May 26, 2013: The First Sunday After Pentecost

May 26 2013

Hymn: God Is Here

The story of this hymn’s advent is as follows: The text was written by Fred Pratt Green in 1979, at the request of the co-director of music at University United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas, who wrote: “We are in need of a hymn. It would be sung for the first time at the closing service of an eight-month long festival centering round the themes of Worship, Music and the Arts...” The closing service was to be a “dedication of new reading desks, communion table, and font, and finally, the rededication of the people to the life commanded of us and given through Jesus Christ.” The text was written in 8.7.8.7.D meter so that the tune ABBOT’S LEIGH could be introduced to the congregation.

Hymn: Great Is Thy Faithfulness

LindaJo McKim writes, “This text is one of the few gospel hymns that address God specifically.” Written by Thomas Obediah Chisolm, it is based on Lamentations 3:22-23. The line “no shadow of turning” comes from James 1:17.

Anthem: They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love

Peter Scholtes wrote this hymn based on John 13:34-35 and Ephesians 4:4-6 in 1966. Since its initial publication, the work has been included in 19 collections, including PCUSA’s Sing the Faith, the supplement to the 1990 Presbyterian Hymnal. The first three stanzas emphasize our Christian unity both in faith and in action; the final stanza serves as a doxology to the Trinity. Over all, of course, is the refrain, which speaks for itself: “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

Christ Is Alive! Let Christians Sing: The 2013 Anderson Hymn Festival

2013 Anderson Hymn Festival

May 19, 2013: The Day of Pentecost

May 19 2013

Hymn: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty!
Reginald Heber wrote this hymn for Trinity Sunday, building it on Revelation 4. Paul Westermeyer writes, "This accounts not only for 'Holy, holy holy' and its reminder of Isaiah 6:3, but for the imagery of 'golden crowns' and 'glassy sea,' which point beyond the realm of our experience and comprehension to the numinous (and which, as for the book of Revelation generally, when turned into literal figures become meaningless)."

Hymn: Be Thou My Vision
The text for this hymn comes from an ancient Irish poem, “Rob tu mo bhoile, a Comdie cride.” It was translated by Mary E. Byrne in 1905 and later versified by Eleanor Hull in 1912.

Hymn: Open My Eyes, That I May See
Clara Scott, the author of this hymn, taught music at the Ladies’ Seminary at Lyons, Iowa for many years. She wrote many pieces for voice and instruments, including The Royal Anthem Book (1882), which was the first collection of anthems published by a woman. The phrase “Open my eyes” is drawn from Psalm 119:18, which reads, “Open my eyes, so that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.”

May 12, 2013: The Seventh Sunday of Easter

May 12 2013

Hymn: Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

Henry van Dyke wrote this hymn in 1907, and from the outset intended that it be sung to the famous tune from the final movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Dr. van Dyke wrote of his hymn writing, “These verses are simple expressions of common Christian feelings and desires in this present time, hymns of today that may be sung together by people who know the thought of the age, and are not afraid that any truth of science will destroy religion, or any revolution on earth overthrow the kingdom of heaven. Therefore these are hymns of trust and joy and hope.”

Hymn: Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us

Greg Scheer writes the following: The text of “Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us” first appeard in Hymns for the Young (1840), which was edited by Dorothy Ann Thrupp. Although no author’s name appears with the text, it is thought that Thrupp wrote it, since she often published hymns anonymously, under the pseudonym “Iota,” or simply using her initials. The tune we sing today was written by William Bradbury expressly for this text…It’s interesting that “Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us” was originally intended for children. In fact, many classic hymns like “Morning has Broken” and “All Things Bright and Beatuiful” were originally written for youth. Certainly this proves that educating our children and creating lasting music need not be mutually exclusive goals!

Hymn: Lord, Speak to Me

The text for this hymn was written by Frances Ridley Havergal, who also wrote “Take my life and let it be.” It was first published with the title “A worker’s prayer. ‘None of us liveth to himself.’ Romans 14:7.” The hymn tune CANONBURY is an arrangement of Robert Schumann’s piano work “Nachtstücke [Night Pieces] in F, Opus 23, No. 4” (1839). Schumann said, “I used to rack my brains for a long time, but now I often feel as if I could go playing straight on without ever coming to an end.”

Anthem: Who At My Door is Standing?

A minister’s wife and teacher, Mary Slade was assistant editor of The New England Journal of Education. Slade has had around one hundred hymn texts and poems published in various collections and hymnbooks. This text, written circa 1875, has been included in at least seventy-nine collections, ranging from camp meeting songbooks to denominational hymnals. The text is tied to Revelation 3:20, which reads, “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.”

May 5, 2013: The Sixth Sunday of Easter

May 5 2013

Hymn: Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

The English Baptist minister Robert Robinson wrote this hymn about 1758 and had it published a year later. Methodist hymnologist Carlton Young notes that hymn was originally four stanzas long, but, hymnal editors in the eighteenth century eliminated the final “apocalyptic climax,” a pattern which has been followed to present day. The fourth stanza reads as follows: “O that Day when freed from sinning, I shall see thy lovely Face;/Clothèd then in blood-washed Linnen [sic] How I’ll sing thy sovereign grace;/Come, my Lord, no longer tarry, Take my ransom’d Soul away; Send thine Angels now to carry/Me to realms of endless day.” In the hymn, it is helpful to know that “Ebenezer” means “Stone of Help,” as found in 1 Samuel 7:12, and a “fetter” is a kind of chain or manacle. The tune NETTLETON is an American folk hymn, named after the famous nineteenth-century evangelist, Ahasel Nettleton. Young writes, “The hymn’s strong evangelical themes and its singable and rousing tune have made this one of our most beloved hymns.”

