When It's Stuck in Your Head

I did not create this meme and have no idea who did so. Hopefully I'm not violating any kind of copyright or intellectual property law because it really says it all!  It's that time of year when churches are either holding Vacation Bible School or have already had their VBS -- and since we had ours a few weeks ago, this meme hit the nail on the head.  Those songs from "Shipwrecked VBS" are still popping up on my internal CD player, sometimes at the craziest times.  Popularly known as "ear-worms," they are, quite literally, stuck in my head.

Music has the power to call forth emotion, to summon up old memories, to make new information easier to remember, to change the way we think, even to bring us into the very presence of God.  Music can lull a child to sleep or provoke a warrior to strike.  If you don't believe me, try putting a baby to bed to the sound of bagpipes or re-enacting Braveheart to the tune of Brahms' lullaby! 

Furthermore, the perfect marriage of lyrics with tune is a potent reminder of experiences and events in a person's life, calling forth the heartache of loss as well as the joy of falling in love. To a person suffering from dementia, a long-cherished line of a song can reopen the doors to half-forgotten thoughts and even to speech.  You see this again and again in care facilities and at bedsides.  One of my church members who does a lot of visiting frequently engages the folks she sees with a familiar hymn or two.  More often than not, the person will at least attempt to sing along or at the very least will smile or try to mouth the words.

The early Methodist revival was a vehicle for and recipient of the power of hymn-singing, especially through lifting up the poetry of Charles Wesley through familiar tunes.  Like his father Samuel and his sister Hetty, Charles had a gift for expressing the heights and depths of human experience through his poems and hymns.  Whenever I'm visiting a church, I like to flip through the hymnals to see how many times his name shows up.  You will be hard pressed to find a Protestant hymnal that doesn't include "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing," "Christ the Lord is Risen Today," "O, For a Thousand Tongues," or "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling."  In his lifetime, he is estimated to have written upwards of 6000 hymns, so that barely scratches the surface of his output or of his influence.  

Christianity is a religion of the Word -- of Jesus Christ, the Word-made-flesh, and of the Bible, so it is not surprising that so many of Charles Wesley's words live on.  Very few of his sermons have survived the years; many of his poems have achieved immortality.  The combination of sharp intellect with warmed heart was and is a hallmark of Methodism, meant to be used to spread the good news of God's love in Christ to all people, encouraging them to allow the Spirit to create in them "holiness of heart and life."  

Interestingly, the British and American tunes for some of Charles' most well-known hymns are quite different.  I had to really pay attention last summer when we were singing "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling," for example.  To my joy, Sagina, the tune used for "And Can It Be," is one that we share, and singing that with a group of American and English Methodists at Wesley Memorial in Epworth was one of the highlights of my sabbatical.  I only learned this masterpiece of a hymn 20 years or so ago, and only after singing and listening to it repeatedly was I able to remember the words.  But once the tune and the words were so intertwined that I couldn't think of one without the other, I found that this poem was so deeply ingrained in me that hardly a day passes without me reflecting on some phrase or thought from it.

Because, you see, when it's stuck in your head, it gets stuck in your heart, too.  And only then can the Spirit really get to work, transforming your innermost being into the likeness and image of Christ, the One of whom Charles penned these exultant words:

He left his Father's throne above 
(so free, so infinite his grace!), 
emptied himself of all but love, 
and bled for Adam's helpless race. 
'Tis mercy all, immense and free, 
for O my God, it found out me! 
'Tis mercy all, immense and free, 
for O my God, it found out me! 

When it's stuck in your head, it's stuck in your heart, and in your soul, and in your life, and nothing will ever be the same again as you are being changed by God's immeasurable mercy and compassion.  Even the angels cannot explain or understand God's infinite grace, and so perhaps in his wonderment and gratitude Charles says it best --

Amazing love! How can it be 
that thou my God shouldst die for me?

Thanks be to God!