Live by faith, grow in grace, and walk in love with St. Martin's this coming Sunday as we come together, in person as well as online, for worship, thanksgiving, and praise. Wherever you are on your journey of faith, allow us to walk alongside you.
“Saint John the Baptist Preaching”, Mattea Preti, Italian, 1650
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Greetings from The Episcopal Church and the Camino Project!
The enclosed Advent resource is for families to take home and use during the Advent season to help them create space to have faithful conversations and experiences together.
The Camino Project grew out of a Lilly Foundation grant awarded to the Episcopal Church’s Department of Faith Formation to address the global needs of our culturally diverse family structures and congregations. This project offers the possibility of immense learning and discovery, not only for the Episcopal church, but for any parent or caregiver seeking to pass on their Christian faith to their children in our ever-changing world.
We know that mothers, fathers, and caregivers are the greatest influence on children’s faith. We also know that they are very busy with the multiple demands facing their families.
The Camino Project will offer opportunities throughout the parenting process for both families and congregations to experiment with a variety of resources, community groups, and Camino moments / sacred expeditions, each prompted by a key moment in family life.
This Sunday we remember the words from Baruch 5:1, Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God. This begins our Sunday of rejoicing and expectation as we prepare for the coming of Christ when we read Canticle 16 The Song of Zechariah! Our Processional hymn will be Blessed be the God of Israel which is a paraphrase of Canticle 16. In Luke 1, Zechariah loses his voice during his wife Elizabeth’s pregnancy with John the Baptist. When he hears of his son’s birth, his tongue is loosened for a song of praise to the Lord God of Israel. “The last line of the hymn--with songs that never cease!--would seem to be a hyperbole at first glance, but the text is a literal understanding of eschatology. Our songs will never cease in heaven.” (umcdiscipleship.org) This hymn text was written by Carl P Daw, Jr. in 1989. Daw serves as an Episcopal priest and was Executive Director of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada. He has written many meaningful hymns over the years. (Hymnary.org)
For the Offertory, St. Martin’s Choir will sing an arrangement of Comfort, Comfort Ye My People by David A. DeSilva, Ph.D. He is the Trustees’ Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Greek at Ashland Theological Seminary in Ohio and an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. He’s written many books but also has a gift for music, having been an organist and choir director and has arranged this song in his favorite musical style of Renaissance. (seminary.ashland.edu) It is a paraphrase of Isaiah 40:1-5 in which the prophet looks forward to the coming of Christ when the coming of the forerunner of Christ—John the Baptist—is foretold. “Comfort, comfort ye my people, speak ye peace,” thus saith our God; “Comfort those who sit in darkness, mourning ‘neath their sorrows’ load. Speak ye to Jerusalem of the peace that waits for them; tell her that her sins I cover and her warfare now is over.” Make ye straight what long was crooked; make the rougher places plain. Let your hearts be true and humble, as befits His holy reign. For the glory of the Lord now o’er earth is shed abroad, and all flesh shall see the token that His Word is never broken. (2010 Concordia Publishing House)
Our Communion hymn is another written by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, When old Zechariah saw, sung to the tune we usually associate with Away in the manger. In her book, God’s World is Changing, Gillette writes “One of the great gifts that God gives us is the gift of a new perspective. When Zechariah first heard the news from the angel about John’s upcoming birth, he was not convinced. It’s true, he and his wife had longed for a child, but God’s promise seemed impossible to him. Suddenly, he was left unable to speak; after that, he had a lot of time to ponder what was happening in his family’s life and in God’s world. In time, with his son John’s birth, Zechariah gained a new perspective. There are times when troubles give us time and space to get a new perspective on life. Three years ago, my husband Bruce was diagnosed with acute leukemia, and he needed to have a bone marrow transplant. These three years have been very challenging ones—especially during a pandemic that has brought its own challenges to everyone. At the same time, we have both come to realize in a deeper way that every day is a gift from God. Every day is a blessing to be treasured. Every day brings an opportunity to make a difference in God’s world, and to make it a better place…Sometimes, in the midst of change and stress, we, like Zechariah, need a change in perspective, and a change in conversation: So we pray in the words of the hymn, ‘You keep what you promise and so we are blest!’ God always keeps God’s promises. God’s greatest promise is to love us forever, in Jesus Christ. Our conversations with God become a grateful ‘thank you!’” (from God’s World is Changing, New Hymns for Advent and Christmas by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette 2022)
Advent Lessons & Carols
10:30 am Sunday, December 22
Come experience beautiful music with St Martin’s Choir;
St Martin’s Hand Bell Choir; Children’s Chapel Choir;
Guests: Joy Floyd, oboe; Susan Hampton, cello; Nadia Maddex, soprano