Setlist 2-19-2017

This week was the seventh 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:

Amazing Grace by Citizens & Saints

Rise Up by Bifrost Arts

How Great Thou Art

Lifted/Lifting by Jameson McGregor

Holy, Holy, Holy

Doxology

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: We sang this song to begin our time together acknowledging the grace of God as it is revealed in the person of Jesus, and the way that this grace has impacted and continues to impact our lives.

Rise Up: This song contrasts the disposition of the God of justice with the inconsistent presence of justice in the world, and rises to a plea for God to act and set things right in the world.  It serves a double-purpose: to confess the truth about who God is and to raise a petition for God to show up, and also to remind ourselves of the way we should seek to conduct ourselves in the world if we are to call ourselves people of God.

How Great Thou Art: 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.

Lifted/Lifting: This song is about being more fully formed in the way of Christ.  When we encounter the Person of Jesus through the Bible, a sermon, etc., we are unable to erase this experience, and are thus changed in some way.  When we embrace that Person and seek to become more like him, we are further changed.  Somewhere in the midst of this, one might say that a veil is lifted, revealing both who God is and who we are.  But the journey toward being formed in the way of Christ is a life-long pursuit.  We keep changing and the veil keeps lifting.  This song confesses this reality, and asks that the Spirit would continue to transform us, to cultivate the fledgling Hope we carry into full bloom, and to spread the fruit of this hope through the world where the Light is not overcome, yet there is still darkness. 

This song is still a work in progress, but I recorded a rough demo of the way it exists now, in the event that you want to listen again:

Holy, Holy, Holy: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  This is what we said about Holy, Holy, Holy last week: We began with this song to start off our morning calibrating our attention to the Triune God, confessing that our comprehension of God is blurred by our human condition, yet also confessing what we do know to be true: God's might, mercy, power, love, and lordship over all 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

Setlist 2-5-2017

This week was the fifth Sunday of Epiphany, and Josh's sermon text was Matthew 5:13-20.  Our songs were gathered with both of these things 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:

Pulse by Jameson McGregor

There's A Wideness In God's Mercy by Jameson McGregor (adapted from F. Faber)

SMS [Shine] by David Crowder* Band

Rise Up by Bifrost Arts

Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light

Doxology

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. 

Pulse: We sang this song to begin our time together confessing that we have been selective with the way that we have practiced love in the way of Christ, and petitioning the Spirit to recreate us into a people who relate to one another as God has revealed to us through Jesus.

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 said about There's A Wideness In God's Mercy then: Through the Beatitudes, the fourth week of Epiphany allows us to consider the upside-down logic of the Kingdom that Jesus came proclaiming.  Those who are truly blessed do not necessarily look like it when viewed through the lens of prosperity that our culture has offered us.  This song carries a similar theme in that it proclaims God's love to be broader than our minds can handle, and God's strictness to be much more malleable than we expect. 

SMS [Shine]: This song both celebrates the "shining" of Epiphany, and also functions as a petition for God to continue to shine in the world through the Church.  The Light that the Church carries is revealed when people who are being formed in the Way of Christ relate to God and one another as Jesus did, rehearsing his story with their lives.

Rise Up: This song is a lament that highlights vulnerable and forgotten people and petitions God to rise up and defend them.  It also petitions God to strengthen God's people as they live as strangers in a strange land.  There's sort of a double-meaning in this song.  It equal parts asks God to do what we cannot, and asks God to enable us to do what it seems we cannot.  This tension is all over the Christian faith.  Because God is in the habit of using the weak to overcome the strong.

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

Setlist 1-29-2017

This week was the fourth Sunday of Epiphany, and Josh's sermon text was the Beatitudes.  Our songs were gathered at the intersection of these two themes.  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:

There's A Wideness In God's Mercy by Jameson McGregor (adapted from F. Faber)

All the Poor and Powerless by All Sons & Daughters

Future/Past by John Mark McMillan

Burn It Down by Jameson McGregor

Mystery by Jameson McGregor (adapted from Charlie Hall)

Doxology

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: Through the Beatitudes, the fourth week of Epiphany allows us to consider the upside-down logic of the Kingdom that Jesus came proclaiming.  Those who are truly blessed do not necessarily look like it when viewed through the lens of prosperity that our culture has offered us.  This song carries a similar theme in that it proclaims God's love to be broader than our minds can handle, and God's strictness to be much more malleable than we expect. 

All the Poor and Powerless: We sang this song to celebrate God's presence among the poor, the powerless, the criminal, the stranger, and all of those who feel hopeless or abandoned.  This song serves as a reminder to us of where God stands in conflicts between the powerful and the oppressed, which also serves as a reminder of where we are to stand if we are to be where God is.

