Lenten Playlist 1 - "Baba Yetu"
From our Music & Worship Minister:
Each week this Lent, I'll share a music recording we might not have heard before, something which I hope will connect us to God in new ways. I love how the season of Lent is both ancient and ever new; it is a refrain in the rhythm of the church year inviting us to return to the Lord "Again and Again," but it's also an invitation to discover new facets of our walk with God.
I'll also invite you to join me on our social media or at AbidingPresence.net/live for an evening musical meditation each Thursday around 8:00 p.m. If you listen closely, you might even hear a few notes of the week's recommended piece of music!
This week, I'm recommending "Baba Yetu," an exuberant musical setting of the Lord's Prayer. Originally written as the theme song for the 2005 video game Civilization IV, it has since been performed by choirs/ensembles of all sizes around the globe.
"Baba Yetu" quickly became a piece of music that invited global collaboration. The performers involved in the 2009 recording linked here include the composer, Christopher Tin (born in Northern California to immigrant parents from Hong Kong), the text translator/adapter Chris Kiagari (a Nigerian-American software engineer and church musician), the incomparable Soweto Gospel Choir (from South Africa), and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra among others.
"Baba Yetu" moves me every time I hear it, and reminds me of how Christ connects me to the people who sing and pray these words in every language and place. The music is infectious and makes me want to dance—which is unusual for musical settings of the Lord's Prayer, beautiful as they might be. It's a reminder to me that prayer is and can be so many things: serious but also joyful, lamenting but also celebrating, speaking but also silence, stillness but also movement, asking but also giving, resting but also rising, loud but also quiet, singing but also listening.
Until next week, may your heart sing to the Lord who always welcomes us back, Again and Again.
—Dave