Mary Did You Know? -- Mark Lowry

 

Did he know, that what he wrote would be debated? Mark Lowry was just writing some script for a Christmas play, and he thought about questions that he might have posed to Mary, if he’d had the opportunity to interview her. “Mary, Did You Know?”, he wondered aloud. It would have been something, to have been one of her close friends or family members when she was carrying Jesus, or to see her years later during episodes with that special son. Was Jesus tame, or instead provocative? You cannot read much of your bible and not know that answer. And so, a song about the mother of this unique God-Son, and what she knew about Him, might naturally also give some people difficulty. A young girl can know some things, because she is told by God’s messenger. But can she really know, in detail?  Perhaps that’s what Mark Lowry was asking.

 

It was the 1984 Christmas season, and 26-year-old Mark Lowry was thinking about some ways to personalize a play, with lots of questions that ask the listener to put him- or herself in Mary’s shoes. Critics have complained that Mark’s questions are illogical or otherwise off the mark, especially since scripture (including Luke chapters 1 and 2) does tell us of her encounter with the angel, and that she actually ‘treasured…and pondered them (the related facts about Him) in her heart.’ Yes, she knew of His identity, and evidently spent some mental energy on that fact. Synonyms for the word ‘ponder’, according to this blogger’s WORD application, include ‘muse’, ‘deliberate’, ‘consider’, contemplate’, ‘wonder about’.  Those synonyms do not include ‘completely comprehend’, or even ‘understand’. If Mary had understood everything, why would she have been weeping at the foot of His cross? And so, Mark Lowry had a number of questions that sought answers. Or, maybe some of the questions were in fact merely rhetorical. Mary had been told He was the Messiah, the Son of God, so why ask if she knew He was ‘the Great I Am’? Or how about that He ’would rule the nations’, or was the ‘Lord of creation’? She did know, at least to some degree, but even certainty can nevertheless prompt extended periods of mental searching. ‘What does all His identity mean?’, must have crossed Mary’s mind many times. Perhaps it did also for Mark Lowry, for he says that even after the lyrics were written, it took several more years for accompanying music to gestate in a friend (Buddy Greene). How about those other details of His life – ‘walking on water’, ‘saving all people’, ‘making even Mary new’ (v.1)? Still more stunning details that Jesus would reveal about Himself included ‘healing the blind’ and ‘calming a storm’ (v.2). ‘Mary, did you know?’, might more accurately have been phrased as ‘Mary, how could you have totally appreciated all that Jesus was and is’?

 

Mark Lowry wasn’t trying to be a theologian when he asked so many questions of Mary. Human-to-human was Mark’s approach. It is astonishing that God blessed this teenager in this way, no doubt. But she was human, just like you and me. And, so was Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, David, Elizabeth (Mary’s relative), Paul, and many others to whom God gave a mission. Just read what one writer had to say about such people as these (Hebrews 11). They all had questions, and all were imperfect, and that was OK. If God’s not stunning, and making you ask questions, are you really listening? He’s ready to use you and me, flawed as we are. Just try not asking questions. That’s the impossible part of relating to Him.  

 

 

 

See biography of the author here, and a brief account of the song story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Lowry

 

Information about the song: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary,_Did_You_Know%3F

 

Complete interview with the author, explaining the origin of the song: https://blog.sheetmusicdirect.com/2017/09/how-well-do-you-know-mary-did-you-know.html

Nothing But the Blood -- Robert Lowry

He knew something about the body and what made it alive, one might say. But, of exactly which body was he really thinking when he wrote something about that fluid that runs through all our veins, keeping the human body functioning? It wasn’t really the scientific perspective of blood cells (a red and white cell, and a platelet are pictured here) that Robert Lowry wanted to address when he thought about “Nothing But the Blood” in 1876. He was 50 years old, and for the previous two or three decades he’d been involved with church work in several places, so one can fathom that the body that concerned him most was those masses of people that filled the places of worship where he often spoke. And, the blood wasn’t his or anyone else’s in those buildings. It’s plain from what he wrote, that even if it wasn’t his or another churchgoer’s blood, this blood was no less necessary – in fact, vital – for his and others’ survival.

By the time Robert Lowry had written about blood and published this hymn in 1876, he’d likely spoken to many crowds to make his plea for hearers to use this blood of which he spoke. He was an ordained minister, after all, and had helped guide numerous churches in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania in the Christian faith. So, one can hear Robert sermonizing very naturally about Jesus and the blood He offered to cleanse those who would accept this Divine gift. Virtually every Sunday sermon he offered might have contained such a reference – probably hundreds, if not thousands of times, then. Perhaps it was after one or many of a series of such sermons that spurred him to write the simple six-verse message in “Nothing But the Blood”. He must have from time to time encountered seekers who thought they weren’t properly prepared to respond to God’s call. Or, maybe there were others who thought they needed to do more than just accept His grace, or that they’d done too much wrong to ever be clean. ‘Torment and punishment is my destiny’, Pastor Robert might have heard someone utter in despair. It was Robert’s charge to let them know that this blood was all they needed. He said it repeatedly to drive home the point, in fact twice in each of his six verses, and once again in the refrain. We know not the particular circumstances of Robert’s inspiration for “Nothing But the Blood”, but his vocation makes the hymn’s development no real mystery. We could even speculate what words, more or less, Robert might have said from the pulpit before asking them to sing this hymn and respond. We still hear it today, don’t we?