Future/Past: This song charts the distance between who God is and who we are, yet notes that God has transgressed this division, drawn near to us, and called us friends.  We offer God nothing that God doesn't already have--God has nothing to gain from drawing near to us--yet it is fundamental to who God is to welcome us strangers into God's presence.  In our weakness, God calls us blessed. And we would do well to remember that God calls all sorts of the cast-out, rejected, and afflicted blessed as well.  With that in mind, if we are to claim to be the people of God, we are bound to offer the divine welcome to all of those people as well.

Burn It Down: This song was originally written for Pentecost 2016.  It is a petition for the Holy Spirit to set a fire on our tongues to speak the truth to power for the purpose of standing alongside the parts of God's creation (creatures and otherwise) that are trampled or taken advantage of.

Mystery: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  This is what we said about Mystery then: In coming to know the Person of Jesus, we encounter a multi-faceted Mystery.  This Person who is infinite, yet finite; divine, yet human; weak, yet strong; defeated, yet victorious; comes to us and calls into question all we think we know to be true about the world.  Jesus' identity as Mystery is one of the primary reasons we so desperately need Epiphany to renew our holy curiosity every year--sometimes we forget that we don't have Jesus figured out.  This song takes the Mystery of Jesus and champions it using the "formula" of Christ has died//Christ is Risen//Christ will come again, as the chorus.  The verses are about the way that Jesus' mystery status meets us in our own lives from without.  Here Jesus is the answer to our problems: the sanity and clarity that enters our dissonance, and the evergreen living peace that enters our conflict.  But Jesus is also the question to our assumptions about the world: the Eternal Word who is brought low, the cup of salvation that is poured out, the Embodied Love that is broken, and the Trampled Redeemer that is raised and freed.  Taken together the verses and chorus of this song champion Jesus as our source of hope when things seem irredeemable--because we learn that Jesus is not limited by what we expect of the way the world works.  So in the bridge section, we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus as a symbol of holy subversion to the power structures of the world, and take up singing about this subversion as our own way to subvert oppressive systems of power. 

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.

-JM

Setlist 1-22-2017

This week was the third 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:

Come Thou Fount

Just A Closer Walk With Thee

Your Love Is Strong by Jon Foreman

Mystery by Jameson McGregor (adapted from Charlie Hall)

Crown Him With Many Crowns by Jameson McGregor

Doxology

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 enter into the mindset of encountering anew a God with whom we have a history.  As we continue our journey through Epiphany and meet Jesus again, we do so looking back on our own stories of God's faithfulness to us through the process of coming to know God and coming to let go of things we came to know about God that ended up being refined over time.

Just A Closer Walk With Thee: This song expresses a desire to be more fully formed in the way of Christ.  As we meet Jesus anew during Epiphany, this song puts language to this coming-to-know and joins it with a further desire of coming-to-be-more-like Jesus.

Your Love Is Strong: This song begins with a plea for the Kingdom to come in our world and in the immediate vicinity of our lives.  We sang this song primarily to give voice to that plea.  In coming to know Jesus, we come to know the Kingdom that he brought with him.  This Kingdom has come and is coming.  So the plea we made in this song is both for God to more fully form us into Kingdom people in the present, and for God to bring about the Kingdom in fullness in the future.

Mystery: In coming to know the Person of Jesus, we encounter a multi-faceted Mystery.  This Person who is infinite, yet finite; divine, yet human; weak, yet strong; defeated, yet victorious; comes to us and calls into question all we think we know to be true about the world.  Jesus' identity as Mystery is one of the primary reasons we so desperately need Epiphany to renew our holy curiosity every year--sometimes we forget that we don't have Jesus figured out.  This song takes the Mystery of Jesus and champions it using the "formula" of Christ has died//Christ is Risen//Christ will come again, as the chorus.  The verses are about the way that Jesus' mystery status meets us in our own lives from without.  Here Jesus is the answer to our problems: the sanity and clarity that enters our dissonance, and the evergreen living peace that enters our conflict.  But Jesus is also the question to our assumptions about the world: the Eternal Word who is brought low, the cup of salvation that is poured out, the Embodied Love that is broken, and the Trampled Redeemer that is raised and freed.  Taken together the verses and chorus of this song champion Jesus as our source of hope when things seem irredeemable--because we learn that Jesus is not limited by what we expect of the way the world works.  So in the bridge section, we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus as a symbol of holy subversion to the power structures of the world, and take up singing about this subversion as our own way to subvert oppressive systems of power. 

