Notes on the Notes – February 23, 2025
This Week’s Music:
“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.”
Our opening hymn has words written by Dan Damon in 1994 and is centered around the theme of Love. If we see God as Love, and are moved to treat everyone with love, how does our world change? How do we change? This week we will be using the tune from the hymn “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing” as our melody.
“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 also written by John L. Bell in 1995 and remind us that, through Jesus, we find new life.
“In Loving Partnership We Come” (VU #603)
“In loving partnership we come, seeking, O God, your will to do.
Our prayers and actions now receive; we freely offer them to you.
We are the hands and feet of Christ, serving by grace each other’s need.
We dare to risk and sacrifice with truthful word and faithful deed.
Loving community we seek; Your hope and strength within us move.
The poor and rich, the strong and weak are brought together in your love.
In loving partnership, O God, help us your future to proclaim.
Justice and peace be our desire, we humbly pray in Jesus’ name.”
This is one of many songs by Jim Strathdee which appear in United Church hymn books. “In Loving Partnership” became know to congregations through the hymn book supplement Songs for a Gospel People (aka The Green Book). It was first published in 1983 and speaks of God’s church, Christian unity and our role as disciples.
Jim Strathdee (b. 1941) and his wife, Jean, are performing artists whose concerts reach thousands of people each year. They say their songs “are a musical offering of hope and encouragement for all people, bringing a message of compassion, justice and healing.”
Hear the hymn sung in worship at Strathroy United Church: https://youtu.be/F6Dor2_G-2M
“The Greatest of These”
“Tho I may speak with the tongues of angels,
Tho I speak with a voice of peace.
And tho I seek all the gifts of heaven,
Or behold all its mysteries,
If I’m not with Love’s compassion,
If I speak without Love’s voice,
My lofty words and noble actions, are as Noise.
Tho I have faith to remove a mountain,
Tho I’ve faith to command the hills,
And if I dare, in the face of danger, my own body to offer still,
But if I’ve not Love’s understanding,
If I’m lost to Love’s own songs,
My lovely words and thrilling actions are as Gongs.
The breath of Time rushes ever onward, prophecy shall pass away.
Our grandest words and our greatest knowledge shall be gone at the break of Day.
For the wisest of our wisdom, and the boldest prophet’s call
Are merely shadows of the Holy, One-in-All!
For now we see only a glimpse of the things to be.
As thro’ a mirror dimly, ’til Time and Earth are free.
Faith, Hope and Love abide below, abide above,
But ever new, and ever true, the greatest of these is Love!”
This week’s anthem, by Canadian composer Linnea Good, quotes from 1 Corinthians 13:1-12. Linnea says, “Through a glass darkly; through a mirror dimly…Whether we are looking at the convolutions of the world outside or the percolations of the world inside, it is good to know that God’s creation is not locked into the confine of human imagination and perception!”
Hear Linnea sing the song at: https://youtu.be/zfcvJKucwC8
“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, STUTTGART, is a familiar one which is also used for the Advent hymn “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” (VU #2).
“God, as We Rise to Leave” (VU #417)
“God, as we rise to leave this shell of worship,
Called to the risk of unprotected living,
Willing to be at one with all your people,
We ask for courage.
For all the strain with living interwoven,
For the demands each day will make upon us,
And for the love we owe the modern city,
God, make us cheerful.
Give us an eye for openings to serve you;
Make us alert when calm is interrupted,
Ready and wise to use the unexpected;
Sharpen our insight.
Lift from our life the blanket of convention;
Give us the nerve to lose our life to others;
Be with your church in death and resurrection,
God of all ages.”
This hymn by 20th-century hymn writer Fred Kaan (1968) is paired with the melody LOBET DEN HERREN by Johan Cruger (1653). The lyrics ask God to be with us as we go into the world, with all of its stresses and demands.
See the hymn sung in worship at Strathroy United Church: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjQ0YET0wPA
“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.
