This week, our songs were gathered around the theme of communion. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, there is an example of one way you might think of these songs in light of this week's theme. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment at the bottom of this page or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.
Songs
Chariot by Page France
Death in His Grave by John Mark McMillan
When Death Came Calling by Jameson McGregor
Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light
How They Fit In:
There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme.
Chariot: We sang this song to live in the idea that history is moving toward something extravagant, that can aptly be called a "happy ending." For our purposes today, we can identify this happy ending as the Resurrection, and it is as resurrection people that we gather to share communion.
Death in His Grave: In 1 Corinthians 11, we are given the idea that one part of taking communion together is to "proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." We sang this song to think about one part of the death of Christ--the death of Death, proclaiming that Jesus' death changed the way that death works for all of us. The end goal of human life is no longer death, but resurrection.
Because He Lives: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Because He Lives last week: We sang this song to reflect on the way the gift of Jesus impacts our outlook on the future--in Christ, God gave us the gift of a hope that makes it worth getting out of bed each day.
When Death Came Calling: This song puts grief in conversation with the hope of resurrection. We often hear that when Jesus died, Death "lost its sting." I have unfortunately heard this often used to try to discourage grieving people from acknowledging their pain. This is unfortunate. Death indeed lost its permanence, but anyone who has lost a loved one knows that the sting is very much still felt. This song proposes that the Resurrection will redeem not simply the loss of life, but the grief experienced by those who live in the midst of a world where their loved ones die.
Wayward Ones: We sing this song every time we take communion to remind ourselves of a couple of things. First, we are a broken people--though we are seeking to become more like Jesus, we often fail at this. Second, Christ has given Himself for us despite our brokenness. We take communion to remember the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf, even though we did not, and do not, deserve it.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM