Music for the 17th Sunday after Pentecost (Lectionary 25): September 24, 2023

OPENING VOLUNTARY Be Still My Soul (Finlandia)

setting, Franklin D. Ashdown

Few hymns have a more comforting text, or a gentler melody, than this beloved hymn by Catherina Amalia von Schlegel (1697 - 1768), with music by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957).

Be still my soul, the Lord is on your side. . .

The Holy Spirit gathers us for worship and does not bid us to leave our cares behind or to "give them to Jesus." Rather, we bring them with us knowing that

. . .in every change he faithful will remain.

The hymn does not appear in Lutheran Book of Worship or Evangelical Lutheran Worship. It can be found in Lutheran Service Book, the hymnal of The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod.

GATHERING HYMN As Saints of Old (Forest Green) ELW 695

HYMN OF THE DAY God's Work, Our Hands (Earth and All Stars) ACS 1000

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America held a contest inviting hymn writers to submit a new hymn for "God's Work. Our Hands" Sunday, September 13, 2019. Wayne Wold wrote the winning hymn, developing the denomination's tagline with other parts of the person God uses, listing concrete ways of manifesting God's presence for the world, confessing God's activity beyond the church's work, and inviting blessing on the church's work on behalf of the gospel. (From Sundays and Seasons)

MUSICAL OFFERING Gracious Spirit, Dwell with Me 

K. Lee Scott

COMMUNION HYMN God Be the Love to Search and Keep Me ACS 1084

Richard Bruxvoort Colligan wrote this hymn as a modern day lorica - a Celtic hymn/prayer for protection sung while putting on armor or clothing. Be Thou My Vision (ELW 793) is the best-known example of this form. The stanzas ask for Christ to be known in what animates life and faith, in the saints, in the elements, in physical space (as in another lorica I Bind Unto Myself This Day ELW 450), and in the people around the singer.
(From Sundays and Seasons)

SENDING HYMN Glorious Things of You Are Spoken (Blaenwern)  ELW 647

CLOSING VOLUNTARY What Is This Place 

setting, Wayne L. Wold  

Sources:

Wikipedia

Lutheran Service Book Companion to the Hymns
Sundays and Seasons

Music for the 16th Sunday after Pentecost (Lectionary 24): September 17, 2023

OPENING VOLUNTARY: Herzlich tut mich verlangen

setting, Jerry Westenkuehler

In many churches this tune goes by the name Passion Chorale worshipers will quickly recognize it as "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded." The harmonization is possibly one of J. S. Bach's best-loved works. It comes back later in the service as the Hymn of the Day, paired with Kevin Nichols' text "Our Father, we have wandered."

Nichols, who died in 2006, was a Roman Catholic priest who studied at Cambridge under C. S. Lewis.

The hymn alludes to one of Jesus' best-known parables - The Prodigal Son. It's not only a prayer for forgiveness, but one where we ask God to bring an end to our faithlessness. 

GATHERING HYMN Awake, O Sleeper, Rise from Death (Azmon) ELW 452

HYMN OF THE DAY Our Father, We Have Wandered (Herzlich tut mich verlangen) ELW 606

MUSICAL OFFERING There's a Wideness in God's Mercy

The author of the text, Frederick W. Faber (1814-1863) wrote 150 hymns, in imitation of the 150 psalms. Eight of his texts appear in Evangelical Lutheran Worship. 

The original tune and arrangement of this setting is by Jacksonville composer Bob Moore.

COMMUNION HYMN I Come with Joy (Dove of Peace) ELW 482

SENDING HYMN Go, My Children, With My Blessing (Ar hyd y nos) ELW 543

At the end of the Hymn of the Day, we asked for God's hand to be stretched out to us in blessing, specifically that we may have forgiveness and peace. In the second stanza of our sending hymn, we receive that blessing through these words: Go, my children, sins forgiven, at peace and pure.

This underscores the point that hymns in Christian worship are rarely selected because they are "favorites" or because they are "fun." Hymn are chosen to complement the lectionary readings and to support the themes of the day. The texts from the Hymn of the Day and the Sending Hymn complement each other really well!

CLOSING VOLUNTARY Now Thank We All Our God (Nun danket all Gott) 

setting, Robert A. Hobby

I chose a setting based on this tune to remind us of the psalm for the day - also based on this tune.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: BACH VESPERS RETURNS TO ST. MARK'S - CALLING ALL SINGERS!
Read more here:

Sources:
Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship
Evangelical Lutheran Worship

Music for the 15th Sunday After Pentecost (Lectionary 23): September 10, 2023

The Festival Choir of St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church
Always looking for new singers!

OPENING VOLUNTARY Four Variations on "Salvation unto Us Has Come"
 Jacob B. Weber

There are two reasons I chose this piece to begin today's worship service:
1. It's one of my favorite tunes.
2. It jumped into my mind when I read in today's second reading "For salvation is nearer to us now. . ."

The first variation, which has a fanfare feel to it, calls for a "Fagott" stop. We don't have one, so I'm using the Petite Trompette which is a pipe stop from when the organ was first built in 1984.

The second variation is a bicinium - or a piece with two separate voices.

Variation 3 brings the Petite Trompette back with an interlude that plays between ornamented phrases of the tune.

The fourth variation is a chorale treatment with slightly altered harmonies.

LITURGY: Holy Communion Setting Nine

We aren't at an official season change, but the Time after Pentecost can be thought of has having some divisions: summer, autumn and November. It's our custom to change settings at the beginning of Autumn, or close to when the academic year starts.

The composer of Setting Nine is Joel Martinson, Director of Music Ministries and Organist at The Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration in Dallas, Texas. This 

GATHERING HYMN Draw Us in the Spirit's Tether (Union Seminary) ELW 470

PSALM Psalm 119:33-40

The musical setting, by Thomas Pavlechko, is from the St. Martin Psalter. The tone is based on two phrases of the hymntune Nun danket alle Gott (Now Thank We All Our God).

HYMN OF THE DAY Come Now, O Prince of Peace (Ososŏ) ELW 247

This hymn was written for a 1988 world conference of peace for the reunification of the Korean peninsula. Its texture is thin and innocent of complicated harmonies that might give us the feeling that the unity we pray and long for is not yet achieved.

The quarter note pulsing in the accompaniment (and the free introduction by Jeremy Bankson) may be symbolic of our constant prayer.

MUSICAL OFFERING O Bread of Life from Heaven David Ashely White

COMMUNION HYMN In All Our Grief (Fredericktown) ELW 615

Today's gospel reading shows that even in the church we will have interpersonal conflicts. Sylvia Dunstan's hymn give us a sung prayer that amounts to confession and asks God to help us repent. Its refrain at the end of each stanza borrows language from the liturgy: first "Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy (from the Kyrie), then "grant us peace" (from the Agnus Dei).

SENDING HYMN Salvation unto Us Has Come (Es ist das heil) ELW 590

How the hymn appeared
in its early printing

This hymn has been with us since the early days of Luther's Reformation. It was written, from prison, by Paul Speratus who had been jailed for his "evangelical preaching." Speratus wrote 14 stanzas and the hymn, first printed in 1524, came with a list of scriptural supports that the singer could use as a sort of study guide.

Wikipedia tells the story that Speratus was to be executed by fire, but was released due to the work of his friends.

CLOSING VOLUNTARY Trumpet Tune in D David N. Johnson

Come back to St. Mark's on Sunday night for another world-class concert by the San Marco Chamber Music Society! It's free and all are welcome!

Sources:
Hymnal Companion: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
Wikipedia
Image of "Es ist das heil" By Martin Luther und andere - Scan vom Reprint Spyer, 2008, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8932987