"Sing, My Tongue, The Glorious Battle"

Why do you have to be in the middle of nowhere to pick up a good oldies station? I was driving through Mineral Wells, Texas, and found an awesome local radio station – Roy Orbison, Elvis, the Temptations, Rolling Stones, Diana Ross, and more! Don’t tell me to get XM – I want local!

And the advertisements for local shops like “Bob’s Tractor Repair and Christian Book Store” are very funny. “Bob,” he says, “can fix your tractor,” and afterwards “invites you his church, Mineral Wells Bible House of Full Gospel Fellowship Church of God.” I felt like I was in my hometown all over again. The D.J. even promised that today’s birth and death announcements were coming up at the top of the hour. I thought my hometown of Linden, Alabama, was the only place to do that! Just so you know, nobody was born and nobody passed away today in Mineral Wells.

So, today’s joy of living comes from remembering to cherish the gift of good music, whatever your tastes may be. And if you’re up for thinking theologically on this hot afternoon, consider today’s liturgical calendar, where we commemorate one of the Church’s finest – John Mason Neale, renowned priest, scholar, and hymn-writer.

If that name doesn’t ring a bell (couldn’t resist that pun), just wait till Advent when we sing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” That’s probably his most well known, though my favorite is his translation of “Sing, My Tongue, The Glorious Battle,” the Maundy Thursday hymn. He also founded the Society of Saint Margaret, an Anglican order of nuns dedicated to caring for the sick.


So, there you go: we’ve got good theology – from John Mason Neale’s hymnody – and the joie de vivre – from listening to good music. Sounds like a perfect afternoon.

Let us pray:

O God, whom saints and angels delight to worship in heaven: Be ever present with your servants who seek through art and music to perfect the praises offered by your people on earth; and grant to them even now glimpses of your beauty, and make them worthy at length to behold it unveiled for evermore; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.