Pilgrimage Ponderings
My Place
Last night, we celebrated Holy Thursday in worship with members of 3 United Methodist congregations, 1 A.M.E. congregation, and 1 Presbyterian congregation. The highlight for me was the combined choir that blessed us with beautiful anthems.
The chorus to one of the anthems caught my attention. They sang, "Never will a rock cry out in my place. He's worthy of all of my praise. I just came to praise the Lord."
In my work with congregations, I try to help them shift their perspective from worrying about how they will survive to thinking about what ministry God has for them to do and what message of love and hope their community needs to hear. At times I have reflected on our denomination's preoccupation with loss of membership and found myself thinking of the verse in scripture where Jesus says that if he were to silence the people praising God, "even the stones would cry out." My point is that God will see that there is a witness to the love of Jesus, whether or not we do our part in the church.
So I was moved by this anthem and the declaration, "I will not leave it to a rock to proclaim my praise." What a testimony, on the eve of the day of crucifixion, for us to proclaim that we will be faithful in sharing the Good News of Jesus's love, life, death, and resurrection.
Never will a rock cry out in my place. He is worthy of all of my praise.
R.L. Smith: Kathy, I have been listening to Bishop Clarence McClenndon's song "I Came to Magnify The Lord" a lot recently...I can't seem to get it out of my head. At any rate, I was curious a deeper interpretation of the chorus, "Never will a rock cry out in my place; He's worth of all my praise!", and so I did a Google search and found your "Pondering". Your simple explanation was exactly what I was looking for and it fully illuminated the full meaning and power of the lyric. I'll take your thoughts with me to church today, a gorgeous snowy Sunday morning, and gladly profess "I just came to magnify; I just came to glorify; I just came to praise the Lord" Thank you so much for your insightful piece. (01/11/09)