Year C: Music for the 17th Sunday after Pentecost - October 2, 2022

OPENING VOLUNTARY Fidelis Servus

Dom Paul Benoit (1893-1979)

Paul Benoit was an organist, composer, and a Benedictine monk who lived in France. "Dom" is the traditional title used by Benedictines. This piece is based on a Gregorian chant that borrows its text from Luke 12:42. "And the Lord said, 'Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?'" This morning's gospel reading reminds us that we are servants who need to be faithful to our tasks.

GATHERING HYMN Great Is Thy Faithfulness (Faithfulness)

ELW 753
This hymn comes to us from the revival genre. Singing "Great is thy faithfulness" is a stirring way to mark the gathering of God's people for worship.

HYMN OF THE DAY Come Down, O Love Divine (Down Ampney)

ELW 804

During the Middle Ages, devotional poetry was often read at home and in church. One author of these laudi spirituali was the Italian-born Bianco da Siena. He only wrote about 122 poems - but there were some 20,000 verses in total! 

By Dnalor 01 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 at,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32470774

Bianco was also a member of the Jesuates, a religious order that included laymen in its membership. They were known for encouraging a life of repentance and poverty, and for calling loudly on the name of Jesus before preaching sermons. Their leanings toward mysticism made some church leaders suspicious and their order was eventually abolished by Pope Clement IX.

Bianco's poem, Discendi amor santo, is the basis for Come Down, O Love Divine.

Bianco's striving for repentance and poverty can be heard in the third stanza:
Let holy charity mine outward vesture be,

and lowliness become mine inner clothing -

true lowliness of heart, which takes the humbler part,

and oe'r its own shortcomings weeps with loathing.

MUSICAL OFFERING Breathe On Me 
Aaron David Miller

This choir piece asks, on behalf of the assembly, the Holy Spirit to help us live our lives according to God's will, doing the things God would have us do. It's also a condensed version of the Hymn of the Day.

COMMUNION HYMNS

Our communion hymns are three modern meditative songs that can be learned quickly. Be Still and Know comes from the Iona Community in Scotland. Christ, Our Peace was written by Marty Haugen - a popular church music composer whose Holden Evening Prayer is widely sung and loved. Finally, we gather around the table proclaiming that we belong to God through singing Rolf Vegdahl's prayer refrain (and scripture quote) If We Live.

By Tracy from North Brookfield, Massachusetts, USA - Flickr, CC BY 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1694210

SENDING HYMN God of the Fertile Fields (Italian Hymn)

ACS 1063

Caring for God's creation has, indeed, reached critical importance not just for human beings but for all living things. Having lived from 1891 to 1974, the author of this text, Georgia Harkness, was well ahead of her time. She was the first woman to teach theology in any American Seminary. This hymn by Harkness was the winner of a hymn competition in 1955 sponsored by The Hymn Society. They were seeking a hymn that "expressed the needs and aspirations of people in the churches and communities of rural America." Revised for use many decades later, its rooting in the Lord's Prayer makes it a hymn suitable for many contexts. (From Sundays and Seasons)

CLOSING VOLUNTARY Prelude and Chorale on "If You But Trust in God to Guide You"

Larry J. Long / Georg Neumark

See the text and tune at ELW 769

The music for today began with the theme of good service, and so it also ends. The fourth stanza of this hymn encourages us to "Sing, pray, and keep God's way unswerving, offer your service faithfully."

As the Spirit sends us forth, may our deepest desire be to be faithful servants!