Sunday, November 9th, 2014

Rite II, Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

Themes from the Readings: Serve the Lord, Prepare for the coming of the Lord

Prelude: Detroit, arranged by: Wilbur Held

Processional Hymn: 376 Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee

Gloria: S280, Powell

First Reading: Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

Psalm: Psalm 78:1-7

Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Before the Gospel: My Shepherd will supply my need, arranged by: Virgil Thompson

My Shepherd will supply my need, Jehovah is his Name.

In pastures fresh he makes me feed beside the living stream.

He brings my wand’ring spirit back when I forsake his ways.

He leads me for his mercy’s sake in paths of truth and grace.

When I walk through the shades of death, thy presence is my stay.

One word of thy supporting breath drives all my fears away,

Thy hand, in sight of all my foes doth still my table spread.

My cup with blessings overflows, thine oil anoints my head.

The sure provisions of my God attend me all my days,

O may thy house be my abode and all my work be praise.

There would I find a settled rest, while others go and come,

No more a stranger or a guest, but like a child at home.

Gospel: Matthew 25:1-13

After the Gospel: 411 O bless the Lord, my soul!

Offertory Anthem:

Doxology: Hymn 380, stanza 3

Holy: S125, Proulx

Communion Anthem: There is a Balm in Gilead

There is a balm in Gilead, to make the wounded whole,

There is a balm in Gilead, to heal the sin-sick soul.

1. Sometimes I feel discouraged, and think my work’s in vain,

But then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again.

2. Don’t ever feel discouraged, for Jesus is your friend,

who, if you ask for knowledge, will never fail to lend.

3. If you cannot preach like Peter, if you cannot pray like Paul,

You can tell the love of Jesus, who died to save us all.

Communion Meditation: Blessed Jesus, at thy word arranged by: Gerald Near

Communion Hymn: 662 Abide with me: fast falls the eventide

Recessional Hymn: 690 Guide me, O thou great Jehovah

Postlude: Postlude in F, by: Charles E. Ives

Music notes

By: Ashley Sosis

Today’s offertory anthem is one of my favorite text-and-tune pairings in the hymnal 1982- “My Shepherd will supply my need” . The text is by Isaac Watts (1674-1748) and the tune is RESIGNATION. The tune first appeared in the 1835 hymnal Southern Harmony. It was also included in this Friday and Saturday’s concert program. I felt that this anthem also needed to be included in worship, especially for the beautiful closing lines:

“The sure provisions of my God attend me all my days,

O may thy house be my abode and all my work be praise.

There would I find a settled rest, while others go and come,

No more a stranger or a guest, but like a child at home.”

What a beautiful adaptation of Psalm 23! All the more beautiful when you consider how Isaac Watts became interested in writing hymns. According to an interesting article in Reformed Worship written by Alfred V. Fedak (who is also a composer of music for the church), “He (Watts) began writing hymns in his youth, when one day, returning home from church and complaining about the poor quality of the metrical psalms that had been sung at that morning’s worship, he was challenged by his father to ‘try…to produce something better.” He did, and Watts’s hymns still appear in every hymnal.”