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(see recipe below for All Saints' Day Pumpkin) Text: William H. How (1823-1897) Tune: Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) Jesus Welcoming the Saints into Heaven/Cathedral in Viborg, Denmark, Joakim Skovgaard 1 For all the saints who from their labors rest, Who thee by faith before the world confessed, Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest. Alleluia! Alleluia! 2 Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might; Thou, Lord, their captain in the well-fought fight; Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true light. Alleluia! Alleluia! 3 O may thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold, Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old, And win with them the victor's crown of gold. Alleluia! Alleluia! 4 O blest communion, fellowship divine, We feebly struggle, they in glory shine; Yet all are one in thee, for all are thine. Alleluia! Alleluia! 5 And when the fight is fierce, the warfare long, Steals on the ear the distant triumph song, And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong. Alleluia! Alleluia! 6 The golden evening brightens in the west; Soon, soon to faithful warrior cometh rest; S weet is the calm of paradise the blest. Alleluia! Alleluia! 7 But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day; The saints triumphant rise in bright array; The King of glory passes on his way. Alleluia! Alleluia! 8 From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast, Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host, Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Alleluia! Alleluia! REFLECTION Dore's image of the Empyrean, where celestial beings dwell in Dante's Paradiso Ask almost anybody anywhere who loves the hymns of the Christian church, what hymn to sing for All Saints Day, and they will almost without fail, name this one. While the text is wonderful, it is the tune by Vaughan Williams that has brought it into the most favorite list. It is sung at funerals and memorial services, All Saints' Day, and any time one wants to remember a saint. It recalls saints from the past but then moves to the current moment and day when we need to take up their causes and their fights for the faith. Although we are weak, their faith can stir us with new courage. For after all we are, by virtue of our faith, saints. The name of the tune means “without a name” meaning all Christians. The image of the triumph sounding, far away, makes us brave and strengthens us. It reminds me of a story from World War II that my colleague Michael Rogness told about Murdo MacDonald, a chaplain. (What follows are Mike's words.) “Murdo, a chaplain in the British army, taken prisoner by the Germans was sent to a prison camp. The Germans kept the Americans and British in separate compounds, separated by an empty strip of land marked by barbed wire. They were strictly forbidden to communicate with each other across the space. The Germans knew enough English so they could detect any communication. “The Americans had no chaplain on their side, so the Germans sent MacDonald to the American side to 'bring religion to the Americans.' In time he discovered that he could speak Gaelic at the fence to someone on the other side, a language none of the Germans understood, so they paid no attention to the gibberish. “In spring of 1944 rumors flew through the camp that the Germans were expecting some kind of invasion. Then early one morning in early June, MacDonald was awakened and told that the Welshman on the other side was calling for him. He hurried to the fence, and heard the message yelled at him, 'Thanig iad!' MacDonald turned to the Americans clustered around him and translated, 'They’ve come!' Just the two short words, reporting the Normandy invasion, which changed the whole course of the war and determined its eventual outcome. When the Americans heard the news pandemonium broke out among the prisoners. They knew what it meant. In the days that followed, the camp was still a prison, guards were still stationed all around, etc. But everything had changed.” No matter that they were still bound, they were free. I have rarely heard a story that describes the Christian life more vividly than that. He's come! Our champion has landed. Victory is ours! HYMN INFO The writer of the hymn text, William How, was an English priest who became the bishop of Wakefield in 1888. He worked tirelessly in the slums of London and Yorkshire to improve conditions for the poor and needy, especially children. The hymn was first sung to a tune by Joseph Barnby, the consummate Victorian church composer. When the editors of the 1906 English Hymnal were doing their work, he was the last composer they wanted to include as his tunes were everything they disliked about English hymnody at the time. Vaughan Williams wrote this tune for it. With its first bass pedal downbeat, it became one of the most famous and beloved tunes from the English treasury of hymnody. LINKS Big Sing, cast of thousands! https://youtu.be/VHVv79W_EpA Concordia Publishing House Version https://youtu.be/WbPshOGxpew Mormon Tabernacle Choir https://youtu.be/nhe4hZXvvNs Funeral for George Herbert Walker Bush https://youtu.be/5P9trYEVe2c Fernando Ortego/solo, piano and cello https://youtu.be/9ML6WFskgYI All Saints Day pumpkin recipe. I have made it every All Saints' Day for fifty years! Preheat oven to ca 330 degrees Hollow out a pumpkin, at least medium sized, which will serve four, but larger if your guests are many. Sauté in butter one diced onion, several sliced garlic cloves, sliced green, yellow and red peppers and as much raw jumbo shrimp as you can afford! 2 lbs is what I use if the pumpkin meal is intended for over 6. a larger pumpkin allows for more veggies. I often add pine nuts to the rice. Put 1 cup long grain rice in the pumpkin. That serves four generously and fills a smaller medium size pumpkin. I just did that and the top of the pumpking almost popped off! On top of that add the sautéd vegetables, Then the shrimp. Add butter, (all told half a stick?) especially the slurry from the shrimp, salt and pepper. (For those who worry whether there is enough liquid for the rice to be done maybe add a little chicken broth or water. I only add a little but have no idea how much. Once I added too much and had uncooked rice soup). Seal the top of the pumpkin back onto the pumpkin tightly--strong toothpicks work. Place it in a frying pan or something with a low rim so you can lift it onto a serving platter. (it will be heavy! and you don't want to break the skin at the bottom!) Bake until done--I usually do a little under three hours. Take out and remove to large platter. Cut open. Enjoy! NB The rice is always the surprise--will it be done? (Sometimes to avoid anxiety about this mysterious process, some precook the rice, but I never have. Usually it is done, but sometimes al dente would more than accurately describe the rice, once to my dismay.) Enjoy!

Text: James Montgomery 1771-1854 Tune: George Webb (1803-1877) Jesus teaching. James Tissot 1. Hail to the Lord's Anointed, great David's greater Son! Hail in the time appointed, his reign on earth begun! He comes to break oppression, to set the captive free; to take away transgression, and rule in equity. 2. He comes with succor speedy to those who suffer wrong; to help the poor and needy, and bid the weak be strong; to give them songs for sighing, their darkness turn to light, whose souls, condemned and dying, are precious in his sight. 3. He shall come down like shower supon the fruitful earth; love, joy, and hope, like flowers, spring in his path to birth. Before him on the mountains, shall peace, the herald, go, and righteousness, in fountains, from hill to valley flow. 4. To him shall prayer unceasing and daily vows ascend; his kingdom still increasing, a kingdom without end. The tide of time shall never his covenant remove; his name shall stand forever; that name to us is love.
