The Spirit of God

This hymn was featured as Hymn of the Day Facebook post in April, but it's worth revisiting.

The Spirit of God is #2 in the LDS hymnal.
https://www.lds.org/music/library/hymns/the-spirit-of-god?lang=eng

You can learn about the hymn and listen to it here.
http://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/articles/the-spirit-of-god?lang=eng

This is great tune that has long been one of my favorites to sing and play.  Today, I'm just going to be sharing new insights. 

The visions and blessings of old are returning

Visions and blessings are powerful words.  They speak of revelation and they speak of God's grace. But visions and blessings are not limited to Mormons.  When I first went to Unity Church, I expected some things to be very different from what I was used to, and I was right.  But some things were very similar too.  I had to smile as I heard someone say that they were a church that believed in personal revelation and that they were a covenant-making people.  They are also a people with vision.  They see what can be and work to bring it to pass.  And they are helping my visions and blessings to return.

The Lord is extending the Saints' understanding

 I'm learning and growing and understanding more everyday.

The veil o'er the earth is beginning to burst.  

Here's something interesting I just learned.  My brain has always associated the word "apocalypse" with the destruction that will occur, but it is literally the lifting of the veil or revelation.  Like the Restoration I discussed yesterday, I think that the lifting of the veil is ongoing and happening right now.  

We'll call in our solemn assemblies in spirit,
To spread forth the kingdom of heaven abroad,
That we through our faith may begin to inherit
The visions and blessings and glories of God.  

See yesterday's discussion of the Beloved Community.  That is the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, Zion.  And we are in charge of spreading it.  And it isn't just about conversion.  It is first and foremost about love.  And even in Mormon services we talk about how we are God's hands.  We are the ones through which he can bless others.

How blessed the day when the lamb and the lion
Shall lie down together without any ire. 

This is honestly what I want more than anything.  I need peace.  I need people who were formerly enemies to sit side by side.  I need us to disagree but do it with love and respect.  But once again, this is not something that we can wait for God to take care of.  It is our task.

May Nothing Evil Cross This Door

Today's hymn is #1 in Singing the Living Tradition, and I'll be honest, the title did not draw me in. But by the end of the 4th verse, I was in love.  You can read all 4 verses here.

https://youtu.be/C4rSAIts3MA

Although some UU hymns, including this one, are very different from the hymns I grew up singing in the LDS church, I am often shocked by their beauty.  The topics are different, the use of the language is different, but the Truth shines through, often in ways that I had lost with the oft-repeated tunes of my youth.  Although I railed against it, even in my own life, those LDS hymns had become just words.  We all breathed at the same places, mispronounced the same words, and didn't really pay any attention to what it was we were singing about.  It was an item on an agenda rather than enrichment.  Meeting running a little long?  Cut the hymn.  It doesn't matter anyway.

But stepping into a new church made me really think about the hymns.  Because I'm a musician, I'm familiar with many hymn tunes beyond those of my LDS tradition, but each Sunday at Unity seems to find a way of challenging me with at least one new hymn.  I've made it a habit to arrive early so I can read through the words and do a little solfege in my head so it doesn't seem like sight-reading when I sing with the congregation.  But even then, there are complications. Sometimes, the hymn selected is not in our hymnals and they just print words in the program.  And sometimes even though I've read through the words, the power of Truth that hits me as I sing with the congregation brings me to tears.  I have felt Truth when I've sung before, but there's something different about hearing it come out of your own mouth for the first time while standing in a place where the love is palpable.  The bonus of all this is that it is making me really look at Mormon hymns again for those moments of Truth, the places where I can find my truth and my place again.

But back to the focus of this post, "May Nothing Evil Cross This Door."

By faith made strong, the rafters will
withstand the battering of the storm.

I'll be really honest.  One of the things I love about Unity is this old building.  You can see pictures of the Sanctuary and the Chapel here.   Architecture can carry so much symbolism.  I don't see symbols in LDS Chapels.  I can't stop finding symbols at Unity.  (I'm probably finding things that were never intended.)  When I read the quote above, I saw the structure of the Sanctuary at Unity Church.  I heard again the cloud burst that threatened (unsuccessfully, I might add) to drown out the soloist singing, "If we come together, we can mend the crack in the sky," on Arthur Foote Music Sunday.  (Listen to the whole service or click on "We Can Mend the Sky" here.)  Although many of us do or have struggled with the concept of faith, it was at Unity that I found mine and it is in the process of being made strong.

