Born into a musical pastor’s family, I was hearing the hymns of the church while yet in the womb. My father would play them, my mother would sing them, and we as children would memorize them. No wonder that as I read certain biblical texts, a related song is never far away. Not every song that comes to the preacher’s mind merits exploration or analysis, but when we find one that does, it can shed lyrical light upon a biblical passage or theological concept that makes the text or idea more accessible, more memorable, and even more compelling to the listener.
As a resource for crafting a sermon, a useful Bible commentary will provide clarity and insight into the scripture text. It will help make the ancient words and worlds relevant to today’s world. It will help us make meaning as it sheds historical, cultural, and theological light on the sacred text. We hope it will help us do our hermeneutical work of giving the sense of the scripture passage (Nehemiah 8:8).
On the page or screen, biblical words are flat or one-dimensional, but when the preacher turns from the passage to listen to the voice of the Spirit, the passage begins to come alive. Add to that the voices of a few informed commentators, and the passage begins to speak to the preacher in lively ways that suggest cogent sermonic ideas. Many of us use more than one of these commentaries in preparing our sermons. I propose adding well-written hymns or songs to our go-to collection of study resources.
Interpreting Scripture
Hymn-writers who meditate on a scripture passage offer us their commentaries in verse. Tom Troeger, who has given to the church scores of hymns, has compared them to Jewish midrash, the purpose of which “is to interpret a scriptural text so that it is relevant and meaningful to the contemporary situation of its readers” (Troeger, 31).
Troeger’s moving hymn “These Things Did Thomas Count as Real” is a commentary on John 20:19–31. The hymn is recommended by multiple hymnal lectionary indexes to be sung on the second Sunday in Easter in all three years of the reading cycle. Commentators have cast Thomas’s refusal to believe not only in a negative light but in a scolding manner, implying that he ought to have known better. Troeger’s hymn presents Thomas as a reasonable man whose
… skeptic mind
was keen enough to make him blind
to any unexpected act
too large for his small world of fact.
This observation implicates all of us—Western readers in particular—whose reliance on scientific evidence, to this day, rules out any probability of resurrection. The hymn further observes that blind persons today use their fingers to know their world, which is how Thomas eventually came to know the reality of the resurrection—through touch. The hymn ends with what might be a fitting conclusion for a sermon on this passage—a prayer that we, by God’s grace, might believe and receive the risen Christ,
whose raw imprinted hands reached out
and beckoned Thomas from his doubt.
This scripture text ends the book of John, who has written in order “that [we] may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God” (John 20:31). Troeger’s commentary proves faithful to the gospel writer’s intent in its final verse.
Tom Troeger is but one of hundreds of contemporary hymn-writers whose poetic meditations on scripture texts bring the ancient words into our contemporary world, packaged in the portable, memorable form of song. Ruth Duck, Shirley Erena Murray, Fred Pratt Green, and Mary Louise Bringle are but a few who have produced these thoughtful lyrical commentaries with 21st-century sensibilities.
Finding homiletical songs
A few thoughts on how a preacher might go about finding, researching, and incorporating such homiletical hymns: Hymnal indexes or digital search engines on websites like Hymnary.org are a good place to find scripture texts that match with particular hymns. More recently produced hymnals tend to also have lectionary indexes that match songs with scripture. The aim is to find lyrics that go beyond paraphrasing the text, that offer interpretations or perspectives that cast particular light on the reading.
Once the preacher finds a useful hymnic commentary, they may want to do a simple analysis or exegesis of the hymn. This is where a little research yields information about the author, the occasion for the hymn’s composition, alternative tunes (in the event that the lyrics are great, but the tune is unfamiliar), interesting metaphors and images, theological concepts, and how the hymn might function as a call to action.
In my own practice I look for ways to include some of the hymn’s lyrics in the sermon. And depending on the hymn, I always look for a way to have it sung, preferably by the congregation, but any musical rendition of it is an enrichment to the sermon.
I can hear a reader asking if this musical enrichment is limited to music intended for worship. There is no limit to the commentary music can provide for our sermons. Hymns, songs, spirituals, popular music, musicals, hip-hop, rock—you name the genre, there is probably someone in your congregation to whom those lyrics will speak in ways a music-less sermon will not.
All of this to say that the preacher has powerful resources in the pages of the hymnal, and in the lyrics of the songs we listen to every day. Once invited into the preacher’s study, these resources can lighten the burden of preparing and delivering a compelling sermon that strikes just the right note.
References
- Thomas Troeger, Wonder Reborn: Creating Sermons on Hymns, Music, and Poetry (Oxford University Press, 2010).