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: During Epiphany, the lectionary carries us through a series of texts that reveal something about the way in which Jesus is God-with-us.  Last week's Gospel text showed Jesus crowned with the Holy Spirit, and God claiming him as God's son.  This week's text had John the Baptist pointing to that coronation, and we joined in that pointing in singing this song.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.

-JM

Setlist 1-15-2017

This week was the first Sunday after Epiphany (or the second Sunday of Epiphany, depending on how you want to slice things), 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:

Crown Him With Many Crowns by Jameson McGregor

Wandering by Jameson McGregor

SMS [Shine] by David Crowder* Band

Noise  by Jameson McGregor

How Great Thou Art

Doxology

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: During Epiphany, the lectionary carries us through a series of texts that reveal something about the way in which Jesus is God-with-us.  Last week's Gospel text showed Jesus crowned with the Holy Spirit, and God claiming him as God's son.  This week's text had John the Baptist pointing to that coronation, and we joined in that pointing in singing this song.

Wandering: Broadly, the weeks between Epiphany, proper, and Lent raise two questions: 1) what does God want us to know about who God is? and 2) what does God want us to know about who we are?  We sang this song to trace out part of the answer to both of those questions: God is faithful, and we are consistently wayward. [Note: An album version of this song is available here.]

SMS [Shine]: This song takes up a more metaphorical theme of Epiphany--that of the Light of God--proclaiming that we need God to shine on us in our own personal darkness, and into the darkness of the world.  

Noise: This song is a combination of several of the aforementioned themes of Epiphany.  It expresses several valences of what it means for God to be God, and what it means for us to be us, and also narrates the coming of the Light into the darkness.  [Note: An album version of this song is available here.]

How Great Thou Art: We sang this song to begin to close our time together by making a series of declarations about who God is--a master craftsman, a selfless Lord, and a dependable rescuer--and wrapping all of them in a blanket statement about God's greatness.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.

-JM

Setlist 12-18-2016

This week was the fourth Sunday of Advent, 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:

Hope (There Will Come A Light) by ubcmusic

Joy (Brightest) by ubcmusic

Peace (Change Everything) by ubcmusic

Love (Gladdening Light) by ubcmusic

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Doxology

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 (There Will Come A Light): This song focuses on the hope of the coming of the Light, but hones in on what that means for the darkness around us--namely, the inauguration of its progressive demise. This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here. 

Joy (Brightest): This song explores the kind of joy that we associate with Christmas.  We take for granted that the wholesale change that Jesus brings about is something that we can be excited about.  This song isn't claiming that we shouldn't be excited about, but instead that the joy that arises out of this moment might demand something of us--that perhaps everything we've ever looked to for comfort or for a standard of goodness/love is about to be shown up, and that in God's changing everything, we too will be changed.  This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here. 

Peace (Change Everything): This song is a plea for peace to come into our lives in a number of ways.  The first verse asks when the night will be turned to day, a broad request for an answer to the uncertainties of life.  The second verse wonders when our weapons and violence will have no place among us.  The third verse longs for the dissolution of our worry and anxieties. And the fourth verse longs for a remedy for the existential concerns of death.  Through the chorus, this song raises the question of how exactly God plans on addressing these problems, wondering what a solution would even look like--a king (some kind of leader or outside force to set things right? Or a new way to breathe (a new way to be human--a new way to live)?  Neither? Both?  But the heartbeat of the song is the plea that closes out each verse: "Oh God, bring peace." This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here. 

Love (Gladdening Light): This song retraces the themes from the other three advent songs, and looks ahead to God's shining a light in our darkness.  This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here. 

O Come, O Come Emmanuel: As we near the end of the advent season, we sang this song to once again underscore our longing as we enter this final week leading up to Christmas.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.

-JM

Setlist 12-11-2016

This week was the third Sunday of Advent, and our songs were gathered around the theme of Joy.  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:

Joy (Brightest) by ubcmusic

Hope (There Will Come A Light) by ubcmusic

Peace (Change Everything) by ubcmusic

A Great Rejoicing by Crowder (with additions by Jameson McGregor)

Joy to the World

Doxology

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. 

Joy (Brightest): This song explores the kind of joy that we associate with Christmas.  We take for granted that the wholesale change that Jesus brings about is something that we can be excited about.  This song isn't claiming that we shouldn't be excited about, but instead that the joy that arises out of this moment might demand something of us--that perhaps everything we've ever looked to for comfort or for a standard of goodness/love is about to be shown up, and that in God's changing everything, we too will be changed.  This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here. 