REFLECTION Jesus has been debating with the religious authorities through most of these last Sundays. Here he stops them cold, using Psalm 110 to confute them as to his identity. What did David mean in Psalm 110, one of the most quoted psalms in the New Testament, when he asked them who the Messiah would be? The son of David. They knew their scripture and were quick with the answer, but that got them into trouble. "If David calls himself Lord, how can he be his son?" This stops them and they do not ask any more questions. Over the past generations, many biblical scholars have taught that the Old Testament has nothing to do with the New Testament, that references to the Messiah in the Psalms, for example, were not about Jesus. But now as scholars like N. T. Wright are teaching the New Testament, they are showing us over and over again how Jesus and the apostles saw that the Old Testament is all about Jesus and the Messiah he is. Psalm 1, recommended for this lesson, was all about Jesus, the church taught and saw him as blessed, like a tree beside the river of waters. This summer my latest book, a collection of hymns on the psalms, was published. As I was writing them, I, who had been taught by the scholars who did not see Jesus in the Old Testament, was thrilled to see how now the scholars were teaching how Jesus was all over the psalms. And how the church, from Peter and Paul, on through the first 1700 years of Christianity had used the psalms, especially, to show who Jesus was. The Bible for Christians from the beginning is a story of God's work to save his people. Instead of reading it for the intentions of authors of its small parts, people like Wright are teaching us to read it in its whole, and restoring to us the riches of Scripture and our faith. In the Psalm Jesus quotes we see how it works. David's Son will be the Messiah and his Lord. "Great David's greater Son!" Praise be to God. HYMN INFO James Montgomery lived just after the time of the Wesleys. Born in Scotland to Moravian missionaries who left him for the West Indies, he was orphaned when they died while he was at school. He became editor of the Sheffield Iris, a paper that often took radical positions. Montgomery was jailed once for praising the fall of the Bastille. He was also a strong opponent of slavery and the treatment of chimney sweep boys in England. He devoted much of his time to the writing of poetry and hymns, of which he is said to have written over 400. Several of his books of hymns were published before and around mid-19th century in England. Songs of Zion (1822), The Christan Psalmist (1825) and Original Hymns (1853.) Although this hymn is traditionally for Advent, it uses the psalm text in its beginning lines. LINKS Panoply https://youtu.be/Y_CzUGoKYKU?si=RxVCv6hi1yL0E7_K Schola Cantorum of St. Peter’s in the Loop, Chicago https://youtu.be/l6dGmfAL5DY?si=9eDUoOUwsJ8b6w1i ------------------- PSALMS These are my hymn texts written on the Psalms. The book contains helpful notes on how the church used the psalms through time. Musical settings of the texts will be available next year. This book would make a great gift for those who love the psalms and use them in their daily devotions. Here is the hymn for Psalm 110 PSALM 110 Sit at My Right Hand A Psalm of David. (Ascension) 66 66 The Lord said to my Lord, “Come sit at my right hand, a footstool I will make of ev’ry wicked man.” From Zion God sends forth a rod of mighty strength to vanquish ancient foes, to rule in righteousness. Your people freely gave to you your power and might, and from the morning’s womb comes dew and dawning light. God will not change his mind: you are forever priest, like King Melchizedek, a king, who gave a feast. The Lord at your right hand will shatter chiefs and kings. Drink water from the brooks, lift up your heads and sing! copyright 2026 by The Leupold Foundation https://theleupoldfoundation.org/product/the-psalms-hymn-text-by-gracia-grindal/

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1876-1936) Tune: English folk tune, King's Lynne Jesus in the debate over the coin. Rubens 1. O God of earth and altar, Bow down and hear our cry, Our earthly rulers falter, Our people drift and die; The walls of gold entomb us, The swords of scorn divide, Take not thy thunder from us, But take away our pride. 2. From all that terror teaches, From lies of tongue and pen, From all the easy speeches That comfort cruel men, From sale and profanation Of honour and the sword, From sleep and from damnation, Deliver us, good Lord! 3. Tie in a living tether The prince and priest and thrall, Bind all our lives together, Smite us and save us all; In ire and exultation Aflame with faith, and free, Lift up a living nation, A single sword to thee. REFLECTION Render unto Caesar. Titian (This is a slightly revised popular repeat from three years ago.) There are not a lot of hymns written on taxes and Jesus, although it was one of his themes. His statement "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s," echoes down through the ages in the West. Some interpret it to be the beginning of the Christian notion developed by the west that secular powers and divine powers were to be in some sense separated. Although we know God is the source of all good and all power, he rules the world through means Luther called his left hand, or hidden hand. We as citizens work for the good and try to do his will in that sphere, knowing that secular powers can be corrupt and evil. Somewhere in all that, believers can see God working but not in a one to one relationship. There is mystery there. And hiddenness. To go back to the story, however, Jesus shows his brilliance here. His opponents think they have him. If he says, don’t pay taxes, the Romans will arrest him. If he says pay them, his opponents will have more reason to oppose him. This confounds them. They can’t win. They can only force his crucifixion which ultimately is their final defeat, not his. Of course, they are furious. There is also an incovenient ttruth here: We cannot bring in the kingdom by our own might. Jesus is reigning as king already. and he is working out his dread purposes in ways we cannot see or understand. Chesterton's hymn has remained in our hymnals despite its older language. Thrall, or slave, is not in our current vocabulary. Maybe he is echoing the phrase from Heraclitus that war is the father of kings and slaves, or thralls. The hymn describes a time when the political leadership was weak and feckless. People were divided, scorning the other side. There is today a desire for peace and unity.The problem is that it used to be we agreed on the ends but disagreed on the ways to get there. Now, we are divided on our ends. It is hard to cooperate with someone who wants to go against everything you believe and in fact oppose with all your might. Maybe we need to pray with Chesterton, “Smite us and save us all.” The hymn needs to be sung often and the prayers in it prayed again and again. “Bind all of us together.” HYMN INFO G. K. Chesterton This hymn was included in the 1906 English Hymnal, which was a strong reaction against the Victorianism of the previous hymnal,Hymns: Ancient and Modern. (1861) Musicians like Vaughan Williams, Percy Dearmer (1837-1933), and others could not say enough about how bad the Victorian age had been for English hymnody, especially its music. They wanted to restore English folk melodies to English music, working against the strong influence of German music dominated by Beethoven, Brahms and Wagner. Vaughan Williams worked hard to return English hymnody to its folk roots. Many of the folk songs from England we have in our hymnals were rediscovered by him and arranged for congregational singing. This caused a Renaissance in English music which is still important. LINKS British congregation singing https://youtu.be/wFG-CqYXyOo Choir of Trinity College Cambridge https://youtu.be/XUYY0uJfkhQ Ivica Kljuce https://youtu.be/4IskStYYi-M The Gentle Wolves https://youtu.be/XqJlJIwh34A This gives a brief history of Chesterton’s place in British history https://youtu.be/etI_QRNJfkw NB: Christmas is coming and this book of daily devotions based on the life of Jesus told in sonnets, would be an appropriate gift. It has a poem for every day of the year and Bible references for each poem that put Jesus in what has been called "the red thread of salvation." Many have been using it for daily devotions; others in group Bible studies. Click here to check it out. https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Harmony-Gospel-Sonnets-Days-ebook/dp/B08L9S4Z1T/ref=sr_1_3_nodl?dchild=1&keywords=Grindal&qid=16145

