Music for November 16, 2014 + The Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Almighty God, Which Hast Me Brought – Thomas Ford (1580-1648)

Instrumental Music

• Highland Cathedral– James D. Weatherald
• Let Us Talents and Tongues Employ – Michael Helman (20th C.)
• Praise to the Lord – Anna Laura Page (b. 1943)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew.)

• S-204 - Glory be to God on High - Old Scottish Chant
• Hymn 680 - O God, our help in ages past (ST. ANNE)
• Hymn 551 - Rise up, ye saints of God (FESTAL SONG)
• Hymn R-152 - I want to walk as a child of the light (HOUSTON)
• Hymn R-172 - In my life, Lord, be glorified (LORD, BE GLORIFIED)
• Hymn 671 - Amazing grace! How sweet the sound (NEW BRITAIN)
• Hymn 561 - Stand up, stand up for Jesus (MORNING LIGHT)

Stained Glass image of Samuel Seabury

This Sunday is “Kirking of the Tartans” Sunday at Good Shepherd. It’s not found on any liturgical calendar. We do it every year around Samuel Seabury day, the first American Anglican bishop who was consecrated by the Scottish Bishops of the Anglican church during the Revolutionary War. (England was a bit perturbed with Americans, so they would have none of that!) Here is a link to my post from last year which explains the origins of the Kirkin O’ the Tartans. As usual, we’ll have bagpipes, hear Highland Cathedral, and sing “Amazing Grace.” (Not because it’s Scottish, but because it can be played by the pipes!)

The opening voluntary is a rousing handbell setting of a Jamaican tune which is best known around the world as the hymn “Let us talents and tongues employ.” Doreen Potter adapted the Jamaican melody as a hymn-tune for Fred Kaan’s text in 1975, and to date it is in 20 hymnals. You’ll recognize a Caribbean beat in the syncopation, even without steel drums! The arranger of the bell piece is Michael Helman, Director of Music and Organist at Faith Presbyterian Church in Cape Coral, an active composer of handbell, organ, and choral music with well over a hundred pieces in print.

Let us talents and tongues employ,
reaching out with a shout of joy:
bread is broken, the wine is poured,
Christ is spoken and seen and heard.
Jesus lives again; earth can breathe again.
Pass the Word around: loaves abound!

The anthem, Almighty God, who hast me brought, was written by Thomas Ford with a text by William Leighton. Now well-known as a church anthem, this piece was originally published in 1614 as a lute-song in a volume called The teares or lamentacions of a sorrowfull soule. Happy stuff, to be sure.

Ford was an English composer, lutenist, viol player and poet. He was attached to the court of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of James I, who died in 1612

The communion handbell voluntary is a setting of the familiar hymn Praise to the Lord, by Anna Laura Page. Page is a composer, clinician and organist who has taught organ at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and at Lander University in Greenwood, South Carolina. For three years she served as director of the Austin Peay Community Children's Chorus in Clarksville, Tennessee before moving to Sherman, Texas, where she lives with her husband, Dr. Oscar C. Page, President of Austin College.

Hymn Notes:
O God, our help in ages past (ST. ANNE) Considered one of the finest paraphrases written by Isaac Watts, O God, Our Help in Ages Past expresses a strong note of assurance, promise, and hope in the LORD as recorded in the first part of Psalm 90, even though the entire psalm has a recurring theme of lament. Watts wrote the paraphrase in nine stanzas around 1714. Our hymnal includes the most well-known stanzas. The first line, originally "Our God, our help … ," was changed to "O God, our help…" by John Wesley in his Collection of Psalms and Hymns. (1738). It has great stature in the British Commonwealth and virtually serves as a second national anthem.

Rise up, ye saints of God (FESTAL SONG) William Pierson Merrill was an American Presbyterian clergyman, who served in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York. Considered an outstanding preacher, he was also an author and a hymn writer. When an editor told Dr. Merrill that there was a need for more hymns on Christian brotherhood, he responded by writing Rise Up, O Men of God, a hymn that emphasizes human priorities and responsibilities. This hymn began to be criticized because it spoke only of men of God and not women, so to make it more inclusive, the term “Men” became “Saints.”

I want to walk as a child of the light (HOUSTON) I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light  was written one sweltering hot summer by Kathleen Thomerson, an Episcopalian organist, who had moved to St. Louis, Missouri, the previous fall. That summer, her mother came from Houston, Texas, to visit. Because an airline strike cancelled her mother’s travel plans and a heat wave was making St. Louis unbearable, Thomerson decided to drive her mother back to Houston. This hymn came to her as she anticipated visiting her “brothers and sisters in Christ at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Houston.”  Hence, the tune name is HOUSTON.

In my life, Lord, be glorified (LORD, BE GLORIFIED) Singer-songwriter and producer Bob Kilpatrick tells this story about writing this standard contemporary chorus. "One evening at my mother-in-law's house I got the idea of writing a private prayer song for (wife) Cindy and me to sing before we would go on stage. While the rest of the family was in the family room I sat alone in the living room with my guitar and Bible and the song 'In My Life Lord Be Glorified' began to come. I had composed all of the melody and most of the counterpoint when Cindy came in. I told her about what I was writing and that it would be just for the two of us. It was Cindy that strongly suggested to me that I sing it publicly. I think she knew from the start that other people would want to sing it, too.”

Stand up, stand up for Jesus (MORNING LIGHT) The Reverend Dudley A. Tyng was a dynamic Episcopal priest known for his preaching. On, March 30, 1858, Tyng preached a sermon on Exodus 10:11, “Go now ye that are men and serve the Lord”, at a YMCA noon mass meeting to 5,000 men, with more than 1,000 of those men responded to the call. Just over a week later, Tyng lay dying as a result of a tragic accident. His final statement, whispered to friends and family, was “Let us all stand up for Jesus.”

The Sunday following Tyng's death, Presbyterian Pastor George Duffield preached a sermon as a tribute to the final words of his friend Tyng. He concluded his sermon with a six-stanza poem. The poem Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus, has since become one of the most recognized hymns in all English-speaking Christendom.