A Synod of the Covenant webinar draws from the hymnody and writings of some of our best-loved musical contributors

November 23, 2024

The Rev. Dr. Catherine E. Williams

How do hymns do theology? How much interpretive work is possible within the limits of poetic expression? How does any of this make for more compelling and memorable sermons?

The Rev. Dr. Catherine E. Williams, associate professor of Preaching and Worship and the director of Chapel Worship at Lancaster Theological Seminary, handled all those questions and more during a fascinating and engaging talk recently as part of the “Equipping Preachers” series offered most months by the Synod of the Covenant. Williams’ 87-minute talk, “Lyrical Theology and Hymns as Midrashim,” can be found here.

With help from the PC(USA)’s 2013 hymnal, “Glory to God,” and the writings and hymnody of scholars and writers including Thomas Troeger, Brian Wren, Ruth Duck and Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, Williams argued this premise during the preaching webinar: The music we sing during Christian worship proclaims and teaches as convincingly as the sermons we preach.

A pianist and singer, Williams began formal music study at age 8 in her native Trinidad and Tobago. She said she entered Princeton Theological Seminary’s PhD program in homiletics “with a view to broaden the understanding of proclamation to include congregational singing.”

“So many of the songs we sing as children and even as adults are the source of what Christians in the pew understand and believe about God,” she said. “That’s where we get it.” Songs and hymns “do theology in a different way.”

When she’s called on to craft a sermon, Williams has a Bible in one hand and a hymnal in the other — a hymnal with a robust Scripture index, topical and tune index, and a lectionary index like the one found in “Glory to God.” She said Troeger, who died two years ago after a long and prolific career, found “a feasible analogy with Midrash” in the way “hymns do their theological work, interpreting Scriptures in ways that give meaning to the lived experiences” of hymn composers.

She defined Midrash as “a unique way of interpreting Scripture,” a word that means inquire or investigate. “A basic function is to interpret a scriptural text so it’s relevant and meaningful to the contemporary situation of its readers,” Williams said.

Rabbis have been “doing this for centuries,” interpreting “based on the news of the current groups of believers,” she said. The Bible itself contains Midrash, such as the places where New Testament writings interpret Old Testament passages. “To this day,” Williams said, “we might accurately say that a great deal of preaching is Midrash.”

Troeger taught that preachers “use their theologically informed imaginations to provide interpretations of a biblical text to help it make sense to the congregation’s life and empower people to live their faith,” Williams explained, which “allows for multiple readings of Scripture in light of contemporary life. The question becomes, how much interpretive work is possible within the limits of poetic expression?”

As an example, Williams selected Duck’s “Womb of Life and Source of Being.” Williams asked: What kind of theological work is happening here? One webinar participant said it’s “inclusiveness and the wholeness of God.” Another said, “She is teaching different elements of how we can understand the Trinity.”

In this hymn, Williams noted that Duck advocates for finding multiple names for God. “She is working with metaphors for God that come from Scripture.”

Turning to the term “lyrical theology,” Williams said it’s formulating “beliefs about God through the songs we sing in church.” We use that approach “because songs, hymns and spiritual songs do theology in such succinct and accessible ways that they make great partners in preaching.”

“You could say that they co-proclaim with the sermon,” she said, noting it was Methodist scholar and singer S.T. Kimbrough Jr., who first used the term “lyrical theology.”

“It can be argued much of what we understand and believe about God today has been distilled through the theology of the songs we sing,” Williams said. It’s what the psalms produced for worshipers in synagogues in the ancient world, and what spirituals did centuries later for people who were enslaved. “These songs express a range of conditions and responses to life, all against the backdrop of a God who was always there.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: A Synod of the Covenant webinar draws from the hymnody and writings of some of our best-loved musical contributors

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Rhea Adams, Service Desk, Administrative Services Group (A Corp) (Term) 
Ruth Adams, Director, Assistance Program, Church Engagement, Board of Pensions 

Let us pray

O God, you taught us to pray and have instructed us to pray, listening to you so that we may follow you closer. Today, draw this world together and draw us to you in prayer as we continually seek you and your presence. Amen.