Cornerstone -- Edward Mote, Eric Liljero, Jonas Myrin, Reuben Morgan

 

Some music lovers would probably have said that there’s a silver lining in this tragic episode. Reuben Morgan and his co-writers Jonas Myrin and Eric Liljero would probably actually say that the message of the “Cornerstone” song they collaborated to write was a lot more than a silver lining. This Divine One about whom they sang in 2011 was a God capable of turning things upside down, which is what believing people in Scandinavia, and indeed around the world, needed to help make sense of what had just happened. Senseless hate and death had hurting people searching for answers, as they pored over the heartbreaking news from Norway and two places where events had invaded; one was a place called Utoya Island (see a map/picture here, and note the red circle), a place where the infamy won’t soon be forgotten. Mercifully, it will however be outlived by the One we call Cornerstone.

 

Reuben Morgan tells the story of how ‘Cornerstone’ emerged in 2011, in the wake of a car bombing and a mass shooting in Norway. He relates (in a New Song Café telling of the story on 7/14/2016, see link below) that he was in Stockholm, Sweden just about the same time in July 2011 when terrorists killed 77 people in two places (one in Oslo, the capital; the other at a summer camp at Utoya Island), leaving people in shock, including kids who had been at the camp and saw their friends die. What could they do to help, Reuben and his friends Jonas Myrin (another songwriter) and Eric Liljero (worship pastor in Stockholm’s Hillsong Church) wondered. What made them think of the classic old hymn written by Edward Mote (My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less) is not known, except that they all thought its original words fit their circumstances and that this was the message people needed at that moment. They re-shaped the melody and added a new chorus to emphasize that Jesus is an anchor – a cornerstone -- who can be relied upon during times like that. These suffering Norwegians had just been in ‘the storm’, and certainly needed a ‘Lord’ who could turn the ‘weak’ into ‘strong’. Mote’s nearly two-centuries old poetry still had a balm for their aching hearts. ‘Hope’ in our world is based only on Jesus’ righteous act to spill His own blood for everyone else (v.1). ‘Darkness’ might seem to obscure even God’s visage at times like July 2011, but His ‘grace’ endures, no matter how fierce the storm, because Jesus is a firm ‘anchor’ (v.2). All believers can await the ‘trumpet sound’ with composure, since he transmits His own ‘righteous’ and ‘faultless’ attributes to each of us; we won’t stand before His ‘throne’ naked and vulnerable (v.3). He won’t let the ground crumble beneath us on that last eternal day, even if we might have felt like that was happening here on earth on July 22^nd, 2011. That indeed is a message with more that a sliver lining in it, even for those who experienced the numbing events in Oslo and on Utoya Island.   

 

Reuben emphasized that writing songs is ‘pastoral’ work, meaning that songs aren’t just composed to sound pretty in God’s ears and satisfy our internal temperaments. Instead, incidents like those of 22 July 2011 affect masses of people; Reuben shared that he thought lots of Norwegians knew people who were affected personally on that day. And so, songwriting has a purpose, to help the emotionally afflicted people trying to work and sing through what they were feeling about their faith. Reuben felt that hymns throughout history have been like that for believers. They speak of real life, gritty and ugly though it may be, with a beam of light shining through that gets larger and brighter as time elapses. That light will eventually envelope everything, except those that run instead for the darkness, like that in July 2011. Get ready with more songs to counter the darkness in our world. Reuben and company are doing their part, so let’s join them in this work!

 

See this link for an interview with one songwriter (Reuben Morgan) about this song: https://www.worshiptogether.com/songs/cornerstone-hillsong-worship/

 

Information on the 2011 attacks in Norway: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Norway_attacks

My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less -- Edward Mote

Edward Mote must have been thinking about the contrasts of his experience during a few days in 1834, differences that nevertheless did not leave him confounded but rather upbeat and confident. He was observing at least two parts of life at the time that he composed “My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less” in 1834. The hymn’s alternate contemporary title (The Solid Rock) is more revealing about his conclusion regarding what he was observing, and his original title for the song is still more indicative of Mote’s position. “The Immutable Basis of a Sinner’s Hope”, or “The Gracious Experience of a Christian” – do either of those convey how I approach my time daily, despite the slow decay of life?

Edward Mote was a cabinetmaker and believer in England during the early part of the 19^th Century, a dual-track life that gave rise to his composition as a 37-year old. He’d been used to fashioning wood into cabinets for about 20 years, and it was no wonder that he might have been thinking about a piece of wood one day on his way to work. What kind of wood might it have been, perhaps something pretty hard and sturdy, like oak? (See cross-section picture here of an oak.)

He must have observed or been lectured as an apprentice about the imprudent use of other softer wood in his craft. Something difficult to cut would have the advantage of endurance, he knew. It’s said that Mote thought of the hymn’s chorus—the solid, rock-like, and unsinkable nature of Christ—as he walked to his work that day. The verses came later, perhaps as he continued to ponder his work and his faith, and how the former held lessons for the latter. A visit to a friend’s dying wife the next day must have been still more instructive, where he couldn’t have missed noticing how fragile life might become. Wood, even an oak, might eventually succumb to beetles or disease or just age, even as one’s body does. How much rotten wood do you suppose Edward had seen in 20 years? More importantly, a disintegrating human life, even if it’s measured and grace-filled, is still certain. So when Edward shared the verses he’d just penned, probably for the first time with this couple (their surname was King), was it accidental that he just happened to have them in his pocket when he came calling?

Was ‘the sweetest frame’ in Mote’s first verse a cabinet he was especially proud of making that week, contrasted with Jesus’ gift toward him and his fellow believers? Wood, though the structure of probably most buildings of Mote’s day, could fail because of fire, wind – acts of God, as they might be characterized in most insurance policies, right? Compare that fact to what He’s like, what we can depend on, Mote reflected. It’s not known if Mote talked with this couple about his work—including what ‘sweetest frame’ meant—but his words resonated, reportedly. I have to work and make a living, just as Edward Mote did. I wonder if I might learn something at my labor this week that could show up on a musical score…what might that resemble?

  

Information on the song was obtained from the books  Amazing Grace – 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, 1990, Kregel Publications; The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, 2006, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.; Then Sings My Soul – 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories, Robert J. Morgan, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003.; and 101 More Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1985. 

See also here for four verses and refrain of hymn, and the hymn’s story: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/m/y/h/myhopeis.htm

 

See also here for history of the hymn: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Hope_Is_Built_on_Nothing_Less