A new canon for our hearts.

In my sermon last week for Biblical Preaching, I tried to say (I'm not sure if it was clear, but I tried) that the words we use in Scripture and in singing write a particular kind of canon on our hearts.  So we should take our words -- and particularly our songs -- very seriously.

To close, I had the members of my preaching lab sing "O Come O Come Emmanuel," but with words from Isaiah 40:1-11 as I'd rewritten them.

O comforter, speak tenderly of peace;

Cry words of promise and release.

You level hills and make valleys plain:

Reveal your glory, end our pain.

Rejoice! rejoice! Emmanuel

has come to you, O Israel.

Our broken faith we doubly bear as shame.

Come be our Word, a saving Name.

All words that wound will cease to stand

When you lift your almighty hand.

Rejoice! rejoice! Emmanuel

has come to you, O Israel.

Our troubled hearts can wander far,

Forgetting how you make us who we are.

Now lift us up and hold us fast--

Our future liberated from our past.

Rejoice! rejoice! Emmanuel

has come to you, O Israel.


(O Come O Come Emmanuel)