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Duccio fragment of picture of Jesus washing disciple's feet Text and Tune: Peter Scholtes (1938-2009) (Copyright protection means I can’t print the text, but you will find it in the links).They'll know we are Christians by our Love Guds Sønn steg ned å tjene/God's Son came here to serve us Text: Jonas Anton Dahl (1849-1919). Tune: Anders Arrebo (1587-1637)  7.6.7.6 God’s Son came here to serve us And give himself for us. Just like a seed that’s planted, He died and then arose.   The greatest of creation Is not might from above, But one who’s glad to serve us, He wore a robe of love.   The highest in creation Is not the eagle’s flight But one whose heart is winging To help their neighbors’ plight.   What joy to find God’s heaven Among the least we see. To lose life is to find it; To give is to receive.   When serving you’ll find power, When serving trust while you Are sowing, fields will ripen In the eternal blue.   Dussion. Jesus' Farewell Discourse REFLECTION Jesus’ command that we love one another is not easy and can only be done because, as 1 John says, God is love and we can love because we have been loved. That is a basic truth. We are all messed up on the notion of love—we think it is a feeling, but in Jesus’ day, up until the Romantic era, it was deeds. Jesus shows his love to his disciples not by telling them how much he loves them, but by doing something for them: washing their feet, a menial and lowly service. Then, he went to his death for us, a deed that is unimaginable for its horror and deep love, not just for nice people, but for the people who were demanding his death.   We have a marvelous story to tell: God, our creator, created us out of love. He wanted companions and friends. So he made us in his image, able to live and act and converse with him. Then when we spurned that gift, he sent his Son to live among us out of love. And now, after Easter and the Ascension, we are able to live with God, whom Jesus tells us will now make a home in our hearts! There is a lot of housecleaning to be done in our hearts, but he has promised to give us new hearts, completely remodeled for us, all out of love.   That love gives us the will and energy we need to serve our neighbors. In the same way that he did. Today the idea of service, or submission, to another seems to impinge on our freedoms, but Jesus came to tell us that our notion of freedom is simply slavery to other gods or idols that are demanding and vicious. He wants to save us from ourselves and our bondage to sin. That is what he did for love, and for the world. Through our actions, we bring him to others. And he lives for them when we speak his name and do his will. It is his Great Commission to carry out to all the world.   HYMN INFO Born in Evanston, Illinois, Peter Scholtes attended Catholic schools in Oak Park. He served as parish priest in Chicago’s south side in the sixties. As a leader of a youth group, he wanted a song that spoke to the times, ecumenically and socially. He composed the song in a day and it became the song of the Chicago Civil Rights movement. Later he became a consultant for business organizations, and wrote the book The Team Handbook later deemed among the 100 Best Business Books of All Time. He was especially against practices like performance review which he said demoralized employees. The Norwegian hymn by Jonas Dahl gives us more to go on than the Scholtes hymn. Dahl was a pastor in the Norwegian Seaman’s mission in Amsterdam. During his life he wrote over 250 hymns. He served as pastor in Trondheim, Kongsberg, Stavanger, and Oslo. This, along with, "Nå vandrer fra hver en verdens krok," are his most well known.. LINKS Forest Home https://youtu.be/wo4ijOIs6as Jars of Clay https://youtu.be/6CI4qefRAi4 The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir https://youtu.be/OyBNheDUmKY Lynda Randle https://youtu.be/tWzku-RPm40 Guds Sønn steg ned å tjene Frelsarmeen https://youtu.be/JHdhCN_JwbA Another hymn on the text:

The Good Shepherd mosaic 425 AD over the entrance to the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna, Italy Text: Isaac Watts Tune: Magnolia The Lord my shepherd is, I shall be well supplied ;since he is mine and I am his, what can I want beside? He leads me to the place where heavenly pasture grows, where living waters gently pass, and full salvation flows. If e’er I go astray,  he will my soul reclaim, and guide me in his own right way for his most holy Name. In sight of all my foes you will a table spread :my cup with blessings overflows, and joy exalts my head. The bounties of your love shall crown my following days; nor from your house will I remove, nor cease to speak your praise! Jesus as shepherd from catacombs REFLECTION Jesus in John 10 refers to himself as the Good Shepherd and speaks of how his sheep know his voice. We know that sheep will not answer another’s voice, only their shepherd’s. When one reads the calling of the disciples with that in mind it is no wonder that when he calls Peter and Andrew and the others, they immediately leave their fishing nets and follow. They did not know it at the time, but that voice was the voice of their creator now speaking in the voice of Jesus. In fact, Jesus ends up this lesson by telling us he and the Father are one. So how could the disciples resist?   One simply knows the sound of God’s voice is authentic. Today the air spaces are filled with voices of all kinds and most of them completely fake or inauthentic. While people may be attracted to a voice that is promising something they might desire, something in them can tell the voice is false. In fact, if you think about it, we judge people by their voices. If they are grating or irritating we find it hard to listen. And will judge whether or not the voice is speaking the truth.   The devil is an imitator and will try to imitate God’s voice, but those attuned to the real shepherd’s voice can hear the father of lies there. We should pray daily that we are attuned to our shepherd’s voice and ready to follow it wherever we go. Augustine says that Jesus is not only the country where we belong, but the way there. (See the hymn below.) Because where he goes are green pastures and life. HYMN INFO Isaac Watts wrote a couple hymns using Psalm 23 as his base. One can see in his spare language and careful technique how well he has paraphrased and updated the psalm for his time and place. Watts had inherited the Calvinist tradition of exact paraphrases of the psalter into English. The psalters were the hymnal for the early European settlers in American from the Massachusetts Bay colony to the Hugenots in Maryland. The Bay colony in 1640 produced the first book written and published in the colonies, the Bay Psalm Book. They created paraphrases for all 150 psalms and were careful not to leave out a jot or tittle of the original. An incredible feat. That these Puritan divines, now an ocean away from libraries and other resources, had the time and intellect to translate into English from the original Hebrew and make English verse out of the translations boggles the mind. They did not shrink from the violence and revenge that one encounters in the psalter. Isaac Watts, however, did. So he loosened up the psalms he used and wrote what were called Christianized versions of the psalms, creating the English tradition of hymnody, not psalmody. He is to be admired. His work became the primal English approach to hymns that still reigns today. When I asked students in my classes to write a hymn using a psalm as a base, which was usually my first assignment in hymn writing class, the forms they would instinctively turn to were the Watts’ English ballad forms. LINKS A capella hymns https://youtu.be/YaqPVLh56Ec?si=lkppB-TzJoWP9-oi Congregation singing the hymn https://youtu.be/VJYTNLNMuWY?si=r4riJVkf10s5uwqE

There are few hymns that address specifically the text for Easter 3, but one that comes to mind is Lord Take my Hand and Lead me which uses many of the themes in the Gospel reading from John 21. See the link here for information on that hymn. https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-44-lord-take-my-hand-and-lead-me    And my text and tune on the reading Jesus and the Maraculous draught of Fish. Duccio Text: Gracia Grindal                                      Tune: James Clemens He stood beside the lake and said, “I am the shepherd, feed my lambs; Give them my Word, they will be fed. I am your God, the great I AM, And I will lead you to the spring That bubbles with the life I bring. I wondered where it all would end, But reaching out I followed him, I trusted him, my God and friend, Who was the new Jerusalem. And every step ahead I take I follow in his sparkling wake. So long ago, but now I see Ten thousand thousands round the Lamb The crystal stream, the living tree. The gate to life, the great I AM For he has opened heaven’s door To wonders never seen before!   JEsus on the beach with his disciples. James Tissot REFLECTION This reading is inexhaustible. And way too much for one sermon. Jesus is showing his disciples that his resurrected body can cook and eat fish, so he is like he was, but then, he also shows he is God by the miracle of the draught of 153 fish whatever that strange number means. Then, he gives Peter a chance to say three times that he loves him, somewhat erasing his three denials. Plus, there is that line of Jesus looking at Peter to say “When you were younger, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”   While the first actions are important, in these latter days, as I cared for my dying father and now my sister with dementia, I think not of Peter’s coming death, which Jesus is predicting, the scholars say, but of what it means to get old. We will need help and stretch out our hands for help. I have been the one giving the help in both those cases and hardly ever am I not thinking of what Jesus said. They need the help, but they do not want to go where they must. Despite that we have to go there and we do need help. Our family and friends for the most part will give us help, as will maybe medical people, but we do go over the river alone,, knowing that after the darkness there will be the dawn, the Lord standing there welcoming us home. And that will be glory, glory for us, “wonders never seen before.”   HYMN INFO Although there are hymns that fit this text generally, I can’t think of many that really ponder the mystery of the miracle of the fish, or Jesus’ command to Peter to feed his sheep. My hymn works with the last idea of reaching out to follow him to where we might not want to go, but will forget that in the glory of the next moment. Another hymn would be John Ylvisaker's Breakfast on the Beach. LINKS The hymn can be sung to St. Catherine, the tune for Faith of our Fathers, but the tune below is fun! Mormon Tabernacle Choir https://youtu.be/uxuLFgajZ04?si=vsfVyg0hn3vNpdM2

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! O sons and daughters, let us sing! The King of heaven, the glorious King, Over death today rose triumphing. Alleluia! Alleluia! That Easter morn, at break of day, The faithful women went their way To seek the tomb where Jesus lay. Alleluia! Alleluia! An angel clad in white they see, Who sat, and spake unto the three, “Your Lord doth go to Galilee.” Alleluia! Alleluia! That night th’apostles met in fear; Amidst them came their Lord most dear, And said, “My peace be on all here.” Alleluia! Alleluia! When Thomas first the tidings heard, How they had seen the risen Lord, He doubted the disciples’ word. Alleluia! Alleluia!“ My piercèd side, O Thomas, see; My hands, My feet, I show to thee; Not faithless but believing be.” Alleluia! Alleluia! No longer Thomas then denied; He saw the feet, the hands, the side; “Thou art my Lord and God,” he cried. Alleluia! Alleluia! How blessed are they who have not seen, And yet whose faith has constant been; For they eternal life shall win. Alleluia! Alleluia! On this most holy day of days Our hearts and voices, Lord, we raise To Thee, in jubilee and praise. Alleluia! Alleluia!  Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! REFLECTION Today doubt, if not plain disbelief is chic.. So many will hear of the example of Thomas as a doubter, and hear doubt commended. While of course, all of us are doubters at the same time as believers, doubt should not be something the church should encourage. It should be something the church wants to assuage as Jesus does so beautifully in this passage. Thomas has stated emphatically that he cannot believe unless he has seen and touched Jesus’ wounds. Jesus appears and invites him to do just that. We have no record that he did actually touch the wounds, but we do have the record of him kneeling and confessing that Jesus is not only his Lord, but his God. This is the first such confession about Jesus that he is God. So this is as much a believer’s story as it is a doubter’s.   It is then Jesus looks down the halls of history and blesses those who have not seen but believe, his final beatitude. And it is to us. It is a wonderful blessing that we should treasure. At this meeting, Jesus also breathes the Holy Spirit upon his disciples and gives them the power to pronounce the forgiveness of sins to others. It is an awesome thing, and a wonderful way for him to get his work done on earth—to give his disciples the power to do his work on earth. Through the power of the Holy Spirit which gives us the faith and power to speak Jesus to the world, he extends himself to all the world. To be a disciple is to follow, one who gets the message of the Lord to all the ends of the earth, as we see when we read the Acts of the Apostles, and the work of missionaries down through the millennia. Jesus is in charge and sending us everywhere with his word. Remember you have now the responsibility and the joy to share him with others. It is Great commission to all his followers.   HYMN INFO John Mason Neale Jean Tissarand (d. 1494) was a Franciscan monk about whom we know little except that he died in Paris. It is thought he founded an order for repentant women and wrote a service to remember the martyrdom of fellow monks that were killed in Morocco. The translator, John Mason Neale, became one of the leaders in bringing ancient Greek and Latin hymn texts into the life of the English church. Ill health prevented him from serving out his call as a priest in the Anglican Church, but he worked tirelessly as a theologian and translator of early Christian texts. Without his work we would not have had as many hymns for Advent, or less celebrated festivals of the church. Lutherans took many of his translations into their hymnals at the end of the 19th century and they have become necessary to the hymnody of the church year, as this one has.   LINKS From Notre Dame before the fire https://youtu.be/vRYc8OVh-jc   Budapest https://youtu.be/6RrpKKD8Rlo   Richard Proulx https://youtu.be/N8yK9Z6Zafw   A hymn from the point of view of a doubter like Thomas

Icon of resurrection REFLECTIONS Ask most any Protestant what Easter hymn they need to sing and it will be Christ the Lord is Ris’n today. I can’t say much more than I did in this first post. I have added several others for your enjoyment. Of course, there is Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Easter Cantata, Christ lay in death’s strong bands, and thousands more for concerts as well as church hymns. Enjoy the blessings and joy of Easter through the rest of the year. And enjoy these hymns!! Happy Easter! Christ is risen, he is risen indeed!    If you need more Easter hymns just search under Easter on the web page and many will pop up.   LINKS Christ the Lord is Ris’n today https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-23-christ-the-lord-is-ris-n-today I come to the Garden alone, plus .. https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-for-easter-solen-på-himmelen-lukket-sit-øye-i-come-to-the-garden-alone   Easter Morrow Stills our Sorrow https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-24-easter-morrow-stills-our-sorrow

Crucifixion. Isenheim altar painting by Gruenwald REFLECTION These are some of the best known and loved hymns for Good Friday. I have added a few of mine, not in any way to say they are of the same quality, but just to share with my readers what I consider some helpful texts.   O Sacred Head Now wounded https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-21-o-sacred-head-now-wounded    Upon the Cross the robber prayed https:// www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-363-upon-the-cross-the-robber-prayed-the-third-word-from-the-cross-go-under-jesus-cross-and-pr The Old Rugged Cross https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-171-the-old-rugged-cross When I survey the wondrous cross https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-17-when-i-survey-the-wondrous-cross Ah! Holy Jesus https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-18-ah-holy-jesus

Part of an altar Painting in Martin Luther's church in Wittenberg. REFLECTION There are many hymns for Holy Week in our treasury. Many communion hymns would also fit since Holy Thursday is the day we remember that our Lord instituted Holy Communion. These reflections are from the time during the pandemic so may seem a bit dated, but something to remember. Look especially at the hymns from Iceland. The Passion Hymns are a great treasure.   LINKS Passion Hymn by Hallgrímur Pétursson of Iceland. One of the great Lenten classics https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-334-up-up-my-soul-icelandic-hymns-of-the-passion-passíusálmar Now Pilate had examined Him, by Hallgrímur Pétursson of Iceland https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-19-now-pilate-had-examined-all  Jesus, I Long for thy blessed Communion/Jesus for dig og din søde forening https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-20-jesus-i-long-for-your-blessed-communion   Deck Thyself my Soul with Gladness https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-240-deck-thyself-my-soul-with-gladness

Jesus riding into Jerusalem Palm Sunday. Duccio Text: St. Theodolf  (ca.750-821)      Tune: Melchior Teschner (1584-1635) 1.     All glory, laud, and honor To Thee, Redeemer, King! To Whom the lips of children
Made sweet Hosannas ring, 2.     Thou art the King of Israel Thou David's Royal Son, Who in the LORD'S name comest, The King and Blessèd One. R/All glory, &c. 3.     The company of Angels Is praising Thee on high, And mortal men, and all things Created make reply. R/All glory, &c. 4.     The people of the Hebrews With palms before Thee went Our praise and prayers and anthems Before Thee we present. R/All glory, &c. 5.     To Thee before Thy Passion They sang their hymns of praise;T o Thee now high exalted Our melody we raise. R/All glory, &c. 6.     Thou didst accept their praises; Accept the praise we bring, Who in all good delightest, Thou good and gracious King. R/All glory, &c. Tr. John Mason Neale 1854 Palm Sunday Anthony Van Dyck REFLECTION This hymn has become, for me, a Palm Sunday necessity, not only for its wonderful lyrics and tune, but for the story behind it as well. It is very old and is still among the most popular hymns for the day. Palm Sunday gives me the willies. It is filled with royal pomp and circumstance, we wave the palms in church and our children love the event. But even as we are doing so, I always am wondering what I would have been crying out on Good Friday morning. Would my Hosannas have changed to Crucify Him? There is also the issue of the offense of the kingship of Jesus—he comes in as a royal, we see direct connections with the coronation of King Solomon riding into Jerusalem in this scene. Pilate doesn’t much care about what the religious are accusing Jesus of doing or being. His accusers know that the one accusation that will get Pilate’s attention is that Jesus has claimed to be king. That Pilate could understand. Calling Jesus King was tantamount to calling him a rival of Caesar. This got Jesus crucified, and it got the apostles into a lot of trouble as they began their missionary journeys. The Romans would leave them alone preaching in the synagogues, but when they heard King, they became concerned. N. T. Wright, the great New Testament scholar in his book The Challenge of Acts gave me some new ways to think about the word King as a title for Jesus. Many dislike the term because they think of some regal tyrant like George III, not King Charles III and they don’t like to think of Jesus being like that so they won’t use the moniker. Wright argued that Jesus is not only taking the title, but utterly changing the definition by his reign as a king. In the same way that Jesus as THE good shepherd, defines all other shepherds by Jesus’ example, so also should all kings understand that their role as king is under the reign of Jesus. Anyone who listened to the Coronation of King Charles a couple of years ago, if they were paying attention, would have noted that the theme of the reign of Christ was basic. It cleared up something for me. Maybe instead of revising language to fit our meager conventional undertandings, we should be reading deeply in these accounts to have our own definitions converted, turned around and made new. Hosanna to the King! HYMN INFO St. Theodolf The hymn is one of the oldest in our hymnal. It is said to have been written in 820 by St. Theodolf of Orléans (ca. 750-821), a bishop in Charlemagne’s realm. The next king, Louis the Pious, viewed Theodulf as a traitor and put him in prison where he languished. Some time during his imprisonment, he wrote this hymn. One Palm Sunday as the king was processing by the prison he is said to have heard this hymn coming from the jail. He was so moved by it, he decreed it should always be sung on Palm Sunday. We still follow King Louis’ decree twelve hundred years later. The tune comes from a later time and is used for several other texts, but this is the one we sing on Palm Sunday. Enjoy these grand videos of the song being sung in cathedrals! Teschner, from Fraustadt, now in Poland, is the composer. He was an early and significant Lutheran composer. This is among the favorite Lutheran tunes of all time. for more on St. Theodulf click here:  https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-for-palm-sunday-all-glory-laud-and-honor LINKS King’s College https://youtu.be/0TTV6-yuCTg Choir and congregation https://youtu.be/L-6eHCtqwDE Choir and congregation with children’s choir waving palms/fun https://youtu.be/z9X4-lIRFOE

Text: Johan Scheffler Angelus Silesius. (1624-1677). Tune: Johann Balthasa König  (1691-1758) Mary anoints Jesus' Feet Niels Larsen Stevn 1 Thee will I love, my strength, my tower;  Thee will I love, my hope, my joy.  Thee will I love with all my power,  With ardor time shall ne'er destroy.  Thee will I love, O Light Divine,  So long as life is mine.  2 Thee will I love, my life, my Savior,  Who art my best and truest friend. Thee will I love and praise forever,  For never shall Thy kindness end.  Thee will I love with all my heart--  Thou my Redeemer art!  3 I thank Thee, Jesus, Sun from heaven,  Whose radiance hath brought light to me;  I thank Thee, who hast richly given  All that could make me glad and free;  I thank Thee that my soul is healed  By what Thy lips revealed.  4 O keep me watchful, then, and humble;  Permit me nevermore to stray.  Uphold me when my feet would stumble,  And keep me on the narrow way.  Fill all my nature with Thy light,  O Radiance strong and bright!  5 Thee will I love, my crown of gladness;  Thee will I love, my God and Lord,  Amid the darkest depths of sadness,  And not for hope of high reward,  For Thine own sake, O Light divine,  So long as life is mine.    REFLECTION Mary anoints Jesus' feet. Nicolas Poussion When Mary comes to anoint Jesus’ feet we see the power of Christ’s love returned to him through her beautiful sacrifice. There are many hymns that teach about God’s love for us, and some that rejoice in our love for Jesus, but this one has a purity of tone that fits Mary’s devotion probably as much as any. Of course, the miser Judas doesn’t like what he sees, he thinks it a waste and even scolds the Lord for accepting the gift.  He sounds pious, but Jesus knows his heart. We know this character too. My mother, a shrewd pastor's wife, once observed after many congregational meetings, that often the first one to stand up and oppose some physical improvement to the church building would always say, "We should spend it on missions." While she gave sacrificiously to missions, and supported them, she knew that often this person gave neither to the church nor to missions. It was just a pious thing to say that redounded to the credit of the person.   Mary’s love is about as pure as human love can get. She is flagrant with her substance out of love. We should admire it as Jesus does, reproving Judas for his pious treachery.   This scene in John is just after azarus, her brother, has just been raised from the tomb and whom Martha worried would stink of corruption and just before Jesus washes the feet of his disciples and goes to his suffering and death on the cross. John has begun the story of Jesus’ life with the miracle of the wine at the wedding in Cana, another excess of richness. And it ends with his death which Mary’s offering anticipates. These are the ointments of death. It is like a note in a symphony which warns something is coming.   One hears in the hymn a mystical love and longing for union with Christ. Those are the feelings of Mary of Bethany and the other women in the gospels who wash Jesus’ feet. While most of us may not be able to claim as pure a love and longing, sometimes when we look at Mary kneeling at the feet of Jesus, we see what that might be like. And we admire her, and need Silesisus’ hymn to say it for us.   HYMN INFO Angelus Silesius Johan Scheffler or Angelus Silesius as he called himself later, the writer of the hymn for today, was well trained as a Lutheran by his father, a devout Polish noble who had to flee Poland because of his Lutheranism.  The family lived in Breslau and Johan received an orthodox Lutheran education and studied medicine. He attended school in Leyden and Padua from which he graduated with a Ph. D. and M.D. He became the private physician to Duke Sylvius Nimrod of Württemberg-Oels. While studying in Leyden, Scheffler became acquainted with the work of the Lutheran mystic Jakob Boehme and was attracted to it, but it created suspicions of him among orthodox Lutherans. His mysticism finally drove him out of the Lutheran church to become a Catholic monk where he took the name Angelus, probably from a Spanish monk. He wrote most of his hymns before his conversion, many highly regarded hymns known for the mystical leanings. In 1653 Scheffler became a Roman Catholic. He entered a monastery in Breslau where he died of what was called a “wasting disease.” König, the composer, was a highly regarded musician in the Frankfurt area. He sang in the choir under the direction of Georg Philipp Telemann. He became the director of the chapel at Katharinkirke in Frankfurt and soon the city's director of music (Kapellmeister). He composed cantatas, operas and hymns. In 1738 he published a work of 1,913 melodies ( Harmonischer Liederschatz/Harmonic Treasury of Songs ). This hymn tune (Ich will dich lieben) along with "O dass ich tausend Zungen hatte/O that I had a thousand tongues" are still popular in cuttent hymnals. His tunes had the emotional effect that fit pietist hymns especially.   LINKS The University of Notre Dame Folk Choir https://youtu.be/jj2H4M51Ig8?si=zDJVFOV2ynCcemaP   Northland Baptist Bible College https://youtu.be/ZF2LMBgDRuY?si=XS_88qGpsai_h24g   Concordia Publishing House https://youtu.be/bRWTlczYgb8?si=grTnxqMMnsQO5r7d Extra bonus. Very few hymns refer as fully to this text.

The Prodigal Son by Rembrandt Text: John Newton   (1725-1809)                                          Tune: Williston Walker   1. Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found Was blind, but now I see. 2. 'Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear, And Grace my fears relieved. How precious did that Grace appear The hour I first believed. 3. Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come. ' Tis Grace hath brought me safe thus far And Grace will lead me home. 4. The Lord has promised good to me. His Word my hope secures. He will my shield and portion be As long as life endures. 5. When we've been there ten thousand years Bright shining as the sun, We've no less days to sing God's praise Than when we'd first begun.   REFLECTION Prodigal Son by Rembrandt The parable of the prodigal son is one of Jesus’ greatest. Many are the interpretations it has gotten, some great, some not so. Sometimes it is best to leave it alone and just tell it and let people ponder it. About thirty years ago, a scholar examined sermons on the prodigal, and was not amused. Her examination brought her to the conclusion that the preachers in her study were using this profound story to preach a secular message. Frequently, she noted that the fundamental language and presuppositions of the preacher and his or her audience was therapeutic and psychological. Many sermons dwelt on the family dynamics, which are of course, there. We do after all see a father and two sons, one older, one younger. But the change in the prodigal was described as more psychological than spiritual. There was an almost universal failure to deal with the sin of the prodigal. The miracle of grace is “eviscerated... as speakers fail to acknowledge notions of human depravity and separation from a transcendent God.”  (Marsha G. Witten, All is Forgiven: The Secular Message in American Protestantism .)   John Newton John Newton, the writer of our hymn, knew the depravity of sin. He had seen it fully in his life as a rebellious son and sailor. He knew that he was a wretch, even before he came to understand how awful his participation in the slave trade was. He was clear in that when he wrote of himself as a “wretch.”  Many there are who change the word to "soul." The argument that such a word makes people think poorly of themselves and they shouldn’t fits exactly Witten's complaint.. It is hard to grapple with not only the evil of the world, but even worse, the evil and sin in our own hearts. If one has not grappled with the depths of one’s sinfulness, the grace that is so amazing, has less of a luster. What is it then? Just warm feelings about the good we see around us?   The holiness of God is nothing to be casual about. There is no way we can reconcile with it by therapy or positive thinking. The grace Newton is amazed by is something that turns us around, makes the blind to see, it leads us home, it rescues us from hell. And the miracle it performs in forgiving us will take more than ten thousands of days, yea even more, to fully praise our Lord for this great work which is truly amazing. HYMN INFO Amazing Grace is the most famous hymn of the last 75 years, ever since the 1960s when Judy Collins began singing it. It is the story of a prodigal, John Newton, who knew himself to be a sinner, and who knew he had been forgiven. For more on John Newton watch the Story of Amazing Grace below. LINKS The Story of Amazing Grace/15 minutes well worth your time https://youtu.be/8m8AHHduTM0 Judy Collins and choir/ some 80 million views https://youtu.be/CDdvReNKKuk Swedish congregation singing Swedish version https://youtu.be/XcfGR_7W3aQ bonus

The Vine Dresser and the Fig Tree James Tissot Text: Frederick William Faber  (1814-1863)    Tune: Lizzie Shove Tourjee Estabrook 1858-1913 1 There’s a wideness in God’s mercy, like the wideness of the sea. There’s a kindness in God’s justice, which is more than liberty. 2 There is welcome for the sinner, and more graces for the good. There is mercy with the Savior, there is healing in his blood. 3 But we make God’s love too narrow by false limits of our own, and we magnify its strictness with a zeal God will not own. 4 For the love of God is broader than the measures of the mind, and the heart of the Eternalis most wonderfully kind. 5 If our love were but more simple, we should rest upon God’s word, and our lives would be illumined by the presence of our Lord. REFLECTION The encounter here of Jesus with his critics is direct and at the same time mysterious. The tower of Siloam story next to the tree that is not producing fruit might seem to be so different they cannot be be in the same sermon. On the one hand Jesus is saying those who died when the tower fell on them were not being punished for their sins, it just happened. On the other, he is saying that the tree that did not produce fruit, and almost dead, except for the promise of the vinedresser to care for it.. The Parable of the Fig Tree Jan Luykan Jesus is speaking to people who knew agriculture intimately. They are aware of how dependent they are on the weather, God’s providence, to raise their crops, enough to feed themselves and their families for the year. They know disasters can come simply because not enough rain has fallen or too much. Although the farmer prays and knows everything comes from God, there are times where the rain doesn’t come or there is too much, so the crops fail and hunger, even starvation looms. Rather like those who died at Siloam. Still a good farmer works to cultivate the crops, to dress the vines and assure that things are optimal for growing. So an unproductive plant or tree cannot be tolerated. My great uncle sounded like this farmer once when he told me about a fruit tree on the family farm. Though it flowered beautifully it didn’t produce fruit one year. "If it doesn’t next year, I am going to cut it down.”  It seemed brutal, but he as a good farmer wanted to see growth and flourishing crops. Another version of this is Jesus talk of the vineyard in John 15 and the Father who cuts out the dead vines so that the vine produces more and better fruit. Repentance and death are the subject of both vignettes. Death and repentance are not unlike each other. To be converted is to repent and turn around. There is a death there. One has to die to one’s self and one’s sin in order to find life in Christ. Death and tragedy are not the last words in the life of the Christian. Jesus is. One needs to be deeply grafted into his life in order to live. The tree needs to repent, and die to his sin, to be raised back into life. What we also see here is the care of the farmer for the dying plant, digging and fertilizing it, and loving it. As any of us with house plants know, the simple act of loving a plant by one’s attitude and thus deeds can bring back life to many a seemingly dead branch. For life, one must be pruned and cleansed of sin by our Savior. He does it out of love and mercy so we might flourish. As our hymn has it “For the love of God is broader/than the measures of the mind,/and the heart of the Eternal/is most wonderfully kind.” HYMN INFO Frederick Faber Frederick Faber came from a French Huguenot family that had fled from France to England where they became strict Calvinists. Faber studied for the priesthood at Balliol College in Oxford, and ordained as an Anglican priest in 1839. He was moved by the Oxford Movement led by John Henry Cardinal Newman who had left the Anglican church to join the Roman Catholic church. Faber was of a similar mind and became a Catholic priest in 1845. A lover of the hymns by Charles Wesley, William Cowper and John Newton, which he had grown up singing in his Protestant past, he wanted to write hymns for Catholics to sing, like them. He wrote over 150 hymns collected in Hymns (1862). His most famous hymn is the well-loved Faith of our Fathers. There are several tunes for this text, among the more popular are Beecher and Wellesly. The writer of Wellesly. Tourjee was the daughter of the head of the new England Conservatory of Music, who encouraged his daughter as a composer. She wrote this tune when she was seventeen and he included it in the Methodist hymnal of 1878, naming the tune for Wellesly, the college she attended. For another take on this hymn and text see https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-for-lent-2-there-s-a-wideness-in-god-s-mercy LINKS Goodchappy https://youtu.be/dvwt9WFuDFI?si=JZKZy6K0MNuS1u5d Orchard Enterprises https://youtu.be/ygkkX9FxHg0?si=VfGKyDuaN4ef0qyG Andrew Remillard for the tune Wellesly https://youtu.be/BLKEOL5T5E8?si=mcHEQpkNvWPqxp5o Hymns and more Beecher tune https://youtu.be/BmYWS6FkUt4?si=9vO-BHvTtvkakcbd A bonus: this was my hymn on the Luke text.

