Music for Sunday, December 2

Advent 1

Happy New Year! Year C, that is. Advent marks the beginning of the Liturgical Year so we have some changes afoot this Sunday. First, we are unveiling a new bulletin format this Sunday. It is in booklet form and will include the Weekly Tidings. We hope you like it. New service music is also planned for this Sunday, with the Trisagion and a mystical Sanctus.

Since it is Advent 1, the readings focus on Christ's second coming. In that vein, the CMG will sing "Since the World Began" at the prelude, which begins with a very descriptive scene:

Oh, that You would burst from the heavens

And how the mountains would quake

You would make the nations tremble

All Your enemies would learn of Your fame

How then shall we be saved?

How can we be saved?

Since the world began

No ear has heard, no eye has seen

A God like You

Oh, a God like You

At the Communion anthem, the choir will sing "Zion Hears the Watchmen Singing". The tune is the Advent classic "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme", but this anthem is based on an organ voluntary by Johann Walther, first cousin to Johann Sebastian Bach. 

Zion hears the watchmen singing,

And all her heart with joy is springing;

She wakes, she rises from her gloom;

For her Lord comes down all glorious,

The strong in grace, in truth victorious.

Her Star is risen, her Light is come.

Ah come, Thou blessèd One, God’s own belovèd Son:

Alleluia! We follow till the halls we see

Where Thou hast bid us sup with Thee.

During communion we will sing a hymn text found in the supplemental hymnal Wonder, Love and Praise. The hymn, "Signs of Endings All Around Us", conjures up all kinds of images! But it is a perfect hymn for a new year. It is sung to the well known tune, Ebenezer.

Signs of endings all around us--

    darkness, death, and winter days

  shroud our lives in fear and sadness,

    numbing mouths that long to praise.

  Come, O Christ, and dwell among us!

    Hear our cries, come set us free.

  Give us hope and faith and gladness.

    Show us what there yet can be.

Music for Sunday, November 25

Well, it's the Sunday after Thanksgiving, but it's not Christmas or even Advent yet! This is the last Sunday of Ordinary Time - Christ the King Sunday. Pope Pius XI institute the feast of Christ the King in 1925, to be celebrated throughout the universal church. Feeling that there was a rise of secularism throughout much of Europe, Pius hoped the institution of the feast would have various effects. They were:

1. That nations would see that the Church has the right to freedom, and immunity from the state.
2. That leaders and nations would see that they are bound to give respect to Christ.
3. That the faithful would gain strength and courage from the celebration of the feast, as we are reminded that Christ must reign in our hearts, minds, wills, and bodies.

Christ the King Sunday used to be celebrated on the last Sunday of October, but since the calendar reforms of 1969, the feast falls on the last Sunday of Ordinary Time, which is the Sunday before Advent. It is fitting that the feast celebrating Christ's kingship is observed right before Advent, when we liturgically wait for the promised Messiah.

Phil Wickham

At the Prelude, the Contemporary Music Group will sing This Is Amazing Grace, by Phil Wickham. The lyrics are perfect for this day that we celebrate the King of Kings.

Who breaks the power of sin and darkness

Whose love is mighty and so much stronger

The King of Glory, the King above all kings

Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder

And leaves us breathless in awe and wonder

The King of Glory, the King above all kings

This is amazing grace

This is unfailing love

That You would take my place

That You would bear my cross

You lay down Your life

That I would be set free

Oh, Jesus, I sing for

All that You've done for me

Who brings our chaos back into order

Who makes the orphan a son and daughter

The King of Glory, the King of Glory

Who rules the nations with truth and justice

Shines like the sun in all of its brilliance

The King of Glory, the King above all kings

At the offertory, the Trinity Choir will sing All Shall Be Amen and Alleluia, by Thomas Keesecker on a resurrection text of St. Augustine of Hippo. The text is wonderfully woven with a flowing piano accompaniment. This is a favorite anthem of the choir.

All shall be Amen and Alleluia.We shall rest and we shall see.

We shall see and we shall know.

We shall know and we shall love.

We shall love and we shall praise.

Behold our end, which is no end.

At the postlude I will attempt one more musical tribute to the King of Kings with the playing of Handel's Hallelujah from Messiah. While most people think about Easter when hearing this grand chorus, it is perfect for Christ the King Sunday.

King of kings and Lord of lords!

And He shall reign forever and ever!

Hallelujah!

Music for Sunday, November 11

This Sunday is Veteran's Day. It also marks the 100th Anniversary of the end of World War I, from which Veteran's Day was born.

In the first Armistice Day proclamation in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson called for the nation to remember those who had died in their country’s service and to make the day an opportunity for America to "show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nation." In 1938 Congress called for the observance of Armistice Day in churches and schools — again dedicating the day to the cause of world peace. In 1954 Armistice Day was renamed Veteran's Day. So, I thought we would recognize this occasion with music, as close to the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month as we possibly could. At communion we will sing as a congregation two hymns that will mark this day well - This Is My Song and Let There Be Peace On Earth. 

The stirring melody of the first hymn comes from a symphonic tone poem by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) by the name of Finlandia, Op. 26. Not only is the spirit of the music appropriate for “This Is My Song,” but the history of Sibelius’ composition also adds meaning. He wrote Finlandia as a patriotic offering in 1899, and revised it in 1900. The composition was performed as the last of seven musical pieces that accompanied a series of tableaus, each reflecting portions of Finnish history. Out of agitated and tumultuous opening music—symbolizing the struggles of the Finnish people—the serenity of the hymn-like melody emerges, symbolizing hope and resolution. Lloyd Stone (1912-1993), an American public school teacher who lived in Hawaii, wrote the first two stanzas of “This Is My Song”. During the brief time of peace between two world wars, it was a song of hope for all nations—“for lands afar and mine.” The poet acknowledges love for his own country, but balances that with the love that others feel around the world for their nations.

Methodist theologian Georgia Harkness (1881-1974) now enters the story. In the late 1930s she added a third stanza..  It is a prayer to the “Lord of all earth’s kingdoms.” Harkness skillfully ties the reference to “earth’s kingdoms” to a petition found in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come; on earth thy will be done.” Christ becomes the central figure in Harkness’ stanza, as one who will unite us in service to each other and help us to “learn to live as one.” Her stanza ends with a personal dedication: “Myself I give thee; let thy will be done.” In this stanza, Harkness transforms a hymn of peace with vague religious overtones into a prayer for peace that comes from the author of peace, Jesus Christ.

Let There Be Peace On Earth was born of the folksong movement of the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s. It was written by Sy Miller and his wife Jill Jackson-Miller in 1955, and introduced at a retreat of young people from a wide variety of religious, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. After the retreat, the young people started sharing the song, and it quickly made its way around the world. First sung at schools and churches, it began to be used in celebrations of Brotherhood Week, Veteran’s Day, and United Nations Day. Taped, copied, printed in songbooks and passed by word of mouth, it eventually spread overseas, sung by Maoris in New Zealand and Zulus in Africa.