This post is partly a response to Christine’s list of songs for small group worship, but has grown into a bit more than that.

There’s an old Unitarian Universalist joke about hymn singing - that the reason no one in the congregation sings the first verse of a hymn is because they’re busy reading ahead to make sure they agree with the words.

It’s a funny image. In practice, though, I don’t find it very accurate. There are many times that the language in music is somewhat overlooked in favor of a number of factors - melody, available accompaniment, style, tempo, ability to get the congregation to actually sing together. It is these factors that make songs like “Woyaya” (Singing the Journey #1020) and “Where Do We Come From?” (STJ #1003) popular. They’re easy to teach to small and large groups. They have addicting little melodies. You can do them without accompaniment.

There are two particular types of this music, however - simple, and simplistic.

I find that UUs favor the simplistic when looking for “easy” music to do in worship, and I find it utterly distasteful. To sing a song in worship, to put melody and spirit and intention behind a text, is a sacred act. To give that kind of value to a song like “Woyaya,” which says “We are going, heaven knows where we are going, but we know within; and we’ll get there, heaven knows how we will get there, but we know within,” is, in my mind, to make a mockery of worship. I don’t ascribe worth to the idea of ambiguous wandering as a spiritual path - where is the substance? Where is the religion?

There are so many songs that are simple, yet deeply meaningful, and yet we tend to cling to these songs of a dumbed-down anti-theology. I’ll post a good-sized list of songs that I love later when I have access to the index of the hymnal (how is it that there is no online index for Singing the Living Tradition, at least not one easily found via Google?!), but here are some very specific examples of what I’m talking about.

• “Dona Nobis Pacem” - Grant Us Peace.

  A very simple phrase, yet one with many many nuances. The traditional 3-part round melody, with its three very distinct, yet uncomplicated, sections gives the words and the emotion behind them so much power. When you sing it all together, it’s a rich blend of low and high, of ascending and descending lines, sustained and moving notes, and I find it one of the most powerful pieces of music I’ve ever sung. It can be taught very simply, one part at a time, and enough people know it well enough to put it into a round very easily.

  This is a piece where the language isn’t just the words - it’s the music, too, and the breath needed to sing the music, the listening to put the sections together, the intentionality of how the syllables fit the notes. It’s not words and music, it is a cohesive whole.

• “Sing and Rejoice” - Sing and rejoice, sing and rejoice, let all things living now sing and rejoice.

  Another where the text and the melody are so intentionally put together that the language of it goes beyond one or the other. The words are given power and meaning by the music, and the act of singing the music in a room, all together. Very easy to learn and sing in a round. It’s a prayer, a beseeching, a celebration, a declaration - it is what it needs to be in the moment of worship.

• “From You I Receive” - From you I receive, to you I give, together we share, and from this we live.

  I find this to be a profound statement. The melody is simple, and again gives power and meaning to the words. I’ve also done sign language with this one and sung it with children for the offering. It can be done in a round, or not, and I feel it to be a wonderfully meditative piece. Its language is of generosity, of giving and receiving not only in those words but also in the structure of the music.

What it comes down to, for me, is that worship can be expressed in simple terms without losing its profound meaning. The language of worship is more than just the words from the pulpit; it is our intentions, our breath, and the music we make together as a congregation. Choosing music for its simplicity should never dumb-down the intentionality of worship, to the act of reaching for that which is greater than ourselves. Our songs must have three dimensions, as do our lives.