Text: Charles Wesley (1707-1788) Tune: HURSLEY Katholisches Gesangbuch, Vienna 1774 The King's Banquet 1 Come, sinners, to the gospel feast; let ev'ry soul be Jesus’ guest. Ye need not one be left behind, for God hath bid all human-kind. 2 Sent by my Lord, on you I call; the invitation is to all. Come, all the world! Come, sinner, thou! All things in Christ are ready now. 3 Come, all ye souls by sin oppressed, ye restless wand'rers after rest; ye poor, and maimed, disabled, and blind, in Christ a hearty welcome find. 4 Come and partake the gospel feast, be saved from sin, in Jesus rest; O taste the goodness of our God, and eat His flesh and drink His blood. 4a His love is mighty to compel: His conqu'ring love consent to feel; Yield to his love's resistless power, And fight against your God no more. 5 This is the time, no more delay! This is the Lord’s accepted day. Come thou, this moment, at His call, and live for Him who died for all. REFLECTION The King's Banquet Jesus’ parable on the king’s feast attracts most attention for the guest who has come without the proper garment and is not allowed into the feast. The part where the first invited refuse the invitation rather briskly and shockingly is passed over and the talk is all about why this one is refused entrance. Whatever the required wedding garment was—baptism, good works or faith—is not quite as germane as the fact the wedding guest wants to come on his own terms, an excuse not unlike those initially invited--they all have other things to do. In other words, I and my affairs come first. A rather clear picture of idolatry, against which Scripture rails from the fall in Genesis on to the end. What we wear is a deeply personal choice, and anyone who has tried to force a child to wear something they don’t want to wear knows how that goes. It is a contest of wills between the child and its parents. Anyone, however, who has ever been invited to a meeting with royals even now knows they have to dress appropriately. At the funeral of King Harald of Norway in September, 2026, everyone who attended the church service or other ceremonies had to wear all black from head to toe or they could not be admitted. And the funny thing is, everybody did. They submitted because they desired to honor the late king. Dante And while clothes are the issue here, they simply stand for our wills. We do not want to give in to anyone who wants to rule us. What we hold out for is our own will; not the will of God. That is idolatry. Dante in his great poem The Divine Comedy makes clear that for the people in hell, it is their heaven. It is what they wanted. God has said to them, Thy will be done! They would not submit to obeying the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. While I was teaching The Inferno to freshmen who were appalled at the treatment of the inhabitants in the Inferno, it was difficult to teach this lesson. Their call for mercy to the sinners, however, would not have interested the denizens of hell. They preferred their sins to the joys of Paradise. Sigrid Undset, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1928, argued in many places that civilization could not survive if people did not submit dutifully to the requirements of the civilization they had inherited. Arguing for one’s rights over against one’s duty to submit to the demands of their flesh—that is, their children—makes for anarchy, she argued. And we can see that anarchy all around us today. Given the mores of the day, we are taught to be our own gods, hold our own truths and worship ourselves as we will. It doesn’t make for a flourishing culture. The Bible shows us what happens when as Judges 21:25 has it, there was “no king so people did that which was right in their own eyes.” Better to "yield to him," as Wesley has it, than "fight against thy God." HYMN INFO Charles Wesley wrote this hymn called “The Great Supper an Invitation to Sinners in 1747 for a collection of Hymns for those who seek and those who have Redemption. It is among one of the more popular of Wesley’s hymns. Unlike many of Wesley’s most well-known hymns, which are drenched with Scriptural references, this is very specific to a Bible story. The editors of hymnals through time, removed a stanza that hints at the guest without a robe--which I added. "And fight against your God no more." For more on Wesley see the information on "Forth in thy name I go." The tune, HURSLEY, comes from a French Huguenot hymnal. The composer is anonymous. LINKS Panoplyimaging https://youtu.be/jEIdVSHAomg?si=me8gszoZtmsSB8FB Polk Street Methodist Church https://youtu.be/CkOonj8rKgs?si=o1ct9pRkWAa0wJb_ Summit Church—contemporary version https://youtu.be/6Ep02iPk600?si=YL_PVfbtf57BBxo_

Text: Isaac Watts (1674-1748) Tune: Lowell Mason (1792-1872) Isaac Watts 1 The heav'ns declare Thy glory, LORD; in every star Thy wisdom shines; but when our eyes behold Thy word, we read Thy name in fairer lines. 2 The rolling sun, the changing light, and nights and days Thy pow'r confess; but the blest volume Thou hast writ reveals Thy justice and Thy grace. 3 Sun, moon, and stars convey Thy praise round the whole earth, and never stand; so when Thy truth began its race, it touched and glanced on every land. 4 Nor shall Thy spreading gospel rest till through the world Thy truth has run; till Christ has all the nations blest that see the light, or feel the sun. 5 Great Sun of righteousness, arise, bless the dark world with heav'nly light: Thy gospel makes the simple wise; Thy laws are pure, Thy judgments right. 6 Thy noblest wonders here we view in souls renewed and sins forgiv'n; Lord, cleanse my sins, my soul renew, and make Thy word my guide to heav’n. REFLECTION The Parable of the Wicked Tenants. Marten van Valckenborch Psalm 19, considered by many to be the most glorious poetry in the Psalter. It is recommended by some lectionaries for this Sunday as is Psalm 118 to which Jesus refers when discussing his parable of the owner of the vineyard. The message of the parable is the wonder of God’s unending and passionate love for us. The parable makes me catch my breath when the landowner says he will send his son because, surely, they will not hurt him. If he wasn’t suspicious of the evil the tenants were capable of by then, he is certainly trusting and loving, beyond anything we might expect. Despite all that, he sends his son and the wicked tenants kill him as well. This is love indeed and tells us much about God in Christ. Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen Codex Aureus of Echternach 1030 Watts shrewdly uses the trope of comparison to shape his hymn into a psalm of praise for the Son/Sun who has come to “make the simple wise.” Watts does what the church has done since Peter and Paul—he uses the Psalms to say who Jesus is. In Jesus we see more clearly how God’s “Word touched and glanced in every land.” The Isaiah lesson for this Sunday shows another side of our God as he works to cleanse the vineyard and leave only a stump to flower again. This account may well have been in the minds of Jesus’ audience when he told this parable. As the Advent hymns foretell, it is from this branch our Savior will come to save us from the wreckage we have visited on the our world. While Jesus tells this to his contemporaries to convict them, we should be careful to see that these words can well be applied to our feckless generation. We can apply it to our day as we watch the perfidy one generation has visited on its descendants now being turned around. I am writing this just after watching Pope Leo XIV saying mass to over 700,000 people in Paris. Generation Z, statistics show, may be turning to the Christian faith in astonishing numbers. God is working in many and surprising ways to awaken faith in the most barren places, much to our surprise and joy. Pray we do not seek to kill it. HYMN INFO Isaac Watts is without doubt the father of English hymnody. Raised in the Calvinist tradition of strictly paraphrasing psalms as the only hymn book allowed, he began