"Sowers and Songwriters" | Jeremy O'Neill | July 16, 2023
Our summer sermon series, “Tuned for Praise,” invites preachers to reflect on the relationship between faith and music, as well as the lectionary texts for the day.
Isaiah 55:10-13 | Psalm 65: (1-8), 9-14 | Romans 8:1-11 | Matthew 13:1-9,18-23
When Heidi mentioned the theme of the summer sermon series “Tuned for Praise” to me, I immediately thought of my experiences in pre-pandemic 2020. Early that year I was an undergraduate studying music history, and I had the unique opportunity to do research in the archives of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee. Though my specific task was to learn more about the life and times of the singer and comedian Minnie Pearl and her relationship with the Grand Ole Opry, I found the experience taught me so much more about the nature of American music than one figure ever could. Surrounded by instruments, clothing, and photos of Country Music’s past and present, I became fascinated by the ways in which certain songs had taken on a sort of canonical status within the American songbook, and whose authorship and interpretation had been shared by so many people throughout history that they belonged more to the general public, or indeed to a higher power, than to any one person.
More well known and accepted than the canon of Country Music is of course the canon of scripture. But in many ways, the biblical stories that we know by heart and frequently inspire us, have some similarities with our favorite songs. Both have come to use through years of interpretation, translation, and public recitation, and both inspire us in new and different ways at various points in our lives. Today we hear Jesus tell the parable of the Sower, which comes to us not just in the Gospel of Matthew that we heard today, but also in the Gospels of Mark and Luke. Each interpretation lands on us in different ways in different times, such that the story becomes bigger than just one moment in a specific text.
Just as stories like the parable of the sower or even small phrases like “Come unto me all ye that trevail and are heavy laden and I will refresh you” are sewed on our collective hearts and speak to us throughout our lives, I am sure there are pieces of music and song that always seem to refresh their meaning for us. There also may be times that we read a passage from scripture or listen to a song we have always loved and don’t have a positive reaction. Maybe we are tired of hearing the same words, or have a problematic association with it, or something just doesn’t sit right.
This can initially be somewhat stressful or disheartening, but as we might expect, Jesus’s parable gives us some comfort. We might be in a place where the seeds that God gives us land on rocky ground. We might not be in a place where it feels like we can pray or worship for a wide variety of reasons. The art that usually brings us joy doesn’t make us feel anything. We might not be ready to turn what God gives us into something fruitful. But the hope is this parable comes from the fact that God is persistent. There will always be new seeds falling on us and new opportunities to embrace the ever flowing love and good news of our God, and just because we might not see the beauty in some words now doesn’t mean we won’t find a way to in the future.
The most memorable part of my musical research was not actually any of the historical artifacts, but my partner in going through the archives. I was working for man named Ketch Secor, who is the founder of The Episcopal School of Nashville, a K-8 school educating urban youth in the city. Ketch is better known as a member of the Grand Ole Opry with his band Old Crow Medicine Show, and for his role in authoring the song “Wagon Wheel,” which has become a staple on country music radio after being picked up by Darius Rucker. Despite considering myself a big fan of Ketch’s band, I always resisted that particular song despite it being their most well-known. I found the chorus overly repetitive and was frustrated that it was the only song performed by a group with a very diverse and eclectic discography that was played frequently in public spaces.
But while we were working together, Ketch took some of my fellow music students and me to a bluegrass jam session in the rural, former coal mining town of Tracy City, Tennessee, population, 1,400. We closed our time playing in a classroom with local musicians by having the entire group sing “Wagon Wheel,” with each of us taking a solo on our various instruments. The song had given me an opportunity to connect and create with a group of people I never otherwise would have met, and I was moved that, out of all things, it was my expensive Episcopal liberal arts education that had given me the opportunity to connect over a shared song with the people of Tracy City. A people whose stories of plowing fields and choking in coal mines taught me more about the American experience than any museum or archive could, and could have been taken straight out of many a popular country song.
Our Rector Luk has often said that being a Christian is a way of life. And I would say that part of our duty as Christians is to tell the story of our faith as it evolves over time. When we gather for worship every Sunday or move through the world proclaiming and embodying the Good News, we are helping provide good soil for the seeds that God gives us to grow. In the Christian life, we are singing our own rendition of a song that has been sung for thousands of years by voices from around the world, even as our appreciation for that song or the key in which we sing it might change over time.
Though Wikipedia attributes the authorship of “Wagon Wheel” to both Old Crow Medicine Show and Bob Dylan, its arrival within the canon of American song actually goes back to the 1920’s and Chicago musician Big Bill Broonzy, who penned the song in its original form before it was adapted by the 1950’s Memphis Blues singer Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup. After Big Bill and Big Boy, it was reinterpreted by Bob Dylan in the 1970’s, and came to its final lyrical form after Ketch’s input, but only became a number one hit when it was recorded later by the groupdbreaking African American country singer Darius Rucker. So this song, on the surface just a catchy tale of missing home and missing loved ones, came into my life after five different musicians had tweaked and changed it and put their own spin on it.
One day in Nashville, Ketch explained to me that for him, the lyrics were partially based off of his time at a elite prep school in New England, missing his friends back home in the South and wishing for warmer weather. I thought this was something I would never be able to relate to, as I hate the cold and claimed in that moment that I would never go near an elitist educational institution in the Northeast.
But this past winter, I was, of all places, walking out of the Yale library on a frigid night listening to music and missing my friends in warmer parts of the country. The familiar chords and voice of the song rang in my ears: “Runnin from the cold up in New England, I was born to be a fiddler in an Old-time string band… North Country Winters keep a getting me down.” Another time in my life that “Wagon Wheel,” an old song, had yet another new meaning.
In today’s Epistle, Paul tells us that the power of the Holy Spirit lives in us. Now, It it is my belief that through music, through art, and through moving through the world with love and kindness as Christ calls us, our tendencies toward transcendence come through. These are all gifts of the spirit. Each of us has so many seeds that God has planted in us and it is just our job to take care of them and allow them to blossom into the fruit of God’s Glory. God has given us the tune. It is just on us to keep singing it.
The Christian story, like so many good country songs, is a story of hope. There is always growth and resurrection on the horizon no matter how dark it may seem. The Bible tells us that there is a better home awaiting in the sky.
And this is a story worth retelling and a song worth singing again and again. So friends, let us follow the ancient words of one of society’s original songwriters, the Psalmist, in Psalm 98. And let us “Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord all the whole earth. Sing to the Lord and bless his name, proclaim the Good News of his salvation from Day to Day.”
Amen.