One of the best ways to teach theology is through songs and music. In the sermon on April 16th, I emphasized some of the ways we practice teaching in this way at HRBC: our Child Development Center (CDC preschool), King’s Kids children’s choir, Vacation Bible School, children’s chapel and Bible study on Sunday mornings.
We value songs and music as key parts of the spiritual formation of our children. In fact, we sang Jesus Loves Me in worship as we celebrated and recognized the start of the 50th anniversary of our CDC preschool. As I concluded the sermon on this special day, I shared the following story:
Once there were two sisters, Anna and Susan Warner, who lived in a lovely townhouse in New York City where their father was a successful lawyer. But the financial panic of 1837 wrecked the family’s finances, forcing them to move into a ramshackle revolutionary War-era home on Constitution Island on the Hudson River across from the Military Academy at West Point.
Needing to contribute to the family income, both girls began to write poems and stories for publication. The girls ended up with 106 publications, 18 of them co-authored.
For decades, Anna and Susan held Bible classes for the West Point students who rowed over to the island on Sunday afternoons. The sisters would prepare lemonade and ginger cookies for their young guests.
Hospitality mattered, even if the focus was education and spirituality. Only two civilian women lie buried in the cemetery at the U.S. Military Academy. Susan and Anna Warner earned this honor as Sunday school teachers to generations of West Point cadets.
One of their most successful joint projects was a novel titled Say and Seal which told the story of a little boy named Jonny Fox who was very sick. Johnny had a Sunday School teacher named John Linden who comforted little Johnny by taking him into his arms, rocking him and making up a little song: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so . . .”
The novel became a bestseller, but despite its success, the Warner sisters still struggled financially. Later, a hymnwriter named William Bradbury read the words of the song in the novel and composed a childlike musical score to go along with them. Jesus Loves Me soon became the best-known children’s hymn on earth.
Who would have thought that these words of a fictitious character in a novel written by two struggling sisters would have become so loved and life changing! Nothing is impossible with God!
The impact of this sweet children’s hymn even influenced a theological giant! Karl Barth was a Swiss Theologian who lived from 1886 to 1968. In his later years, he lectured extensively in the United states at Princeton, University of Chicago and at Union Presbyterian Seminary here in Richmond. Barth would typically speak and respond to questions afterward.
Once after lecturing, he was asked, “Dr. Barth, how would you summarize your theology in a single sentence?”[1]
He answered, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” (Proverbs 22:6, New International Version)
[1] https://www.military.com/history/susan-and-anna-warner.html. Also accessed: Robert J. Morgan, Then Sings My Soul, pp. 184-185; https://hymnary.org/text/jesus_loves_me_this_i_know_for_the_bible#Author. Photo of hymn accessed from: https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/articles/history-of-hymns-jesus-loves-me.
In Christ’s care and service,
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