Ever given your own blood, perhaps at a Red Cross event? Personally, I cannot watch even the pin-prick of my finger as the nurse checks to see if I have plenty of iron in my bodily fluid to safely surrender some. And, at some like the one I attended seven days ago, the staff has a movie playing to give the donators something upon which to focus – probably so they don’t sweat the needles in the arms and the red flowing out! I am willing to give, but I don’t wanna look, you know? Robert wants me to look, and notice the blood that He gave, and that I receive. It’s more than a casual glance. Don’t be squeamish, Robert says. This blood has more than just red and white cells and platelets. Try on Robert’s song and see what else this blood brings.   

     

See more information on the song story in these sources: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; and Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990.

Also see the composer’s brief biography here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/l/o/w/r/lowry_r.htm

…and here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lowry_(hymn_writer)

Also see this link, showing all six original verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/n/b/t/nbtblood.htm

Shall We Gather at the River? -- Robert Lowry

He had what someone might say was a vision. And, there was lots of death about him that summer of 1864, so was he getting a preview of Revelation? Robert Lowry was a 38-year old minister who was doing what his profession required when he felt overwhelmed, and as a result wrote a musical question,“Shall We Gather at the River?” Was it the Jordan River, of biblical renown, that he envisioned (and shown here)? He must have helped many grieving families cope with death at that time in Brooklyn, New York, so he wouldn’t have been ridiculed for feeling a bit apocalyptic. Was it just a coincidence what happened to Lowry, the confluence of events that compelled his poetic spirit amidst the tragedy he was witnessing? Was his God present? These and perhaps many other questions may have occurred to this composer, and he had at least one question’s answer as he wrote out the hymn’s words that day.

Robert Lowry was, ironically, a composer who might have preferred to have not been, compared to his other role as a minister. It is reported that Lowry once noted he felt a sense of loss as he came to be more well-known for his hymns than for his sermons. Nevertheless, he wrote some 500 texts over his lifetime, including collaboratively with Fanny Crosby and Annie Hawks, two fellow hymnists in the New York area. Lowry was ordained as a minister by 1854 upon his graduation from Bucknell (central Pennsylvania), and his subsequent role in multiple churches may in fact have played a part in what took place 10 years hence. He was the lead pastor in two churches in the New York City area, as well as in others in West Chester, Pennsylvania and in New Jersey. One can imagine that Robert may have had plenty on his plate at any one time, given all these church tentacles! Indeed, one sultry July 1864 day, Lowry was apparently very fatigued as a result of overwhelming events related to his ministry to the people. A plague was killing many in the region, including members of one church and a family to whom he spoke one day. When Robert comforted them with images of Revelation and the symbolic River of Life that the beloved apostle records in a vision, his own words must have lingered in his thoughts later, as he lay collapsed on a couch. It was there that the words to “Shall We Gather…” occupied his thoughts, first as a question, and then as the answer ‘Yes…’ that he recorded in the hymn’s refrain. It must have been exhilarating to hear the question and then the answer in his mind’s eye as he lay, trying to physically and emotionally recover from the day’s and the summer’s pestilential events. Maybe that episode was one that spurred him to continue hymn-writing, seeing it as a worthy extension of his ministry. His musical career did continue for some time, as he not only wrote hundreds of hymns, but also co-edited dozens of songbooks in the subsequent years.      

   

Robert’s experience is once again a testimony that death’s impact can nevertheless have a silver lining for those listening to their insides. Robert apparently did not try to avoid what he encountered. He embraced it. He must have advised and comforted many people whose lament he heard, telling them what they needed to hear. It’s reported that Lowry had thought about death and crossing the Jordan, and perhaps therein lay his exhaustion, in the multitude of people he and others thought of as lifeless. He said he’d wondered why more writers had not focused instead on life in the crossing of Revelation’s river. The mental anguish was real in his experience, as he asked ‘Shall we gather’ – in other words will we all face death? But, in saying ‘Yes’, Robert was coaxing his listeners and himself that it’s better to think about the reality of what else, besides death, will accompany us and others in that experience. Try on a little of Revelation. It’s more than somebody’s dream.  

See information on the song story in these sources: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; Then Sings My Soul – 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories, Robert J. Morgan, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003; and A Treasury of Hymn Stories – Brief Biographies of 120 Hymnwriters with Their Best Hymns, by Amos R. Wells, Baker Book House, 1945.

Also see this link, showing all five original verses:

http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/s/w/g/swgatriv.htm   

See link here for biography of composer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lowry_(hymn_writer)