Notes on the Notes – December 31, 2023
First Sunday after Christmas
This week’s music:
“Before the Marvel of This Night” (VU #40)
“Before the marvel of this night
Adoring, fold your wings and bow,
Then tear the sky apart with light
and with your news the world endow.
Proclaim the birth of Christ and peace,
That fear and death and sorrow cease;
Sing peace, sing peace, sing gift of peace,
Sing peace, sing gift of peace!
Awake the sleeping world with song,
This is the day the Lord has made;
Assemble here, celestial throng,
in royal splendour come arrayed.
Give earth a glimpse of heavenly bliss,
A teasing taste of what they miss:
Sing bliss, sing bliss, sing endless bliss,
Sing bliss, sing endless bliss!
The love that we have always known,
Our constant joy and endless light,
Now to the loveless world be shown,
Now break upon its deathly night.
Into one song compress the love
that rules our universe above:
Sing love, sing love, sing God is love,
Sing love, sing God is love!”
The words for our opening hymn were written in 1979 by Jaroslav Vajda, a poet, hymn writer, translator, and Lutheran pastor. The music is by Carl F. Schalk, a Lutheran organist, composer and professor emeritus of church music at Concordia Teachers’ College in River Forest, Illinois.
Hear the song sung by the Georgia Boy Choir at: https://youtu.be/RjZiGQXaQnA
“Of the Father’s Love Begotten” (VU #61)
“Of the Father’s love begotten ere the worlds began to be,
Christ is Alpha and Omega, Christ the source, the ending he,
Of the things that are and have been, and that future years shall see,
Evermore and evermore.
At his word the worlds were framed, He commanded, it was done:
Heaven and earth and depths of ocean in their threefold order one;
All that grows beneath the shining of the moon and burning sun,
Evermore and evermore.
O that birth for ever blessed! When the Virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving, bare the Saviour of our race,
And the babe, the world’s redeemer, first revealed his sacred face,
Evermore and evermore.
This is he whom seers in old time chanted of with one accord,
Whom the voices of the prophets promised in their faithful word,
Now he shines, the long-expected; let creation praise its Lord,
Evermore and evermore.
O ye heights of heaven, adore him; angel hosts, his praises sing;
Powers, dominions, bow before him, and extol our God and King;
Let no tongue on earth be silent, every voice in concert ring,
Evermore and evermore.
Christ, to thee, with God most blessed, and, O Holy Ghost, to thee,
Hymn and chant and high thanksgiving and unwearied praises be,
Honour, glory, and dominion and eternal victory,
Evermore and evermore.”
This hymn is from the Cathemerinon, a collection of twelve Latin daily hymns for private devotion written by Prudentius in the 5th century. It is likely the oldest hymn that many congregations sing. Hymnologist Albert Bailey, who calls Prudentius “the earliest Christian writer who was a real poet,” states that this is a “fighting hymn.” During the fourth century, C.E., what has become orthodox theology was fighting for its life against attacks by heretical perspectives.
One of the most prominent heresies was propagated by Arius (c. 250-336), whose most controversial position—and the one relevant to our hymn—was that God the Father and the Son did not co-exist throughout eternity. This heresy states that before his incarnation, Jesus was created by God and therefore Jesus did not exist through all time. Jesus was a creature (“created being”) that, though divine, was not equal to the Father.
In a beautiful poetic form, Prudentius applies his legal skills to make a case for what has become the orthodox understanding of the Trinity.
From the first line of stanza one, “Of the Father’s love begotten” (“Corde natus ex parentis ante mundi exordium”—literally “Born from the parent’s heart before the beginning of worlds (time)”—Prudentius sets forth his argument that the Son has always, is always and will always be with God and us.
The great 19th-century translator of classic Greek and Latin poetry, John Mason Neale (1818-1866), shaped Prudentius’ poetry into six stanzas, adding the refrain “Saeculorum seculis” (“Evermore and evermore”), indicating through its repetition at the conclusion of each stanza that the existence of God with the Son and the Spirit have been, are and will be co-eternal.
