Gracious Spirit, help us summon
Other guests to share that feast
Where triumphant Love will welcome
Those who had been last and least….
- Carl P. Daw, Jr.

This is the beginning of the final verse of one of our hymns this week that speaks to the heart of this week’s Gospel lesson and who it is we are to invite to the feast. In our hymnal this text is paired with the Appalachian tune BEACH SPRING while other hymnals sometimes pair it with the tune IN BABILONE. Again, think about what words mark those high points in the melody. The prelude, offering, and postlude will be the three parts of a triptych on this tune by Benjamin Culli. The first part is a very stately setting, the second is a lively dance, and the third is a toccata. Toccatas usually have fast passages for the fingers while the melody is in the pedal. Think about the variety we have musically in this triptych and think about the variety of people from all times and all places that will be at that table.

Speaking of people from all times and places, we will end with the spiritual Welcome Table and we also will be singing a simple song from South Africa as well as a simple folk song that asks the profound question “Won’t you let me be your servant?”

Thanks again to Kimberly and Lucas for their leadership last week.

Those interested in choir and/or ringing handbells, if you have not done so, please continue to get back to me about the information I asked for last week. I hope to start choir at least on the 10th.
 
Marshall

Great God in Christ, you set us free
Your life to live, your love to share.
Give us your Spirit’s liberty
To turn from guilt and dull despair,
And offer all that faith can do
While love is making all things new.
- Brian A. Wren

This is the final verse of one of my favorite hymn texts. I think it is a practice we don’t emphasize often enough -- the reading of the texts of our hymns. When we hear that text in a different context, we hear things that we might not hear when singing it. In much the same way, we hear different inflections when we hear Scripture in the voice of another person rather than in our own when we read it.

This week we hear in Luke 13 about Jesus healing a crippled woman has not been able to stand up straight for many years. When she is healed, she immediately praises God. In that act of healing, he sets her free to do all the things she has not been able to do because of her condition. Meanwhile, the Pharisees are upset not that she was healed, but that she was healed on the Sabbath.

This week, we will sing the hymn "O Christ, the Healer, We Have Come." In the New Century Hymnal, it is paired with the tune KENTRIDGE. Having worked in Lutheran churches for so much of my music ministry, the Evangelical Lutheran Worship hymnal pairs it with a different tune, the Appalachian tune, DISTRESS. The two tunes give a slightly different emphasis on certain words. For instance, in the first verse, the DISTRESS tune reaches its climactic point on the words “how can we fail” while the KENTRIDGE tune reaches its climactic point at “when reached by love.” What a striking difference in emphasis! Yet both have something to teach us.

The offering “Who But the Lord?” was originally a choral anthem based on Isaiah 58 which has a lot of connection to what we hear in Luke 13. Craig Courtney sets this text beautifully. Pay attention to what words are given a place of importance in the melody.

The postlude is an organ arrangement by Barbara Harbach of the tune AZMON. This tune is most often associated with the text, O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing. One verse of that hymn is “Jesus! The name that calms our fears, that bids our sorrows cease, is music in the sinner’s ears, is life, and health, and peace.” Take time to reflect on those words as you listen to this arrangement.
 
A few things as I begin my time here:

• I hope to start ensembles after labor day.
• Choir members and those that are interested in choir, please let me know the following: Name, part, does the past rehearsal time (7 p.m. on Wednesdays) work for you? What are some other possible times that will work?
• Handbell ringers and those interested in learning to ring---please let me know the following: Name, are there limitations on what bells you would be able to ring? Does the past rehearsal time (6 p.m. on Wednesdays) work? What are some other possible times that will?
• Instrumentalists? Name, instrument. Would you be interested in adding descants or instrumental parts to hymns? Preludes or postludes? Adding to the choir or bells?

I hope that we can expand and do more with children’s music down the road --choir, bells, instruments. If you are interested in that, please let me know.
 
Marshall Jones