May 6, 2012: The Fifth Sunday of Easter

May 5 2012

Gathering Song: Come Sing to God

Fred Anderson wrote this paraphrase of Psalm 30 for use in Pine Street Presbyterian Church, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It was published in Singing Psalms of Joy and Praise (1986), a collection of Anderson’s metrical psalms.

Hymn: O Worship the King, All Glorious Above!

A free paraphrase of Psalm 104, this hymn was written by Robert Grant and was first published in 1833. The text of stanza 2 was altered by the Presbyterian Hymnal Committee to reflect the language of the psalm more completely.

Hymn: Christ, the Vine, and God, the Gardener

Author Edith Sinclair Downing writes, “At a workshop led by Flora Wuellner I was reminded that we are to be the branches, not the vine! Sometimes, becoming overzealous in our ministry to others, we forget that Christ is the vine. As we live in him, and he lives in us we can share the fruits of the Spirit.”

Hymn: Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation

The author of this Latin hymn which begins “Angularis fundamentum” is unknown, and has been traced back to the eighth century, although its origins may be even earlier. It is based on several passages from scripture (1 Peter 2:5; Revelation 21; and Ephesians 2:20) and was used in medieval rites for the dedication of a church. Paul Westermeyer writes, “Neale’s translation address Christ the sure foundation and cornerstone ‘who, the two-fold walls surmounting, binds them closely into one.’ There is good reason to sing the hymn as we have it, ‘binding all the church in one,’ but the hymn’s intention was probably more precise, the ‘two-fold walls’ being a reference to Jews and Gentiles.”

Response: Let Us Talents and Tongues Employ

LindaJo McKim writes, “This lively ‘Communion Calypso,’ as Fred Kaan titled the hymn, was written at the request of Jamaican composer Doreen Potter. Mrs. Potter, whose family lived on the same street in Geneva as the Kaans, brought the adaptation of a Jamaican folk melody to him and asked him to write a text. He decided on a hymn of celebration for the Lord’s Supper.”

Anthem: Christ the Way of Life Possess Me

American composer K. Lee Scott set British minister Timothy Dudley-Smith’s text for the Chancel Choir of First Baptist Church, Monroe, NC in 2002. Dudley-Smith penned the words based on four images from the Book of Proverbs: the way of life, the well of life, the tree of life, and the path of life.