Hope (There Will Come A Light): This song was written specifically for advent at ubc.  It focuses on the hope of the coming of the Light, but hones in on what that means for the darkness around us--namely, the inauguration of its progressive demise. This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here. 

Peace (Change Everything): This song is a plea for peace to come into our lives in a number of ways.  The first verse asks when the night will be turned to day, a broad request for an answer to the uncertainties of life.  The second verse wonders when our weapons and violence will have no place among us.  The third verse longs for the dissolution of our worry and anxieties. And the fourth verse longs for a remedy for the existential concerns of death.  Through the chorus, this song raises the question of how exactly God plans on addressing these problems, wondering what a solution would even look like--a king (some kind of leader or outside force to set things right? Or a new way to breathe (a new way to be human--a new way to live)?  Neither? Both?  But the heartbeat of the song is the plea that closes out each verse: "Oh God, bring peace." This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here. 

A Great Rejoicing: This song is from ubc's former music & arts pastor, David Crowder.  The version I played yesterday was essentially a different song, but maintained the chorus lyrics and some of the themes from the original. This version was tweaked to address our advent theme more directly, playing up the idea of joy being like streams of living water bringing life to dry places.

Joy to the World: We sang this song to engage both of our identities during advent--with our ancient identity, we looked forward to the coming of Joy in the Incarnation on Christmas, and with our contemporary identity, we looked back on the Incarnation and contemplated the way it affects the way we wait for the coming of the Kingdom in the here and now.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.

-JM

Setlist 12-4-2016

This week was the second Sunday of Advent, and our songs were gathered around the theme of Peace.  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:

Hope (There Will Come A Light) by ubcmusic

SMS [Shine] by David Crowder* Band

Peace (Change Everything) by ubcmusic

A Lament by Emily Haas

Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light

Doxology

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 (There Will Come A Light): This song was written specifically for advent at ubc.  It focuses on the hope of the coming of the Light, but hones in on what that means for the darkness around us--namely, the inauguration of its progressive demise. This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here.

SMS [Shine]: This song voices a longing for an in-breaking of Light into the chaos of the world, which can just as easily be considered a plea for peace to break into in whatever struggles might mark our lives in this season.  

Peace (Change Everything): This song is a plea for peace to come into our lives in a number of ways.  The first verse asks when the night will be turned to day, a broad request for an answer to the uncertainties of life.  The second verse wonders when our weapons and violence will have no place among us.  The third verse longs for the dissolution of our worry and anxieties. And the fourth verse longs for a remedy for the existential concerns of death.  Through the chorus, this song raises the question of how exactly God plans on addressing these problems, wondering what a solution would even look like--a king (some kind of leader or outside force to set things right? Or a new way to breathe (a new way to be human--a new way to live)?  Neither? Both?  But the heartbeat of the song is the plea that closes out each verse: "Oh God, bring peace."

A Lament: This song was written by Emily Haas.  I asked her for some thoughts on this song, and this is what she said: Everything is meaningless and I rarely believe in God.  Some days, a perfectly balanced stone on a windowsill speaks and the eager skip of a kid goat in pasture elicits something eternally good.  April sees pictures when she prays and Lauren mutters unintelligible languages.  Karina trusts as a child and tells me, "just to ask."  I am not comforted.  I am not happy and I don't understand why I have health insurance via my parents while a 3rd grader in McLennan County doesn't have dinner.  That's a speck.  Surely, if God is true, if Christ is the Christ, then there is not a bit of human experience he is unable to redeem.  And I lament that the issues are systemic and there's too much to be done and wonder - what is the point?  And then, life is full of purpose and I do believe in God// and I have never experienced "hearing" "THE VOICE OF GOD"//and am hesitant to claim, "it was Him!" but maybe I should and I wrote this song because he "said" and "says" these things to me in a way that is contrary to my whirring mind. 

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

Setlist 11-27-2016

This week was the first Sunday of Advent, and our songs were gathered around the theme of Hope.  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:

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Rescue is Coming by David Crowder* Band

Hope (There Will Come A Light) by ubcmusic

Anthem by Leonard Cohen

Hope by Jameson McGregor

Doxology

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. 

O Come, O Come Emmanuel: This song contrasts mourning/longing and hope especially well.  We sang it to begin out time together by locating ourselves both with the people of God before the birth of Christ and with the whole of the people of God in our own time.  

Rescue is Coming: We sang this song to proclaim the same desperate hope that we established in the first song.  Though we may be able to look around and see how dark the world is, we are awaiting the coming of a Light.  The "rescue" we talk about in this song is not one of escapism--it's one of an in-breaking that delivers us from the brokenness of creation, not creation itself.

