Called Unto Holiness: Singing Our Song

On Thursday evening this week, at the Ordination Service of the 98th Annual Assembly of the Kansas City District, we will sing the song that is sung every year, at every ordination service, on every district. At the start of the second verse of Holiness unto the Lord (also called Called Unto Holiness), the ordinands will be led into the sanctuary.

Called Unto Holiness may be the song most familiar to our global church. If the Church of the Nazarene has been given its own special song to sing, it’s this one.

In the loud and noisy din of denominations, parachurch ministries, ecumenical affiliations, and independent, interdenominational, and nondenominational churches, we have a unique and important melody to contribute.

Our refrain is about redemption, entire sanctification, perfect love, and heart purity. The verses of our song refer to our fallen nature and broken souls, of the power of God’s transforming grace, and of God’s offer to change hearts, cleanse from all sin, and empower for service. Singing this song is the reason for our existence. 

We sing with our lives, as well as our voices. When our words, actions, and attitudes bring a smile of pleasure to the face of God, we are singing our song at its best.

God has given us a song to sing – a song that is as beautiful as a pure heart and as lyrical as the Psalms and the Beatitudes. Though this particular song sounds more like a march, it invites us to the dance of grace. God has given us a song to sing – a song of scriptural holiness that invites a world crippled by sin to embrace healing, transforming grace.

As together we sing the song on Thursday evening, many of us will experience a catch in our voice as we remember our own ordination – the vows we took, the confirmation and affirmation we received, the blessings we experience.

May God continue to find us eager to sound forth the grace notes of heart holiness.

We have a song to sing. Let’s sing it loud. Let’s sing it long.