Music Notes from Denise, April 5, 2025

This Sunday we will consider one of the beautiful stories of Lent in John 12, when Jesus visits his friends in Bethany: Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead, Martha, and Mary who anoints Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume and wipes them with her hair. Upon being criticized by his disciples, Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

This Sunday’s prelude is an arrangement of an Anglican praise song from 1983 written by Graham Kendrick, The Servant King. Alan Bullard used the melody to create a meditative prelude that I have spent time to prepare. The refrain is: This is our God, The Servant King; He calls us now to follow Him; To bring our lives as a daily offering; Of worship to the Servant King. I hope you are able to meditate as you listen to this lovely prelude. (Oxford Hymn Settings vol. 3 2014 by Oxford University Press)

Our Offertory will be a beautifully written anthem by Craig Courtney for choir, piano and cello that describes this anointing of the feet of Jesus with oil. The delicately descending vocal lines emulate the oil as it gently falls from the jar to Jesus’ feet and on His robe. And like the titular alabaster jar, the text by Susan Bentall Boersma suggests that our hearts can be willing vessels filled with the fragrance of Your mercy, the scent of love and of grace." It is a truly remarkable work! (jwpepper.com) The anthem will be accompanied by Ava O’Bryan on the viola. Ava is a senior at Parkway Central High School and is looking forward to studying to become a strings teacher and orchestra conductor. The text is:

            The scent of oil fills the house, in joyful celebration;

            sweet scent of faith, balm of belief, a gift for Him whose name is Love.

            The fragrance lingers on His robe, in somber preparation;

            Anointing oil of purest nard, a gift for Him whose name is Love

            Lord, make a vessel of my heart filled with the fragrance of Your mercy,

            The scent of love and of grace, the oil of pardon and of peace, that I may pour it at Your feet.

            Her gift was love, poured out in joy, an act of adoration;

            A deed to echo through the years, a gift of love, poured from an alabaster jar.

The Alabaster Jar by Craig Courtney, copyright 2016 by Beckenhorst Press, Inc. all rights reserved.

Our Communion hymn also illustrates this Gospel lesson. “In boldness, look to God for help”, was written in 2002 by Mary Louise Bringle, for an assignment at a hymn writer’s workshop centered on Matthew 15. “In boldness, look to God for help, like women folk who dared: to ask that Jesus heal a child, that crumbs of grace be shared, that outcast ones be welcomed to the feast God has prepared.” As Bringle contemplated the story, she thought of other women who demonstrated “boldness”: the woman with the issue of blood (Luke 8:43); Mary of Bethany, who dared to sit at Jesus’ feet and study (Luke 10:40); and the women who anointed Jesus’ feet with costly perfume (John 12). Mary Louise Bringle was chair of the humanities division and professor of philosophy and religion at Brevard College in North Carolina. She was recognized by the Hymn Society in the U. S. and Canada as an Emerging Hymn Writer in 2002. She says of her work: “I am concerned to give voice to the passions that dwell at the deep heart of faith and questioning.” (#94 in Voices Found hymnal Leader’s Guide by Marilyn L. Haskel & Lisa Neufeld Thomas, Church Publishing Inc. 2004)

Our final hymn, Guide My Feet, is a well-known Spiritual. According to Darnell St. Romain, “The author of the letter to the Hebrews compared the Christian life to running a race (Hebrews 12:1–2). In this race, one puts aside everything that might hinder; namely, sin. While running, one looks to Jesus, who endured the cross. Enslaved Africans knew shame and hostility, the lash, and the whip. In the end, they too would identify with Jesus, who had gone where they hoped to be. From a broader perspective, “Guide My Feet” provides assurance for the Christian journey. From the perspective of African American history, “Guide My Feet” could be a song of encouragement to those escaping captivity and running toward freedom…ultimately for us, it is about faith for everlasting peace and freedom.” (umcdiscipleship.org)