all creatures of our god and king
This past Sunday was the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs were gathered with this in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.
Songs:
All Creatures of Our God and King
Pulse by ubcmusic
There by Jameson McGregor
Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light
Anthem by Leonard Cohen
Waking Life by Jameson McGregor
This past Sunday was the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs were gathered with this in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.
Songs:
All Creatures of Our God and King
Mystery by ubcmusic (adapted from Charlie Hall)
Pulse by ubcmusic
Inbreaking by Jameson McGregor
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.
All Creatures of Our God and King: This song invited us to join our voices to the whole of creation in directing our attention toward God.
Mystery: We sang this song to celebrate the death, resurrection, and coming return of Christ, and to acknowledge the way that informs the way we live and move in the world.
Pulse: This song is about the interconnectivity of creation, and asks that the Spirit reawaken us to this reality.
Inbreaking: This song is a plea for the Slaughtered Lamb to enter again into our suffering and make all things new.
Be Thou My Vision: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week’s songs. This is what we said about Be Thou My Vision then: We sang this song to petition God to be our vision, wisdom, security, and hope, as we navigate an uncertain world.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
This past Sunday was the second Sunday of Eastertide, and our songs were gathered with this in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. 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:
Hope by Jameson McGregor
All Creatures of Our God and King by David Crowder* Band
Pulse by ubcmusic
Eternal Anchor by Jameson McGregor
Mystery by ubcmusic (adapted from Charlie Hall)
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.
Hope: This song proclaims the hope of Easter, that the Living God is working to redeem the entire cosmos.
All Creatures of Our God and King: We sang this song to join our voices to all of creation in celebrating God as our Creator, Sustainer, and Re-Creator.
Pulse: This song is a petition for the Spirit to work Resurrection in our hearts and form us in the way of Christ.
Eternal Anchor: This song is about the Living God’s saving love for God’s creatures, and God’s making all things new.
Mystery: We sang this song to celebrate the story of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
Yesterday was the fifth Sunday of Epiphany, and our songs were gathered with this in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. 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:
All Creatures of Our God and King by David Crowder* Band
Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light
Rise Up by BiFrost Arts
Family Band by Jameson McGregor
Wideness by ubcmusic (adapted from F. Faber)
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.
All Creatures of Our God and King: This song invites us to join our voices with the rest of creation in celebrating the Creator and Sustainer of all that is.
Wayward Ones: This is our communion hymn, and it contemplates Christ's self-giving love that is displayed and remembered in the eucharist.
Rise Up: This song is a petition for God to come to the aid and defense of people who are trampled by our systems of power.
Family Band: This song is a plea for God to draw our withered selves into God’s family.
Wideness: We sang this song to continue to remind ourselves on our Epiphany journey that our most grandiose views of God’s mercy and love are in fact minimizations.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
Yesterday was the second Sunday of Epiphany, and the beginning of an important conversation in the life of our church. Our songs were gathered with this in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. 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:
Wild One by Jameson McGregor
All Creatures of Our God and King by David Crowder* Band
Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle
The Word Is Yet Flesh by Jameson McGregor
Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light
Pulse by ubcmusic
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.
Wild One: We sang this song to begin our time together to focus our attention on the God who is greater than our most polished theological systems can account for.
All Creatures of Our God and King: This song invites us to contemplate our familial relationship and unity with all of creation.
Fall Afresh: We sang this song to invite the Spirit to refresh the dry places within us and to reinvigorate our being formed in the way of Christ.
The Word Is Yet Flesh: This song is a plea for the One in whom all things hold together to hold together the fractured body of Christ.
Wayward Ones: This is our communion hymn, and it contemplates Christ's self-giving love that is displayed and remembered in the eucharist.
Pulse: We sang this song to petition the Spirit to reawaken us to our interconnectivity and to teach us to love one another as Christ loved us.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
Yesterday was Christ the King Sunday. Our songs were gathered with this in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. 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:
Crown Him With Many Crowns by ubcmusic
Death In His Grave by John Mark McMillan
All Creatures of Our God and King by David Crowder* Band
Inbreaking by Jameson McGregor
Hope by Jameson McGregor
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.
