Dear members and friends of Redeemer,
I can’t remember how the American Patchwork Quartet found its way into my music library, but one day after dropping off Winnie at daycare, I went to put on some music and stumbled across their album. I’m glad I did. In fact, I was so captivated that I immediately looked them up — and discovered they were performing in Germantown the very next day. I bought a ticket on the spot. Some things are just too perfectly timed to ignore and well worth a two hour round trip!
There’s a folk song on the album entitled “Shenandoah,” which by the 1880s had become a popular work song sung by sailors. But when you listen to it you hear a Southeast Asian trill woven into the melody, which isn’t a sound you would typically associate with Shenandoah. And yet, somehow, it fits perfectly.
That’s exactly the spirit of the American Patchwork Quartet. Their mission is to reclaim the immigrant soul of American Roots Music; that is to remind us that the songs we think of as quintessentially American were always shaped by the voices, rhythms, and longing of people who came from somewhere else. The music we call “ours” has always been a beautiful, ongoing conversation across cultures.
If you’re wondering where I’m going with this, here you go! As I listened, I couldn’t help but think of our own call as Christians. We, too, are invited to remember that the Church has never belonged to one culture, one sound, or one people. From the very beginning, the Gospel moved across borders, took on new languages, and found a home in unexpected places. The kingdom of God, as it turns out, has always had an immigrant soul.
We sing it plainly in the hymn “When Christ Was Lifted from the Earth” (The Hymnal 1982, 602)
Where generation, class, or race divide us to our shame, he sees not labels but a face, a person, and a name.
Christ doesn’t hear our categories. He hears us — each of us — by name. And if that’s how we are known and loved, then we are freed to extend that same welcome to others:
Thus freely loved, though fully known, may I in Christ be free to welcome and accept his own as Christ accepted me.
So perhaps the next time you hear something unfamiliar woven into a familiar song, or encounter someone whose expression of faith looks different from your own, pause and listen a little more closely. You just might hear something — and someone — that fits perfectly.
Blessings,
Keith+