In preparing music for our services, I consult multiple hymnals and reference books, often reading interesting stories and facts about the music that is suggested. From time to time I share them with you, hoping you find meaning or enjoyment as I do. So, here goes for this week!
As we head into our first Sunday in Lent 2011, one author remarks on how “fitting it is that we should come head to head with the devil, for that is who Jesus had waiting for him as he began his ministry. Still wet from his baptism…no time was wasted in getting Jesus and his adversary to clash. Their encounter sets the pattern for the rest of Jesus’ earthly life, as Satan would prove to be a constant thorn in his side and, ultimately, his fiercest enemy.”
“…..The good news is that Jesus won this first battle. The bad news is how much even he had to endure to do it. Temptation and the power of evil are no small force.” Martin Luther, as hymn writer, wrote:
The old satanic foe
Has sworn to work us woe!
With craft and dreadful might
He arms himself to fight.
On earth he has no equal.
“A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”
“Our focus for this Sunday, as for our entire lives, should be on realizing the immense proportions of sin and evil, our utter impotence to overcome them, and, most importantly, the grace won for us by the battle-scarred Christ, who holds the field victorious.” *
*Tune My Heart To Sing, Wayne l. Wold
Our service opens with the processional hymn, “Forty days and forty nights”. My book says of this hymn that the original text was described as “impossible for public worship” (in 1637!) Originally published with nine stanzas or verses, the hymn recalls the trials of Christ’s temptation and the many ways that Christians are drawn into sin. You will be happy to know that the version in the Hymnal ’82 only has 5 short verses….just enough time for Fr Baker, Deacon Mason and the acolyte to make it up to the front.
The words to the sequence hymn, “Praise to the Holiest in the height” were extracted from the lengthy poem The Dream of Gerontius (1865) by John Henry Cardinal Newman, later made famous by the oratorio of Sir Edward Elgar. A favorite of those who love music by this beloved British composer.
Our closing hymn this week will be A Mighty Fortress is Our God. This is undoubtedly a familiar and favorite hymn of many. The words should resonate for you with the gospel reading of Matthew 4:1-11.
The hymn sung during Eucharist by the choir in the Lofty Pews will be “It Is Well with My Soul”. We will not be singing the most familiar tune, but you will likely recognize the words that we sing to a minor hymn tune from Southern Harmony. The minor tune is especially fitting for Lent. This hymn is also suggested to go with the Gospel reading for this day. Here is the story of how this hymn came to be written, freely taken by me from the book, Then Sings My Soul, hymn stories of the World’s Greatest Hymns:
~~When the great Chicago fire consumed the Windy City in 1871, Horatio G. Spafford, an attorney heavily invested in real estate, lost a fortune. About that time, his only son, age 4, succumbed to scarlet fever. Horatio drowned his grief in work, pouring himself into rebuilding the city and assisting the 100,000 who had been left homeless. (Makes one think of the disaster we are watching unfold in Japan today)
Two years later, he decided to take his wife and four daughters to Europe. He was detained by an urgent meeting, deciding to send his family on without him. They boarded the luxurious French liner Ville du Havre, he said goodbye and promised to join them soon.
The ship collided with another vessel and within 2 hours, the mighty ship vanished beneath the icey November waters. The 226 fatalities included Horatio’s 4 daughters. Mrs Spafford was found nearly unconscious, clinging to a piece of wreckage. When the 47 survivors landed in Cardiff, Wales, she cabled her husband: “Saved Alone.”
Horatio immediately booked passage to join his wife. En route, on a cold December night, the captain called him aside and said, “I believe we are now passing over the place where the Ville du Havre went down.” Spafford went to his cabin but found it hard to sleep. He said to himself, “It is well; the will of God be done.”
He later wrote his famous hymn based on those words.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
Psalm 34:19
May I add, Thanks be to God!
And thanks to our organist, Pat ONeil and the singers in the Lofty Pews! Sharon Helppie, Abbe Wade, Mary McGuire & Darrell Ludders.
See you tomorrow,
Lana
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