Crown Him With Many Crowns: We sang this song to begin our time together celebrating the reign of Christ in the Kingdom of God.
Death In His Grave: This song invited us to rehearse the story of the death and Resurrection of Christ.
All Creatures of Our God and King: We sang this song to practice an awareness of our interconnectivity with creation under the care of our Creator and Sustainer.
Inbreaking: This song is a plea for the Slaughtered Lamb to form us in the way of Christ and form our world in the way of the Kingdom.
Hope: This song celebrates the redemptive work of Christ in the life of the world as the light in the darkness the darkness did not overcome, and grasps for the hope that one day every broken piece will find its place again.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
This past Sunday was the twentieth Sunday after Pentecost. Our songs were gathered with this in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. 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:
Mystery by ubcmusic (adapted from Charlie Hall)
Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light
Up On A Mountain by The Welcome Wagon
Mother by Jameson McGregor
All Creatures of Our God and King by David Crowder* Band
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.
Mystery: We sang this song to proclaim the death, resurrection, and return of Christ, and to embrace the story that this Event imposes on our reality.
Wayward Ones: This is our communion hymn, and it contemplates Christ's self-giving love that is displayed and remembered in the eucharist.
Up On A Mountain: This song reminds us that Jesus entered fully into our suffering and occupies the space of our pain through the Spirit even now.
Mother: This song makes use of maternal images to think of the ways that God cares for and protects us.
All Creatures of Our God and King: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week’s songs. This is what we said about All Creatures then: We sang this song to join our voices to the whole of creation in acknowledging the grandeur of the Creator.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
This past Sunday was the nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Our songs were gathered with this in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. 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:
All Creatures of Our God and King by David Crowder* Band
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go by ubcmusic (adapted from G. Matheson)
Where God Has Always Been by Jameson McGregor
Rise Up by Bifrost Arts
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.
Come Thou Fount: We sang this song to turn our attention to who God has been for us, who God is for us, and who God will continue to be for us.
All Creatures of Our God and King: We sang this song to join our voices to the whole of creation in acknowledging the grandeur of the Creator.
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go: We sang this song to grasp for hope in the midst of abandonment. Some of us sang this first-hand, and others sang this on behalf of those who are experiencing a sense of abandonment.
Where God Has Always Been: This song is about God’s consistent identifying with the trampled up the earth, and God’s being-set-against the power structures that do the trampling.
Rise Up: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week’s songs. This is what we said about Rise Up then: This song offered us words with which to ask God to rise to the defense of the trampled of the world, and to remind ourselves what sort of work we are stepping into when we say we are following in the way of Christ.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
Yesterday was the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Our songs were gathered with this in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. 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:
There's A Wideness In God's Mercy by Jameson McGregor (adapted from F. Faber)
Mystery by Jameson McGregor (adapted from Charlie Hall)
All Creatures of Our God and King by David Crowder* Band
Where God Has Always Been by Jameson McGregor
Recording
Here’s a demo recording of Where God Has Always Been:
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.
There's A Wideness In God's Mercy: We sang this song to begin our time contemplating the wideness of the mercy within which we find ourselves.
Mystery: This song offers us a shorthand version of the Gospel story (Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again) as an anthem to raise in the midst of struggle, and a reminder that the way of Christ is costly.
All Creatures of Our God and King: This song invites us to consider our place amongst the family of all of creation, and to offer praise to the Maker of us all.
Where God Has Always Been: This song was written while thinking through the texts from Psalms and Isaiah from the lectionary for last week. It is in praise of the Lord of all with their backs against the wall, reminding us that God has thrown in with the oppressed and forgotten of the world and rises to their defense.
Crown Him With Many Crowns: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Crown Him With Many Crowns then: We sang this song to begin our time by singing about Jesus as Lord of everything.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
Yesterday was the thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Our songs were gathered with this in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. 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:
All Creatures of Our God and King by David Crowder* Band
Amazing Grace by Citizens
Inbreaking 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.
How Great Thou Art: We sang this song to begin our time together by acknowledging the glory of God in creation, what God has done in Christ, and the ongoing redemption of all creation.