With laughter drown the raucous shout,
and, through these sheltering walls are thin,
may they be strong to keep hate out
and hold love in.  

Unity Church-Unitarian is a place where I feel safe.  That's a major thing for me. Those walls provide a container for our love and joy to grow and be safe.  But the love doesn't stop at the walls.  They're made of this wonderful material that allows that love to travel far beyond the walls of our church, to stretch beyond our congregation into the larger community and into the world.

This first hymn in the UU hymnal is a blessing, but also a beautiful description of what we aspire to be and do.

Are there places in your life that provide the blessings described here?

Are there hymns or other songs that remind you of those place and your part in creating them?

The Morning Breaks

Since I haven't been very good at keeping track of which hymns I've used for Hymn of the Day, I decided that with a few exceptions, I'll start at the beginning of the hymnals and go in order for these posts.  There are 341 hymns in the LDS hymnal (actually fewer than that because some are duplicates, arranging the hymns for just men or just women), 415 in the UU hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition (again some possible duplicates), and 75 more in the UU hymnal supplement, Singing the Journey. Plus, there are a few hymns common to both the UU and Mormon hymnals.  I think I have enough material to keep me busy for a little while.

When I was in college, I had the wonderful opportunity of studying with one of the members of the committee that put together the 1985 LDS hymnal.  I learned wonderful things from him, and will always remember that he said that the hymnal should be viewed as one of the Standard Works (the officially recognized scripture of the church including the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price.)

At the bottom of each hymn in this hymnal, you will also find two scripture references related to the subject matter covered in the hymn.  I'm not always going to reference those, but you can look them up by clicking on the links found on the hymn pages that I will provide.

We'll jump into the info about the hymn with some of the stuff that I usually include in a Hymn of the Day post.  This is your opportunity to read and search and listen if you want to.

#1 The Morning Breaks

The music and text, with links to the scripture passages can be found here.

Here are two recordings to listen to, one with just organ, and one with full orchestra.  I'm not sure why I'm not able to embed the videos, but here are some links.

https://youtu.be/HYux_z9pueo

https://youtu.be/usbMQ8bLeFw


You can get some general info about the song here.

I haven't listened to this podcast yet, but I love that Parley P. Pratt was inspired by a poem by Charles Wesley.  Now I have to look that up too.

OK, the Wesley poem is seriously powerful.  And that whole Jacob wrestling the angel story keeps popping up over and over again in my life recently.  Read Wesley's poem here.

My thoughts

In my mind, this hymn is synonymous with both the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Restoration. For Parley P. Pratt it was probably nothing less and nothing more than his testimony of the glorious restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the knowledge that once again the fullness of the gospel was available to all.  

I cannot separate it from what I know of the choir and the Restoration as taught by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. But one of the blessings of stepping away for a little while is the gift of being able to read this text again with new eyes. I see so much more in these words now.  

The dawning of a brighter day
Majestic rises on the world.   

It's not just the LDS church moving out into the world.  Now I also see and hear the progress that Unitarian Universalists are working so hard for in areas of social justice.  It's not easy work.  It may not be completed in our lifetimes, but we can see that sun rising and the "clouds of error" disappearing, one small change at a time.

Thus Zion's light is bursting forth
To bring the ransomed children home.  

In my UU congregation we talk a lot about Beloved Community.

Dr. King’s Beloved Community is a global vision, in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth. In the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it. Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood. In the Beloved Community, international disputes will be resolved by peaceful conflict-resolution and reconciliation of adversaries, instead of military power. Love and trust will triumph over fear and hatred. Peace with justice will prevail over war and military conflict.
Dr. King’s Beloved Community was not devoid of interpersonal, group or international conflict. Instead he recognized that conflict was an inevitable part of human experience. But he believed that conflicts could be resolved peacefully and adversaries could be reconciled through a mutual, determined commitment to nonviolence. No conflict, he believed, need erupt in violence. And all conflicts in The Beloved Community should end with reconciliation of adversaries cooperating together in a spirit of friendship and goodwill.- See more at: http://www.thekingcenter.org/king-philosophy#sthash.98PowdUw.dpuf

 Is that not Zion? Compare these verses from Moses 7.

