Thursday, May 26, 2005

Before the throne of God above

In Church on Sunday we sang "Before the throne of God above." An old song redone in the 1990's and made fresh again.


The words are solid and the new melody is haunting. And Sunday Lauralea and I sang it through tears.


Before the throne of God above
I have a strong, a perfect plea:
a great High Priest, whose name is Love,
who ever lives and pleads for me.


My name is graven on his hands,
my name is written on his heart;
I know that while in heaven he stands
no tongue can bid me thence depart.


When Satan tempts me to despair,
and tells me of the guilt within,
upward I look, and see him there
who made an end of all my sin.


Because the sinless Savior died,
my sinful soul is counted free;
for God, the Just, is satisfied
to look on him and pardon me.


Behold him there! the risen Lamb!
My perfect, spotless Righteousness,
the great unchangeable I AM,
the King of glory and of grace!


One with my Lord, I cannot die;
my soul is purchased by his blood;
my life is hid with Christ on high,
with Christ, my Savior and my God.


(Words: Charitie Lees De Chenez)


Tonight her and I went for Rootbeer at you know where, and she announces she wants that song sung at her funeral.


She does this to me, out of the blue she announces she wants this or that done at her funeral. Like I'll still be around to make it happen. And I'm trying to keep a mental list, should the day ever arrive and I need to pull it up. Let's see, she wants a Rich Mullins tune, "If I Stand" done too. And she wants it to be a party, with cake.


Exactly. That's what I said too.


I better write this stuff down.

4 comments:

  1. Um, you mean during the prelude? Or postlude? Or interlude? We never played it during the service but I do like that song a whole lot.



    As an aside, at my funeral, I want the vast majority of music to be Dream Theater. Actually, if someone can get DT to just come and PLAY at my funeral, that would be fantastic. Too bad I'd be dead.

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  2. Re Matt's statement, "Too bad I'd be dead" ... I read recently about a man with a terminal illness, who since he'd been to several funerals where people stated "too bad X couldn't be here to enjoy this", asked his family to organize a funeral BEFORE his death. His friends gave eulogies and celebrated his life, and he got to celebrate with them. Sounds like a good idea to me. On the other hand, if my enemies showed up and pointed out all my faults, it could be a bummer.

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  3. This afternoon we did one of the things I've found hardest to do during this entire time - we chose the music to use at the cremation.



    A few weeks back I remember speaking to the guys in the worship team about the way we play things. To me, most music has a life and flow, a rythm and essence that speaks to something deep within. The context was slightly different - we'd been discussing that the Bicester church sings stuff differently from the other congregations. This is mostly my fault, but to me virtually all the worship stuff we play has a character locked within it that is released when it's played to suit.



    I've avoided music almost totally since Sarah died. I managed to pick up a guitar a couple of days ago, but the fingers aren't really doing much yet.



    We had to chose 2 voluntaries for the entrance and exit of the crematorium.



    A while back Sarah was doing some course work and had 'The Planets' playing. We've selected a section of 'Jupiter' to use for the exit. The point is to reflect her happy side of life. Listening had me in tears several times.



    For the entrance I rather wanted the Allegro non molto from movement 4 of vivaldi's The Four Seasons - winter. This paints a very vivid picture of the bleakness and austerity that falls on a land when everything has been killed by the cold. Chris found it a bit too much, and we eventually settled on the Largo, which is a little more pastoral, and brings thoughts of coming home through the snow to find steaming bowls of soup waiting.



    Curiously it was the 'happy' piece that had the most profound effect on me. I was only a little unhappy with the austere stuff, but wept openly with the jolly piece. Weird.

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  4. Brilliant choices.



    The Four Seasons is one of my Favourites.

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