 1337, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1931.

 

Lord, Have Mercy -- Steve Merkel

 

Steve Merkel seems to remember something started to sprout within himself in Poland, of all places, in the late 1980s. (See a seal of Poland here.) Like a new plant, it was really almost unnoticeable in its embryonic stage, but what he experienced there did not expire when he returned home. The Catholic worship that focuses on liturgy might seem like a mere mechanical exercise, but Steve says he felt something was budding, a bridge between his own Protestant background and that of his Catholic friends. It was a window that opened while he helped guide worship among some Catholic believers in Poland, where something like 70% of its citizens claim Roman Catholicism as their guide. Even while Steve set about making an album years later, he had continued to guide Protestant worship on Sundays, but also had related to his Catholic worshiping friends during the week. And, not unexpectedly, Steve’s close contact with his close Catholic friends gave him insights and inspiration that would help him reach deeper inside himself, to express more confession to and reliance on the God he’d known for some time. Appropriately, he was working on a large project he called Renewal Music, and the particular album that this new song inhabited was named Intimate Worship.

 

Perhaps what drew Steve’s attention most was the perspective a good friend (David Kauffman) shared with him one day about the differences between the music of Catholics versus Protestants. The former tended to focus more on confession and submission and dependence on Him, while the latter were more likely to approach God confidently. Steve indicates he felt convicted as he pondered these words, thereby spawning lyrics in ‘Lord, Have Mercy’ that echoed and built upon the song’s title. He says that long-time believers especially need to revisit the time when they were brand-new Christians who still identified themselves as weak, needy sinners, acknowledging that they needed a forbearing and understanding God. ‘Take off that mask’, Steve might say to sum up what he wanted to emphasize. At the same time, Steve says he was seeking to offer something new for his Catholic friends who were accustomed to liturgy in their experience, what they themselves would say was the ceremonial mass. Had it grown stale, we might ask? Steve doesn’t address that question directly, but certainly many Protestants might say (at least this blogger does) that on occasion, our worship songs can become so familiar that we drift into remote control. Steve thought both groups could ‘…intersect at the cross..’, where we can all recognize our humanity in the shadow of His sacrifice, and then seek to pass along this attitude to a world that still needs to know Him.

 

Dim, forgotten, doubting, unbelief…those are just a few potent words that Steve used in verse 1 to underscore the confession part of this attitude he sought to persuade others to adopt. Mercy -- a characteristic of Him who alone can dispense it to me, the often-wayward, disobedient creature He made – is what Steve has the worshipper cry a total of 20 times in this song. Is that enough? It’s as if Steve is underscoring for you and me that inescapable nature – human = imperfect. It doesn’t matter if I’m Protestant or Catholic, Islamic or Hindu, Jew or Buddhist, Baha’i or Sikh, or Zoroastrian or Mormon. Has anyone cornered the market on perfection? What about the Agnostic or Atheist…can they escape being human? Steve’s song has a second message, one that should resonate with all of us, deep down when we dare to look. God = mercy.

     

Read the brief song story here:  The Story Behind the Song Lord Have Mercy | PraiseCharts;  See it here also: Lord, Have Mercy | Hymnary.org;  and, here also: Stories behind songs that changed the way we worship | ChristianToday Australia

 

Read a longer version of the story here: Song Story: (crosswalk.com)

 

Read about Poland’s dominant faith here: Poland - Wikipedia

 

See information on the seal of Poland here: File:Herb Polski.svg - Wikimedia Commons. This image is in the public domain according to Article 4, case 2 of the Polish Copyright Law Act of February 4, 1994 (Dz. U. z 2022 r. poz. 2509 with later changes) "normative acts and drafts thereof as well as official documents, materials, signs and symbols are not subject to copyrights". Hence it is assumed that this image has been released into public domain. However in some instances the use of this image in Poland might be regulated by other laws.

Heaven Is In My Heart -- Graham Kendrick

 

Graham Kendrick wanted the gathered to feel something, and respond. That, simply put, was how Graham could imagine people answering, by saying “Heaven Is In My Heart”, when prompted to explain why they were marching in a parade-like atmosphere. While Kendrick certainly understood what God on earth was saying when a group of learned people asked him to describe His kingdom, Graham didn’t really envision the same thing as Jesus did when He answered. Graham wanted people to make the kingdom visible, an exuberant expression that would demonstrate something to the world. He and others might have started with a vision for how this would look in Britain, but it didn’t stop there. And, it certainly didn’t remain confined inside each person, as someone might conclude when reading the Master’s words.

 

"Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17: 20-21, New International Version). Now, when Graham Kendrick read those words, he might have easily said that we cannot say what the kingdom looks like, and we’re not going to contradict the Lord. Instead, as Graham and others talked about their joint venture called March for Jesus, they felt that those participating should exhibit something – an expression in one’s words that testify to what is going on inside. If someone knew he or she was made for eternity with Him, how would that look and sound? In short, Graham wanted onlookers to see an unquenchable joy among people singing ‘Heaven Is In My Heart’, as they marched and unashamedly told the world what He does right now, and plans to do in the future. Graham says that while it’s part of the ‘kingdom is now and not yet’ explanation that Jesus told followers more than two millennia ago, the message that he’s conveying focuses on an outgrowth from the ‘not yet’ part – that we have hope, even as we live in the ‘not yet’ time. The organizers of March for Jesus, which was first planned in London in 1987, thought believers from various denominations could fix their attention, and of those watching, on Jesus. He is Lord, and will come to take us home – unquestionably the greatest source of an ‘Amen’ in the believer’s life. The thoughts of his majesty and holiness (v.1); his all-powerful sacrifice that purchases certain redemption for all (v.2); and the presence of Him in us now and for all times (v.3), are enough to make Graham’s song’s title words leap from the spirit of the worshipper in every other line of the song. Because of the way Graham’s song words flow, heaven is unambiguously a place of never-ending ecstasy. Who couldn’t march for that!  

 

After London, the March for Jesus took off in many other places, and is continuing to spread and be celebrated today. It stretched across the United Kingdom, Europe, North America, and to Brazil, where millions took part in 1993. There’s March for Jesus times scheduled for the United States in all 50 states and more in 2022, according to the website for the event. But, you and I don’t need to wait until next year to do what Graham Kendrick has given us opportunity to do already, today. Let it show in my words, in my attitude, in my behavior, and on my face. Graham and the others who organized the first march must have thought that what we have is too wonderful to keep to ourselves. Eternity, now and in the next phase of existence, is big and beautiful, with our God present to crown our faith. What could be better!  

 

See here for author biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Kendrick

See here for the song’s brief story: https://www.grahamkendrick.co.uk/stories-behind-the-songs/stories-behind-the-song/heaven-is-in-my-heart

Here is the description of the event for which the song was developed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_for_Jesus

See the official site of the event that the author and others organize across the world: https://themarchforjesus.org/