Music for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, Year B; January 28, 2024

OPENING VOLUNTARY What Is this Place (Komt nu met zang)

setting, Wayne L. Wold
See the text and tune at ELW 524.

This gathering hymn is a perfect reminder that the church is a building, but when God's people gather within, it becomes something else, a body. The second stanza reminds us of all who gathered in this same space for worship in days past, but on another level, it reminds us of all the saints who have gone before, laying a foundation for our modern witness tot he gospel in worship.

GATHERING HYMN Songs of Thankfulness and Praise (Salzburg) ELW 310

HYMN OF THE DAY Hail to the Lord's Anointed (Freut euch, ihr lieben) ELW 311

In the Prayer of the Day, we acknowledge that in this time after Epiphany God continues to reveal Jesus. Jesus is here to break oppression, free captives, take away our sin, and to rule in a kingdom that never ends.

MUSICAL OFFERING There Is a Balm in Gilead arr. Howard Helvey

COMMUNION HYMN Healer of Our Every Ill ELW 612

The author/composer, Marty Haugen, says this hymn was written for a specific event and was never intended to be sung outside that single service. It was written for an Evening Prayer service at Holden Village (Washington State), and was sung after the community learned that the space shuttle Challenger, along with its occupants, perished in an explosion on January 28, 1986.

A photo of the Holden Village dining hall. This retreat center is so remote that, from the nearest town, it is only accessible by a 2-4 hour ferry ride or a rigorous hike through the Cascade Mountains.

SENDING HYMN Oh, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing (Azmon) ELW 886

CLOSING VOLUNTARY Jesus Shall Reign (Duke Street)

setting, Charles Callahan

PLEASE JOIN US FOR A SPECIAL EVENT!

Sources: Hymnal Companion to Evangelical Lutheran Worship.

Photo of Holden Village: By User:Millerj870 - Own work by the original uploader, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=66567467

Music for the Third Sunday after Epiphany, Year B: January 21, 2024

OPENING VOLUNTARY Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies (Ratisbon) setting, Benjamin M. Culli

The tune and text can be found at ELW 553

GATHERING HYMN O Christ, Our Light, O Radiance True (O Jesu Christe, wahres Licht) ELW 675

HYMN OF THE DAY O Jesus, I Have Promised (Munich) ELW 810

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

Bob Moore

The text can be found at ELW 588.

Bob Moore, a composer of church music who lives in Jacksonville, has an affinity for texts by Sylvia Dunstan. We often sing her text All who hunger with his tune Grace Eternal.

Note that the Sending Hymn is also a text by Dunstan.

COMMUNION HYMNS

When Jesus Came to Jordan (King's Lynn) ELW 305
Light Shone in Darkness (Lux in tenebris) ELW 307

These two hymns are sung in alternation today. First, we sing stanza 1 of When Jesus Came, then stanza 1 of Light Shone. We continue that way until both hymns have been sung in full.

There are some interesting parallels when the hymns are sung this way. In the first hymn, Jesus appears at the Jordan to be baptized. The second hymn sings Jesus is the light that shines in the darkness.

Stanza 2 speaks of Jesus dying for our salvation, and that is echoed by "Christ rose in glory, won for us salvation."

Stanza 3 asks that our bondage be broken, and the second hymn speaks of longing for "God's justice" and "global transformation."

SENDING HYMN Go to the World (Sine nomine) ACS 991

Sylvia Dunstan was a hymnwriter and a United Church of Canada pastor who died tragically of liver cancer at the age of thirty-eight. Alan Barthel, her mentor and collaborator, with less than a week's notice commissioned a text built on the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) for the 1985 Emmanuel College (Toronto) Convocation. Written to Ralph Vaughan Williams's exapansive "Sine nomine" (usually paired with "For all the saints'), it gives this beloved tune an alternative text pairing.

(From Sundays and Seasons)

CLOSING VOLUNTARY Engelberg Charles Callahan

Join us next Sunday for a special event featuring our pipe organ!