Easter People: Jane Parker Huber and Carolyn Winfrey Gillete

Acts 9:36-42

Fourth Sunday of Easter:  April 21, 2013

I’ve been thinking about resurrection.  Given today’s text, not to mention the fact that we are still in the Easter season, you can probably imagine why.  Anyway, what I’ve been thinking about is that there are multiple resurrections in our scriptures.  While it’s rare, and clearly a sign of major power in the one who resurrects, it is not unique to Jesus.  There’s Lazarus, Jarius’ daughter – both raised by Jesus.  And then today we have Tabitha – raised by Peter himself.

When we look at the non Jesus resurrections we notice that in all cases, after their resurrection, they are alive again, basically as they were before…at least physically.  And, we know they will die again.  They are still mortal.

One of the things I take away from this is that, for the authors of our bible, resurrection is not about living forever on this earth – never dying, never escaping our mortality.  But I don’t think we can deny that resurrection, at least symbolically, was, for them, about moving from death to new life…something in the person changes.  Something in the world is different even if the physical surroundings remain.  New life, in the midst of the old, is always possible. This is good news because it means resurrection is happening all around us and can happen anywhere, anytime.

Tabitha was resurrected – new life.  Yet she was also her old self – fully human, still living in, and subject to, all the forces of good and bad we know in our lives.  The combination of old and new life gives us clues, I think, to how we might live resurrection today.

Too often we think new replaces old.  New is good, better; old is outdated, obsolete.  But even in resurrection, some of the old is retained.  Resurrection means the old continues to live, but in surprising new ways that bring new life.  In resurrection, we learn there is always something new to be found – something that, while connected to the past, bursts forth giving the past new meaning and life.

Religious music is an incredible example of this kind of resurrection.  For music to be able to move us to transcendence, it must continue to live; to constantly be resurrected, but I do think we lose something if the new merely replaces the old.  And unlike the bible, since Jesus’ time the church has felt free to compose new music, write new words, to speak about God to the faithful people of the day.

There are two great Presbyterian hymn writers that have found ways to do this, and it has affected many, many people who love to connect to God through song:  Jane Parker Huber and Carolyn Gillette Winfrey.  Both of these women realized that, while the music of the church had for centuries connected people to God, some of it had also grown problematic because the language and theology had not grown with that of the Church’s, and so was losing its life for many people.

We know that God is always speaking a new word in our midst.  Contexts change and, because we will never know the fullness of God completely, we continue to grow in our faith, finding new ways to understand God today.

Both Huber, who has passed away, and Gillete, a Presbyterian minister in Delaware, have participated in the church at every level and have always loved the church deeply.  They also both found an inner need to write new words for our time and place.  Each experienced a tension between loving old hymns and feeling, at times, alienated from the words, because so many things had changed since the original words were penned.

One of the first hymns Huber wrote is one of my favorites, and we sang it on Easter:  Live Into Hope.  The original words set to this tune, in 1642, began with, “Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates, behold the king of glory waits.”  These words, I suspect, were very timely and contextual in 1642, but it’s not language we tend to use today. 

Huber explains that when she wrote Live into Hope in 1976 it was, “a time when people were beginning to realize that there were many ideas alive in the church but without expression in hymnody.” 

“Live into hope of captives freed,

Of sight regained, the end of greed,” her words begin. 

Economic and racial disparity were at the forefront of people’s minds, and in discussions within the churches.  Ideas alive, but without expression in hymnody.  And so Parker began a career in expressing new ideas in old tunes. 

Carolyn Gillette Winfrey is well known for writing hymns that speak to present issues.  Often when tragedy strikes our world, people turn to her for new words connected with old tunes that evoke our deepest emotions.  She writes, “It times of great joy or challenge, reflection and recommitment, awe and emotion, we [often] find ourselves remembering and singing the music of the church…I hope that these new words will help congregations to reflect on their faith in new ways and make connections between the Christian faith and contemporary life.”  Remembering and making new:  Resurrection in musical form.

This week [week of the Boston bombings], many churches were lifting up her hymn “God of Mercy, You Have Shown Us”, set to a very familiar tune:  Beech Spring.

God, we pray for those who suffer when this world seems so unfair;
May your church be quick to offer loving comfort, gentle care.
And we pray: Amid the violence, may we speak your truth, O Lord!
Give us strength to break the silence, saying, "This can be no more!"

Our hymns this morning are written by these two amazing women.  The rest of our music is provided by this amazing choir.  A living example right in front of us of the same kind of resurrection.  We are blessed with a whole group of additional Easter people this morning.  Sacred music – old and new.  In this case we have pieces that draw on the familiar words of the bible; “Let’s go to the house of the lord, “Make a joyful noise to God all you people,” “the Lord bless and keep you and make his countenance to shine upon you.”  Words from ancient, sacred writings, set to music in the present.  It’s resurrection, and it takes us somewhere.  We can feel that this morning; we know that.

I give great thanks to all these music makers.  Huber and Gillete have used their words and poetry coupled with tunes that reside deep in our hearts to speak to us in new ways about God and this world.  And when people can make music as beautifully as this choir [Pella Christian Chamber Choir] can, there is no way I can’t sit in awe at what God has made possible.  Huber says, it’s music that teaches us about faith.  I love what we’re learning today.  Amen.