16 And from that time forth there were wars and bloodshed among them; but the Lord came and dweltwith his people, and they dwelt in righteousness.
18 And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.

Mormons might describe "Zion's light bursting forth" as the massive missionary efforts of the church.  I think many Mormons believe that true conversion to the church will solve all of the other problems of the world.  Unitarian Universalists believe that it is our task to create the peace and the love that we want in the world.  Jesus showed us the way, but the redeeming and ransoming continues through our actions.  

My brain also keeps coming back to this talk by Dieter F. Uchtdorf about how the restoration is still happening.  (The things I love about Pres. Uchtdorf and the things I love about my UU community are very often quite similar.)  He asks, "Are you sleeping through the Restoration?"

Sometimes we think of the Restoration of the gospel as something that is complete, already behind us—Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, he received priesthood keys, the Church was organized. In reality, the Restoration is an ongoing process; we are living in it right now. It includes “all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal,” and the “many great and important things” that “He will yet reveal.”2 Brethren, the exciting developments of today are part of that long-foretold period of preparation that will culminate in the glorious Second Coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
This is one of the most remarkable periods of the world’s history! Ancient prophets yearned to see our day.
When our time in mortality is complete, what experiences will we be able to share about our own contribution to this significant period of our lives and to the furthering of the Lord’s work? Will we be able to say that we rolled up our sleeves and labored with all our heart, might, mind, and strength? Or will we have to admit that our role was mostly that of an observer?

This hymn is also really speaking to me today in symbolic ways regarding my life and my path. There truly is a morning breaking in my life right now.  There are some really difficult things, but the light and truth I'm experiencing are also powerful.  So it's very fitting that this hymn is the one that launches this new blog and the spiritual journey that will accompany it.  

How is the morning breaking in your life?  

Why Another Blog?

That's probably the questions that people are asking.  Jeannine already has a voice blog, a book blog, her regular personal blog, and writes for a group blog (Exploring Sainthood), so why does she need another blog and how on earth will she ever find time to keep up on it?

Back in January, I started running a Hymn of the Day post on Facebook.  It's not every day, and the last few weeks have been pretty sparse, but I've been trying to created several posts each week about hymns.  In those, I give links to the music and text when I can find them.  I also link to videos and background information.  It's been a fun way to share my own exploration of hymns and learn from my friends of different faiths as we compare texts and tunes in our hymnbooks.  I also run a Sunday version where everyone is invited to share something they sang at church that day, something that they wish they had sung, or a favorite hymn.  Again, it's been a great opportunity to connect with my friends from many different backgrounds.

But it wasn't enough.  What I really need for myself right now is a place to share and discuss what I'm learning and feeling and thinking in my encounters with these hymns.  To be honest, I stole this idea from my friend.  She sings with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and has been blogging about her insights and experiences with the music they work on.  You should definitely check out her blog.

So…another project begins.  This might become the new home of Hymn of the Day.  It might be new thoughts about old hymns.  It will mostly likely involve exploring Mormon or Unitarian Universalist beliefs and practices as I dig into what the hymns mean to me right now, at this stage in my journey.

There's an old joke that goes like this:

Q: Why are UUs the worst hymn singers?
A: Because they're always reading ahead to see if they agree with the next line.

Luckily, that is not the case at my UU church.  We have an amazing music ministry AND this congregation can sing!  I understand that the commitment and understanding with which they sing is a relatively new thing for this congregation, but all I can say is that they are a joy to sing with.

From the outside looking in, an outsider might not list music in the top 2 or 3 things they know about the Unitarian Universalists or the *Mormons.  And that is part of the reason for the name of this blog:  "They Also Sing."  For me, that use of "also"is not just a throw away, it is central to why I'm choosing to be involved in both churches.  Music has always been my anchor to my spirituality.  It is through music that I learn who I am, what I believe, and what I want to be.  And that, is what this blog will be about, exploring my faith and my chosen spiritual paths through the hymns.





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*Mormons might have a little more music visibility because of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but I'm pretty sure some of the doctrines and practices of the church are more well known than the music.