Notes on the Notes – May 31, 2015

This week’s scripture reading: John 3:1-17

This week’s music:

“Praise Our Maker” (VU #316)

“Praise our Maker, peoples of one family;
God is love, God is love!
Praise our Maker, peoples of one family;
God is love, God is love!

Love our Saviour, followers of Jesus;
God is love, God is love!
Love our Saviour, followers of Jesus;
God is love, God is love!

Care for others, children of the Spirit;
God is love, God is love!
Care for others, children of the Spirit;
God is love, God is love!”

This children’s hymn was adapted by Gerald Hobbs, who also added a third verse for inclusion in Songs for a Gospel People (1987).  The hymn tune PRAISE HIM was arranged by Carey Bonner (under the pseudonym E. Rawdon Bailey) for the Sunday School Hymnary (1905).    The arrangement used in Voices United was written by Toronto composer Ruth Watson Henderson (1995).

“Praise With Joy the World’s Creator” (VU #312)
This new text in praise of the Trinity was written for an anniversary conference of the World Student Christian Federation held at Edinburgh in 1985 by the Iona Community. It brings fresh insights to the understanding of the Godhead. In verse one we offer praise to the Creator, “God of justice, love and peace…” Verse two celebrates “Christ’s constant presence: friend and stranger, guest and host.” In verse three, the hymn offers praise to the Spirit, “sent among us, liberating truth from pride…” The final verse brings all three together into the Trinity, “calling Christians to embody oneness and diversity.” The music LAUDA ANIMA (PRAISE MY SOUL) was composed by John Goss, organist at St. Paul’s Cathdral in London, in 1868. The tune is most well-known as the tune for the hymn, “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven.”

“Praise with joy the world’s Creator,
God of justice, love, and peace,
Source and end of human knowledge,
God whose grace shall never cease.
Celebrate the Maker’s glory,
Power to rescue and release.

Praise to Christ who feeds the hungry,
Frees the captive, finds the lost,
Heals the sick, upsets religion,
Fearless both of fate and cost.
Celebrate Christ’s constant presence:
Friend and stranger, guest and host.

Praise the Spirit sent among us,
Liberating truth from pride,
Forging bonds where race or gender,
Age or nation dare divide.
Celebrate the Spirit’s treasure:
Foolishness none dare deride.

Praise the Maker, Christ, and Spirit,
One God in community,
Calling Christians to embody
Oneness and diversity.
This the world shall see reflected:
God is One and One in Three.”

Watch an organ solo of this hymn tune at:  https://youtu.be/Q5VkuRqUA0Y

“It Moves in Creation”

“It moves in creation and flows through our lives,
The Spirit that joins us, the vision that thrives.
A yearning for justice, a questing for peace
Reveal God’s reflection, when hope is increased.

For God has many faces, far more than we can see,
And where we meet the sacred, we touch eternity.

The earth is our garden to tend and sustain;
A gift to be treasured, a sacred domain.
For we are God’s children, the daughters and sons,
Whose work is to nurture what God has begun.

For God has many faces, far more than we can see,
And where we meet the sacred, we touch eternity.

The hungry, the desp’rate, the grieving, the lost,
Show God’s face in suff’ring and bearing its cost.
Yet we are connected, a part of the whole
And what harms the lowest, on all takes a toll.

For God has many faces, far more than we can see,
And where we meet the sacred, we touch eternity.

A gesture of kindness or loving embrace,
A word of encouragement offered with grace
Our patient endurance or comforting deed,
Are quietly holy and soulfully feed.

For God has many faces, far more than we can see,
And where we meet the sacred, we touch eternity.”

Canadian composer Allan Baer writes: “I originally began writing the lyrics to this song with the intention of dealing with one of the more difficult concepts in Christianity:  the Trinity.  New Testament writers struggle to explain the link connecting God, Jesus, and that even more mysterious presence called the Spirit, which remained with the disciples after the death of Jesus.  How could they be different yet the same?  Yet God is all about connection – theologian and writer Paul Tillich calls God ‘the ground of all being.’  In seeking an onmipotent God, it seems that we fail to notice that God is omnipresent.  And so the God we see can have many faces, none of which shows exclusively the fullness of what God is.  But there is one characteristic that is common to all those faces – love.  A love for humanity right down to the last individual, a love for what God has created, a love for peace and justice, and a love that lasts forever.”   (Source:  Gathering Pentecost 2014)

“Everlasting Love”

“God has loved with everlasting love!
We are the children of the One who draws us to His side.
Sing your praise to the Author of our Days;
God has saved us by His grace.
In His love abide.

Nothing separates us from the love of God
In heaven nor earth below:
No worries for today nor the days to come,
But by our faith we know

God has loved with everlasting love!…

Though heaven and earth may pass away,
The sun and stars may fade,
Our faith is sure in God’s embrace.
Rejoice, lift up your voice and sing to the King!
Celebrate redeeming grace!

God has loved with everlasting love!…

O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

We are the children of everlasting love.”

This week’s anthem continues to explore our relationship with God and God’s love for us.  The words and music are by Lloyd Larson (2014).  The lyrics are based on Jeremiah 31:3 and Romans 8:38-39.  Larson also incorporates one verse of Albert L Peace and George Mathson’s hymn “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go” (1884).  The anthem is dedicated in memory of Ken Hodgson.

“This Day God Gives Me” (VU #410)

“This day God gives me strength of high heaven,
Sun and moon shining, flame in my hearth,
Flashing of lightning, wind in its swiftness,
Deeps of the ocean, firmness of earth.

This day God sends me strength to sustain me,
Might to uphold me, wisdom as guide.
Your eyes are watchful, your ears are listening,
Your lips are speaking, Friend at my side.

God’s way is my way, God’s shield is round me,
God’s host defends me, saving from ill.
Angels of heaven, drive from me always
All that would harm me, stand by me still.

Rising, I thank you, mighty and strong One,
King of creation, giver of rest,
Firmly confessing Threeness of Persons,
Oneness of Godhead, Trinity blest.”

The words for this hymn are an adaptation of “St. Patrick’s Breastplate” by James Quinn, a Scottish Jesuit priest, from his first published collection New Hymns for All Seasons (1969).  The original poem invokes God’s protection on a journey (either literal or the metaphorical “journey of life”) against all manner of evils, including “the spells of women and smiths and druids”. It was dated as from the 8th century by modern experts and is traditionally attributed to St. Patrick. It is composed in the same style as pagan protection charms from Ireland, but with clearly Christian content.   The melody, BUNESSAN, is a traditional Gaelic melody first published in Lachlan MacBean’s Songs and Hymns of the Gael (1888).   Eleanor Farjeon wrote the lyrics for the words we are more familiar with – Morning Has Broken – in 1931.  The song gained huge popularity when it was recorded by Cat Stevens in 1971.

Hear a guitar version of the song at:  https://youtu.be/inLgZcpgTrM