Music for May 27, 2018 + Trinity Sunday

Vocal Music

• In the Year that King Uzziah Died - Gordon Young (1919-1998)

Instrumental Music

• Kyrie, Gott Vater (Kyrie, O God, Eternal Father) – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Christe, aller Welt Trost (Christ, Comfort of all the world) – Johann Sebastian Bach
• Kyrie, Gott heiliger Geist (Kyrie, O God the Holy Ghost) – Johann Sebastian Bach

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

• Hymn 362 - Holy, holy, holy (NICEA)
• Hymn R37 - Glorify your name (GLORIFY YOUR NAME)
• Hymn R132 - As Moses raised the serpent up (GIFT OF LOVE)
• Hymn 295 - Sing praise to our Creator (CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN)
• Hymn R149  - Here I am, Lord (HERE I AM, LORD)
• Hymn - Santo, santo, santo (Iona Community)
• Hymn 608 - Eternal Father, stong to save (MELITA)
• Hymn S-236 - A Song of Praise: Glory to You (John Rutter)

This Sunday is Trinity Sunday, the one Sunday of the church Calendar that celebrates a doctrine of the church rather than an event in its sacred history.  Trinity Sunday is always the first Sunday after Pentecost, and we always sing that wonderful trinitarian hymn, Holy, holy, holy which ends with this great and memorable line:

God in three persons, Blessed Trinity.

It's a great hymn, and one that is virtually in every hymnal of every church across the globe (with the exception of the Unitarians!)


One of the scripture readings for this Sunday is the passage from Isaiah 6:1-3 -

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. 

[And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.]

We are singing an anthem based on this text by the American composer Gordon Young, and I've had a couple of choir members asked "what this is about? Who was Uzziah, and why do we care when he died?"

Uzziah was a king of Judah who lived around 804 -739 B.C. He was 16 when he became king of Judah and reigned for 52 years. (The first 24 years of his reign were as co-regent with his father, Amaziah.) The Book of Isaiah uses "the year that king Uzziah died" as a reference point, just like the Gospels tell us "Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod" or "Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken... (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)" This is much in the same way we might say "In the year the World Trade Center was attacked, I was starting my new job in Texas." It helps places things in context.

This date is important to the prophet Isaiah as it paralleled the crisis in his own life. It was at this time that he saw the vision of God in the temple and answered the call: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for me?" Isaiah answered, "Here I am, send me!" (That's the reason we are also singing the hymn "Here I Am, Lord" at communion.)

The organ music continues the theme of the Holy Trinity. Bach wrote his four volume work, Clavier-Übung over a period of some fifteen years. (Clavier-Übung means "Keyboard Practice.")  The first volume contains six partitas, Vol. II the French and Italian Suites, and Vol. IV the Goldberg Variations - all for harpsichord, but Vol. III was written for the organ.  Clavier-Übung III is often called the "German organ mass" because it consists of a series of chorale preludes on texts pertaining to the Lutheran Mass and Catechism. There are many instances of a symbolic nod to the Holy Trinity throughout this entire work (the number three shows up A LOT).

The opening, communion, and closing voluntaries are from the first three chorale preludes in Clavier-Übung III. These are settings of the three verses of the Kyrie, which was usually sung in Leipzig on Sundays after the opening organ prelude. Bach's three monumental pedaliter settings of the Kyrie correspond to the three verses. All three have portions of the same melody as their cantus firmus (melody) – in the soprano voice (right hand)for "God the Father", in the middle tenor voice (left hand) for "God the Son" and in the bass (pedal) for "God the Holy Ghost".

We close the service with the Navy Hymn, which works well for Memorial Day Weekend AND Trinity Sunday. The first three stanzas of this hymn appeal to the Trinity with Scripture passages where each Person controlled the sea, imploring “O hear us when we cry to Thee for those in peril on the sea.” The first stanza refers to God's discourse with Job, in which the Lord asks “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, when I … said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?” (Job 38:8, 11 ESV) The second stanza refers to two occasions when Jesus calmed the raging sea: when He walked on the water (Mark 6:45-52), and when He slept through a storm until His terrified disciples woke Him (Mark 4:35-41). The third stanza alludes to Creation, when “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2 ESV) The final stanza summarizes the hymn and promises continued praise “from land and sea.”

Both the opening AND closing hymn-tunes were composed by the same man, John Bacchus Dykes
(1823-1876), an English Vicar as well as musician, who composed many of the favorite hymns of this congregations. Look his name up in the back of the hymnal.