Text: Lina Sandell (1832-1903)                                Tune: Folk tune   Christ on the Mount of Olives Praying for Jerusalem Josef Untersberger 1. Thy holy wings O Savior, Spread gently over me And let me rest securely Through good and ill in thee. Oh, be my strength and portion, My rock and hiding place, And let my every moment Be lived without thy grace. 2. Oh, let me nestle near thee, Within thy downy breast Where I will find sweet comfort And peace within thy next. Oh, close thy wings around me And keep me safely there. For I am but a newborn And need thy tender care. 3. Oh, wash me in the waters Of Noah’s cleansing flood! Give me a willing spirit, A heart both clean and good. Oh, take into thy keeping, Thy children great and small. And while we sweetly slumber, Enfold us one and all. REFLECTION Jesus Weeping over Jerusalem. James Tissot When Jesus wishes he could gather up Jerusalem like a hen gathers her chicks, people think warm thoughts of a gentle mother hen. Actually, mother hens are more fierce than gentle. Anyone who has ever picked eggs from the mother hen in her nest knows to be careful. We have a henhouse in our back yard and from my days on my grandparents’ farm to now, I have marveled at how true the phrases we have in our vocabulary about hens or roosters are. Mad as a wet hen, ruler of the roost, mother hen, pecking order, cock of the walk. While we do call people chickens, meaning cowardly, a mad hen is not something I wanted to face when I entered the henhouse with my grandmother to pick eggs or even now.   So when Jesus weeps for us and talks about wanting to protect us, the mother hen is not a weak image. It is filled with the ferocity of a mother hen’s care for her chicks. Jesus and those who heard him say this were well aware of chickens and how they acted, as were most people until the move from the farms we have lived through in the past century.   The notion of being under the wings of God appealed to Lina Sandell. She, who also knew chickens well, loved the image of holy wings and used it in several of her hymns, the most famous this one, Thy Holy Wings. She picked it up from many verses in the Bible, among them Luke, and Psalm 91:5, in the Kings James Version, “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust.”   Other places in Scripture such as Deuteronomy 32:11 use eagles, instead of chickens. An eagle is rather more fierce than a chicken, a fearsome predator, but this language is also about the mother eagle who “stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, beareth them on her wings.” It also became the image of the holy angel that Martin Luther’s morning and evening prayers invoke. Let your holy angel watch over me .... Wings again. And always in morning and evening prayers ala Luther.   Jesus is looking at a faithless and rebellious population when he weeps over the city. They don’t want to be covered and protected. On the other hand, we can read in the psalms many many cries from the psalmist for the Lord to show up and protect the people, especially the psalmist. We are really a handful—we think we can do it alone, and then, like frightened chicks, we want protection. Jesus will protect us a fiercely as any mother hen, he says. And the graceful truth is that God, whether he seems far away, distant, or silent, is always there with us—Immanuel—to guard and keep us. "O close thy wings around me and keep me safely there!"   HYMN INFO Lina Sandell Sandell wrote this in 1860. She then revised it in 1865. It became the Swedish children’s evening prayer and like Luther’s prayers invoked the wings of the angels. I was looking for a baptismal song for my first godson and found this. To translate is to betray, many say. I took Sandell's evening prayer and made it into a baptismal hymn. And added a new stanza for my nephew continuing the mother hen image. At the time there was a call for new hymns for the sacraments and, to my surprise, this became a hit. The folk tune is so lovely people want more words to sing to it.   LINKS Carola https://youtu.be/Gw2qjNIFVNA   Sissel   https://youtu.be/c94RJyGLEEI   Chris Sjögren https://youtu.be/-PJEsSK8baE