Saturday, July 26, 2008

Prof'n'Stein with Dr. Jeff Gibbs

Much to my surprise, there was another Prof'n'Stein event on Friday afternoon. (I had been told to expect them no more than once a month.) This time Dr. Jeff Gibbs took to the soapbox to share some of his thoughts with us. In his talk, he asserted that our hymnody fails to fully represent the rich New Testament teaching of the kingdom of God. (Not that it is wrong, but rather that it is incomplete.)

In particular, Dr. Gibbs observed that the hymnody focuses on our comfort in death without fully expressing the reality that awaits us, which is a source of great hope: we will be raised anew in glorified bodies free from sin! So many of our hymns and our teaching speak of a "freeing" of the soul from the body at death, which encourages a negative view (even disdain) of the body and the world that is closer to gnosticism than Christianity.

Will we who are believers in Christ see God face to face upon our death? Yes! And it will be glorious to behold. But the world is being remade in Christ (Romans 8:18-25), his reign (his "kinging", often called his "kingdom") is breaking out all around us, and in the end time, heaven will draw near to earth and there will no longer be any separation ("sea") between the two . We will be God's people; God himself will live with us, will be with us and will be our God! (Rev. 21:1-5)

Dr. Gibbs suggested that writing hymnody that reflects these great teachings of God is not hard. He even suggested a new stanza to close out our beloved LSB 878 ("Abide with Me")):

And when, O Lord, you come at last to save,
put death to death and raise us from the grave,
With all creation, standing brave and free,
I shall rejoice, for you abide with me.

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