Hope (There Will Come A Light): This song was written specifically for advent at ubc.  It focuses on the hope of the coming of the Light, but hones in on what that means for the darkness around us--namely, the inauguration of its progressive demise. This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs are available for free download here.

Anthem: Leonard Cohen had a way of capturing the essence of vulnerability and existential longing.  This song is about hope, perseverance, brokenness, and beauty, all of which are prominent themes of advent.  The hope we carry toward Christmas is a wounded one, and that makes it all the more meaningful.

Hope: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  This is what we said about Hope then: This song voices the hope we have in Christ, the fire in the darkness.  In this image that comes into the world through John 1, we find the most fundamental summation of the Christian story--God set a light in the darkness that the darkness did not overcome.  Fire is more real than the darkness, such that there is no amount of darkness that can overcome the light of the fire. 

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.

-JM

Setlist 11-20-2016

This week was Christ the King Sunday, and our songs were gathered with this theme 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 Jennie Lee Riddle

Death In His Grave by John Mark McMillan

Because He Lives by Bill and Gloria Gaither

Hope by Jameson McGregor

Crown Him With Many Crowns

Doxology

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: We sang this song to begin our time together with a focused and straight-forward moment of singing about God's grandeur and particularity.  In thinking about Christ as King, we are met with a picture of power and majesty that is distinctly different than we might imagine out of our own cultural expectations--this almighty King abandoned His station to dwell among the disenfranchised and to champion the cause of the nobodies, and is well-imaged as a slaughtered lamb.  In this, we find wonder, mystery, and hope.

Death in His Grave: This song traces the story of Christ, underscoring that Christ's kingship is directly linked to his death--his complete self-emptying--and his 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 then: We sang this song to proclaim that our daily hope in the face of uncertainty is located in the risen Christ. 

Hope: This song voices the hope we have in Christ, the fire in the darkness.  In this image that comes into the world through John 1, we find the most fundamental summation of the Christian story--God set a light in the darkness that the darkness did not overcome.  Fire is more real than the darkness, such that there is no amount of darkness that can overcome the light of the fire. 

Crown Him With Many Crowns: This song well-captures the kind of King that Jesus is: the slaughtered Lamb who receives unmatched and unmatchable praise, who has known intimately the worst of our suffering and conquered it, whose tools of war are peace and love, and to whom all other crowns belong, that we might all find rest and belonging.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.

-JM

Setlist 11-13-2016

This was the twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs around the theme of hope.  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:

Wandering by Jameson McGregor

There by Jameson McGregor

Because He Lives by Bill and Gloria Gaither

Wild One by Jameson McGregor

Chariot by Page France

Doxology

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. 

Wandering: We sang this song to begin our time together proclaiming that God is not in the habit of abandoning us--even when we deserve it most.  God's faithfulness to us is thankfully not conditional upon our own faithfulness to God.  Because of this, we can have hope that God is continually working toward reconciliation with us, and in this we can stake our hope.

There: This song is about the fact that God transcends every source of anxiety that we encounter in life, which means the threats we feel around us do not have the same effect on God.  Though God enters into our suffering with us, God is not chained to it.  And in drawing nearer to God, we find a refuge that will deliver us as well.

Because He Lives: We sang this song to proclaim that our daily hope in the face of uncertainty is located in the risen Christ. 

Wild One: This song is about our propensity to create idols out of ideas--the idea of safety, the idea of prosperity, a particular idea of who God is--and the way in which these idols shatter when they come into contact with God.

Chariot: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Chariot then: This song paints a vivid picture of an apocalyptic wedding feast where the varied and broken stories that make up human history are woven into a decidedly untragic ending.  As we think about the communion of the saints and our Christ-centered interconnectivity, it is fitting to begin by imagining the moment in which this interconnectivity is no longer veiled.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.

-JM

Setlist 11-6-2016

This was the twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs around the theme of communion of saints.  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:

Chariot by Page France

Heart Won't Stop by John Mark McMillan

Pulse by Jameson McGregor

When the Saints by Jameson McGregor (adaptation)

Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light

Doxology

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: This song paints a vivid picture of an apocalyptic wedding feast where the varied and broken stories that make up human history are woven into a decidedly untragic ending.  As we think about the communion of the saints and our Christ-centered interconnectivity, it is fitting to begin by imagining the moment in which this interconnectivity is no longer veiled.

Heart Won't Stop: To think more deliberately about Christ-centered interconnectivity we talked about, we sang this song to single out the connective tissue in this relationship: the love of God.  In this love, we find an unmatched relentless pursuit that cannot be severed, even by death.  It is this death discarding love that allows us to cling to the hope that we are connected to one another through Christ beyond time and space.

