Notes on the Notes – September 24, 2023

Third Sunday of Creation

Sunday Before Orange Shirt Day/National Day of Truth & Reconciliation

This week’s music: 

“Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah” (VU #651)

“Guide me, O though great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land.
I am weak, but thou art mighty, hold me with thy powerful hand.
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more,
Feed me till I want no more.

Open now the crystal fountain, whence the healing stream doth flow;
Let the fire and cloudy pillar lead me all my journey through.
Strong deliverer, strong deliverer, be thou still my strength and shield,
Be thou still my strength and shield.

When I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside;
Death of death, and hell’s destruction, land me safe on Canaan’s side;
Songs of praises, songs of praises I will ever give to thee
I will ever give to thee.”

William Williams was a hymn writer (in Welsh and English) and an itinerant preacher during the Welsh revival of the 1740s. The theme of this hymn, written in Welsh in 1745, is the Israelites’ return to the promised land – the journey we read about in the book of Exodus.  During their time in the wilderness, the people are fed with manna from heaven and water from a rock.  God gives them what they need, but not more than they need.  The hymn confesses our human weakness, and trust in God’s divinity to bring us through the wilderness of life to a home in heaven.  The tune CWM RHONDDA was composed in 1905 by John Hughes, the precentor at Llantwit Fardre chapel, for a Baptist Singing Festival in Pontypridd.

Sing along with choirs and congregation at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT4n1hGjDDg

Enjoy the virtuoso organ playing of Diane Bish at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKJPjW-Y_WU

“This Path We Walk” 

“This path we walk through joy and tears,
A living Way of faith and fears,
Through each step’s risk, each sorrows pain,
When walked in love, we’ll rise again.

When life is shared together free
We’ll grow to be all we can be
A circle wide will call us home
When wrapped in love we’re not alone.

These gifts we bring, this light we hold,
Our songs of grace, our stories told,
Remain undone, told just in part,
Til shared in love, and known by heart.

When life is shared, together bound
God’s richest gifts, together found.
Together walk the Spirit’s Way
When love’s the guide, we shall not stray.

Amen.”

The lyrics for this song are by S. Curtis Tufts, a United Church minister in Spruce Grove, Alberta. They were written in 2016, the 30th Anniversary of the United Church of Canada’s apology to First Nations Peoples.

Apology Cairn

“I was a commissioner from Saskatchewan Conference at the 1986 General Council in Sudbury and have a vivid memory of the evening when the Apology was brought on our behalf by the Moderator to the waiting Elders. The whole council was gathered in an amazing circle dance around a bonfire as the Moderator and Elders met in a tipi nearby. I remember clearly the strong feeling that we were in the midst of a historic turning point kind of moment. I hope that, as a part of our acknowledging the anniversary of that moment, this hymn will remind us of the need to continue faithfully on the journey that was begun then.”
The Apology was only the beginning of our journey to reconciliation and wholeness.

Hear the song sung by the Harmony Singers:

“I Saw the Rich Ones” (MV #127)

“I saw the rich ones, I saw what they gave; the widow who offered two pennies she’d saved;
and I saw she was smiling and I knew she was glad;  and I wondered because she gave all that she had…

But with God the world is turned upside down; the poor are embraced and the lost they are found.
Let’s work for a world where all people are free; where it’s good to feel good about God loving you and me.

I saw Zaccheus, a sinner they said, but to his house I saw Jesus go to break bread;
and I knew something special had happened that day when Zaccheus gave half of his riches away…

The men in the vineyards were grumbling one day;  I knew they weren’t happy with what they’d been paid;
for the ones who came later were paid just the same as the workers who greeted the dawn when they came… “

This hymn was written by Pat Mayberry in 2000.  It references three gospel stories where we see God turning the world “upside down.”  They are:  Luke 21:1-4 (the widow’s mite), Luke 19:1-10 (the story of Zaccheus) and Matthew 20:1-16 (the parable of the workers in the vineyard).  Each of these parables is a commentary on what we have versus what we need.

Hear musicians at Transcona United sing the hymn at:  I Saw the Rich Ones (MV 127)

“For the Gift of Creation”  (VU #538)

For the gift of creation, the gift of your love,
And the gift of the Spirit by which we live,
We thank you and give you the fruit of our hands.
May your grace be proclaimed by the gifts that we give.

Our offering dedication is from the United Methodist Book of Worship (1991) and is especially appropriate during the season of Creation.  The composer, Steve Garnaas-Holmes is a United Methodist pastor in Montana.

“Spirit, Open my Heart” (MV #79)

“Spirit, open my heart to the joy and pain of living.
As you love may I love, in receiving and in giving, Spirit, open my heart.

God, replace my stony heart with a heart that’s kind and tender.
All my coldness and fear to your grace I now surrender.

Write your love upon my heart as my law, my goal, my story.
In each thought, word, and deed, may my living bring you glory.

May I weep with those who weep, share the joy of sister, brother.
In the welcome of Christ, may we welcome one another.”

The words for this hymn were written by Ruth Duck in 1994. Many hymn-writers are passionately committed to developing a language whose style and tone is as reverent as it is relevant.  Ruth Duck’s powerful texts have emerged as the major part of the cutting edge of language that speaks of God in universal terms and in poetry that is as poignant as it is stoic.  (Source: GIA publications). The words are sung to the traditional Irish melody WILD MOUNTAIN THYME, which was arranged by Arthur G. Clyde in 1997.

Hear the hymn sung at Geneva Presbyterian Church at:  https://youtu.be/SrxqxL4_2qM

Hear the song on guitar at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BopRb9pdB00

Bonus video: