Year C: Music for Sunday of the Passion / Palm Sunday April 10, 2022

HYMN FOR THE PROCESSION Prepare the Royal Highway
(Bereden väg för Herran) ELW 264

Some will wonder why we aren't singing "All Glory, Laud, and Honor" because that is the usual (and most obvious) choice. But this hymn hits all the same important points.

Jesus is called the King of Kings - an echo of the gospel reading. Palm branches and garments are spread before him as he comes into the city. The people shout and sing. My favorite thing is the cry "Hosanna!" leads the refrain on a musical line that ascends - just like our prayers do when we cry "Hosanna!"

It's a hymn well-suited to the day.

HYMN OF THE DAY A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth

(An Wasserflüssen Babylon) ELW 340

For many, this will be their first time singing this hymn from the famed German hymnwriter, Paul Gerhardt.

Since the first Sunday in Lent we've heard this hymn in a variety of ways: the singing of individual stanzas by soloists, organ variations by three different composers, a handbell arrangement, and the full hymn sung by the choir as the opening voluntary. 

This hymn has deep Lutheran roots and is a quality addition to our already excellent repertoire of hymns.

Read more about why I've chosen this hymn on a previous blog post:
http://smljax.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-greatest-passion-hymn-you-probably.html

MUSICAL OFFEERING Weep, Oh Mary, Weep

Text and music by Patrick M. Liebergen

COMMUNION HYMN O Sacred Head, Now Wounded 

(Herzlich tut mich verlangen) ELW 351

Would you be surprised if I told you I learned this great passion hymn from a recording by Amy Grant?

It's true! She was still a teenager when her second album, My Father's Eyes, was released in 1979 - and this song was on it. My sister, brother, and I attended a Bible camp on the shores of Lake Lundgren near Pembine, Wisconsin and this song was a big hit. My sister and I sang it as part of a quartet - a scene that I imagine was replayed at camps across the country that summer.

We went to a Lutheran church at the time, but I'm not sure why we never sang it in church. It's a classic Lutheran hymn and I'm glad to be part of a congregation that sings it!

SENDING HYMN Go to Dark Gethsemane (Gethsemane)
ELW 347

CLOSING VOLUNTARY Wondrous Love  

setting, Robert Lau

sources: By All Music Guide, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2111239 (Amy Grant image via Wikipedia)