Music for Sunday, June 10, 2018 + The Third Sunday after Pentecost

Congregational Music for June 10 (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of Hymn 822, which is from Wonder, Love, and Praise, and those marked “R” which are from Renew.)

• Hymn 533 - How wondrous and great thy works (LYONS)
• Hymn 421 - All glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HÖH)
• Hymn 470 - There’s a wideness in God’s mercy (BEECHER)
• Hymn 822 - Through north and south (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn R249 - Great is thy faithfulness (FAITHFULNESS)
• Hymn 594 - God of grace and God of glory (CWM RHONNDA)

I am away from Good Shepherd this Sunday. I would like to thank Karen Silva for playing the organ in my absence.

About the hymns:

How wondrous and great thy works Henry Ustick Onderdonk wanted to be a doctor, and studied in London and Edinburough to gain his degree. But after returning to New York, he began to study theology and was ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in 1815. He was rector of St. Ann's, Brooklyn, in 1827 when he was elected bishop coadjutor of Pennsylvania, becoming diocesan in 1836 upon the death of Bishop White. His weakness for alcohol necessitated his resignation in 1844, but his life from then on was so exemplary that he was restored to his bishopric two years before his death in 1858. The tune, LYONS, named for the French city Lyons, was attributed to “Haydn.”  However, the tune was never found in the works of Franz Joseph Haydn or those of his younger brother Johann Michael Haydn. The Mormons love this Episcopal hymn!

All glory be to God on high is a poetic setting of the Gloria from the mass by the German Lutheran pastor, Nicolaus Decius ,in 1525. He was a student of Martin Luther, and  also served as church musician and preacher at the Königsberg court of Duke Albrecht of Prussia. Decius is also credited with German hymnic versifications of the other "ordinary" parts of the Mass-the Kyrie, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei, which he originally prepared to fit their corresponding chant tunes. The English translation in our Hymnal is primarily by Francis Bland Tucker, which he wrote for our hymnal in 1985.

The author of There’s a wideness in God’s mercy is Frederick W. Faber. Of Huguenot ancestry and strict training in Calvinism, Faber moved from priesthood in the Anglican Church to the Roman Catholic Church in 1846. He wrote 150 hymns, corresponding to the number of Psalms. This hymn is beautiful in its simplicity and evangelical fervor. Originally in 13 stanzas, the hymn was called "Come to Jesus" and began "Souls of men, why will ye scatter like a crowd of frightened sheep?"

Great is thy faithfulness - Unlike many hymns that have heart-wrenching stories behind them  "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" is inspired by the simple realization that God is at work in our lives on a daily basis. Thomas Chisholm, the author, was born in a log cabin in Kentucky in 1866, and he lived a pretty unremarkable life: he worked as a school teacher, a newspaper editor, and insurance agent, then he retired and spent his remaining days at the Methodist Home for the Aged in New Jersey. He wrote, "My income has not been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier years which has followed me on until now. Although I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God and that He has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care, for which I am filled with astonishing gratefulness." 

God of grace and God of glory was written while the United States was in the throes of the Great Depression between the two World Wars. Harry Emerson Fosdick was minister of Riverside Church in New York City. His stirring radio sermons and books established Riverside as a forum for the critique of the same wealth and privilege whose gifts had made possible the building of the church. 

In 1930 the congregation moved to a $5 million edifice made possible by a gift from John D. Rockefeller Jr. The hymn was written in the summer of that year as Fosdick reflected on the construction of the new building, and was first sung as the processional hymn at the opening service on Oct. 5, 1930, and again at the dedication on Feb. 8, 1931. 

The language of the hymn is ultimately that of petition. “Grant us wisdom, grant us courage” concludes each stanza with the effect of a refrain. A petition begins stanza three with “Cure thy children’s warring madness,/ bend our pride to thy control.” The final stanza, equally prophetic, begins with “Save us from weak resignation/ to the evils we deplore.”