Music is a very important component of our services at Covenant Church. Tina and I have both done a number of our weekly messages including music in the message, and I have also done a few sermons over the years with musical topics. So I am always looking for a musical topic to write and talk about.
In last Sunday’s sermon, Don Mauldin mentioned that a song had been written around some of the scripture for his sermon. He mentioned it in the context of a local high school football coach he had met, trying to get the coach to involve his teamin FCA. The coach admitted he was not a Christian, but his wife was, and he was willing to have his team participate in FCA. A year later, this man had been converted, and Don learned of it when he walked into the team’s locker room and heard the song Touch the Hem of His Garment by Sam Cooke playing. Early in his career, Cooke was a member of the groundbreaking Soul Stirrers, a premier gospel group of the 1950s, he electrified the African American church community nationwide. His songs “Nearer to Thee” (1955), “Touch the Hem of His Garment” (1956), and “Jesus, Wash Away My Troubles” (1956) were major gospel hits and, in the words of Aretha Franklin, “perfectly chiseled jewels.” Unfortunately, he died at the age of 33.
That was the song written to go with this scripture:
Mark 5:25-34 – And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
What a great story, and song!!!
It reminds me of another famous song from 1965 written by The Byrds, titled Turn, Turn, Turn. It goes along with
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 – There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: 2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, 3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, 7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
It is an iconic song from the ‘60s.
Most Sundays at Covenant, the most frequent and loudest Amens! come from our worshipers after music sung by our wonderful Ensemble! The leadership of Tina for so many years and commitment of Rose, Cindy, and Michelle for so long now is heartwarming and we all look forward to the wonderful Godly messages they share each week from their musical perspective.
May God continue to bless the great Christian music produced and performed by folks like Sam Cooke, The Byrds, the Covenant Ensemble, and all others with that talent and commitment.
Psalm 105:2 – Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts.
Amen!