Notes on the Notes – February 19, 2017

This week’s theme:

Love Your Neighbour as Yourself?

This week’s scripture readings:

Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18             Matthew 5:38-48

This week’s music:

“Draw the Circle Wide” (MV #145)

Draw the circle wide.  Draw it wider still.
Let this be our song, no one stands alone, standing side by side,
Draw the circle wide.

God the still-point of the circle,
‘Round whom all creation turns;
nothing lost, but held forever,
In God’s gracious arms.

Let our hearts touch far horizons,
So encompass great and small;
Let our loving know no borders,
Faithful to God’s call.

Let the dreams we dream be larger
Than we’ve ever dreamed before;
Let the dream of Christ be in us,
Open every door.”

This now-familiar hymn of inclusion was written by Gordon Light of the Common Cup Company in 1994.  It was arranged by Michael Bloss in 1998.  The Common Cup Company is a musical group featuring songwriters Gordon Light & Ian Macdonald.  Their musical ministry began in 1979 when Light (an Anglican Priest and later Bishop), met Ian Macdonald and Jim Uhrich (both United Church ministers) while serving neighboring churches in Winnipeg, Canada.  Jim Uhrich also served as interim minister at Windsor Park United Church.  Bob Wallace joined the group in 1982, his voice strengthening and enriching the group’s sound.  In the following decades this original quartet wrote, performed, & recorded together despite living in different corners the country.

Hear the hymn at: https://youtu.be/zBNQ3zA7ulU

“Love Knocks and Waits” (MV #94)

“Love knocks and waits for us to hear, to open and invite;
Love longs to quiet every fear, and seeks to set things right.

Love offers life, in spite of foes who threaten and condemn;
Embracing enemies, Love goes the second mile with them.

Love comes to heal the broken heart, to ease the troubled mind;
Without a word Love bids us start to ask and seek and find.

Love knocks and enters at the sound of welcome from within;
Love sings and dances all around, and feels new life begin.”

The words for this hymn were written by Dan Damon in 1994.  Damon is an internationally published writer of hymn texts and tunes. This week we will be using the tune from the hymn “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing” as our melody.

“When I Needed a Neighbour” (VU #600)

“When I needed a neighbour, were you there, were you there?
When I needed a neighbour, were you there?
And the creed and the colour and the name won’t matter, were you there?

I was hungry and thirsty, were you there, were you there?
I was hungry and thirsty, were you there?
And the creed and the colour and the name won’t matter, were you there?

I was cold, I was naked, were you there, were you there?
I was cold, I was naked, were you there?
And the creed and the colour and the name won’t matter, were you there?

When I needed a healer, were you there, were you there?
When I needed a healer, were you there?
And the creed and the colour and the name won’t matter, were you there?

Wherever you travel I’ll be there, I’ll be there,
Wherever you travel I’ll be there.
And the creed and the colour and the name won’t matter, I’ll be there.”

This song, based on Matthew 25, was written by Syndey Carter in 1962.  Carter saw the bringing of unity and peace in the world as central to his faith.   He wrote this song for the launch of Christian Aid Week in 1965, premiered by The Ian Campbell Folk Group at a rally in Trafalgar Square. This song is a little unusual for Sydney, lyrically simple with a straightforward message, as you might expect from a campaign song. Most of his songs were more deliberately oblique, as he saw the true meaning of the song, not in the voice of the singer, but in the response in the mind of the listener.

“What You Gonna Preach?”

“What you gonna preach by the life you live?
What you gonna preach by the way you give to the people you love and the people you meet?
What is the sermon that you’re gonna preach?
We deliver a sermon every day.
What is the message they will hear us say?
Actions are louder than the words we speak.
Oh, what you gonna preach?

Well, we come to the church on Sunday, waitin’ for the sermon to hear.

But you know every day we’re preachin’, we’re sending our message clear.
But it’s not what you say, it’s the things you do,
How you spend your time, what’s important to you.
People all around will see and hear the sermon you’re preaching out loud and clear.

What you gonna preach…

So do we seek first the Kingdom or is it money and power we chase?
Do we hate our brother and hold a grudge, or forgive a sister with grace?
Do we lay up our treasures in heaven above?
Do we give through the Spirit with a spirit of love?
Friends and family can plainly see, so the question comes back to you and me.

So think about what you gonna preach by the life you live?…”

This “sermon in song” was written by Pepper Choplin in 2016.

“Though Ancient Walls” (VU #691)

“Though ancient walls may still stand proud and racial strife be fact;
Though boundaries may be lines of hate, proclaim God’s saving act!

When vested power stands firm entrenched and breaks another’s back,
When waste and want live side by side, it’s Gospel that we lack.

The truth we seek in varied scheme, the life that we pursue,
Unites us in a common quest for self and wold made new.

The church divided seeks that grace, that newness we proclaim;
A unity of serving love that lives praise to God’s name!

This broken world seeks lasting health and vital unity.
God’s people by God’s Word renewed, cast off all slavery!

Walls that divide are broken down;
Christ is our unity!
Chains that enslave are thrown aside;
Christ is our liberty!”

This is one of several hymns in Voices United by Walter Farquharson and Ron Klusmeier from the collection they produced with Fred Kaan entitled Worship the Lord (1977).  It was introduced to our congregation when it was included in “the green book,”  Songs for a Gospel People.   Walter Farquharson was also the 33rd Moderator of the United Church of Canada (1990-1992).

Hear the hymn sung at Strathroy United Church:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKkhzZC_p10

Painting from the East Side Gallery. The Gallery consists of 105 paintings by artists from all over the world, painted in 1990 on the east side of the Berlin Wall. The paintings at the East Side Gallery document a time of change and express the euphoria and great hopes for a better, more free future for all people of the world.