This was the seventh Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs were gathered around the theme of transformation. 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:
Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) by Hillsong United
Peace (Change Everything) by Jameson McGregor
I Love You by Mike Robinson
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.
Come Thou Fount: We sang this song to begin with a plea that God would transform us into people who know how to find God in the world around us and how to express ourselves when this happens--the second stanza is the heart of the first reason (raising an "Ebenezer" is depicting solidifying the realization that God has been with you), and the second reason is embodied especially in these lines: "tune my heart to sing thy Grace" and "teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above."
Oceans: We sang this song to ask God to make us into people who are willing to traverse uncertainty and seek God in the midst of that uncertainty.
Peace (Change Everything): Like the Advent song we sang a couple of weeks ago in the wake of the attack on the LGBT community in Orlando, we sang this in response to the attacks in Istanbul, Bangladesh, and Baghdad. Advent is a time where we look around and see how dark the world is and how very badly it needs a light, but there are moments all throughout the year that remind us of this darkness without our having to take the time to think specifically about it. We sang this song to make a plea to God to transform the world around us. Since this song has not been recorded, here is a video of it if you would like to listen again:
I Love You: This is a song written by Mike Robinson, a professor at UMHB and a beloved part of the ubc community. The lyrics depict the narrative of the last supper, and Mike shared it with us this week because we were participating in communion.
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