Music for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost: September 22, 2019

Opening Voluntary The Good Shepherd

A pathway in the Smoky Mountains

Dom Paul Benoit (1893-1979)

I usually look to the gospel reading for inspiration in choosing the opening voluntary, but I couldn’t come up with anything that tied to obviously. So I turned to the Prayer of the Day for help. There I found these words:

Keep our feet from evil paths.

Almost immediately I remembered these words from the 23^rd psalm:

. . .he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

It’s also a nice tie in from last week when we heard about a shepherd who left a flock to go find the one lost sheep.

Paul Benoit, born in France, was a Benedictine monk, organist, and composer. “Dom” is a title given to Benedictines who have taken their vows.

Gathering Hymn Let Streams of Living Justice (Thaxted)

Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW 710)

ELW (and some other hymnals) omits the second stanza that William Whitla wrote for this hymn.  Cries from the Tiananmen Square protests were still fresh in our minds and we were just learning of Argentina’s Mothers of the Disappeared. The missing stanza has both poignant and disturbing images including the “mother with her candle” and “the child who holds a gun. The stanza ends powerfully:

Each candle burns for freedom; each lights a tyrant’s fall;

each flower placed for martyrs gives tongue to silenced call.

Psalm Bless the Lord, O Saints and Servants

a metrical setting of Psalm 113

Text by Michael Morgan

Tune Austria, Franz Josef Haydn

Metrical settings of psalms are paraphrases written in poetic form. This means the text can be sung to a standard hymntune. Our first communion hymn, “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need,” is a metrical setting of the 23^rd Psalm.

Hymn of the Day God, Whose Giving Knows No Ending (Rustington)

ELW 678

Musical Offering The Truth Will Make You Free (sung by the Festival Choir)

Anne Krentz Organ

In the second reading, Paul identifies himself as a “teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.” Anne Krentz Organ’s piece takes its text from John’s gospel and reminds us that disciples of Jesus continue in his word and know the truth. In knowing the truth, we are made free.

Communion Hymns

My Shepherd Will Supply My Need (Resignation)

ELW 782

By Your Hand You Feed Your People (Camrose)

ELW 469

Sending Hymn Son of God, Eternal Savior (In Babilone)

ELW 655

Closing Voluntary Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (Lobe den Herren)

Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748)

ELW 858

Don’t miss the organ concert by Zach Klobnach on Sunday evening at 7:00. Read more on this blog at http://smljax.blogspot.com/2019/09/organ-concert-at-st-marks-zach-klobnak.html

This event is co-sponsored by St. Mark’s and the Jacksonville Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.