As Palm Sunday comes to a close, I just finished reading Normal Nagel’s sermon for this day on John 12:20-29 in Selected Sermons of Norman Nagel. In typical fashion, the silent reading included the mental translation into Nagel’s distinctive English accent.

Each year as we revisit Palm Sunday we are confronted by a paradox in the hymns, the scripture readings, and the sermon. Appearances are deceiving. The Savior we want is not necessarily the Savior we need. Nagel writes,

Jesus’ words to the Greeks, as ever with His words, exactly met their seeking and their need. He tells that He is the Messiah, then declares that the hour of His glory is come. What earthly glorious pictures those words must have called up in the minds of the disciples. They were flushed with the glory of the palms and hosannas of Palm Sunday. This, they thought, was the real Jesus, the royal Jesus. This was Jesus coming into His own. The kingdom was about to be established. (p. 106)

As we celebrate Palm Sunday, there is a tension of the joyful hosannas and the journey to the cross. Musically, I sometimes struggle trying to balance this tension as I prepare for the worship service. It’s easy to play the loud and joyful settings of “All Glory, Laud, and Honor” and “Hosanna, Loud Hosanna” with instrumental fanfare — almost like Easter has come a week early. Yet, as Nagel notes, “The hour of Jesus’ glory was to be the hour of His death, for He took our sins on himself . . . This was Jesus’ glory—that through His death there might be full, assured, and cheerful life of those who are God’s own” (p. 107).

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Over at starke Kirchenlieder, Pastor Starke wrote a review of the “modern hymn” In Christ Alone awhile back (I just recently found it).  Starke notes that the “text has much to commend itself and a depth that is so often absent in much of the genre of contemporary praise and worship.”  I’d encourage you to read his review of the text’s strengths and weaknesses.

If you’ve never heard In Christ Alone, you can listen to it here.

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Over the last few days I’ve been getting caught up on some of the Issue Etc programs that have been diligently downloaded to my iPod.  In particular, I have especially appreciated the 5-part series on the Top 5 hymns voted by Issues Etc listeners.  I anticipated that “Lord, Thee I Love With All My Heart” would make it, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the top hymn was “God’s Own Child, I Gladly Say It.”

These are all well worth listening to.  And if you haven’t decided to have “God’s Own Child, I Gladly Say It” sung at your funeral service, I think you’ll be convinced that you might want to add it.

Here are the links to each part of the Issues Etc series.

1. God’s Own Child, I Gladly Say It (Pastor Wil Weedon)
2. Thy Strong Word (Dr. Arthur Just)
3. Lord, Thee I Love With All My Heart (Rev. Paul McCain)
4. The Church’s One Foundation (Dr. Arthur Just)
5. My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less (Pastor Bill Cwirla)

Imagine watching Star Wars or some other favorite movie with one big change: no music. The plot and characters would still be there, but we would miss that familiar music that moves the story forward.

Movie soundtracks are not random bits of music to cover dialogue or video sequences, but are often composed specifically to complement the action on the silver screen. John Williams, the movie composer, (not John Williams, the classical guitarist) is a master of this, weaving themes and variations throughout the two or so odd hours of film and then providing the continuity between the prequels and sequels. Who can forget the opening to Star Wars or the menacing Darth Vader theme? (Side note: If you happen to be a fan of movie soundtracks, the classical radio station in Portland, OR has a weekly program devoted to the music behind the movies — The Score.)

And yet, do Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader even know that there is a soundtrack backing up their lives? In the case of Darth Vader, it was a soundtrack that accompanied his entire life from birth to death. What is your soundtrack?

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