O for a thousand tongues.
Julie Nicholson shares her experience of listening to a famous hymn and worshiping in church without singing.
If you either saw (or listened to) the 11am service or attended the 3pm service on Sunday 13 September you will have heard this song. I did both. At the 11am, in the comfort of my own home, I sang along to the six verses of that famous Wesley hymn. When it started playing during the afternoon service, I was sitting in the Barclay Viewforth sanctuary, experiencing my first live ‘in-person’ service since lockdown. As we aren’t permitted to sing under current restrictions, I closed my eyes when the music started. Earlier, at the Church Online platform, Moray had commented that he could hear Bill singing from the choir. As I sat in church and heard our voices recorded only a few months ago, I visualised the congregation around me. Although it didn’t sound as it would in real life with the voices all around, it still sounded like us. And I found the experience quite powerful and moving. That song, which was written in 1739 (and originally had 18 stanzas), is much older than Barclay Viewforth. But during the 156 years that our building has been standing, that hymn must have been sung by thousands and thousands of different voices. And so it felt very appropriate that it was played there. Despite it being like never before, those recorded voices were adding to the communal worship that has taken place year after year in that place, through good times and bad.
That hymn of course has a story. Charles had been suffering from pleurisy, a lung disease caused by a virus which causes breathing problems. At the same time he was doubting his faith. His fellow Christians gathered around to help him, both physically and spiritually. The hymn was born out of his recovery. In this new time of virus which causes breathing problems, let us hold onto the the fact, that even in times of great trial, and even if we doubt God, we can come through and our fellow Christians can help support us. The challenges today are different, and the separation that we feel from each other may cause us a lot of sadness. But we are here for each other, and we can pray for each other, even if we don’t know what else to do. And we can sing. Even if we are at home by ourselves. We can continue to praise God.