Hymn: Blest Be the Tie That Binds

This hymn, whose original title was “Brotherly Love,” was written by Baptist minister John Fawcett to be used after a sermon. The text was comprised of six stanzas, four of which we’ll sing today. The fifth stanza, unpublished in The Presbyterian Hymnal (1990), reads: This glorious hope revives / Our courage by the way; / While each in expectation lives, / And longs to see the day.

Hymn: Have Thine Own Way, Lord!

From the Psalter Hymnal Handbook: Periodically distressed after being unable to raise money to go to Africa as a missionary in th elate 1890s, Adelaide Pollard attended a prayer meeting in 1902 and was inspired after hearing an older woman pray, “It really doesn’t matter what you do with us, Lord—just have your way with our lives.” Pollard went home and meditated on the potter’s story in Jeremiah 18 (the same image is also in Isa. 64:8) and wrote the consecration hymn “Have Thine Own Way, Lord.” Repeating the worlds “Have thine own way,” each stanza emphasizes the believer’s harmony with God’s will. This is a deeply personal prayer that culminates in a strong plea that others may see Christ in the believer through the power of the Holy Spirit (st. 4).

April 28, 2013: The Fifth Sunday of Easter; Confirmation Sunday

Apr 28 2013

Hymn: God of Grace and God of Glory

This hymn was written by Baptist minister Harry Emerson Fosdick for the opening of Riverside Church, New York City, in 1930. The hymn was sung at the dedication services in February 1931 and was published the following year. Paul Westermeyer writes, “Of this prayer for wisdom and courage in the face of warring madness, pride, selfish gladness, and poverty of soul, Fosdick said, ‘That was more than a hymn to me when we sang it that day—it was a very urgent personal prayer. For with all my hopeful enthusiasm about the new venture there was inevitably much humble and sometimes fearful apprehension.’” Fosdick sought to make the church ecumenical, serving the needs of different social classes and ethnic groups.

Hymn: Once In Royal David’s City

As per tradition at Cambridge’s Lessons and Carols, this hymn begins the service. A solo soprano sings the first stanza, and the congregation is invited to join at the second stanza. The hymn was written by Cecil Alexander and included in her Hymns for Little Children (1848), as an illustration of the Apostles’ Creed’s statement on the birth of Jesus.

Hymn: Baptized in Water

Each stanza of this hymn begins with allusions to John 3:5 (Jesus’ baptism) and Ephesians 1:13 (marked with the seal of the Spirit), then unpacks what God does in baptism—cleanses, makes us heir sof salvation, promises, frees, forgives, etc. and leads us to give our thankful praise to God. In The Presbyterian Hymnal (1990), an alteration was made to the third stanza, where “born of one Father” became “born of the Spirit.” Other hymnals have accepted this change since its publication, although the author does not agree with the change: “By removing father, (a) the Trinitarian significance is omitted and (b) ‘Spirit’ is repeated unnecessarily.”

10:55 Anthem: I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry

In 1985, John Ylvisaker was working for the Media Services Center of the American Lutheran Church. While working on a baptism series called “Reflections,” he began to write a song with a “dance-like beat and fast rhythm” before he saw the video to which the music would be set. Once he saw the film, he realized that “the lyrics were on target, but not the music. Thus began the most arduous task any composer can face—changing a completed work into something else. However, the original ‘false labor’ later gave way to the ‘birth’ of ‘Borning Cry’ which is now included in songbooks and hymnals around the world.”

April 21, 2013: The Fourth Sunday of Easter

Apr 21 2013

Hymn: Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven

LindaJo McKim writes, “This hymn text is one of two paraphrases of Psalm 103 by Henry Francis Lyte in Spirit of the Psalms (1834). The original hymn had five stanzas. The fourth has been omitted from Presbyterian hymnals since the turn of the [twentieth] century. It reads: Frail as summer’s flower we flourish;/Blows the wind and it is gone; But, while mortals rise and perish,/God endures unchanging on: Praise Him! praise Him! Praise Him! praise Him! Praise the high eternal One!”

Hymn: Just As I Am, Without One Plea

The Englishwoman Charlotte Elliott wrote “Just as I Am, Without One Plea” in 1834. She became a permanent invalid in 1821 when she fell seriously ill. Upon writing the hymn, Elliott had it published in the second edition of The Invalid’s Hymn Book (1836). Her inspiration came from a remark made by a Genevan evangelist, Cesar Malan, who said to her, “Come as you are, a sinner, to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.”

Hymn: Hear the Good News of Salvation

LindaJo McKim writes, “John B. Renville was a Native American Dakota, the first to be ordained to the Presbyterian ministry. He thrived in the latter half of the nineteenth century after being licensed and ordained in 1865. This hymn first appeared in the 1879 edition of Dakota Odowan (The Dakota Hymnal), which was edited by Renville and continues in popular use among Native Americans today.”