This week was our Commissioning Service for all of our graduating students. Our songs were gathered with this in mind, but also in light of the Resurrection (this was the fifth Sunday of Easter). 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 or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.
Songs
Amazing Grace by Citizens & Saints
All Creatures of Our God and King by David Crowder* Band
Holy Spirit by Jesus Culture
Future/Past by John-Mark McMillan
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.
Amazing Grace: As we part ways with a number of our community who are moving on to another a phase of life, we sang this song to rejoice in the grace that we share. Remember also that we sang this on Easter to proclaim that, because of the Resurrection, we are no longer trapped in our brokenness.
All Creatures of Our God and King: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. Last week we said: God does not plan on abandoning the world. God is making all things new. The Resurrection means that the created world--plants, dirt, animals, people--have the hope of being made new. This song is one of those songs that says "oh, praise him," a lot, but there's not much else to say in light of that kind of news. This is all relevant to this week as well--especially as many of us prepare to enter new chapters of our lives. If God is worthy of our praise, God is just as worthy of our trust as we enter the unknown.
Holy Spirit: Some variation of "God doesn't have an A team and B team among Christians" was mentioned several times today. We firmly believe that God is calling all Christians to be ministers--not just pastors. We sang this song about acknowledging the presence of the Holy Spirit and longing for a greater awareness of the Spirit's presence because it is the transforming power and imaginative guidance of the Holy Spirit that we need the most for finding ways to live as Christ in the world.
Future/Past: This song dwells on the scandalous truth that the infinite God has chosen to have an interpersonal relationship with finite creatures in time and space. In part, this song uses the image of a human(who experiences time) being swallowed up in a Love (that is not limited by time) that is not subject to change from one moment to the next. This is the Love that our graduates carry with them as they move to the next phase of life, and its the Love that we maintain as we say goodbye to them.
Wayward Ones: We always sing this song when we do communion, and we always have communion on the first Sunday of the month. We sing this song as Resurrection people remembering the events that led up to our Hope (the Resurrection). We are broken, wayward people with the hope of being made new. Part of taking communion is to identify ourselves as part of a community of Resurrection people much larger than ours--a community that our graduates will not be leaving.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM