Herzliech lieb: an update

As noted recently, we have been preparing a version of the chorale “Lord, thee I love with all my heart,” sung in alternation with “Jesus loves me.” We sang it this past Sunday. It went splendidly.

Whenever we ask the congregation to sing a hymn, it is as if we are throwing a ball to them, hoping they will catch it [I suspect preaching is similar in this respect]. Most often, they do. It should be so, for if the challenge is too great most of the time, they will become discouraged. On the other hand, ff they are never challenged, they will lose interest. This latter happens more often than the former.

“Herzlich lieb” was a challenge, perhaps the largest that I have placed before this congregation. I wondered whether they would “catch” it; I wondered as well whether the choirs would, especially the younger ones.

We are finished with the piece. But at youth choir today, several of the choristers asked if we could sing it again “just for fun,” so we did. In the previous essay, I mentioned the young boy who knew the chorale and its text by heart; today, all of our first-year choristers sang it from memory.

There was more good music last Sunday. At the contemporary service, we were joined by a Korean-language choir from a local Baptist church. They offered some of the finest choral singing I have heard in years, perfect in tone, intonation, phrase shaping, connection with the sound, and (insofar as I could tell) diction. To begin the service, we sang the congregational song “I am the bread of life.” To my delight, the choir's second number was that very song (in Korean), in a fine arrangement. This was not planned, or at least not by flesh and blood.

Here is the message the contact person from the choir sent to me, which is an accurate account of the event:

Your warm reception and help made us feel that we are one family in Jesus Christ. . . It was [an] amazing experience for us singing praise songs there. All the choir members were deeply moved just by standing in the sanctuary and even more while we were singing. We felt that [the] Holy Spirit was with all of us while we were attending the service and praising God together. It was a great experience sharing God's grace.

They were not the only ones who were deeply moved.