“Lift Every Voice and Sing,” ELW 841
Devotion
Lift ev'ry voice and sing till earth and heaven ring,
ring with the harmonies of liberty.
Let our rejoicing rise high as the list'ning skies,
let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us;
sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod, bitter the chast'ning rod,
felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet
come to the place for which our parents sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered;
we have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last
where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
thou who hast by thy might led us into the light,
keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee;
lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee;
shadowed beneath thy hand may we forever stand,
true to our God, true to our native land.
Where have we met God? Not, where have YOU met God, but WE? As congregations continue to grow into places in which God is experienced in ministry and in each other, we pray that they remain places of Godly encounter. There is concern. Have our hearts—as congregations—become so drunk with the wine of the world that we forget God? Go to the web and type: church organizational chart. Approximately two-thirds of the examples that appear don't have God in the flow chart. Perhaps this raises a concern for you, my brothers and sisters, as it does for me.
This concern also breathes with vibrancy in the words of this song with its incredible tune and rhythms of an up-beat victory march. Our worried hearts and tears belt out with determination the concerns and fears of we who are the Body of Christ. When we sing, its stirring melody of victory washes over us and immerses us in the cross of Christ. Only in Christ can this vision of victory come to pass.
Prayer
Amazing Lord, continue to reveal to us that indeed, all things do come together in you on the cross. Amen.