Music for August 11

Vocal Music

• O Divine Redeemer – Charles Gounod (1818-1893) - Christine Marku, soprano

Instrumental Music

• If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee, BWV 647 – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• I Call on Thee, Lord Jesus Christ, BWV 639 – Johann Sebastian Bach
• If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee, BWV 641 – Johann Sebastian Bach

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

• Hymn 637 - How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord (LYONS)
• Hymn 558 - Faith of our fathers (ST. CATHERINE)
• Hymn 635 - If thou but trust in God to guide thee (WER NUR DEN LIEBEN GOTT)
• Hymn R 140 - Just as I am, without one plea (WOODWORTH)
• Hymn R 278 - Wait for the Lord (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn 68 - Rejoice! Rejoice, believers* (LLANGLOFFAN)
• Psalm 33:12-22 – Tone VIIIa

I remember one night, when I was in high school and still a novice at playing the organ, hearing my mother in a telephone conversation with one of her friends from church. I suppose they had been talking about me, and my organ skills, when my mother recalled another teenage boy in our church who, a generation earlier, had shown promise at the organ console. He had studied with the late Adolphe Stutermann at Calvary Church in Memphis, and was quite good before his untimely death in 1967.

"Sometimes I just get so hungry to hear some Bach. I want to hear real music," she said.

My mother, Mary Maude Algee Hearn
when she was a senior at UT Austin (1944)

My mother was an amateur musician. She took voice and piano lessons all through high school and into college. All she ever did with it was just direct the small volunteer choir at church, and sing for her own enjoyment. I can still remember hearing her sing when I was a boy, singing songs she had studied at UT Austin (My mother was a Longhorn!) One of the songs she loved was Charles Gounod's classic song, "O Divine Redeemer."

When Gounod was semi-retired, after a lifetime writing operas, oratorios, and masses, his 5-year-old grandson died. This tragedy filled Gounod with such grief that he turned once again to writing sacred music. In a final surge of creative energy, he pointed his art and his faith steadfastly in the direction of hope.

He titled the song “Repentir,” which means “to repent,” with the subtitle “Scene in the Form of a Prayer.” We know it as “O Divine Redeemer.” The words captured his feelings as he mourned his grandson’s passing and as he approached the end of his own life — he passed away only a few months later. It is a prayer for forgiveness, a plea for mercy, a supplication for strength and a meditation on life:

Ah! turn me not away,
Receive me, tho’ unworthy, . . .
Hear Thou my cry, . . .
Behold, Lord, my distress! . .

Christine Marku

O divine Redeemer!
I pray thee grant me pardon,
And remember not … my sins! ...
Haste Thee, Lord, to mine aid!

And now, close to 50 years later, I, like my mother, long to hear some real music. I long to hear Gounod's song, full of simplicity, clarity, and taste, but also with a depth of feeling and a directness of expression that I somehow associate with my mother. When Christine Marku, choral director at Riverwood Middle School, volunteered to sing this coming Sunday, I immediately suggested this song, and, thankfully, she agreed. She will sing it at the 10:15 Nave service this Sunday. I encourage everyone to come hear her!

* Oh, and you may wonder why the closing hymn is an Advent hymn. Well, consider the text of today's Gospel.

 "Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves."But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour." Luke 12:35-40 

Doesn't it make sense that we use a hymn written for Advent with the lines

Rejoice, rejoice, believers,
and let your lights appear!
The evening is advancing,
and darker night is near.
The Bridegroom is arising
and soon he will draw nigh;
up, watch in expectation!
At midnight comes the cry.