Reflection 1

 

1.

Many of you are familiar with the history of the Golden Hour, 

and if not, you can look at the commemorative booklet 

you were handed this morning, 

or check out the anniversary webpage. 

 

What I find interesting about the beginnings of the Golden Hour, 

beyond the technical ingenuity and the pioneer spirit of using this new-fangled medium called the radio in 1930,

was the fact that the original idea was carried forward by a group of 62 men at St. Matthews called the Brotherhood. 

Without having done much research, 

I’m assuming they are in the lineage of the German pietistic Brüdergemeinde still present today in German (esp. in the South), or perhaps might remind us of the current conservative evangelical denominations calling themselves “Brethren”.  

The St. Matthews Brotherhood was a group that gathered to witness to Jesus Christ. 

They were evangelical in the true sense of the word. 

They wanted to spread the good news, the Gospel.

And they had just organized less than a year before, 

when they took on this new project, of a radio transmission of the service called Kirche Daheim” or church at home for those who were too ill to come to church anymore. 

Needless to say, this broadcast would not only reach members but anyone within listening radius.

90 years later, we no longer have a St. Matthews Brotherhood, 

or a Witness committee, 

or any group committed to evangelism, 

and this is perhaps indicative of some of our problems. 

Our baptismal vows state that we need (all of us) to “proclaim Christ through word and deed”, 

and when we don’t have anyone to do this, well, I think something very important is missing.

 

At least our Golden Hour remains as our only witness “programme” left. And it is nothing to scoff at: 

The third-longest continuous radio broadcast in the world, 

we’ve outlasted our neighbour Benton Street Baptist’s radio broadcast, 

and it requires a good deal of commitment from our radio operators, the Radio Committee and sponsors and supporters, 

as well as our friends at Faith FM.

 

2.

Which brings us to today’s service, 

which has a slightly different format than usual.

Deacon Scott came up with the idea of a “Story and Song” service, choosing hymns that had been sung at various anniversary services.

Originally we wanted to choose important hymns from each decade of the radio program, but we settled on a service with a series of 5 reflections in and around the hymns, 

and cutting communion to keep the focus on the story and song aspect.

 

Why are hymns so important for the Golden Hour?

Well…Hymns form an important connection to our Radio listeners

Radio listeners can’t partake in communion with us,

but they can hear the readings, the prayers and the sermon,

and importantly, they can participate with us in the singing of the hymns.

So we announce the hymns verbally, so that in theory, 

someone can listen to the service with an open hymnal 

and then sing along.

 

3.

Our Gathering Hymn this morning, “Praise to the Lord”, 

is perhaps the most popular of our anniversary hymns, 

having been chosen for at least 7 services.

Based on Psalms 103 and 150, it is a "classic hymn of praise”, 

and should be sung “Majestically, with movement”.

The text was written (in German) by Joachim Neander 

whose family background was possibly Jewish.

He was born in Bremen, with studies in Frankfurt under Philip Spener, where he became a Pietist.

 

Pietism is a German protestant religious movement of the 17th century, characterized by “pious assemblies”, little church groups who had a lot of emotional fire, and pious fervour,

but who tended to be a little cliquey.

They liked to express their spiritual emotions when they gathered.
Often their hymns had a strong upward motion (to the heavens).

The “pious assemblies” were for teaching, preaching and the nurture of piety, and they were very missional (and remind us of the “St Matthews Brotherhood” I spoke of earlier) (or one might think of these groups as a Lutheran Pentecostal small group tradition).

 

Joachim Neander who wrote the text of our hymn, was headmaster at a grammar school, but was suspended after disobeying rules 

(even headmasters can get suspended)

He wrote 60 hymns, and is called “the Paul Gerhardt of the German Reformed Church”.

Unfortunately he died way too young, at age 30, from tuberculosis.

An interesting anecdote is that Neander took long walks in a valley of the Düssel river. 

And the valley was named for him. In that valley the Neanderthal (Neander valley) Neanderthal man (precursor to the modern homo sapiens) was discovered 2 centuries later.

 

One thing I think is quite fascinating is how this hymn has changed over the years.

