CREEDE HINSHAW: Hymn has rich historic background

One thing I love about traditional worship is the inclusion of hymns from across the centuries. While contemporary hymns and praise songs are commendable and while worship services set in the current vernacular and imagery appeal to many, there is rich value in being reminded in worship — even indirectly or subtly — that Christians of every age, race and culture have offered praises to God.

Last Sunday morning in worship, our congregation sang the Transfiguration Sunday hymn “O Wondrous Sight! O Vision Fair” (page 258, United Methodist Hymnal). About that dazzling revelation of Jesus atop the mountain the lyrics proclaim:

And faithful hearts are raised on high by this great vision’s mystery;

For which in joyful strains we raise the voice of prayer, the hymn of praise.

Our hymnal noted the text of the hymn came from the Sarum Breviary, 1495.

Only a worship geek would be inspired by that liner note, but I found it uplifting. Having traveled in Wiltshire, England, admired Salisbury’s cathedral on the River Avon and pondered the ancient standing stones at Stonehenge and nearby Avebury, I felt a kinship with these earlier Christians at Sarum, the name of that region of England long before the modern era.

Some 600 years ago, the worship book and hymnal of the Sarum Christians were definitive for most Christians in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and even some of the kingdoms of continental Europe. Long before the British had the “Book of Common Prayer,” there was the “Sarum Rite,” an order of worship itself stretching back centuries. Long before the renowned hymn-writers Charles Wesley and Isaac Watts, Sarum Christians were singing songs passed down generation by generation from one Christian to the next.

Did anybody make note of this in our Transfiguration Sunday worship service? Of course not. There’s no time in worship for the liturgist or pastor to explain the rich background of all the elements of worship. Talk about eyes glazing over. People come to worship for many reasons, but very few come to get a lecture on the history of worship.

Nevertheless, the United Methodist Hymnal (and many other hymn books) does the worshiper a favor by including the author and date of every hymn text as well as the composer of the tune and date composed. An observant worshiper is therefore enabled, in some small way, to connect with Christians from many nations and eras while singing the songs of faith.

I was quite tempted, I must confess, to pull out my phone on the spot and search for Sarum Breviary in the middle of the worship service. Anticipating the scowl this would bring from my wife, I resisted the urge. But later that afternoon I spent a profitable time reading about this ancient rite on the internet. In terms of the worship service that morning, it was enough to have some inkling of connection with Christians half a millennium ago, marveling as they once did over Jesus’ transfiguration and our adoration of him.

Email Creede Hinshaw at [email protected].