Go to the world!

This is my final BLOG post to Echoes (of the Word) as Pastor of Pinnacle Presbyterian Church. On the Sunday after this is posted, I'm retiring from nearly 15 years in this role.  I do so with mixed feelings of shock at how quickly these years seem to have gone, gratitude for the privilege of being in ministry, sadness at departing, excitement about what lies ahead, and more.  

I'm tempted to simply post two words:  Thank you.  

Thank you for reading, and engaging.  Thank you for filling in the blanks when my words aren't complete, making sense when they aren't coherent, giving grace when they raise opposition, being patient when they don't go far enough, and receiving them when they hit near the mark.  

In the worship service at Pinnacle this coming Sunday, we'll begin the service singing one of my favorite hymns.  It's one I've loved since my teen years at St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Rochester, Michigan.  It was number 427 in the Methodist Hymnal of the time (if I remember right).  I think I loved it because it felt uplifting, inspiring, and even triumphant—even though it is a memorial hymn.  I loved the tune.  And I loved the way the words helped make faith feel worth the effort.  I think I loved it, too, because my father loved it.  He was a singer by affection and profession, and he died of a heart attack while I was in college (both of us far too young).  We sang this hymn at his funeral.  Its music is a 1906 tune by Ralph Vaughan Williams, called SINE NOMINE.  Its text was written in 1864 by William Walsham How.  Here are three of the five verses:

For all the saints who from their labors rest, 
who thee by faith before the world confessed,
thy name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle; they in glory shine;
yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast,
through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
Alleluia! Alleluia!

I'm writing about this because at the conclusion of our worship on Sunday we'll sing the same tune, still echoing with this text, but we'll sing it with new words.  We'll sing it with another text, included in the most recent Presbyterian hymnal.  It's a 1985 text by Sylvia G. Dunstan.  I asked that we do this on Sunday to offer a bit of a message:  that the work of the church is often about balancing the familiar with the unfamiliar, the traditional with the innovative, the security of what has been with the faith filled expectation of what is coming.  It's about singing the old in new ways—timely and hopeful, fitting the moment, confident in God.  

It's number 295 in the PCUSA hymnal, Glory to God.  If you know the tune, sing away:

Go to the world!  Go into all the earth.
Go preach the cross where Christ renews life's worth,
baptizing as the sign of our rebirth.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

Go to the world! Go into every place.
Go live the word of God's redeeming grace.
Go seek God's presence in each time and space.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

Go to the world!  Go struggle, bless and pray;
the nights of tears give way to joyous day.
As servant church, you follow Christ's own way.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

Go to the world!  Go as the ones I send,
for I am with you till the age shall end,
when all the hosts of glory cry "Amen!"
Alleluia! Alleluia!

Thank you.