a new tradition of writing hymns based on the psalms, adding images from the New Testament as well. His use of traditional English poetic meters established a sense that all hymns are to be in Small, Common or Long Meter, plus a couple other ballad like forms. Some say he taught poets like William Blake and Emily Dickinson how to write poetry as almost all their poems can be sung to tunes from the Watts’ hymnal. Lowell Mason Lowell Mason is the most influenctial composer of hymn tunes in 19th century America. A native of Massachusetts, he moved to Savannah, Georgia where he worked in a dry goods company and bank. Meanwhile he served as church musician and worked to bring the best of European melodies into the hymnals of the day. He traveled to Leipzig, Germany where he was deeply affected by the congregtional singing in Thomas Church where Bach had served. He resolved to teach congregations to sing hymns better. His Fifth Avenue Presbyterian church in New York became known as the best singing congregation around. In 1859 he published Sabbath Hymn and Tune Book, which became a popular and fundamental hymnal for all church musicians in America. The hymn below begins with Isaiah 7 and ends with the Matthew 21 parable. LINKS Martijn de Groot https://youtu.be/awEvlCRZ3WQ?si=-Uemwm6mo7FGEQql Hymns of Grace https://youtu.be/nOHPBj7bprM?si=88KO0kApzHJL5JN1 Biblogic https://youtu.be/m3cN328bYwc?si=LYF0TT-x9kWAmcbp

Text: Charles Wesley (-1707-788) Tune: Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Jesus in the synagogue. James Tisso 1 Forth in thy name, O Lord, I go, my daily labor to pursue; Thee, only Thee, resolved to know in all I think or speak or do. 2 The task Thy wisdom hath assigned, O let me cheerfully fulfill; in all my works Thy presence find, and prove thy good and perfect will. 3 Thee may I set at my right hand, whose eyes mine in-most substance see, and labor on at Thy command, and offer all my works to Thee. 4 For Thee delightfully employ what e'er Thy bounteous grace hath giv'n; and run my course with even joy, and closely walk with Thee to heav'n. REFLECTION This account in Matthew of Jesus sparring with the Pharisees and scribes is one of the odder ones. What are we to make of the man and his two sons? When Jesus poses the question of which son was the good one, they all know it was the one who said no but then went. We understand the human psychology and emotions here very well. What does that have to do with this parable, true as it is to human behavior? What Jesus is getting at in the parable is not quite so easy. Is the son who says no, but then later goes in obedience to his father’s command, like the tax collectors and prostitutes? It sounds like it. Not that all tax collectors and prostitutes are saved or damned. It is because they believed in him that they receive eternal life. This is another lesson in the hierarchies of the heavenly kingdom. The first shall be last, the last first. The Christian faith is very weird as religions go. It is not about gods like the Greek gods, vain and petty, interested in us only because of some slight they perceive from humans. The Christian faith is about the weakest, the least in heredity and wealth. It is for the poor fishermen like Peter and Andrew, the simple peasant girl Mary, to whom God gives faith. And when they believe, as we see in Acts and early church history, they change the world. The aristocrats--who can be saved when they believe--come late to the party. It is their slaves and soldiers who get it first. They get it because God has come as one of them. So no one is favored on acccountof their worldly status ; it is whoever believes. And on hearing the good news and believing it, they go forth to spread the gospel and change the world. And so our hymn “O let me cheerfully fulfill;/in all my works Thy presence find,/and prove thy good and perfect will.” Anyone who believes and follows this Lord becomes a professor of the faith and spreads it abroad. It is our duty and delight to do so. Susannah Wesley HYMN INFO This is one of Charles Wesley’s most beloved hymns, ranked among the top twenty. Wesley, the 18th of Samuel and Susannah Wesley’s nineteen children, was born prematurely, and thought to be dead when he was born. His father was a a clergyman in the Anglican church; his mother, Susannah, a force to be reckoned with. A woman with an unusually good education for the time—she knew Latin, Greek and French--she made sure her children learned, teaching them for six hours every day. Rightly, she is called the Mother of Methodism. When Charles went off to school at Westminster, he had been well prepared by his mother to speak Latin, the only language allowed in the classroom. Charles excelled; after six years he went to Oxford where he studied for the next nine years, earning a Masters Degree. Spiritual conditions at school were tepid so Charles and his brother John formed a club dubbed the Holy Club by others. Members gathered daily. Because of their regimen of early rising, Bible study and prayer, and weekly communion, plus their active work ministering to those in prison, they became known as Methodists. In 1735, Charles and John, both ordained into the Anglican ministry, felt called to be missionaries to Georgia, Governor Oglethorpe’s colony. They sailed to America with Moravians whose piety impressed especially John. While he was malingering from violent seasickness, they were singing hymns, which made him curious about what they were singing. John learned their hymns in German and translated some into English. The brothers continued to work with the Moravians. In 1738, Peter Böhler, their leader, urged Charles to look more deeply into his own soul. In May 1738, Charles, while reading Martin Luther’s book on Galatians, had an experience of conversion. “I labored, waited, and prayed to feel ‘who loved me, and gave himself for me.'” Not long after that he came to assurance and “rejoiced in hope of loving Christ.” A few days later, at the Moravian chapel in Aldersgate, his brother John, on hearing Luther's commentary on Romans, found his heart to be "strangely warmed." Two days after his conversion, Charles wrote his first hymn, "O for a Thousand Tongues" which has traditionally been the first hymn in every Methodist hymnal. From that time on it is thought he wrote at least ten lines of poetry a day, ending up with almost 7,000 hymns to his credit. Charles Wesley This hymn was written to be sung before work. Wesley believed the Christian faith had to do with more than Sunday and wrote hymns to be sung through the week and before work. This first appeared in 1749 with six stanzas, but these were abridged to the text we have today. There have been some changes of language, especially the original “And prove thy acceptable will.” The change most widely accepted is “and prove Thy good and perfect will.” The most widely used tune is Canonbury taken from Robert Schumann’s Nachtstucke, Opus 23. LINKS Chet Valley Hymns https://youtu.be/AUVAbXgJyqQ?si=62BG2yv0kx59HT5w The Compton Organ https://youtu.be/2alTux8AaVI?si=49-ag6Urf7jOw4Jf Release Topic https://youtu.be/q_NIiDVejXs?si=49IKaMKfWDf1F-bp NB: For those planning for Bible study during the coming new church year you might consider the book Jesus the Harmony. It has a poem for every day of the year and Bible references for each poem that put Jesus in what has been called "the red thread of salvation." Many have been using it for daily devotions; others in group Bible studies. Click here to check it out. https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Harmony-Gospel-Sonnets-Days-ebook/dp/B08L9S4Z1T/ref=sr_1_3_nodl?dchild=1&keywords=Grindal&qid=16145

Text: Charles Wesley (1707-1788). Tune: Abridge Isaac Smith (ca/ 1770) Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard” by Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich (1712–1774) 1 O for a heart to praise my God, a heart from sin set free, a heart that always feels Thy bloodso freely shed for me. 2 A heart resigned, submissive, meek, my great Redeemer's throne, where only Christ is heard to speak, where Jesus reigns alone. 3 A humble, lowly, contrite heart, believing, true, and clean, which neither life nor death can partf rom Christ who dwells within. 4 A heart in ev'ry thought renewed and full of love divine, perfect and right and pure and good, a copy, Lord, of Thine. 5 Thy nature, gracious Lord, impart; come quickly from above; write Thy new name upon my heart, Thy new best name of Love. REFLECTION The parable of the laborers describes the kingdom of heaven, Jesus says. While its main message is the freedom of God to bestow grace on everyone, no matter how long or well they have served, its insight into the character of human beings is what makes it so compelling and outrageous. Envy, one of the seven deadly sins, is the besetting sin of us all. Envy is addressed by the last commandment on covetousness. Do not covet anything that is your neighbor’s, it says. The sin is fundamental to us. We see it as early as in the nursery—a toy that was not of interest to a child, suddenly becomes a deeply desired object for him or her when they see another value it. René Girard’s work shows how our deepest desires are caught from envy of our neighbors. When we see what our neighbor has or does, something within us wants that too. Thus, the cry from the vineyard when the last laborers receive their pay which will be the same as the first, “that is not fair!” Flannery O'Connor Flannery O’Connor’s story “Revelation” treats the theme of this parable. To make a long story short, it is about Mrs. Turpin who spends her days imagining who is better or worse than she. Sometime after an attack on her by a young woman named Mary Grace, who throws a book at her and calls her “a wart hog from hell,” she has the revelation of a line of people entering heaven—ahead of her are the people she has looked down on, and she along with other proper people like her are last in line. It is a devastating revelation. This is what the kingdom of heaven is like: we are all sinners. God doles out the same amount of grace to everyone. Our worldly sense that the first should be first is dashed. Jesus says it plainly, the first shall be last and the last shall be first. The only way we can bear this, given our deep-seated envy, is to be changed. And while this parable can really change the way we see the kingdom of heaven on earth among us, the old envious nature is hard to fight. My mother, after a nasty fight in the church my father served, commented that if all those people who had treated my father badly were going to heaven she didn’t know if she was interested. A friend heard her and said, Well, they will be changed, it says. And for a moment, that comforted her. And then her friend added, and so will you! While that is a mercy, that wasn’t quite as good news. But change is what the whole business is about. The rules are different in the kingdom of heaven. Fortunately. The battle between the old and new rages on in our lives. While we can hear the good news in the parable, we can also see it is an assault on our old natures. We need new hearts, something Jesus came to do. As our hymn has it Thy nature, gracious Lord, impart;/come quickly from above;/write Thy new name upon my heart,/Thy new best name of Love. HYMN INFO This is one of Charles Wesley’s most beloved hymns. Written in 1742, it was based on Psalm 2:10. Wesley, the brother of John Wesley, is still one of the most popular writer of English hymns. He is thought to have written over 5000 hymns and some 600 are still in use around the world. For more on Charles Wesley click here. https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-116-love-divine-all-loves-excelling There are several tunes that have been used for the text, ABRIDGE by Smith is the one that appears most often on Youtube. Charles Wesley LINKS Martijn de Groot Tune: Abridge https://youtu.be/0MWRgPxwtMs?si=8RAuxu1KUuG_etbc The Choir of Tewksbury Tune: Stockton https://youtu.be/Z4MjdsndlBI?si=CfN8qfXQjHdbReUc Concord Wesley UMC. Tune: Concord https://youtu.be/9MJtrxjYB1Y?si=rRWvuymfH8PDw5ld Another hymn that fits the text more closely.

Text: Thomas Ken (1637-1711) Tune: Thomas Tallis (ca. 1508-1585) Thomas Ken 1. All praise to thee, my God, this night, For all the blessings of the light; Keep me, O keep me, King of kings, Beneath thine own almighty wings. 2. Forgive me, Lord, for thy dear Son, The ills that I this day have done; That with the world, myself, and thee, I, ere I sleep, at peace may be. 3. O may my soul on thee repose, And with sweet sleep mine eyelids close; Sleep that may me more vig'rous make To serve my God when I awake. 4. When in the night I sleepless lie, My soul with heav'nly thoughts supply; Let no ill dreams disturb my rest, No pow'rs of darkness me molest. 5. O when shall I in endless day Forever chase dark sleep away, And hymns with the supernal choir Incessant sing, and never tire! 6. Praise God from whom all blessings flow; Praise him, all creatures here below; Praise him above, ye heav'nly host: Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. REFLECTION Unjust Steward “Forgive us our trespasses/As we forgive those who trespass against us.” This petition from our Lord’s prayer is what Jesus is illustrating in this parable. Forgiveness is at the heart of the faith—Jesus came proclaiming the forgiveness of sins, he died to reconcile us sinners with a holy God, and commands us to forgive, even as we are forgiven. The parable is a vivid lesson in the two way nature of the gift—because we have been forgiven by God, forgiveness should flow out of us to the neighbor. God’s holiness cannot abide sin in us, but his command to live the Christian life is not simply a pact between God and me. Many people seem to think that the commands of God were made just between him and humanity to make their lives difficult. But living a life of forgiveness is for the good of the whole as Jesus is teaching in these past Sunday texts. A friend of mine whom I had sinned against died before I could ask forgiveness from her. While I am confident God forgives me for the sin, the healing that could have come if I had gone and asked her for forgiveness did not and it plagues me to this day. Life would have been so much better for both of us. There are those antinomians who flout the law and regard their faith as enough to save them no matter what, but Jesus in this account is not very reassuring about that. The unjust servant is taken away and imprisoned, even tortured Jesus says. In a way, antinomianism is really nihilism—there is no God, there are no consequences, and the healing that could come from reconciliation scorned. Nothing we do, then, really matters, not to ourselves, our society, or God, even. Chaos is the result. Unforgiven sin festers and infects our whole spirit. Let not the sun go down on your wrath, says Scripture. Therefore at morning and evening we are to pray the Lord’s Prayer to ask for forgiveness and remind ourselves to seek forgiveness from our neighbor. The prayers and hymns appointed for evening and morning by the church always include, especially at night, prayers for forgiveness, as Thomas Ken did in this famous evening prayer. “Forgive me, Lord, for thy dear Son,/The ills that I this day have done.” Like many older people I am finding that “when at night I sleepless lie” my sins loom larger as the end draws nearer. I know God forgives me. How much better I might feel if I had dealt with some of those sins with the ones I had hurt? God, forgive me! HYMN INFO Bishop Thomas Ken lived in a time of religious turmoil that could mean death, or imprisonment, if one were found on the wrong side. His parents died when he was young, so he ended up living with his stepsister and her husband, Izaak Walton, the writer of The Compleat Angler, a kind and decent man who raised Ken well. Ken studied at New College in Oxford where he earned his B.A. and M. A. He served several parishes of the Anglican church; in 1672 he came to Winchester College. There in 1674 he wrote a collection of prayers for morning, noon and night, with three hymns to attend them. In doing this, he was, like Luther, making use of the tradition of the daily hours from the monastery, reducing them to three for home devotions. Thomas Tallis' Canon is one of the greatest tunes to come out of England. A musician in even more turbulent times than Ken, Tallis served under King Henry VIII. He remained an unreformed Catholic, people thought, but he skillfully managed to satisfy both Henry VIII, and his establishing of the Anglican church to serving Mary, who worked to bring Catholicism back to England, and then Elizabeth who restored her father’s Anglicanism. Tallis could write complicated pieces of polyphony when the Catholics were in charge; and tunes for the Protestants that did not obscure the words, an important feature of hymn texts set for congregational song. Tallis’ Canon, as it is called, can be sung as a round which gives people singing it an easy way to sing in harmony, while yet singing the same melody. NB: Some scholars think the first line started Glory to thee, my God, this night. LINKS Kings College Choir/wonderful pictures of the people I wrote about above https://youtu.be/thMQEuKYTLE Music at Liebfrauen/Cappuccinis/The first line is Glory to thee... https://youtu.be/olZC043rdTc New Cambridge Singers/Choir Audience and Orchestra https://youtu.be/bYJ8SneHfT4 St. Philips Boys Choir https://youtu.be/2RX9AjL8RK8