 

First of all the melodies. […]

 

 

The original translated text, by Catharine Winkworth, 

as found for example in the old Red book (the Service Book and Hymnal) has a lot of archaic langauge, 

thees and thous and eths, 

which were removed in the Green Book (the LBW), 

which forms the translation in our hymn we will sing today, 858.

 

There is one problem though, with the translation: (at the end of verse 3)

Neander never wrote:

“if with his love he befriends you”

The conditional “if” makes it sound like one is not sure that God will befriend you” “if God will befriend you” (I dunno, will he, won’t he?)

However, the original German is quite clear:

“Who with his love befriends you”

Or literally “who meets you in love”

So in the original, it is declared: God meets you in love, 

no “ifs ands or buts”.

 

So for that reason, actually the newer translation, found at hymn 859, 

with gender-inclusive language, is better:

Where it reads: “infinite love here befriends you”

 

So now we rise as we are able, and sing “Praise to the Lord” 

Hymn 858.

 

 

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Reflection 2

1.

If you turn to your Guides to worship, on page 2, you’ll notice the years when today’s main hymns were sung at various Golden Hour anniversary services. 

Deacon Scott reviewed only a collection of anniversary booklets,

so the list is not exhaustive, but it still gives you a sense of the frequency when each of these hymns were sung.

 

One neat observation is that these popular hymns, 

chosen at these important festival Sundays,

were basically all German hymns, 

and this fits in with the idea that the Golden Hours started out as a German broadcast, for a German congregation,

in a Germanic city (called Berlin when St. Matthews was founded).

 

Also interesting…

is that though St. Matthews has German roots, 

beyond the most popular German chorales, like “Now thank we all our God”, or “Praise to the Lord”, 

the vast majority of German hymns in our hymnal have never been sung.

 

One such German hymn that has been considerably less sung than the favourites is our next hymn, 

663 “Spread, O Spread, Almighty Word”.

It has only been sung once in the last 14 years (in July 2007). 

 

And how do I know that?

Well, Sam Weicker started the “St Matthews Hymnology”, 

a listing of when every hymn was sung here, 

and John McLellan has continued the entries. 

It’s an invaluable resource for worship planning.

 

The text for hymn 663 was written by Jonathan Bahnmaier, around 1827.

Unlike our first hymn today, the German original hymn is no longer sung in Germany ((Walte, walte, nah und fern)).

Bahnmier was born near Württemberg (where my family’s origins are from).

His father was a pastor, he studied at Tübingen, was ordained in 1798, and taught education and preaching there.

However in 1818, 

he became associated with a dissident student organization, 

so he had to leave Tübingen. 

From 1819 onward he was deacon and town preacher at Kirchheim unter Teck, for 21 years, where he supported missions, education, and distribution of the Bible.

 

 

 “Spread, O Spread, almighty word” is a missions hymn.

It is very evangelistic, talking about spreading God’s word to the whole world.

It’s characterized as being “one of the best and most useful of hymns for Foreign Missions”.

And so it is very fitting for a Golden Hour anniversary, celebrating the missional quality of the radio broadcast.

Although it has hardly been sung in the last 15 years, 

It was sung for Golden Hour anniversaries in 1986,88,90,92, and almost yearly from 1980-1996 and seems to have been a favourite of Pastor Brill’s.

 

When looking at the changes in the text in the various hymnals,

the old Red hymnal has the hymn in the section:

“propagation of the Gospel”, 

and instructs the musician to play it “with spirit”. 

The first verse originally went like this:

“Spread o spread, thou mighty word, Spread the kingdom of the Lord, that to earth’s remotest bound men may heed the joyful sound”

Which has a much more clearly missionary-and evangelistic focus, 

which is toned down in the current translation, which dates from the 70s.

Furthermore, the new red book brought in gender-inclusive language, 

and took out the monarchic imagery, 

replacing kingdom with reign.

 

—

Before we sing it, I do need to say how fortunate we are at St. Matthews to have two talented hymnodists, 

Rev. Allen Jorgenson, who wrote an updated version of “A mighty fortress” which we’ve been singing the last two years, 

and also especially today, Jim Moses, who wrote 

“Golden Hours with Thee” in our centenary year, first sung in 2005.

 

And now, please rise for hymn 663, “Spread O Spread, Almighty Word”