All Creatures of Our God and King: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about All Creatures of Our God and King then: We sang this song to join our voices with the whole of creation acknowledging the grandeur of what God has made.
Amazing Grace: This song offers us language to express the work of God's grace in our lives, and challenges us to be present to the ongoing work of God in who we are becoming.
Inbreaking: This song is a plea for God to break into the chaos of our lives and raise up the Kingdom in our midst.
Wayward Ones: This song invites us to remember the self-giving love of Christ as we participate in communion.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
Yesterday was the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost. Our songs were gathered with this in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. 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:
Mystery by ubcmusic (adapted from Charlie Hall)
All Creatures of Our God and King by David Crowder* Band
Pulse by Jameson McGregor
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go by ubcmusic (adapted from Ascend the Hill)
Waking Life by Jameson McGregor
Noise by Jameson McGregor
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.
Mystery: We sang this song to begin our time together proclaiming the death and Resurrection of Jesus, clinging to the sanity and victory of Jesus over the powers and principalities of the world.
All Creatures of Our God and King: We sang this song to join our voices with the whole of creation acknowledging the grandeur of what God has made.
Pulse: We sang this song to petition the Spirit of God to reawaken us to our interconnectivity with all of God's creation.
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go: This song is a plea for God to hold us in the midst of struggle, while also confessing our hope that the love of God has a grip that not even death can break.
Waking Life: This song is about God breaking through the categories that we construct to organize people we perceive to be different from us, replacing our need to fight with a desire to reconcile.
Noise: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Noise then: This song acknowledges the wide gap between what it is to be God and what it is to be us, and proclaims that in spite of this gap, God has moved toward us.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
Yesterday was the ninth Sunday after Pentecost. Our songs were gathered with this in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. 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:
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go by ubcmusic (adapted from Ascend the Hill)
Wearing Thin by Jameson McGregor
All Creatures of Our God and King by David Crowder* Band
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.
Just A Closer Walk With Thee: This song invites us into a key pursuit of ordinary time: turning our attention toward being the presence of Christ in our time and place.
Crown Him With Many Crowns: This song offered us language to speak of Christ as Lord of all, and thus to orient our thoughts about power toward Jesus.
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go: This song offered us words to proclaim that our grasping after God occurs within the context of God's embrace of us.
Wearing Thin: This song is a petition for God to form us into people of zeal for justice and ignite hope in the face of hopelessness.
All Creatures of Our God and King: This song invites us to join our voices with all of creation in acknowledging God as the Creator and Sustainer of all that is. In doing so, we are invited to consider all of creation as our family.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
Yesterday was the first Sunday after Pentecost, also known as Trinity Sunday. Our songs were gathered with this in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. 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:
All Creatures of Our God and King
Wild One by Jameson McGregor
Pulse by Jameson McGregor
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.
Holy, Holy, Holy: We sang this song to begin Trinity Sunday by speaking of the Triune God who evades our mental categories and whose grandeur is beyond what our language can describe.
Come Thou Fount: As Trinity Sunday allows us to speak of God and God's relationship to us cumulatively, this song offers us language to speak of who God has been in order to look ahead to who we might expect God to be for us.
All Creatures of Our God and King: This song orients our worship alongside all of creation, recognizing that the Triune God is working toward the re-Creation of all things.
Wild One: This song speak of God's evading our grasp and always being greater than we can comprehend.
Pulse: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Pulse then: This song is about the Breath of Life in all of creation, and petitions the Spirit to reawaken our hearts to our interconnectivity to all creatures, that we might be moved toward loving as God does.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
Yesterday was the third Sunday of Eastertide, and our songs were gathered with that in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. 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:
All Creatures of Our God and King
Noise by Jameson McGregor
Pulse by Jameson McGregor
Because He Lives by Bill and Gloria Gaither
Heart With No Companion by Leonard Cohen
There's A Wideness in God's Mercy by Jameson McGregor (adapted from F. Faber)
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.
All Creatures of Our God and King: We sang this song to find language to worship the Creator, Sustainer, and now re-Creator of all that is.