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 a prayer that God would reconnect us to the Pulse of the Spirit in creation, and that we would learn to base our love for one another in our mutual status as creatures of God.  There is no person for whom this does not apply, and, though it is at times seemingly impossibly difficult, we do not get a pass on our call to love everyone.

When the Saints: This song was requested by David Wilhite, our guest preacher this week.  He asked me if I had a rendition of it, and I did not.  After listening through about 30 versions, I realized that I was ill-equipped to do the song any of those ways, so I made my own.  In that process, I became acquainted with the sense of longing that drives this song--an awareness that the journey of faith is one where we follow in the footsteps of people who have died, seeking to be drawn further in to a story about resurrection and redemption, cutting against the brokenness that we find in the world around us.

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

Setlist 10-30-2016

This was the twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs around the theme of breaking/mending.  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:

Future/Past by John Mark McMillan

Pulse by Jameson McGregor

Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle

Wash Me Clean by Page CXVI

Come Thou Fount

Doxology

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. 

Future/Past: We sang this song to begin our time together expressing the example God has set in seeking out the Other in love--specifically, God's reaching out to us despite the infinite distinction between who God is and what we are.

Pulse: This song is a prayer that God would reconnect us to the Pulse of the Spirit in creation, and that we would learn to base our love for one another in our mutual status as creatures of God.  There is no person for whom this does not apply, and, though it is at times seemingly impossibly difficult, we do not get a pass on our call to love everyone.

Fall Afresh: We sang this song as a prayer that the Spirit would reawaken us to the transformative call of the Kingdom.

Wash Me Clean:  This song is equal parts confession and hopeful longing.  It admits our need to forgiveness and transformation, and also imagines, with the prophets, the kind of transformation that God has planned for human history.

Come Thou Fount: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  This is what we said about Come Thou Fount then: This song asks that God would tune our hearts to sing the story of God's presence in our lives, as well as confesses our proneness to wandering.  Perhaps it is in having a clear understanding of the way that God has entered the broken places in our lives in the past that we are able to make it through brokenness in the future.  So, like the prayer offered before we sang this song (that will be posted with the Liturgy blog on Wednesday), we has God to flood the dry and broken places within us with a renewed understanding an appreciation of who God has been for us in our lives.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.

-JM

Setlist 10-23-2016

This was the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs around the theme of breaking/mending.  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:

Just A Closer Walk With Thee

SMS [Shine] by David Crowder* Band

Come Thou Fount

Anthem by Leonard Cohen

Be Thou My Vision

Doxology

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: We sang this song to express a simplified version of what our aim is as we gather: namely, to follow Jesus more closely on the road he has walked before us.  As is typical when we sing this at ubc, the second verse holds particular significance in its underscoring of the significance of Jesus' sharing our burdens with us.  We are prone to falter in our approaches to faith, but that does not devalue our journeys.  This journey is fundamentally difficult, wrought with pain and failure and the pursuit of reconciliation.  Which makes sense because this journey is ultimately a relationship, and relationships are marked by all of those things.

SMS [Shine]:  This song is an exercise in seeking God in the midst of affliction.  It places the truth on our tongues that God is still "Light" when we don't see light, and that we have a sign of life from God in the Person of Jesus, his story and his resurrection.  This story is good news for broken people, though it is at times difficult to call to mind and embrace when we need it most.  Singing these words helps us develop a habit of claiming this hope that may make it easier to remember when we need it most.

Come Thou Fount: This song asks that God would tune our hearts to sing the story of God's presence in our lives, as well as confesses our proneness to wandering.  Perhaps it is in having a clear understanding of the way that God has entered the broken places in our lives in the past that we are able to make it through brokenness in the future.  So, like the prayer offered before we sang this song (that will be posted with the Liturgy blog on Wednesday), we has God to flood the dry and broken places within us with a renewed understanding an appreciation of who God has been for us in our lives.

Anthem:  There's a lot going on in this song.  In light of the other songs this week, we might think of it like this: it begins with a call-back to what Jesus said about birds and worry in Matthew 6, then develops a sense of how the world continues to be an uncertain and imperfect place.  In the midst of this development, however, we find the chorus: ring the bells that still can ring//forget your perfect offering//there's a crack, a crack in everything//that's how the Light gets in.  It is in the midst of the mess--the brokenness and uncertainty--that the Light makes its way in.  

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 practice asking God to override the false, shame-driven, narratives about ourselves that we replay time and again in our heads.  

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.