The Unjust steward Text: Rosamond E. Herklots (1905-1987). Tune: American tune Detroit (Because of copyright I cannot print the text, but you can find it in the links below with the music) REFLECTION Most congregations I have belonged to have in their constitutions a section on dealing with conflict in the congregation and they always refer to Matthew 18, the lesson for next Sunday. The process Jesus outlines in the passage is constitutionally required. Anyone with long experience in any congregation will have accounts to share about some conflict in the congregation that threatened to destroy it. The matter is frequently baffling in its triviality. The color of the paint in the kitchen can easily become destructive. We all know this. But this is not quite the situation Jesus is describing. He is talking about a situation where one of us notices that someone in the fellowship is acting sinfully. While disagreeing about the color of the paint can be awful, it is not sinful, although one’s actions in response to the disagreement can be. Jesus teaching James Tissot Jesus’ advice here has to do with the health of the body. Someone needs to be dealt with for their sake as well as the sake of the fellowship.. It is love that drives this procedure, concern for the person’s salvation, and the flourishing of the fellowship. As I read Jesus’ words, a congregation cannot be a lively testament to the faith if it does not work to assure that its members remain faithful. Our unity is in Christ, not in our selves. If there are no boundaries—that is to say, if anyone can be involved in the fellowship without confessing Christ, or flagrantly living out of sync with the boundaries of the Christian faith, the group needs to deal with it, as one does an infection. To use the bodily imagery, it neds to deal with the infection before it goes septic. Thus, the urgency of Christ’s message. If he is not Lord over everyone in the group, there can be no unity. So, if the one on one conversation does not produce a solution, two or three need to address the issue with the sinner. Then the council, then the entire congregation. While awful, these conversations may be salutary for in the process they will inform the person and the membership what is at stake in the Christian life. Ultimately that means bowing to the Lordship of Christ Jesus. To be sure the church is made up of sinners, that is all God has to work with, but as Christians they know they are sinners and work to live as forgiven sinners, under the Lordship of Christ who is our unity.. See also I Corinthians 5:12-13. We do not like discipline much these days, but we all know how awful it is to live with the undisciplined. Christ is showing us a way that is kind and loving, and concerned for the welfare of the person as well as the congregation. Words we need to hear. HYMN INFO Rosamund E. Herklots was born in North India to missionary parents from Britain. She received her education at Leeds University and was a secretary in the field of medicine, ending her career working for the Association for Spinal Bifida and Hydrocephalus in London. Toward the end of her life she began writing hymns. Of the more than 70 she wrote, many for children, her most well-known is this hymn. She wrote this hymn after weeding in her garden and realizing how difficult it was to make it free of weeds, a parable of her own as she wrote the hymn text. The American tune is among the treasures we have from the Sacred Harp tradition. It appeared in the 1820 Southern Harmony and attributed to Bradshaw, although nothing is known about him. LINKS Koine https://youtu.be/HixCQUirJxg?si=eF42fjtvzG2vSjFy Westminster Presbyterian https://youtu.be/0pme3M50tyM?si=_ljOo83kktjgczem St. Paul’s Episcopal Milwaukee https://youtu.be/AEEtSqlenKU?si=eSghlUR43C7-z3wL UMH https://youtu.be/21yuRm3buvs?si=QdfTOzc4hardkwNA This hymn treats the text in the last stanza. A lovely tune. This hymn treats the text in the last stanza. A lovely tune. NB: For those planning for Bible study through the year, you might consider the book Jesus the Harmony. It has a poem for every day of the year and Bible references for each poem that put Jesus in what has been called "the red thread of salvation." Many have been using it for daily devotions; others in group Bible studies. Click here to check it out. https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Harmony-Gospel-Sonnets-Days-ebook/dp/B08L9S4Z1T/ref=sr_1_3_nodl?dchild=1&keywords=Grindal&qid=16145

Christ carrying his cross. Bosch Text: Charles W. Everest (1814-1877). Tune: Breslau or Quebec by Henry Baker (1835-1910) 1. "Take up thy cross," the Savior said, "if thou wouldst my disciple be; deny thyself, the world forsake, and humbly follow after Me." 2 Take up thy cross, let not its weight fill thy weak spirit with alarm; His strength shall bear thy spirit up, and brace thy heart, and nerve thine arm. 3 Take up thy cross, nor heed the shame, nor let thy foolish pride rebel; thy Lord for thee the cross endured, to save thy soul from death and hell. 4 Take up thy cross, and follow Christ, nor think till death to lay it down; for only they who bear the cross may hope to wear the glorious crown. REFLECTION Mother Teresa To take up one’s cross and follow him, as Jesus says we must do to find life, is something we vaguely understand as self-denial and suffering, but maybe cannot be very specific about. Some people hear it as being resigned to the weight our sin and shame have brought us, and bearing them now, not to our ruination, but our salvation because now we are following the Savior, not our own destruction. Others might think of it as choosing, actively, to suffer for a cause one has chosen, like Mother Teresa, for example, embracing the poorest of the poor in Calcutta for the sake of her Lord. Either way to take up one’s cross is to give up one’s own pride in order to follow a greater Lord. In leaving ourselves behind, we will find life, Jesus promises us, as the hymn has it, a “glorious crown.” This way is a mystery and scandal to the world. People talk of finding themselves, of obeying their own selves, which really means what the faith calls idolatry And what most secular people today do not quite realize is that idols are hard taskmasters, even if we worship ourselves. Happiness comes as a result of other virtues not as a goal in itself. Idols demand absolute obedience and their rewards are the desecration of our relationships and society that lead to death. The seven deadly sins are deadly not simply because they deny the command of God, but because God’s commands are for our own flourishing. He made us and knows what will fill us with joy and the satisfaction of a life well lived. Way to Calvary. Andrea di Bartolo, There is a hunger in our world today for meaning, connection to greater purpose and a larger world. Jesus is telling us here that the good life comes when we submit to the necessities of life and serve our neighbor. Both my grandmothers died in childbirth. The aunts, uncles, fostermothers and fathers who cared for my mother and father because of familial obligations or their baptismal sponsorship gave up some of their dreams for self-fulfillment to care for my parents. They submitted to the duties they accepted as necessary for the welfare of my parents. It made a huge difference to me and my siblings and many others. As one who has lived near the artistic world my whole life, I know the stories of many artists who