Notes on the Notes – February 2, 2025
This week’s music:
“Love is the Touch” (MV #89/Tune VU #624)
“Love is the touch of intangible joy;
Love is the force that no fear can destroy;
Love is the goodness we gladly applaud;
God is where love is, for love is of God.
Love is the lit in a lingering voice;
Love is the hope that can make us rejoice;
Love is the cure for the frightened and flawed;
God is where love is, for love is of God.
Love is the light in the tunnel of pain;
Love is the will to be whole once again;
Love is the trust of a friend on the road;
God is where love is, for love is of God.
Love is the Maker and Spirit and Son;
Love is the kingdom their will has begun;
Love is the path which the saints all have trod;
God is where love is, for love is of God.”
Our opening hymn quotes 1 John 4:7 which says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” The words are by Alison M. Robertson (1998). We will be using the tune, OLDHAM, which we know as the tune from the hymn “Give to Us Laughter,” written by Ron Klusmeier in 1974.
“Behold, Behold, I Make All Things” (MV #115)
“Behold, behold,
I make all things new, beginning with you
and starting from today.
Behold, behold,
I make all things new, my promise is true,
For I am Christ the way.”
Our response to the words of assurance was written by John L. Bell in 1995. Hear a recording of the song by The Worship Choir (2024) by clicking below:
“Though I May Speak” (VU #372)
“Though I may speak with bravest fire,
And have the gift to all inspire,
And have not love, my words are vain,
As sounding brass, and hopeless gain.
Though I may give all I possess,
And striving so my love profess,
But not be given by love within,
The profit soon turns strangely thin.
Come, Spirit, come, our hearts control,
Our spirits long to be made whole.
Let inward love guide every deed;
By this we worship, and are freed.”
The words of this hymn are based on today’s reading from 1 Corinthians 13. They are set to the traditional English tune, O WALY WALY, by Hal H. Hopson (1972).
Hear a piano version of the song at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXSI8krPwx0
“You’ve Searched Me God, You Know Me”
“You’ve searched me God, You know me,
You know when I sit, when I rise up to go,
You gentle Your hand on my heart, You are Holy,
The seeds of my life You have sown.
My heart will sing and rejoice, know the wonder of Your Grace,
I will rest in the palm of Your hand.
Before a word was spoken,
Before all the hurt, all the shattering of dreams,
Before all the longing, Great Healer, You held me,
The days of my life, You have seen.
My heart will sing and rejoice, know the wonder of Your Grace,
I will rest in the palm of Your hand.
The wings of dawn are rising,
I fly to the shores of a sea far away,
Yet there You will find me, my solace, my comfort,
You guide me in all of Your ways.
My heart will sing and rejoice, know the wonder of Your Grace,
I will rest in the palm of Your hand.
O Holy One, Creator,
O You who have gathered me in from the cold,
My life it was woven together, forever,
In Love where all things are made whole.
My heart will sing and rejoice, know the wonder of Your Grace,
I will rest in the palm of Your hand.”
The words for this week’s anthem were written by Pat Mayberry (2013) and are an adaptation of Psalm 139:1-10. The music is also by Pat Mayberry and the arrangement we are using is by David Kai (2016).
“Grant Us, God, the Grace of Giving” (VU #540)
“Grant Us, God, the grace of giving,
With a spirit large and free,
That ourselves and all our living
We may offer faithfully.”
The text of our offering response for the season of Epiphany comes from the Mennonite hymn book, “Hymnal: a Worship Book.” The tune is a familiar one which is also used for the Advent hymn “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” (VU #2).
“Love, Joy and Peace” (G #57)
“Of all the Spirit’s gifts to me,
I pray that I may never cease
to take and treasure most these three:
Love, joy and peace.
God shows me love is at the root
of every gift sent from above,
Of every flower, of every fruit,
That God is love.
God shows me that if I possess
A love no evil can destroy,
However great is my distress,
Then this is joy.
Though what’s ahead is mystery,
And life itself is ours on lease,
Each day the Spirit says to me:
“Go forth in peace.”
We go in peace – but made aware
That in a needy world like this
Our clearest purpose is to share
Love, joy, and peace.”
The words for our closing hymn were written by Fred Pratt Green in 1979 and reference the gifts of the Spirit as described in Corinthians.
Rev. Green was born in Liverpool, England, in 1903. Ordained in the British Methodist ministry, he was pastor and district superintendent in Brighton, York, and Norwich. During the later decades of the 1900s he wrote over 100 new hymns “that fill the gap between the hymns of the first part of this century and the ‘far-out’ compositions that have crowded into some churches in the last decade or more.” (Source: Seven New Hymns of Hope , 1971)
The hymn comes from the United Church Hymn Book supplement Songs for a Gospel People (aka “the green book”) which was published in 1987. Songs for a Gospel People was conceived out of a growing sense of need for the renewal of congregational singing. Earlier, both The Hymnal (1930) and The Hymn Book (1971 – aka “the red book”) enriched our heritage as the United Church of Canada and contributed to the renewal of our song in their own times and contexts. There were 134 selections in Songs for a Gospel People, some of which also made their way into Voices United.
“Lead Me, Lord”
“Lead me, Lord, I will follow.
Lead me, Lord, I will go.
You have called me, I will answer.
Lead me, Lord, I will go.”
Our benediction response was written by Wayne and Elizabeth Goodine in 1994. As we come to the end of worship, we renew our commitment to follow Jesus throughout the coming week.
Hear The Harmony Singers (2021) below:
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