Wesley Week: Rejoice, the Lord is King!

Remember? This is my "Wesley Week!" If John and Charles Wesley’s hymns were removed from hymn books, the books would be more like pamphlets. But, the Wesleyan contribution is more than bulk, like artistically-skilled jewelers set diamonds into settings of costly metals, the brothers set soaring doctrinal and theological themes into church worship and sacred music.

Consider the Chicago skyline without the Sears Tower! I heard that it was recently renamed "Willis Tower" (for Willis Group Holdings). Why can’t people leave things alone, the way they should be? Everyone knows "Sears!" Who in the world is "Willis?" Is "group holding" a youth camp bonfire event?

The Comcast Building soars over Philadelphia. In my opinion, the place is an architectural blob compared to Philadelphia’s City Hall with William Penn delicately perched atop. Beauty cannot be defined by "tall" or "big!" Style, balance, art, color, changing shadows from morning and afternoon sunlight flaunt city hall’s beauty.

Pat and I recently viewed the New York City skyline from New Jersey. Without the Trade Center Towers near the Battery one can see and feel emotional scar tissue. The battery is now incomplete. The South end of Manhattan looks like the space where a dentist extracted a tooth. Our lingering memories of evil acts caused us to turn away.

The church, in my opinion, cannot afford to excise Wesleyan hymns without leaving an empty spot on the landscape. I for one have warm memories and indelibly etched doctrines in my soul because of the spires of Wesleyan song and Biblical truth which poked holes into the dark clouds of doubt and looming fears of failure. On occasion I may have been near the brink of a sarcastic spiral of suspicion, slithering snakelike into my own egoism, too smart for my own good. At the right moment, an untrained "song leader" said, "Let’s sing page number 228! (Do you remember when leading worship wasn’t much more than announcing the next page number?) At that moment an old Hammond Organ sounded out the introduction and the pianist added fulness and people sang, I sang, and I still sing!
Rejoice, the Lord is King!
Your Lord and King adore;
Rejoice, give thanks and sing,
and triumph evermore.
Lift up your heart,
lift up your voice; rejoice;
again I say, rejoice.
The Lord the Savior reigns,
The God of truth and love;
When he had purged our stains,
He took his seat above.
Lift up your heart,
lift up your voice; rejoice,
again I say, rejoice.
His kingdom cannot fail;
He rules o'er earth and heaven;
The keys of earth and hell
are to our Jesus given.
Lift up your heart,
lift up your voice; rejoice,
again I say, rejoice.
Rejoice in glorious hope!
Our Lord the Judge shall come,
and take his servants up
to their eternal home.
Lift up your heart,
lift up your voice; rejoice,
again I say, rejoice.


Oh, yes! The tune and truth soar! Most everything else musically and worshipfully may be comparable to a squat two story, stucco and concrete strip mall. That’s my opinion during "Wesley Week." I do pray that my grandchildren will learn to sing, will have their faith reinforced and join in joyful praise with thousands of saints and declare, "Rejoice the Lord is King!"