Notes on the Notes – April 19, 2015
This week’s theme: Proof of Identity: Children of God
This week’s scripture readings:
1 John 3:1-7
Luke 24:36b-48
This week’s music:
“We Praise You for the Sun” (VU #225)
“We praise you for the sun, the golden shining sun,
That gives us healing, strength, and joy;
We praise you for the sun.
We praise you for the rain, the softly falling rain,
That gives us healing, strength, and joy;
We praise you for the rain.
We praise you for your love, your patient, endless love,
That gives us healing, strength, and joy;
We praise you for your love.”
British author Alice Nuriel Pullen wrote hymns for children. This one was published in the School Hymn Book of the Methodist Church (1939). The tune, MOUNT, was composed for the text by Gifford Jerome Mitchell, a Canadian music educator, composer and conductor who served on the music subcommittee for The Hymn Book (1971).
“Praise to the Lord” (VU #835)
“Praise to the Lord, all of you, God’s servants.
Blessed be the name of our God now and ever.
From the rising up of the sun
May the Lord be praised, praise to the name of the Lord!
There is none like our God in the heavens or on earth,
Who lifts the poor from the dust seating them with the mighty,
Who stoops to raise the weak and low:
May the Lord be praise, praise to the name of the Lord!”
This paraphrase of Psalm 113 is the title piece of a collection of twelve hymns by Walter Farquharson, Fred Kaan, Ron Klusmeier and David L. Ritchie, set to music by Ron Klusmeier. It was written in 1972. The song also appears in the United Church hymn book supplement, Songs for a Gospel People.
“We Know That Christ is Raised” (VU #448)
“We know that Christ is raised and dies no more,
Embraced by death, he broke its fearful hold,
And our despair he turned to blazing joy
Hallelujah!
We share by water in his saving death.
Reborn, we share with him an Easter life
As living members of a living Christ.
Hallelujah!
The God of splendour clothes the Son with life.
The Spirit’s fission shakes the church of God.
Baptized, we live with God the Three in One.
Hallelujah!
A new creation comes to life and grows
As Christ’s new body takes on flesh and blood.
The universe restored and whole will sing:
Hallelujah!”
The text of this hymn draws a connection between baptism, the Resurrection, and the new life in Christ. The author, John Brownlow Geyer, is an Old Testament scholar, ordained into the Congregational Church of Scotland, now part of the United Reformed Church. The text is based on Romans 6:1-11. It was first published in 1969 in Hymns and Songs, the supplement to the Methodist Hymn Book. The melody, ENGELBERG, was composed by Charles Villiers Stanford as a setting for the hymn “For all the Saints” in 1904.
“On Christ I Stand”
“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
A higher plane than I have found,
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand.
When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ…
When He shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in Him be found!
Dress in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.
On Christ…
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.”
The words for this week’s anthem are by Edward Mote. Mote was a pastor and hymn writer. Born in London on 21 January 1797, his parents managed a pub and often left Edward to his own devices playing in the street. He was trained as a cabinet maker and worked in London for many years. Later he entered the ministry and was pastor at Rehoboth Baptist Church in Horsham, West Sussex for 26 years. He was well liked by the congregation in Horsham and they offered him the church building as a gift. Mote replied “I do not want the chapel, I only want the pulpit; and when I cease to preach Christ, then turn me out of that.” He died on 13 November 1874 and is buried in the church yard at Rehoboth Church.
Perhaps his best known hymn is “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less”, which refers to the Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Builders (Matthew), with its refrain ‘On Christ the solid Rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand’. “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less” is part of the gospel hymns genre. The first stanza declares God’s grace; stanza 2 concern the application of that grace in times of trouble. In the final stanza, Mote brings his hymn full circle with the ultimate realization of God’s grace.
Mote’s words have been set to music by Benjamin Harlan (1996). Harlan is a Professor of Church Music at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is an internationally known arranger and composer of choral, keyboard and handbell works. He is also known for his hymn arrangements for organ, choir, and congregation.
“As Comes the Breath of Spring” (VU #373)
“As comes the breath of spring with light and mirth and song,
So does your Spirit bring new days brave, free, and strong.
You come with thrill of life to chase hence winter’s breath,
To hush to peace the strife of sin that ends in death.
You come like dawning day with flaming truth and love,
To chase all glooms away, to brace our wills to prove
How wise, how good to choose the truth and its brave fight,
To prize it, win or lose, and live on your delight.
You come like songs at morn that fill the earth with joy,
Till we, in Christ new-born, new strength in praise employ.
You come to rouse the heart from drifting to despair,
Through high hopes to impart life with an ampler air.
You breathe and there is health, you move and there is power,
You whisper, there is wealth of love, your richest dower.
Your presence is to us like summer in the soul,
Your joy shines forth and then life blossoms to its goal.”
The text for this hymn was written in 1929 by David Lakie Ritchie, Dean of United Theological College in Montreal, for The Hymnary (1930). The tune was published in England in the Methodist Hymn Book (1904).
