"What is the World Like" -Tice/Morris

This week, I had the opportunity to explore yet another new-to-me text and tune in the Glory to God hymnal. I stumbled upon it because it is a text that, in part, alludes to our Gospel lesson for this Sunday: the familiar parable of the Mustard Seed. I quickly noticed that the hymn was co-written by Adam Tice (text) and Sally Ann Morris (music) – a team that I first experienced at the Montreat Conference in June 2019.

You may recall a few weeks back when I wrote on this blog about the season of Pentecost. I explained that the season is one where we recall the teachings of Jesus (as opposed to important life events of him celebrated in other times of the year). These teachings often come in the form of parables from the Gospel writers. Adam Tice’s text gives a nod to four such parables: the Mustard Seed (Matthew 13 / Mark 4 / Luke 13), the Prodigal Son (Luke 15), the Good Samaritan (Luke 10), and the Ten Bridesmaids (Matthew 25). Both of the Matthew texts here are part of the lectionary readings for this year – the Mustard Seed this week, and the Ten Bridesmaids late in the season.

Tice’s text is in five stanzas and is re-printed in full below. He is no doubt a talented poet and theologian! As you read through his text, take note of these three elements:

• the overall sense of unity by allowing the first four stanzas to begin with the same question – What is the world like when God’s will is done? – and end with a This is how God... statement relating to the respective parable
• his predominant use of monosyllabic words, allowing for a feeling of simplicity, directness, honesty, and plainness
• the abab rhyme scheme which makes “done” a rhyme word in each and every stanza as he brilliantly flips the fifth stanza to answer the reiterated question that opens the first four

What is the world like when God’s will is done?
Mustard seeds grow more than we can conceive:
roots thread the soil; branches reach for the sun.
This is how God moves us each to believe. 

What is the world like when God’s will is done?
Witness the wandering child coming home;
watch as the parent breaks into a run.
This is how God longs for us when we roam. 

What is the world like when God’s will is done?
No more is neighbor just ally or friend;
peace thrives in places where once there was none.
This is how God works when rivalries end. 

What is the world like when God’s will is done?
Ready for feasting, we watch through the night,
tending our lamp’s till the new day’s begun.
This is how God readies us for the light. 

These are the stories that Jesus imparts,
filled with the Spirit who joins us as one.
Born through our voices, our hands, and our hearts,
This is a new world where God’s will is done.

Hymnologist Carl Daw has some further insight into this text. He writes, “Each of these [parables] is an indirect description of what Scripture calls ‘the kingdom of God’ or ‘the kingdom of heaven.’ In other words, these are narrative approximations of what it means to live under the sovereignty of God; as such, parables do not seek to define but to suggest, to awaken the imagination, to free us from our everyday assumptions about life. ... These [first] four stanzas are then summarized in the fifth stanza holding out the possibility that ‘through our voices, our hands, and our hearts’ we can be part of this reign of God on earth.”

I’m thankful for Catherine Hines, who graciously learned this piece with me this week. Now living and working in Lexington, Catherine is a 2019 Centre grad and a former music intern at The Presbyterian Church of Danville.