Epiphany of Our Lord, Year A: January 6, 2023

OPENING VOLUNTARY As with Gladness Men of Old (Dix)

setting, Bob Moore

As you listen, you may hear "For the Beauty of the Earth." Try to set that aside and, instead, look at the text at ELW 302. A direct nod to today's gospel reading, this hymn is prayer that we may also seek Jesus - both in this life, and in the next one.

GATHERING HYMN Brightest and Best of the Stars of the Morning (Morning Star) ELW 303

HYMN OF THE DAY When a Star Is Shining (Where the Promise Shines) 

ACS 915

While it references gold, frankincense, and myrrh, this hopeful Epiphany hymn makes no mention of the wandering magi. After singing it, we might feel we are the magi being guided to the place where we will behold our redemption. Whatever the poet's intention, it is to Canadian hymnwriter Sylvia Dunstan's credit that her words open up this possibility. Bob Moore (the composer of the Gospel Acclamation at ELW 169) has given us a memorable tune that works well in the assembly's voice.
(From Sundays and Seasons © 2023 Augsburg Fortress. All rights reserved.)

Bob Moore, a composer of church music who lives in Jacksonville, also composed the opening voluntary.

MUSICAL OFFERING What Feast of Love (Greensleeves) ELW 487

This hymn will instantly call to mind the Christmas carol "What Child Is This" - one of my favorite hymns of the season. As we sing the last stanza of "What Child Is This," we can easily imagine ourselves gathered with the magi, bringing our own gifts along with their gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

But "What Feast of Love" turns that around to reminds us of the gifts Christ brings to us - food and hope of everlasting life, and his precious blood. He gives us himself.

COMMUNION HYMN The First Noêl (The First Nowell) ELW 300

SENDING HYMN Angels from the Realms of Glory (Regent Square)

ELW 275

CLOSING VOLUNTARY O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright (Wie schön leuchtet) 

This is a happy fughetta on the opening phrase of this well-known (at least for Lutherans) Epiphany hymn. 

Johann Sebastian Bach, with his two wives Maria Barbara and Anna Magdalena, had 20 children. Johann Christian Bach was the 18th and youngest of the sons.

Sources: 

Wikipedia (including the image of angels making music) Eyck, Hubert van, 1366-1426; Eyck, Jan van, 1390-1440. Altar of the Mystical Lamb - Angels Playing Music, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=49621 [retrieved January 5, 2023]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hubert_van_Eyck_036.jpg.

Sundays and Seasons