in following the demands of their talents, put them first, refusing to submit to the needs of their spouses, their children or their communal responsibilities. Unfortunately, that has become the model for many, not just artists, today. One’s own life matters more than that of others. Many accept it as the irresistable way of the world. Christans should not. Jesus shows us the better way in this passage. Not only are the eternal rewards glorious, but so are the rewards in the current day. Tolstoy’s great novel Anna Karinina gives us a perfect picture of the wrath and destruction passion wreaks on everyone around Anna, while also showing us in the good life of a relative, Kostya Levin. He is married to a sister of Anna's brother's wife, and after becoming a believer discovers the genial joys of faithfulness and responsibility to family and God. HYMN INFO Charles Everest Charles William Everist was born in Windsor, Connecticut. He graduated from Trinity College in Hartford CT and became a priest in the Episcopal church in 1842 serving as rector in Hampden CT almost until the end of his life. This, his most well-known hymn, was first published in the hymn collection Following Jesus. The hymn in the version we have here received recognition and fame when it was included in the greatest hymnal of the age, Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1861. Breslau is a popular tune for this hymn. Scholars think it comes from the Lochamer Gesangbuch, 1450?, in included in the Hymnodus Sacer, Leipzig (1625). Felix Mendelssohn is said to have arranged it. LINKS OCP https://youtu.be/eFHdtVFtm64?si=T2dxGpA18D19xOn8 Chet Valley Hymns and Song (Breslau) https://youtu.be/OS3q4uTEAik?si=eHDQ0QJJpuRhuNVc United Church of Hyde Park https://youtu.be/JeqbiyrGvAE?si=cFnMV9uTpgrKh5eO It is a good time to order this series of poems on the life of Jesus. A sonnet for every day including leap year, it shows how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament prophecies and meditates on who he is and what he did using the traditional texts from what was known as The Harmony, an effort to tell the life of Jesus in one account. Available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Fortress Press and others.

Text: Samuel John Stone (1839-1900) Tune: Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876) Christ giving the keys to Peter 1. The church's one foundation Is Jesus Christ, her Lord; She is his new creation By water and the Word: From heav'n he came and sought her To be his holy bride; With his own blood he bought her, And for her life he died. 2. Elect from ev'ry nation, Yet one o'er all the earth, Her charter of salvation One Lord, one faith, one birth; One holy name she blesses, Partakes one holy food, And to one hope she presses, With ev'ry grace endued. 3. Though with a scornful wonder Men see her sore oppressed. By schisms rent asunder, By heresies distressed,Y et saints their watch are keeping, Their cry goes up, "How long?" And soon the night of weeping Shall be the morn of song. 4. 'Mid toil and tribulation, And tumult of her war, She waits the consummation Of peace forevermore; Till with the vision glorious Her longing eyes are blest, And the great church victorious Shall be the church at rest. 5. Yet she on earth hath union With God the Three in One, And mystic sweet communion With those whose rest is won: O happy ones and holy! Lord, give us grace that we, Like them, the meek and lowly, On high may dwell with thee. REFLECTION Jesus giving the keys to Peter. Rubens When Jesus commends Peter’s confession of who he is he uses a pun on Peter’s name: on this rock I will build my church. The church has debated for centuries what he meant: does he mean Peter is the rock, or his confession? Given that Jesus upbraids Peter within minutes of his confession and calls him Satan, I tend to go with the confession. One could also interpret this to mean that those who are leaders in the church are as much traitors as saints. This great hymn of the Christian faith chooses the former. The barrels of ink spilled on the issue flow freely through the theology of the church. But there are always things in Scripture no matter how many times we have heard it that we hear as if for the first time. I had forgotten Jesus’ comment as he praises Peter “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” Jesus is filled with blessings for Peter because he is speaking out of the faith that has been given to him, not his own experience and reason. This means also that none of the rest of us can profess and proclaim Christ’s as the Son of the Living God without that gift. Then, a little grammar issue when Jesus says on hearing Peter’s confession that yes, now I will build my church on that confession That is a different picture from our building on Christ—although Scripture has plenty of sentences that advise us to build on solid foundations, i. e. Christ. But here it is Christ who builds, as it is in the hymn. I hear an echo of Psalm 127, “Unless the Lord build the house, those who build it labor in vain.” While we are builders, we are not the chief builders, we are the servants, not the architects. That comforts me. As does verse 3 in the Psalm which scoffs at the idea that we are in charge and that being anxious, “eating the bread of anxious toil” is silly since “he gives to his beloved sleep.” Maybe those anxious cares are what can make life in a congregation rather fractious? We want to do the right thing and work hard for Jesus, but in our way, which is not pleasing to Christ or our neighbor. Anyone who knows the “tumult of war” that can break out in congregations knows of what I speak. Maybe we need to attend to the words we speak about Christ, the Son of the Living God, and then follow him. We talk so much about leadership these days about which the Bible has little to say. The Christian life is all about following. In this exchange following is what we are to do: get behind me, Satan! The keys of the kingdom which Jesus gives Peter, and thus the church, are not to be thought of as Peter standing at the pearly gates judging us by deciding who can come in or not, As Matthew Bruner argues in his commentary, it is the proclamation of Christ which Peter and his heirs preach that does the judging. If you can’t profess Christ, there is no way in (why would you want to enter in?), and if you do, Come in, O blessed of my Father. And so, we wait this “blessed consummation” as the hymn has it, struggling to be faithful, already one in that union which only comes from the Savior not our efforts. HYMN INFO Samuel Wesley Samuel Stone was the son of an Anglican priest. He got his degree from Pembroke College at Oxford, took holy orders and ended up serving with his father at Haggerstown church. He continued to write and translate hymns. Like many of his contemporaries he was taken with the high church wing of the Anglican Church, known as the Oxford Movement. This hymn grew out of the shock he experienced on hearing of Bishop Colenso's denying fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith. Samuel Wesley, the grandson of Charles Wesley, learned music from his father. He earned a doctorate in music at Oxford University and played the organ at Hereford, Exeter, Winchester and Gloucester cathedrals in succession. He spent his life composing and working for the improvement of church music in England. He wrote books for that cause and composed the tunes for over 700 hymns. Because of its ecumenical theme this hymn can be found in most hymnals around the world today. It appears in English in the latest Norwegian hymnal. LINKS Cambridge College choir https://youtu.be/OQv4EAwMFoQ First Plymouth Congregational of Lincoln https://youtu.be/pqkJKQOyZ_k WELS Convention https://youtu.be/TKnvCO0batc Himmelborgen/Uranienborg Vokalensemble https://youtu.be/9ASIlHplalI SKRUK https://youtu.be/PsynbbE2T7o It is a good time to order this series of poems on the life of Jesus. A sonnet for every day including leap year, it shows how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament prophecies and meditates on who he is and what he did using the traditional texts from what was known as The Harmony, an effort to tell the life of Jesus in one account. Available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Fortress Press and others.

