This Sunday we will celebrate with Bishop Deon as he baptizes and welcomes many new people into the St. Martin’s Church family! Our lectionary readings are also pertinent as we celebrate the anointing of King David in 2 Samuel 5, shout praises to God in Psalm 48, join with Paul as he boasts of how Christ has helped him overcome his weaknesses in 2 Corinthians 12, and join Jesus’ disciples as they are sent out to heal and minister to the greater community in Mark 6.
Our Processional hymn illuminates our thankfulness for our country as we celebrate its birthday: O God, we thank you for this land, written by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette in 2019 . It was written to be sung to the tune Melita which is the familiar tune for the Navy hymn “Eternal Father, strong to save”. This hymn brings our love of country into our present world where we seek justice for our neighbors, our creation, and look for ways to bring Christ’s vision of a new day for God’s being in our world. (www.carolynshymns.com, used with permission)
Our Sequence hymn celebrates the Baptisms that will happen later in the service: Baptized in Water by Michael Saward (1932-2015). Ordained in the Church of England in 1956, Saward served several congregations and was radio and television officer for the Church Information Office. This hymn was written in London on May 29, 1981, a few days after the 25 anniversary of his ordination to the ministry. Each stanza explains the New Testament theology of baptism: being cleansed by Christ’s blood; dying and being buried with Christ and rising again, free and forgiven; and gaining the privilege of becoming God’s children through Christ. The hymn is set to the familiar tune, Bunessan, which is usually used for Morning has broken. It is a Gaelic tune named after Mary Macdonald’s birthplace on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. (Psalter Hymnal Handbook; hymnary.org)
For the Offertory, St. Martin’s Choir will be joined by several members of the congregation who wish to fortify our singing and get the opportunity to sing in the choir’s midst! We will sing a new arrangement of This Is My Song (A Song of Peace) by Lloyd Larson. It’s a hymn that we have been singing each summer to commemorate our country’s Independence Day. Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) wrote music for a pageant that celebrated the history of Finland, and in 1900 he revised the final tableau into FINLANDIA, which became a hymn-like tone poem that celebrated the hope and resolution of Finland’s struggle against Russian oppression. It has since become a favorite orchestral standard in many lands. The tune seemed appropriate for a song written by Lloyd Stone (1912-1993) who was a public school teacher in Hawaii. The first two stanzas of “This is My Song” were written for a collection of songs in Sing a Tune (1934) during the time of peace between the two world wars: This is my song, O God of all the nations, A song of peace for lands afar and mine. This is my home, the country where my heart is; Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine; But other hearts in other lands are beating With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine. The final stanza of this hymn was written by Georgia Harkness (1891-1974) at the request of the Wesleyan Service Guild of the Methodist Church to give the popular hymn a more religious tone. Harkness was the first woman to teach theology in an American seminary, after not being allowed to study in one herself at a younger age as a Cornell graduate. She was always interested in global missions and ecumenical Christianity as well as being a pioneer for women in ministry. Her final stanza is a prayer that transforms the hymn into a promise for each of us to take part in Christ’s mission in the world. This is my prayer, O God of all earth’s kingdoms, Your kingdom come; on earth your will be done. Let Christ be lifted up till all shall serve him, And hearts united learn to live as one. So hear my prayer, O God of all the nations. Myself I give you; let your will be done. (2024 Lorenz Publishing Company; hymnary.org)
Our first Communion hymn will be a new one sung by the choir, By your hand you feed your people. It was written by Susan R. Briehl in 2002 to Marty Haugen’s tune Camrose. Rev. Briehl was ordained in 1981 in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and has written numerous books and hymns. The words should sound familiar, it is the text that we have been using as our Fraction Anthem each Sunday this summer. Rev. Briehl has added a Refrain to the stanzas: Christ’s own Body, blessed and Broken, Cup o’erflowing, life outpoured. Given as a living token of your world redeemed, restored. (2002 GIA publications, Inc.; hymnary.org)
Our second Communion hymn is one that was introduced last fall: Put Peace into each other’s hands, by Fred Kaan (1929-2009). The text reads like poetry with beautiful illustrations, such as: As at communion, shape your hands into a waiting cradle; the gift of Christ receive, revere, united round the table. Kaan’s hymns sought to address issues of peace and justice. He was born in Haarlem in the Netherlands in July 1929 and was baptized in St Bavo Cathedral. He lived through the Nazi occupation, saw three of his grandparents die of starvation, and witnessed his parents’ deep involvement in the resistance movement when they took in a number of refugees. He became a pacifist and began attending church in his teens. Having become interested in British Congregationalism (later to become the United Reformed Church) through a friendship, he was attended Western College in Bristol. He was ordained in 1955 at the Windsor Road Congregational Church in Barry, Glamorgan. In 1963 he was called to be minister of the Pilgrim Church in Plymouth. It was in this congregation that he began to write hymns. The first edition of Pilgrim Praise was published in 1968, going into second and third editions in 1972 and 1975. He continued writing many more hymns throughout his life. (hymnary.org by Dianne Shapiro, from obituary [www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/fred-kaan-minister-and-celebrated-hymn-writer-1809481.html])
The final hymn will be one of dedication: We all are one in mission. It was written in 1986 by The Rev. Howard M. Edwards, III, pastor of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Rockford, Illinois, who prefers to be known as Rusty. He says that the inspiration for this hymn came in a letter from his bishop about a new mission campaign. As he prayed over both the letter and various passages of scripture related to it, the hymn began to materialize. It is a sterling contribution for a vastly depleted repertoire. The 19 century, the great age of mission and evangelism, had different values from ours, and many of their hymns reflect those colonial, paternalistic, WASP attitudes. The value of this hymn is that it makes our own lives the subject of evangelism, not the benighted people of distant lands. At the same time, it does not diminish either the urgency of the Gospel or the call “to touch the lives of others by God’s surprising grace.” (Rev. Dr. John L. Hooker, Wonder, Love, and Praise supplement to The Hymnal 1982, 1997 Church Publishing, Inc)