This Sunday we read about Queen Esther petitioning to the King and speaking up for her people. This photograph is one that I took in Rome of an ancient mural that might have been a powerful woman like Esther. In our Psalm 124 we recall If the Lord had not been on our side…then would the raging waters have gone right over us. Blessed be the Lord! In James 5 we learn that faithful prayer and anointing of the sick will bring healing. And in Mark 9, Jesus teaches John about healing people from disease or fear and sending them on rejoicing, instead of putting a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me.
Our Processional hymn will be inspired by our Psalm, Sing praise to God who reigns above. Johann Jakob Schütz wrote this hymn of praise in German with nine stanzas. In 1675 he published it in his Christliches Gedenkbüchlein. The most common English translation in use is by Frances E. Cox from 1864, which was published in Orby Shipley's Lyra Eucharistica and her own Hymns from the German. Catherine Winkworth has also made a translation. It extols the greatness of God in giving all good things to us, and calls on us to continue to give God praise. (Tiffany Shomsky, Hymnary.org)
Our Sequence hymn is the Spiritual, Standin’ in the Need of Prayer. Eileen Guenther has identified over forty primary themes that encompass the body of work that is spirituals. “It’s Me, It’s Me, O Lord” falls into several categories. The text reveals that accountability and humility are required to live a Christian life. Familial and community relationships are present in the stanzas of this spiritual. Guenther states, “in Spirituals, ‘I’ equals ‘we’ in the African sensibility, where individuals are responsible for the whole community, not only for themselves” (Eileen Guenther, In Their Own Words: Slave Life and the Power of Spirituals (St. Louis, MO: MorningStar Music Publishers, Inc., 2016).
For the Offertory, St. Martin’s Choir will sing a new anthem written in 2024, both words and music by Diane Hannibal: To You, I Lift My Soul. Based on Psalm 25, it is a prayer for God’s comfort and features a lovely sequential melody that develops nicely. A modulation builds to the affirming final section before closing with a quiet prayer: “Lord, I lift my soul.” Hannibal has been a music therapist near Chicago and has also been involved in church music for many years. She has composed several bestselling anthems for church choirs.
To you, Lord, I lift my soul, Lord, I place you in control. Those who wait upon you will be blessed.
Show me, Lord, which path to take, guide me in each choice I make.
I am yours and I long for you each day, comfort me I pray.
Lord, my heart I give to you, with my hands, lift praise to you. Guide my feet to follow in your ways.
God will pardon every sin, make me pure and whole again,
In my soul residing day and night, warming me with holy light.
Bring me out of my distress, guard my soul and deliver me.
Heal my brokenness, bring me peace and rest. I wait upon you, Lord. Lord, I lift my soul.
(2024 Hope Publishing Company)
Our final hymn is one written by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette that has been used by the National Council of Churches. She describes her purpose in recommending this hymn during our current situation. “God loves immigrants; they need our love too. Since the fall of Kabul, we have had an Afghan father and four children living very near us. This past Christmas Eve we did a Spanish language worship service for other new neighbors. For five years we hosted an immigrant group from Ghana. The repeated bigoted, racist comments [heard by several politicians today] need to be condemned by all Christians.” Sung to the familiar tune Bunessan that we know as Morning has broken, this hymn looks at some of the immigrants that we are familiar with in the Bible and calls us to reflect on our own families and our approach to OTHERS. (2010 Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, used with permission, carolynshymns.com)