The Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year A: December 18, 2022

Is there a more fulfilling part of the church calendar than the one that begins Advent, peaks at Christmas, then has its final flourish on Epiphany? Is there a time with more scripture readings that console yet challenge us? Does another liturgical season offer hymns of comfort beside hymns that thrill and inspire us? The answer is"No!" (Be forewarned, I might ask the same question and expect the same answer when we hit the Lent/Easter/Ascension arc.)

I love Christmas as much as anybody, but I wish Advent were at least six weeks long! Here's what's on the playlist for Advent 2022's last hurrah.

OPENING VOLUNTARY 

Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus

Welcome back, Tara!

(HYFRYDOL)

Susan Staples Bell

St. Mark's welcomes long-time member Tara Harrison to play our prelude today. Tara and her husband, Alvin, recently moved to Atlanta. We are happy that she is able to spend part of her vacation with us!

GATHERING HYMN Awake! Awake, and Greet the New Morn (REJOICE REJOICE)

ELW 242

Marty Haugen, a much-loved composer in Lutheran circles, has a very lucky aunt named Marie Smedsrud - at the time a campus pastor at Luther College (Decorah, IA). In a year when his family decided to exchange non-material presents, he wrote this hymn for her Christmas gift. The text originally opened with "Rejoice, rejoice!" and had a Christmas message. Even though the text was later tweaked for Advent, the melody retains its infectious lilt. Tunes can make all the difference in how we perceive a text. Compare this "Awake, awake" with the "Wake, awake" that opens J. S. Bach's great "Wake, Awake for Night is Flying" (Wachet auf).

HYMN OF THE DAY Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus (HYFRYDOL)

This text is in ELW. We sang it last week with the tune JEFFERSON. Today we sing it with the Welsh tune HYFRYDOL, one of the most-loved tunes in American churches - and probably Welsh and English churches as well. We see the tune 4 times in ELW, so singing it today makes a fifth usage for St. Mark's.

When this tune comes up, someone is likely to jokingly refer to it as "Hydrofoil" - but according to Westermeyer, the "h" is pronounced and the "y" is sounded like "uh" - making the correct pronunciation "HUH-fruh-dol." (I'm likely to keep saying "HIGH-froh-dawl" because old habits die hard.)

As you sing, notice the buoyancy and joy that invade the text. Our "Come!" is filled with joy. With JEFFERSON, our "Come!" feels more like a desperate plea. WE NEED BOTH VERSIONS! As I said earlier, "Tunes can make all the difference in how we perceive a text."

St Mary of the Mount Church
Pittsburgh, PA

MUSICAL OFFERING The Seven Joys of Mary arr. Richard Shephard

In reading today's gospel narrative, you might see Joseph as the hero of this story. Today's musical offering, a traditional European carol, explores Jesus' entire life through Mary's eyes from the time "when he was first her Son" to his ascension "to wear the crown of heaven."
The carol is probably based on devotional literature from the Middle Ages. It's also easy to see a connection between these "joys" and the "mysteries" that Roman Catholics recall when they pray the rosary.

COMMUNION HYMN He Comes to Us as One Unknown (REPTON)

ELW 737

SENDING HYMN "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" (VENI, EMMANUEL)

ELW 257

CLOSING VOLUNTARY Trumpet Tune on "People, Look East"

Jerry Westenkuehler

Sources:

Image of St. Joseph Reni, Guido, 1575-1642. Saint Joseph and the Christ Child, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57764 [retrieved November 21, 2022]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guido_Reni_-_Saint_Joseph_and_the_Christ_Child_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg.

Hymnal Companion to Evangelical Lutheran Worship, Paul Westermeyer

Wikipedia