-JM

Setlist 10-16-2016

This was the twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs around the theme of shame.  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:

Heart Won't Stop by John Mark McMillan

Be Thou My Vision

Death In His Grave by John Mark McMillan

Noise by Jameson McGregor

There's A Wideness in God's Mercy by Jameson McGregor (adapted from F. Faber)

Doxology

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. 

Heart Won't Stop: This song is centered on the idea that nothing can sever use from the love of God.  The shame we carry is a false narrative about who we are that is shattered by the love of God.  The true narrative about who we are says that we are God's beloved children.  That's not to say there is not a place for guilt when we do what we should not, but instead that we are not capable of amassing a guilt that cancels out the love of God.

Be Thou My Vision: We sang this song to practice asking God to override the false, shame-driven, narratives about ourselves that we replay time and again in our heads.  

Death In His Grave: We sang this song to proclaim the story of Jesus' death and resurrection, reminding ourselves in a more particular way why our shame narratives are false.  The things we do are not able to change who we are in light of what Jesus has done for us. 

Noise: This song made an appearance because of this line in the chorus: when i was a broken promise, You made me another one. There are several ways you could interpret that line, but for the sake of this week, let's go with this one: God does not leave it up to us to reconcile the rift in the divine-human relationship.  God is reconciling us to Godself, and our inconsistent leaning-in to this doesn't get to override what God is doing.

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 said about There's A Wideness in God's Mercy last week: This song confronts our tendency to try to talk ourselves out of any confidence in God's faithfulness to be God-for-us--as though we could disqualify ourselves.  Instead, it reminds us that the love of God is not limited by our own sense of what kind or degree of mercy we deserve.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.

-JM

Setlist 10-9-2016

This was the twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs around the theme of healing.  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:

Wandering by Jameson McGregor

Amazing Grace by Citizens & Saints

There's A Wideness in God's Mercy by Jameson McGregor (adapted from F. Faber)

Breathe For Me by Jameson McGregor

Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher

Doxology

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. 

Wandering:  We sang this song to celebrate God's faithfulness to us, even though our faithfulness to God is inconsistent, at best.  With the theme of healing in mind, we might think of God's relentless choice to be God-for-us as the method of God's healing us.  God is actively healing us of our brokenness all the time, though this process is slow.  And, because God has chosen to redeem what God has made, we can trust that God will be faithful to do exactly that.

Amazing Grace: This song is an exercise in looking back to look forward.  The saving work that God has enacted in our lives is not a one-off event, but instead is indicative of the way God acts toward us in general.  So, looking back at the glimmers of hope or healing in our stories, we move forward knowing that there will be more.

There's A Wideness in God's Mercy: This song confronts our tendency to try to talk ourselves out of any confidence in God's faithfulness to be God-for-us--as though we could disqualify ourselves.  Instead, it reminds us that the love of God is not limited by our own sense of what kind or degree of mercy we deserve.

Breathe for Me: The healing we experience in our lives of faith tends to cycle--that is, we usually break again in one way or another.  This song is a record of re-breaking, and a plea for healing: for God to start over with the dust and ash of what is left, form it clean, and breath into it again.

Lord, I Need You:  We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  This is what we said about Lord, I Need You Then: This song voices our need for God's help in all aspects of life, but particularly when it comes to doing the things that we should do.  Left to our own devices, we have a tendency to disappoint--or, worse, harm--ourselves and those around us.  Over time, we might find ourselves more permanently formed by the Spirit, but we never get to the point where we do not in fact need God's presence.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.

-JM

Setlist 10-2-2016

This was the twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs around the theme of our need for God, and God's faithfulness to us.  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

Lord, I Need You by Matt Maher

Up On A Mountain by The Welcome Wagon

For Those Tears I Died by Jameson McGregor

Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light

Doxology

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 together acknowledging our interconnectedness with all of creation through our mutual praise of God.  This song was born out of the writing of Saint Francis of Assisi.  He is memorable for many things, but one overarching theme of his life was an awareness of our siblinghood with creatures that are not human.  He extended this familial relationship even to the sun and the moon.  Every created thing bears witness to the work of the Creator, and sings a song in praise of God's sustaining work.  God's sustaining work is ongoing, and we are ever-needful of it.  This song allowed us to begin our liturgy by practicing the correct orientation of our attention.

Lord, I Need You:  This song voices our need for God's help in all aspects of life, but particularly when it comes to doing the things that we should do.  Left to our own devices, we have a tendency to disappoint--or, worse, harm--ourselves and those around us.  Over time, we might find ourselves more permanently formed by the Spirit, but we never get to the point where we do not in fact need God's presence.

