The Choir Corner: Epiphany, Lent and Easter

David Williamson, Choirmaster and Organist

Looking at Hymn 135, “Songs of Thankfulness and Praise” one notices that this is a seasonal hymn addressing the themes of this Epiphany season. The repetition of "manifest" reminds us of the manifestation of Christ to all, not just the descendants of Israel. It covers the Baptism of Christ and the Transfiguration, which are the focus of the first and last Sundays after Epiphany. The wedding at Cana is also alluded to for those years with a longer Epiphany in which we hear in the lectionary Jesus’ first miracle. The tune name is "Salzburg," harmonized by Bach, representing some of the best hymnody in the German/Dutch/Swiss Protestant tradition.

Contrasting to this is Hymn 448, "O Love how deep, how broad, how high," which is used extensively in both the Lenten and Easter seasons, and usually several times in the Season after Pentecost. The allusion to the Love of God is obvious in the title, and regardless of the season, it sometimes is the most cohesive choice for coordinating with the Collect, Old Testament, Psalm, Epistle and Gospel of a given Sunday. The Tune is "Deus tuorum militum," alluding to the original Latin text, "O God of your soldiers." It is French in origin, written just after the death of Bach, and represents the "new school" of Roman Catholic hymnody that emerged as a result of the Counter Reformation.

Minister’s message is simple: Jesus

To hear Will Willimon tell it, he’s a Methodist preacher who likes to talk about Jesus.

“I think when it comes down to it, Jesus is the most interesting thing Christians have to say to the world and to themselves,” he said in a recent phone interview.

Willimon, who’s also a former bishop of the North Alabama United Methodist Conference, professor of the practice of Christian ministry at Duke University Divinity School, and the author of 70 books that have sold more than a million copies, will spend next weekend in Greenwood talking about his favorite subject.

Hosted by the Episcopal Church of the Nativity, he will give lectures on the night of March 3 and the morning of March 4 and a sermon at Nativity on March 5. The entire community is encouraged to attend, said Nativity Rector Rev. Peter Gray.

Willimon holds a Master of Divinity degree from Yale and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from Emory, in addition to 13 honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees.

He said he has been blessed in his long career to “be a bishop for eight years in Alabama, a parish pastor for about 10 years and a professor and minister at a fine university  for 20 years.

“I’ve had a variety of opportunities to see Jesus at work and to see people responding to him in a variety of ways,” he said.

At the heart of his teachings about preaching and about Jesus is Willimon’s strong belief in redemptive possibility. That, he said, is one of the blessings of being a Christian in Mississippi.

Willimon started out preaching in a small South Carolina town and has spent most of his life in the South, encouraging racial reconciliation as a Christian’s duty.  

Most recently he published “Who Lynched Willie Earle: Confronting Racism Through Preaching,” a book rooted in his early life experience and his life teaching others how to preach about difficult issues.

The book begins with a historical narrative “that happened at the hands of people in my hometown,” Willimon said.

In Greenville, South Carolina, in 1947, a black man named Willie Earle was dragged out of a jail cell and brutally murdered in what’s generally considered the last public lynching in South Carolina.

“There was an internationally prominent trial where all 31 white lynchers were acquitted and Strom Thurmond bragged to the governor, ‘Hey, at least we had a trial,’” Willimon said.

Willimon said that  though he grew up in the midst of it, he didn’t hear about Willie Earle until he was in college.

“Since then, I’ve had a kind of lifelong interest in it,” he said.

The part of the narrative that inspired him and others was a sermon by a young Methodist preacher who came to South Carolina shortly after the lynching.

“He stood up and preached and said, ‘Who killed Willie Earle? We all know the answer to that question; it was those men who lynched him,’” Willimon said.

“But that answer was too simple. He went on to say that ‘we’ killed Willie Earle with our segregation laws and economic injustices and our history of discrimination. It was an amazing act of courage, a response to a terrible tragedy of many dimensions.”

The book asks what it means to speak out about race through sermons, and it draws on sermons from some of Willimon’s students following the 2015 Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church shooting in Charleston.

“What I try to say is that America’s racism is an opportunity to proclaim the gospel, to say that the redemptive possibilities of God are just limitless,” he said.

Willimon says people would often question him in his attempts to renew and transform the church in Alabama.

“They’d say, ‘Bishop, do you think we can really change the course of history?’ And I’d say, ‘I really believe it is the nature of God to change people.’”

Willimon said preachers are accustomed to talking about things people often would rather they not bring up, and dealing with doubts is one of the great gifts of the ministry.

Recently engaged with students talking about the particular challenges of this time in America, Willimon said the conversation turned to “what a great time (it is) to talk and to see our national situation as a call to teaching and to reflection for sermons.

“It’s great to turn to Jesus for help  just thinking this through,” he said. “The constructive approach is not to fret, to say, ‘I’m going to try to think like a Christian about this.’”

Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.

A Note From Peter (February 2017)

For me, one of the great highlights of the last two years at Nativity has been the restart of the Nativity Speaker Series. I consider myself unbelievably privileged to be able to learn from, spend time with, and host some of the most influential religious thinkers of our day right here in Greenwood. Never in a million years did I imagine that I would be talking theology with Walter Brueggemann over a plate of chicken livers, and yet, there we were at the Crystal Grill last year before I took him to the airport!

The first weekend in March, Nativity will welcome the Rev. Dr. William Willimon for the 2017 Speaker Series for a program entitled Why Jesus? Born in South Carolina, Dr. Willimon is now known as one of the great preachers of our day. In 1996, a survey out of Baylor University named him, alongside Billy Graham, as one of the twelve best preachers in the English speaking world. He served as Dean of the Duke University Chapel for fifteen years before being elected the United Methodist Bishop of North Alabama in 2004. Since 2012, he has been back at Duke Divinity School as Professor of the Practice of Ministry.

A distinctive feature of Willimon’s preaching and teaching is the high expectations he has of the Church as it witnesses to and follows Jesus of Nazareth as Lord and Savior. Willimon is a fascinating fellow in that he has spent his career deep within the governance and structures of the Church but has never been confused as to Whom he owes his first allegiance. As Rusty Douglas said to me, “Willimon has been known to knock out a stained glass window or two!”

Friday, March 3, the weekend will begin with a light reception at Turnrow Books at 5:30pm. I am grateful to Lucy Swayze who is helping pull off this new feature of our speaker series. After enjoying fellowship and showing off our beautiful bookstore to out of town guests, we’ll head back to Nativity for the first lecture, “The Most Interesting Person in the World,” beginning at about 6:30pm. Saturday morning, we’ll have a light continental breakfast at 8:30am followed by lectures at 9am, “Jesus Christ: the Truth About God,” and 10:45am, “Jesus Christ: the Salvation of the World.” In between, Dr. Willimon will be available to sign books.

On Sunday, March 5, Nativity’s adult forum will be treated to some extra time with Dr. Willimon at 9:30am. All through February, we will be reading his book Why Jesus?, and on this day, he’ll lead a class that he has intriguingly titled “Jesus Christ at the Church of the Nativity.” Finally, at 10:30, he’ll be our guest preacher for the first Sunday in Lent. As we hear the story of Jesus’ trials in the wilderness, his sermon title is “Just Say No! Resisting Temptation with Jesus.”

It should be a wonderful weekend. I hope you’ll plan on taking advantage of this great opportunity and invite friends from near and far!

Peace,
Peter+