Sunday, July 12th
Rite II, 7th Sunday after Pentecost
Themes from the Readings: Prayer, Worthiness, In Christ we have a rich inheritance, John the Baptist’s beheading
Sermon on: First Reading: David returns the Tabernacle to the City, both rejoicing and calamity ensue.
Prelude: Minuet in Classical Style, by: C. Armstrong Gibbs
Processional Hymn: 436 Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates
Gloria: S280, Powell
First Reading: 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12B-19
Psalm: Psalm 24
Second Reading: Ephesians 1:3-14
Before the Gospel: 237 Let us now our voices raise, stanzas 1-2
Gospel: Mark 6:14-29
After the Gospel: 237 Let us now our voices raise, stanza 3
Offertory Anthem: As long as I have breath, by: Sue Farrar Soloist: Chip Hawver
As long as I have breath, I will praise You, Lord.
As long as I have life, let my soul rejoice.
In times of sore distress; in times of loneliness;
as long as I have breath, I will praise You, Lord.
As long as I have breath, I will bless You, Lord.
As long as life is mine, I will sing your song.
Your joy brings forth my praise;
Your peace fills all my days;
As long as I have breath, I will praise You, Lord.
Let me know Your loving kindness ev’ry day,
As you wal beside me pointing out the way.
As long as I have being, I will trust in You;
You are my God; I lift my soul to You!
As long as I have breath, I will serve You, Lord.
As long as life is mine, I’ll exalt Your word.
And when this life shall pass,
And I’m at home at last,
Through all eternity, I will praise you, Lord.
Doxology: Hymn 380, stanza 3
Holy: S125, Proulx
Communion Anthem: Christ is the Cornerstone, by: Noel Rawsthorne
Christ is our cornerstone on him alone we build;
with his true saints alone the courts of heav’n are filled;
on his great love our hopes we place of present grace and joy above.
Here, gracious God, do thou for evermore draw nigh;
accept each faithful vow, and mark each suppliant sigh;
In copious show’r on all who pray each holy day thy blessings pour.
O then with hymns of praise these hallow’d courts shall ring;
our voices will we raise the Three in One to sing;
and thus proclaim in joyful song, both loud and long that glorious name.
Communion Meditation: Soliloquy, by: Healey Willan
Communion Hymn: How Great Thou Art
Recessional Hymn: 535 Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim
Postlude: Finale in D minor, by: Eric H. Thiman
Music Notes
By: Ashley Sosis
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.”
-Psalm 19:1
Revered as one of the most popular American hymns, “How Great Thou Art” has a surprising international history. Its first source is a Swedish text by Carl G. Boberg (“O store Gud”), who wrote its nine stanzas one summer evening in 1885 after a walk in the woods. Several years later, after hearing his text sung to a Swedish folk tune, Boberg published both the text and the tune together. Manfred von Glehn, an Estonian, prepared a German translation of the text in 1907, which became the basis for a Russian translation by Ivan S. Prokhanoff in 1912. From this Russian translation came a few English translations, including the words we sing today by Stewart Wesley Keene Hine (1899-1989).
The Russian text came to the attention of Hine when he and his wife were missionaries in Ukraine. If the stanzas of the text seems disjointed from one another, it is because he first wrote stanzas 1 and 2 together, and then added 3 and 4, separately, after transformative experiences in his missionary work.
I mentioned “a few” other English translations. The other translation of “O store Gud” that is used in hymnals today was translated directly from the original Swedish by E. Gustav Johnson (1893-1974). It is printed below. Which version do you prefer?