Up On A Mountain: This song recalls the story of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, allowing us to meditate on the inner anguish he faced as the time of his death approached.  The point of it is that, when faced with this horror, he was at no point interested in forfeiting the outcome of his death.  He knew it was a long way down.  He knew what was at stake.  And now he is our advocate, and sent the Spirit to be our Comforter.  Because of this, we are not alone, but are held in the mind of God.

For Those Tears I Died: I've played this song once before.  It's consists of equal parts confession, despair, anger, and hope.  When I wrote it, I thought I knew what tragedy it referred to, but it now points to an ever-growing list of tragedies.  I recently recorded an acoustic demo of it, which you can stream here:

this song was written in the summer of 2016 in the wake of a series of tragic events that continues to grow. it is loosely inspired by the Martha Stevens hymn by the same name and includes most of that hymn's chorus.

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

Setlist 9-18-2016

This was the eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs around the theme of discipleship.  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:

Just A Closer Walk With Thee

Death in His Grave by John Mark McMillan

Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle

Heart With No Companion by Leonard Cohen

Pulse by Jameson McGregor

Doxology

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:  We sang this song to begin our time together by expressing a desire to be more fully formed in the way of Christ. Of particular note is the second stanza, which highlights that we are not left to carry the burden of our failures in following Christ alone.  

Death In His Grave:  This song rehearses the story of Jesus' defeat of death.  We sang it because the whole of the Christian faith hinges on the resurrection of Jesus.  Within this song, we celebrate the self-emptying of Jesus for our sake, showing us what love looks like, as well as the power of the resurrection to break the fundamental cycle of life and death.  This is the story that we are seeking to model as followers of Christ, constantly dying and rising in different ways, hoping to learn something about life and love.

Fall Afresh: We sang this song to acknowledge our dependence upon the renewal of the Spirit to grow as followers of Jesus.  Be it on a great or small scale, we all experience the cycle of renewal and stagnation in the life of faith--the cycle in which our brains seek out an easier status quo than we are called to--and we thus continually need the help of the Spirit to pull us forward.

Heart With No Companion: This song is a love letter from God to the afflicted that offers the shattered Love of God to those who feel like their lives lack meaning. It carries within it a promise that those who experience the existential anguish of not being able to be what they know they have been created to be have not been forgotten.  Furthermore, it is a message that who you are and what you do are two very different things (in the song, you have a captain with no ship, a mother with no children, a prima ballerina with no dancing, etc.).  Within the context of this week's songs, it is a word to the person who feels like they aren't "good" at being a follower of Christ, reminding them that they carry an identity that transcends their religious prowess.

Pulse: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs.  This is what we said about Pulse then:  We sang this song to acknowledge the presence of the Spirit in every living thing, to petition God to reconnect our awareness to this interconnectivity, and to show us what this means for the way we love one another.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.

-JM

Setlist 9-11-2016

This was the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs were gathered around the theme of reconciliation.  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:

How Great Thou Art

Pulse by Jameson McGregor

There by Jameson McGregor

Hope by Jameson McGregor

There's a Wideness in God's Mercy by Jameson McGregor (adapted from F. Faber)

Doxology

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: This song is essentially three pairs of observations about how God chooses to be God for us and a response of praise.  In it, we find language that helps us marvel at the scope of God's redemption project--from the inception of the cosmos to the moment where things are finally set right.  In singing this song, we rehearsed identifying greatness for what it is, and in this case that means seeking to draw near to one's enemies and repair broken relationships (that's one of the running themes throughout the story that God is telling).

Pulse: We sang this song to acknowledge the presence of the Spirit in every living thing, to petition God to reconnect our awareness to this interconnectivity, and to show us what this means for the way we love one another.

There: This song establishes God as standing apart from every source of anxiety or conflict that we encounter.  Though God is in fact with us in our affliction, God is anchored outside of it.  This means that we have a well-founded hope when we root our hope in God.  As Reconciler, God is drawing us into the place of security where God dwells.

Hope: We sang this song to affirm that God has set a light in the darkness that the darkness did not overcome.  We hang our hope on this light, carrying it into the darkness, knowing that the story that God is telling does not end in darkness, but light.  

There's A Wideness in God's Mercy: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at the songs from two weeks ago (I was on vacation last Sunday).  This is what we said about There's A Wideness in God's Mercy then: We sang this song to begin our time together by thinking about the wideness of God's mercy and the breadth of God's love.  More specifically, in terms of the theme that unites this week's songs, the fact that our deficiencies are precisely what place us in the path of God's love.  Despite our tendency to attempt to construct boundaries around the love of God, the love of God transcends our limitations and reaches those who deserve it least by even the most generous human standards.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.

-JM