Sermon of Sunday, May 9, 2010
Promised Peace
When I think of Julia Ward Howe, I am reminded of the words she wrote to the “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory,” the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” As much as I enjoyed singing them in church, as an organist I particularly liked the melody and the rousing refrain. It was a perfect piece for the way I liked to play the pipe organ. As Herr Salzberger, my instructor in Frankfurt am Main in Germany chided, “Ralph only knows three speeds: fast, faster, fastest and three volumes: loud, louder, loudest.” In all fairness, I enjoyed playing the last stanza of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” in a solemn, almost stately, but certainly slow and diminished in volume way … “In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,” … What I really enjoyed was how that last stanza lead into the last refrain or perhaps even two renderings of “Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!” – and on the massive pipe organ at the Frauenfriedenskirche in Frankfurt, I could bring my knee up and push preset stops, adding rank after rank of organ pipes until I was finally racing around the keyboard with each finger triggering as many as fifty to sixty notes from different octaves and voices.
Sermon of Sunday, May 2, 2010
Love's Call