Notes on the Notes – October 27, 2013

 This week’s theme:  A People of Faith

This week’s guest:  Rev. Dr. Lovett Weems

This week’s scripture readings:  Habakkuk 2:1-4; Romans 1:16-17

This week’s music:

“Jesus Came a Child like me” (VU 583) – Walter Farquharson, a hymn writer and a former moderator of the United Church of Canada, submitted this new children’s hymn for Voices United (1987).  The tune, JESUS CAME, was composed by Richard D. Hall of Oshawa, Ontario.

“Jesus came, a child like me, so the face of God I’d see, God is not left far away, God is with us every day.

Jesus came to show us all ways to answer our God’s call- came to show us how to share, came to live with God’s own care.

Jesus came God’s work to do, came to live in me and you, came to turn the world around till God’s peace and love are found.

Jesus came to show God’s face, live God’s love, and be God’s grace.  God lives now in me, in you, God’s at work in what we do.

Live, Jesus, near us,  live, Jesus, with us,  live, Jesus, in us,  come, live in us today.”  

“God is Here” (VU #389) – Fred Pratt Green has published plays, translations, and poems.  This hymn was commissioned in 1978 for the closing of an eight-month church festival on worship, music, and the arts at University United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas, in which new church furnishings were dedicated.  Verse three celebrates the sacraments of baptism and communion and the commitment to serve God daily.   William Rowlands composed the tune BLAENWERN during the Welsh revival of 1904-05.

“God is here!  As we your people meet to offer praise and prayer, may we find in fuller measure what it is in Christ we share.  Here, as in the world around us, all our varied skills and arts wait the coming of the Spirit in to open minds and hearts.

Here are symbols to remind us of our lifelong need of grace; here are table, font, and pulpit; here the cross has central place.  Here in honesty of preaching, here in silence, as in speech, here, in newness and renewal, God the Spirit comes to each.

 Here our children find a welcome in the Shepherd’s flock and fold; here are bread and wine are taken, Christ sustains us, as of old.  Here the servants of the Servant seek in worship to explore what it means in daily living to believe and to adore.

God of all, of church and kingdom, in an age of change and doubt keep us faithful to the gospel; help us work your purpose out.  Here, in this day’s dedication, all we have to give, receive;  we who cannot live without you, we adore you!  We believe!”

“God, Whose Love is Reigning O’er Us” (VU #399) – William Boyd Grove wrote the words for this hymn for his daughter’s wedding in 1980.   The tune, LAUDA ANIMA, is most familiar as the tune for “Praise My Soul, the King of Heaven” and was composed by John Goss, organist at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London (1834).

“God, whose love is reigning o’er us, source of all, the ending true;  hear the universal chorus raised in joyful praise to you:  Hallelujah, hallelujah, worship ancient, worship new…

Lift we then our human voices in the songs that faith would bring; live we then in human choices lives that, like our music, sing:  Hallelujah, hallelujah, joined in love our praises ring!”

“Wake Up, Church, Wake Up!” – This week’s anthem was composed by Pepper Choplin in 2003.  It was commissioned in loving memory of Delores Price Griffith by the Order of Deacons in the Western Pennsylania Conference of The United Methodist Church.   It is a lively reminder of our call to serve outside of the church walls.

“Wake up, church, wake up!  The Lord is calling you.  Wake up, church, wake up!  There is kingdom work to do and so arise and shine.  Now tell the world your light is come.  Wake up, church, wake up!  There’ll be plenty time to rest when life is done…”

“God of Life” (VU #528) – The text of this hymn was commissioned for the 175th anniversary of a Presbyterian church in Ohio.  It is appropriate as we look at the direction or focus of the current and future church.  The tune, BEECHER, was composed by John Zundel, organist at Pilgrim Congregational Church in Brooklyn, N.Y. (1870).

“God of life, in Christ you lead us, guiding us along the way.  In our past, through joys and sorrows, you have been our strength and stay.  Keep us faithful, true disciples, inour learning and our praise,  celebrating past and present, consecrating future days.

God of words and Word Incarnate, words that challenge and embrace, grant us boldness in our speaking, while we know your loving grace.  Give us words both clear and winsome, loving hearts and listening ears, celebrating past and present, consecrating future years.

God of music, psalms and anthems, help us sing your faith anew:  melodies expanding worship, harmonies enriching too.  May our lives be hymns in action, tuned to Christ in note and rhyme, celebrating past and present, consecrating future time.

 God of days and years and eons, still you call as in the past.  Work undone demands our labour; justice yearns for peace at last.  Yours the vision and the challenge; ours the mission and the praise, celebrating past and present, consecrating future days.”

Hear the tune played on a reed organ at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAFN6KvX3sc

 “I’m Gonna Live So God Can Use Me” (VU #575) –  This week, we end our worship with a lively African-American spiritual of committment and dedication from the Presbyterian Hymnal (1990).   

“I’m gonna live so God can use me anywhere, Lord, any time,

I’m gonna live so God can use me anywhere, Lord, any time!”