Noise: We sang this song to voice Christ's redemption in our stories, his entering into our condition and rewriting it.
Pulse: We sang this song to acknowledge the interconnectivity of Creation and to draw ourselves toward loving our neighbors as ourselves.
Because He Lives: We sang this song to speak of the everyday hope that the Resurrection offers us--not merely a hope that it will all shake out in the end, but that the the Kingdom is breaking in in glimpses even now.
Heart With No Companion: This song is a meditation on the implications of the Resurrected Christ; specifically, the hope that reaches every kind of despair.
There's A Wideness In God's Mercy: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we sang about There's A Wideness in God's Mercy then: We sang this song to celebrate God's mercy and to remind ourselves that any view we hold about God's rigid wrath says more about us than it does God.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
Our last liturgy was the second Sunday of Epiphany, and the songs were gathered with that in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. 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:
Death in His Grave by John Mark McMillan
There by Jameson McGregor
Anthem by Leonard Cohen
All Creatures of Our God and King by David Crowder* Band
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.
How Great Thou Art: As we travel through Epiphany, most of the gospel readings will depict someone acknowledging Jesus as Lord. This song offered us language to join in this posture of acclamation.
Death In His Grave: As we come to know Jesus again this year, this song in some way hits fast-forward on the story, moving on to the Resurrection, but it also contains an extremely important insight: Jesus was executed as a criminal because his teachings and ministry posed a threat to the religious and political order.
There: This song offers us the chance to step back and notice that, though God is present with us in any given situation, God precedes and will outlast any source of anxiety, and the story-we-live-in says that God intends to bring us along to the other side of sorrow as well.
Anthem: In this season of Light, this song reminds us that the Light of hope enters through the cracks of brokenness.
All Creatures of Our God and King: This song echoes the posture of acclamation that we took up in the first song, and offers us the chance to be present to our interconnectivity with the whole of Creation.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
This was the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Our songs were gathered with this in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find 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:
Hope by Jameson McGregor
There's A Wideness In God's Mercy by Jameson McGregor (adapted from F. Faber)
Noise by Jameson McGregor
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go
All Creatures of Our God and King
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.
Hope: We sang this song to begin our time together by locating ourselves within a story whose hope is described as light in darkness--not light that merely comes after darkness, but light that exists within and alongside darkness.
There's A Wideness In God's Mercy: This song is a reminder to us that God's mercy is greater than we deem reasonable, and that our thinking is much more bound by rules than God's. We sang it to proclaim the good news, and to challenge ourselves together to imagine the breadth of God's mercy.
Noise: This song narrates the divine-human relationship, both in broad strokes and on a personal level, and notes two things: 1) humanity consistently fails at being faithful to God, but God always pivots to carry the relationship forward; and 2) God has entered into the depths of humanity and transformed what it is to be human.
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go: This song proclaims God's constancy in relation to us, and offers us the hope that not even death can separate us from the love of God.
All Creatures of Our God and King: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about All Creatures of Our God and King then: We began with this song to join our voices with the rest of creation in expressing thanks and wonder toward the Creator.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
This was the thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Our songs were gathered with this in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find 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:
All Creatures of Our God and King
Rise Up by Bifrost Arts
Shadow 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.
All Creatures of Our God and King: We began with this song to join our voices with the rest of creation in expressing thanks and wonder toward the Creator.
Be Thou My Vision: This song is a petition for God to walk alongside us in the midst of our ordinary lives as our vision, wisdom, security, and hope. It is also a challenge to ourselves to order our concerns around God's concerns.
Rise Up: We sang this song as a prayer for those who are trampled upon and treated as less than, asking that God would rise to their defense.
Shadow: This song is about the impossible task of dying to self, and the frustrating complexity of trying to be more fully formed in the way of Christ. You can hear a studio version of this song here.
