How Great Thou Art

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;
I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
John 10.10

On Wednesday I drove 400 miles into western North Dakota for my good friend Kathryn’s ordination to the ministry of word and sacrament. She chose John 10 as one of the scripture readings for the night. It was a privilege to be part of a worship service that focused so much on the abundant life that Christ gives. I felt honored to contribute some music to the night, but I felt far more honored just being present.

One of the hymns Kathryn chose was “How Great Thou Art.” Between her ordination and our service on Sunday, that’s twice in the past week I’ve sung that particular hymn. Not a really modern hymn, “How Great Thou Art.” Most people would need a moment just to translate every “thy” and “thou” into “your” and “you.” Honestly, I was surprised that Kathryn chose “How Great Thou Art” for her ordination – I wouldn’t have thought she drew life from it the way I do. But I’m only me; if Kathryn finds life in this hymn, so much the better.

When I was much younger I would play my dad’s Statler Brothers records and sing along at the top of my lungs. Sometimes I think that the main reason I love “How Great Thou Art” was because the Statler Brothers recorded a version of it. I loved the Statler Brothers. But by the time I got to the age when it became important to like what my friends liked, the Statler Brothers got put onto a shelf in my heart and buried beneath a pile of stuff meant to hide my love for music that was so wretchedly uncool. It was years before I allowed myself to unpack that hidden shelf and rediscover music that still gives me great joy.

I was in conversation with someone at that ordination who had found something she genuinely loved, something that filled her with life and love and a sense of herself as God created her. It was the kind of thing that she could have with no cost to others, no injury to a third party, nothing but gain in her own life. But it was not the life others wanted for her, and so she struggled because she loved those others, and yet to give in to their wishes would be denying something that filled her with abundant life.

There are at least two truly painful components of becoming a fully authentic, fully human follower of Christ Jesus. One is seeing and removing the strings that bind us, the strings that the world uses to pull us where it wants us to go, all with our unknowing assent. The other is realizing that we have been busily tying strings ourselves, binding our neighbors to our desires and pulling them where we want them to go. We are puppets and we are thieves, all at once, bound to jump when others say jump, and bound to look for ways to steal life from others for ourselves. This is who we are.

But Jesus offers us something different. “I will give you life,” Jesus says, “an abundant life which no one else can give.” The life Christ offers comes with no strings attached. Real Christian life is a life of unrestrained joy. Whether you find your joy in cooking, music, art, accounting, farming, writing, reading, teaching, cleaning or anything else in all creation, if it is yours with no cost to others it is a part of the abundant life that Jesus wants for you.

Frederick Buechner once said that “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.” My friends, if “How Great Thou Art” gives you gladness, then sing it with all your heart, for the world is hungering to hear God’s name praised. Live your life abundantly, reserving no thought for what others may try to steal from you or destroy in you, and spend no time dictating joy to others who may have a different picture than your own. When Christ gives life, with all its heartbreak and passion and insanity and wonder, embrace it as the great gift that it is, love Him all the more for it, and spend it lavishly on the people and the pursuits in which you find great joy. Real, authentic Christian life awaits us: let’s enjoy it together, shall we?

In Christ’s abundant peace,
Pastor Scott