The third and fourth verses give this poem a decidedly Advent/Christmas character, referencing the birth of Jesus and connecting the birth to ancient prophecy.
To seal the argument that the legal-minded Prudentius set forth, the remaining stanzas confirm that this is the true position of the church by stating that the “heights of heaven” and “angel-hosts” adore the Son and “powers, dominions bow before him.” Thus all of the cosmos from heaven to earth gives witness to the co-eternal and co-equal nature of the Son—a tough argument to speak against. The final stanza is a doxology that places Christ as a partner in the center of the Trinity.
The tune, DIVINUM MYSTERIUM was not the original tune for the hymn, but comes from the 11th century and was used with a different text. The arrangement of the tune in Voices United comes from Healey Willan and was published in The Hymnary in 1030.
(Source: Discipleship Ministries of the Methodist Church. Adapted from an article by Dr. Hawn, professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology.)
Hear the song on piano at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f4_gEr8eL8
Hear the hymn sung by the Mississippi College Singers at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL_llr33ZTs
Refrain for Psalm 148 (VU 871)
Let the whole creation cry,
“Glory be to God on high.”
The refrain for this week’s psalm has music by Jakob Hintze (1678), harmonized by J. S. Bach; as in Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861).
“Down to Earth, as a Dove” (VU #42)
“Down to earth, as a dove, came to dwell holy love;
Jesus Christ from above bringing great salvation meant for every nation.
This is love come to light, now is fear put to flight.
God defeats darkest night, giving for our sorrows hope of new tomorrows.
Christ the Lord comes to feed hungry souls in their need;
In the house there is bread: Jesus in a stable, in the church a table.
Let us sing, sing, sing,
Dance and spring, spring, spring,
Christ is here, ever near!
Gloria in excelsis.”
The tune THEODORIC (PERSONENT HODIE) is a 14th century Latin carol. It was published in Piae Cantiones (1582) with the Latin text “Personent hodie.” Fred Kaan wrote words to accompany this tune in 1968 and the carol was first seen in the Hymn Book published by the United Church of Canada and the Anglican Church of Canada in 1971.
A jazz arrangement of this melody can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-3JYpJg5gw8
“May the Spirit of the Christ Child”
“May the Spirit of the Christ Child show us how in love to live
For the joy and peace of Christmas is for us to share and give.
May the story of God’s coming, God with us – Emmanuel,
Fill the world with light of Christmas as in awe we do God’s will.”
Our offering response for this first Sunday after Christmas uses the familiar melody of ODE TO JOY. Through the words, we are reminded that it is our response and action that brings about God’s kingdom in the world.
“Once in Royal David’s City” (VU #62)
“Once in royal David’s city stood a lowly cattle shed,
Where a mother laid her baby in a manger for his bed.
Mary was that mother mild, Jesus Christ her little child.
He came down to earth from heaven who, with God, is over all,
And his shelter was a stable, and his cradle was a stall.
There among the poor and lowly lived on earth our Saviour holy.
For he is our lifelong pattern; daily, when on earth he grew,
He was tempted, scorned, rejected, tears and smiles like us he knew.
Thus he feels for all our sadness, and he shares in all our gladness.
And our eyes at last shall see him, through his own redeeming love;
For that child who seemed so helpless is our Lord in heaven above;
And he leads his children on to the place where he is gone.”
“Once In Royal David’s City” is a Christmas carol originally written as a poem by Cecil Frances Alexander. The carol was first published in 1848 in Miss Cecil Humphreys’ “Hymns for little Children.” A year later, the English organist Henry John Gauntlett discovered the poem and set it to music.
Hear The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge recorded in Trinity College Chapel: https://youtu.be/QmspXB6lUeg
“Go Now in Peace, Guided by the Light” (MV #211)
This commissioning and prayer for guidance was originally written in Spanish (“Vayan en paz”) by Pedro Rubalcava in 2002. It was arranged by Peter Kolar, also in 2002.
“Go now in peace, guided by the light of Christ,
So you may be nourished by the Word of Life.”
