Criteria for Selecting Hymns

I've always had a passion and appreciation for hymns. Even as a little boy, I loved hymnody and the hymnal (I treasured having my own copy of the book), and I would often spend hours on end studying the information given about each hymn. The hymns that I loved best as a child are not the ones that I appreciate most now, but I remember how much they once meant to me, and I know the power that hymnody can have. As I pastor, I have become increasingly aware of the benefits and dangers inherent in that power of hymnody. There's a strong emotional component, which can be either detrimental or beneficial, depending on whether it's serving or distracting from a good text (or aiding and abetting a poor one). Both the music and the poetry of hymns, and the fact that they are sung (and that they are sung together as a congregation), serve their potential for catechesis. A good hymn well-learned through regular use will teach people the faith more efficiently and stick with them far longer than almost any sermon. I say that not to disparage the importance of preaching, but to exalt the significance of hymnody.

Over the past several years, especially in connection with my work on the Lutheran Service Book, and then also in the process of introducing and using that new book in my congregation, I've become even more conscious of hymns and more conscientious in the way I select them. I'm more deliberate about the process by which I choose them, considering not only a week at a time, but the whole scope of the Church year and the whole corpus of our Lutheran hymnody. I have tried to learn from both my own pastoral experience and my study of historic precedent and practice. I have listened carefully to my colleagues in the ministry and to my musician friends, in the hopes of benefiting from the experience and expertise of others. I have taken into account the way in which certain hymns especially commend themselves for use, in a variety of ways, and have accordingly made an effort to use those hymns regularly. I have also followed the cues of my fathers in Christ in my catechetical use of hymns.

There's frankly a lot to be considered and taken into account when it comes to selecting hymns for the singing of the Church. There's a lot at stake, too, because hymns are not neutral or innocuous. They make a tremendous impact, whether positive or negative. I honestly believe that almost nothing else we do has greater long-term catechetical consequence than the hymns that we sing with our congregations over the course of weeks and months and years and lifetimes. Singing is fundamental to who we are as Christians, and what we sing matters.

Contrary to some recent scuttlebutt, it's not true that I only have ears for ponderous sixteenth-century chorales written in a minor key. It is true that I appreciate many of those hymns very much, and I do consider the Lutheran chorale a precious treasure of our heritage. The classic chorale is not "ponderous" (not if it is played correctly and well), but musically sturdy and solidly supportive of the text; and the text, which is definitive when it comes to hymnody, tends to be a rich and full confession of the Word of God. It really is hard to beat that combo. But I welcome good hymnody from wherever and whenever it may originate, in diverse musical styles, and serving sundry purposes; much as the inspired Psalter spans a wide range of moods and uses. There are truly great hymns from every age and every corner of Christendom. The measure of a hymn's worth, in every case, is its faithfulness in confessing the Word of Christ. With that, a number of different criteria come into play in determining how, when and where a given hymn may best be used in the service of that Word. Here follow a dozen of those criteria that I have found most helpful in my approach to this important pastoral task:

1. Not every hymn can or should say everything, but every hymn should say something. What it says should be a confession of the Word of God (that is, it should say what God has said), both the Law and the Gospel, properly divided, with the Gospel predominating.

2. The hymns selected for a particular day should confess the Holy Scriptures appointed for that day, in particular the Holy Gospel. That is especially true for the Sundays following Pentecost. During the festival seasons of the Church Year (Advent through Eastertide), many of the hymns may reflect more generally the seasonal emphases rather than any one particular Reading.

3. Hymns should be implicitly (if not explicitly) Trinitarian and Christocentric. There should be no doubt or ambiguity as to who the "God" of a hymn is, nor as to what He has done and is doing in the Person and work of Christ Jesus. Which also means, by extension, that hymns should be implicitly (if not explicitly) Sacramental in proclaiming the Gospel. Not just "God," but the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not just "Christ," but Him crucified for our transgressions and raised for our justification. Not simply "once upon a time," but actively present and at work, here and now, to forgive sins and give life in the means of grace, through the preaching and administration of the Gospel.

4. The appointed Hymn of the Day should be regarded as one of the Propers, and should therefore be used. Exceptions to this rule should be exceedingly rare, and only for compelling reasons.

5. At Matins and Vespers, Morning and Evening Prayer, the "office hymn" should be appropriate to the time of day (morning or evening), comprehensively pertinent to the season of the Church Year, or directly related to the particular occasion.

6. The Hymn of Invocation is fundamentally a prayer for the Holy Spirit to open our ears and our hearts to hear and receive the Word of God and the gifts of Christ in the Service. In some way, more or less, the hymn should articulate that purpose.

7. Distribution hymns may specifically speak of the Lord's Supper. It is not necessary that most of them do so. It is appropriate and helpful for distribution hymns to pick up on aspects of the Holy Gospel of the Day, or on the special emphases of the liturgical season, in order to identify the Jesus who gives His body and blood in the Sacrament with the Jesus proclaimed, confessed and celebrated in the preaching.

8. If there is an offertory hymn, it need not describe the offering, because it is an offering, that is, a priestly sacrifice of prayer, praise and thanksgiving. An offertory hymn should give thanks and praise by confessing what God has said and done, or else it should pray for that which He has promised.

9. If there is a final hymn following the Benediction, it should not put the people back under the Law, but it should underscore and emphasize the gift and certainty of the Gospel and express a joyful confidence in the life that is already theirs in Christ Jesus. It may also serve as a prayer of eschatological longing and hope for the consummation of God's promises in the resurrection.

10. A solid core of good Lutheran hymns should be used with a fair degree of repetition throughout each year, in order that the people learn to know those hymns by heart through singing them.

11. It is helpful to identify a particular hymn from the Divine Service on Sunday (usually the Hymn of the Day) to be sung throughout the week: in the daily prayer offices of the congregation, in the daily catechesis of the home and family, and at meetings and other gatherings of the people.

12. Hymns that have established themselves in the piety of the people over the course of years, even if not the strongest examples of good hymnody, should be used with careful consideration, allowing for the significance that has attached itself to such hymns in association with the life of the Church. Weaker hymns, however, should be supported by a context of stronger hymns (with reference, in either case, to both text and tune).