Music Notes from Denise, April 12, 2025

This Sunday we will begin our Holy Week journey as we celebrate Palm Sunday when Jesus rode through Jerusalem on a donkey with crowds cheering and waving palm branches. Our service will begin outside with The Liturgy of the Palms and then we will sing All glory, laud, and honor as we process into the church waving palm branches to the ringing of bells.

For the Offertory, St. Martin’s Choir will sing an arrangement of the hymn, There in God’s garden stands the Tree of Wisdom by K. Lee Scott titled The Tree of Life. The congregation is invited to join us on the final two stanzas. The text comes from Eric Routley’s hymn of that name. The tune was written by K. Lee Scott for the annual Diocesan Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama in 1986. Scott describes writing the hymn: “As I followed the text phrase by phrase, the tune logically unfolded with ease…As I proceeded through the text with my new tune, I was amazed at the mounting energy from these few, simple notes…I named the tune Shades Mountain after the lovely mountain in Birmingham where I have made my home for the past quarter century. To me the simple elegance of the tune allows the great dignity of the text to shine through.” (Copyright 1997 Birnamwood Publications; MorningStar Music Publishers, Inc) You will be able to follow the poetic phrases in the bulletin as the choir sings about the image of a tree and how it parallels the image of Christ in his teaching, passion, and resurrection.

Before we read the Passion of Jesus Christ, our Communion hymn will be Ah, holy Jesus. This hymn was originally based on a Latin text, Meditationes, written by a medieval monk, Jean de Fecamp, in the eleventh century. John records in his gospel the long discourse Jesus gave before his Passion, where Jesus foreshadowed what was to come. First, he foretells Peter's denial: “Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!” (John 13:38b). Later, he describes what he will do: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). In the first two stanzas of this hymn, we recognize that, like Peter, we are guilty of rejecting Christ, as we sing, “'Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee; I crucified thee.” Then we meditate on the great love of Christ in suffering for us, and conclude with a promise to “think on thy [Christ's] pity and thy love unswerving, not my deserving.” (hymnary.org)

St. Martin’s music ministry will enhance our worship during this Holy Week. On Maundy Thursday, the choir will sing a new hymn, Lord, help us walk your servant way, written by Herman Stuempfle in 1997 to a tune by Mary Haugen called Shanti. The lyrics readily describe the experience that may be felt during the footwashing ceremony: Lord, help us walk your servant way wherever love may lead, and bending low, forgetting self, each serve the other’s need. You came to earth, O Christ, as Lord, but power you laid aside. You lived your years in servanthood, in lowliness you died. No golden scepter but a towel you place within the hands of those who seek to follow you and live by your commands. You bid us bend our human pride nor count ourselves above the lowest place, the meanest task that waits the gift of love. (Herman G. Stuempfle, Jr 1997 by GIA Publications, Inc)

I want to especially recommend our Easter Vigil service on Saturday, April 19th, beginning at 7:30 pm. We start outside (weather permitting) as the sun begins to set. We light the Christ candle from an open fire and then pass the light to each person holding a candle (as on Christmas Eve). With beautiful liturgy, we process into the dark nave, bringing the Light of Christ into the church, and begin reading Genesis and other scriptures from the old testament and the Psalms, interspersed with lovely songs sung by everyone: Many and great, O God are thy works, Canticle of the Free, Surely it is God who saves me, Healing River of the Spirit, and finally, Christ Be Our Light written by Bernadette Farrell specifically for Easter Vigil: This is the night of new beginnings. This is the night when heaven meets earth. This is the night filled with God’s glory, promise of our new birth!…Now will the fire kindled in darkness burn to dispel the shadows of night. Star of the morning, Jesus our Savior, you are the world’s true light! (2000 OCP) After this, we begin the First Eucharist of Easter and finally, once again, sing Alleluia! It will be a unique experience to participate in the first service of Christ’s resurrection before it is replicated again on Sunday morning. I challenge any of you who are able to attend an evening service to join us as we celebrate Easter on Saturday evening, just as we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve! The Holy Spirit can fill your soul!