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
This was the fifth Sunday after Pentecost. Our songs were gathered with this in mind, and heavily influenced by the selection from Psalm 145 in this week's lectionary set. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find live recordings of a few of them from Sunday morning , and below the recordings, 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:
All Creatures of Our God and King
Crown Him With Many Crowns by Jameson McGregor
Lifted/Lifting by Jameson McGregor
Future/Past by John Mark McMillan
Recordings:
From time to time, we'll post live recordings of the songs from Sunday morning. These recordings aren't what you would call polished--sometimes guitars are out of tune, sometimes the vocals are off--but they are records of moments we've shared together. Here are the songs from this week:
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.
All Creatures of Our God and King: We sang this song to begin our time by praising God as our Creator and Lord both with our words and with an attempt at grasping for a view of other creatures as equally created and loved by God.
Crown Him With Many Crowns: We sang this song to remind ourselves of the lordship of the Suffering God who has drawn us to Godself by drawing near to us in Christ.
Be Thou My Vision: This song is a petition for God to be our vision, wisdom, security, and hope, and we sang it because this is the sort of divine-human relationship that drives the people of God out into the world to join in God's redemption project in creation.
Lifted/Lifting: This song is a plea for God to continue to develop the things we think we already know about who God is, and also to continue to form who we are more fully in the way of Christ.
Future/Past: This song was a look over our shoulder at last week's songs (I was out of town, so there aren't any thoughts from last week's post to place here).
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
This was the first Sunday after Pentecost, which is Trinity Sunday. Our songs were gathered with this in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find recordings from Sunday morning of a few of them, and below the recordings, 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:
All Creatures of Our God and King
Noise by Jameson McGregor
Wild One by Jameson McGregor
Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle
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.
Holy, Holy, Holy: Since it was Trinity Sunday, this seemed like a good song to begin our time together. It's a confession of, and implicit surrender to, God's Otherness--a way of saying that God is beyond our comprehension.
All Creatures of Our God and King: This song imagines all of creation, ourselves included, singing out in praise of the Creator. To sing this song is to at least pay lip service to our interconnectedness with the rest of creation, and also to ascribe a dignity and worth to the earth, animals, plants, stars, etc., that we often only afford humans (and sometimes, worse, just the humans that are like us). In light of Trinity Sunday, we might consider this song to acknowledge the unity of the loving community of the Trinity being painted across all of creation.
Noise: This song traces the vast difference between God and humanity, and also narrates God's transgressing of that difference in the Incarnation. It explores how God's triunity both accounts for this difference and bridges the gap.
Wild One: This song is about God's always being beyond our full comprehension, and always being able to smash through the idols we make of who we expect God to be.
Fall Afresh: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Fall Afresh then: We sang this song to step into the Pentecost story by confessing a desire for the Spirit to indwell our community and set us on the way of Christ.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
This week was Transfiguration Sunday, the final Sunday of Epiphany, and our songs were gathered with this in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find recordings from Sunday morning of a few of them, and below the recordings, 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:
Revelation Song by Kari Jobe
All Creatures of Our God and King
Mystery by Jameson McGregor (adapted from Charlie Hall)
The Transfiguration by Sufjan Stevens
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.
Revelation Song: The Transfiguration is one of those moments in the gospel narrative where Jesus' particularity is underscored. There aren't words to accurately describe the wonder of this moment, but Revelation Song offers language to talk about it sideways through giving voice to various responses to God's wonder.
All Creatures of our God and King: This song is a rallying cry for every aspect of God's creation to sing of God's grandeur, and voice gratitude for God's creative impulse. This, again, is a sideways response to talking about Jesus' transfiguration, this moment whose significance isn't well-captured by words.
Mystery: We sang this song to acknowledge that the mystery of the Transfiguration is paradigmatic for the mystery of Jesus in his Person, and settles into the positive affirmation that Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again, as a way to talk about Jesus' particularity without attempting to make Jesus into an equation to be solved.
The Transfiguration: This song literally narrates the Transfiguration. Listen to it, and know that writing a song that literally narrates a bible story without coming off as trite or poetically lazy is a feat of masterful proportions.
How Great Thou Art: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about How Great Thou Art then: This song is an exercise in wonder. It allows us to practice connecting the wonders of creation, the redemption story that unfolds in the Bible, and the reconciliation Hope we carry, to the One who is responsible for all of them. This is ultimately the same function of the season of Epiphany.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM