On That Note

COMMUNITY OF CHRIST SINGS 640 ‘I, the Lord of Sea and Sky’

This hymn is beloved by all generations for its missional call-and-response. By Jane M. Gardner, presiding evangelist

In 2008, the exciting, yet daunting task of developing a new hymnal for the church began. Some of the key data points we wanted to capture through a survey were the songs that people would recommend moving on to the next generation. This was an intentionally different approach from asking people to tell us their favorite hymns.

The survey listed the songs from Hymns of the Saints, Sing for Peace, Sing a New Song, and By Request. As a team we tried to predict the top choice. Would it be “The Spirit of God like a Fire Is Burning,” “There’s an Old, Old Path,” or “Redeemer of Israel”?

All our guesses were wrong. “I, the Lord of Sea and Sky” received the most votes. In retrospect, we shouldn’t have been surprised. The hymn consistently ranks at the top of online surveys of favorite Christian songs.

The song premiered in 1979 as “Here I Am, Lord” and was published for the first time in 1981. It became widely available to Community of Christ in Sing a New Song, published in 1999. Since then, we have joined Christians around the world who have found this song challenging, comforting, and emotionally satisfying. Many of us can sing it from memory, especially the refrain, signaling that it has found a place in our hearts.

Daniel L. Schutte, the song’s author and composer, holds a Master of Divinity degree from the Jesuit School of Theology. While he was a 31-year-old graduate student, one of his friends asked him to write a song for a coming ordination. After two days of concentrated effort, focused on Jeremiah and other prophets’ responses to God’s call, the phrase “Here I Am, Lord” emerged. There are several scriptural images and stories in the hymn. Among them is Isaiah’s visit into the Temple, where he readily responds to God, “Here am I, send me” (Isaiah 6:1-8). We also hear echoes of the boy Samuel who responds to God’s call by saying, “Here I am” several times over the course of a night (1 Samuel 3). Michael Hawn of the Perkins School of Theology notes the song is unusually constructed. The stanzas speak in God’s voice, first person singular, but the refrain changes to the first-person response of the singer, moving from “I, the Lord” to “Here I am, Lord.” Each stanza also highlights a paradox. God is a powerful creator of “sea and sky,” “snow and rain,” and “wind and flame” and, at the same time, God hears the “people cry,” bears the “people’s pain,” and “tend[s] the poor and lame.” Hawn also highlights a theme of transformation that surfaces throughout the text. In stanza one, God transforms the darkness into light, in stanza two God melts “hearts of stone” with love, and in stanza three God nourishes the “poor and lame” with the “finest bread,” a reference to the Lord’s Supper (Communion). In an interview with America: The

This ongoing Herald series will Jesuit Review of Faith & Culture, Schutte explore the history and context revealed that the original wording of of hymns from Community of the refrain began, “Here I am, Lord; Christ Sings. Sung in pews or through Zoom connections, these words and melodies connect us to here I stand, Lord.” After considering the human tendency to self-doubt, he one another and to our identity. changed the wording to “Here I am,

Is there a hymn you would like Lord; is it I, Lord?” to know more about? Let us know Forty years after it was written, we at Herald@CofChrist.org. continue to sing “I, the Lord of Sea and Sky” with heartfelt commitment and gratitude for a God who cares for us, invites us, and sends us into the world. Jane Gardner has served in various roles within church leadership, most recently as presiding evangelist. Her ministry includes an emphasis in worship, music, art, Temple ministries, and the sacraments. Jane served as team leader for the Hymnal Steering Team from 2008 to 2013, culminating in the production of Community of Christ Sings.