Text: Peder Hygom (1692-1764) Tune: Folk tune from Ryfylke Christ and the Canaanite Woman. Annibale Carracci1. Jesus, I long for your blessed communion, Jesus, I Long for your blessed communion, Yearning possesses my heart and my mind. Break down all barriers that hinder my union. Draw me to you, O Redeemer most kind! Show me now clearly my need that is crying. Show me the pain of the wrongs that I do. That unto sin I may daily be dying, And in the Spirit live only to you. 2. Quicken my soul thro’ your blood and your merit. Send me your Spirit and help me to prove I am your captive in soul and in spirit. Lead me and draw me to you with your love. Come, let my heart from all idols be severed; So that you only can dwell in my soul. Grant me your peace that continues forever, Peace beyond all I can fathom or know. 3. Jesus, when shall I find rest in your haven? Take up my burden, Lord, lift it from me! When shall I see you, my Savior, in heaven? Waken and quiet the wild, troubled sea. O loving Jesus, come help me, be speedy; Hide not your face from me, always be near. You are the wealth of the inwardly needy. Come, fill my heart with your mercy and cheer. 4. Jesus, let not my love go unrequited: See my poor soul growing weary, O Lord, Let us, Immanuel, now be united, When you are with me, my soul is restored. Once you did say, “They will hunger and perish, If I permit them to go on their way!” Love everlasting! Refuse not to nourish Souls that are hungering for crumbs for today. 5. Merciful Jesus, I pray, hear my pleading. Do not forget what you said in your word: “Ask and receive; you will find when you seek me This you have said and your people have heard. I, like the woman at Cana, keep pleading, Crying to you till my longing is stilled. And you have spoken with grace to my needing, “Amen, yes, Amen; be done as you will.” Tr. Carl Døving; Georg Rygh; REFLECTION The text for next Sunday gives some readers the willies and drives preachers to other lessons. Jesus is recorded as saying rather harsh things to this desperate woman. He was not sent to her, she is not part of his mission, is she like a dog? One might ask then why did he go to SyroPhoenicia? It was, for his people, the center of paganism. He very well knew he would be confronted in this way by needy people. He had a purpose in this trip. There is an intense exchange between the woman who wants Jesus to heal her possessed daughter and Jesus. Her logic is impeccable and Jesus realizes that, so much that he changes his mind? That is tricky for many. As God, would Jesus not have known that? My favorite NT scholar on Matthew, Frederick Dale Brun argues that indeed Jesus learns from her that his mission is to the whole world. That is something of a shocking exegesis, but something does happen here. If the food should go to the people it is intended for, she says, one also has to remember that at great meals, crumbs drop to the ground and feed the family pets. More are fed than those intended, is her basic argument. All she wants it a crumb. Jesus is persuaded and marvels at her great faith and tells her that her daughter is healed. Jesus exorcising the Canaanite Woman's daughter. From Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, 15th century. Maybe what Jesus is doing here is pushing against her and watching her faithfulness become more fervent. The focus on the faith of the woman needs attention. I know of only one hymn that treats this woman, the German/Danish hymn Jesus I Long for your blessed communion, (in the original) to taste your communion, sung by Hans Nielsen Hauge, the great lay evangelist whose work changed Norway. While he only got to stanza two before being struck down by a light from heaven, the rest of the hymn uses images from this chapter in Matthew. Stanza four tells the story of this woman and her faith, especially her prayers. Its conclusions urges us to use her as a model for our prayer—and not give up in our quest for healing. THe surprising end of the stanza is that God says Amen to our prayers! Faith, really faithfulness, is our relationship with Jesus Christ, a two way relationshhip. As in any relationship that is worthy, we long for closer communion with the beloved. That closer communion with Jesus is our prayer. While this woman has one goal in mind—the healing of her daughter—we may simply have a longing to be closer to Christ. Thus the first stanzas which stress that we need to confess our sins and let Jesus heal that rift to bring us comfort. On the second hand, our relationship, like any, ebbs and flows. God knows that we tend to cry out more to him when we need something. Our need is not a failure of faith, but it usually drives us to the source of our faith more quickly than a sunny day. Crying out to Jesus for help brings him to us quickly, with healing in his wings. The Canaanite Woman and her Daughter In a far country, out of Israel, Jesus meets a woman who believes He is “the Lord, the Son of David.” She yells For him to heal her daughter, she needs reprieve, The demon never lets her rest; her cries Irritate the disciples who beg the Lord To send her away. He’s silent. Then replies “I was not sent to you.” She sinks to the floor, “Help me!” A cry as plaintive as it gets. “Even the dogs eat the table crumbs!” Her faith surprises him. He sees a net Singing across the waters, the kingdom come, Her parable opens him to all the earth, Stunned as she sees his wonder show its worth. (From Jesus the Harmony Gracia Grindal Fortress Press 2021 HYMN INFO This hymn comes from German pietism which sees Jesus as Wisdom, Jesus Sophia. It was translated by a friend of Hans Adolph Brorson, Peter Hygom, a pastor near Brorson’s home. It went north quickly and received many Norwegian folk tunes. The one most popular today is a folk tune from Ryfylke in Norway. The second hymn, Just a Crumb, focuses on what poets call a synecdoche, a trope Martin Luther loved—in a small piece of bread one receives the entire kingdom of God. LINKS Sissel—singing with the Norwegian tradition of quarternotes https://youtu.be/nINI6X0FW5c?si=DpAKvdMBAtUiwGyo Tono Holbækmo https://youtu.be/lG3Dkr0TEY4?si=KvOBlhEThTb6JC8x For more on Hauge see https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-20-jesus-i-long-for-your-blessed-communion NB: Another hymn on the text