Sermon: Introducing Jesus (Sr. Carol Perry, preaching)
Scripture: John 1:43-46

What’s in a Song?

A thoughtful congregant forwarded me a wonderful article by one of Marble’s former associate ministers, Rev. Rob Williams. Under the heading “Let There Be Music” he talks about how music is the key to worship:

“...it unlocks and opens up not only my mind with its lyrics, but it unlocks and opens my heart with the beauty and power of the sounds. Melody, harmony, dissonance, all work together to open the deeper recesses of my soul, my spirit.”

I love how Rob says even the dissonances speak to him in profound ways—this is such an important insight! The experience of dissonance or tension followed by resolution is not only a cornerstone of Western music, but a universal pattern of our lives. And as Jeremy Begbie discusses in his book Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music, it is also scriptural. Begbie connects musical forms with the patterns of Creation—Fall—Redemption, Promised Land—Exile—Return, the Prodigal Son leaving home, squandering his inheritance in distant lands, and then returning to his father’s forgiving arms. In music, every resolution of a harmonic dissonance is like a homecoming in sound, a fresh experience of forgiveness, a deeper knowing of the peace that passes all understanding. So praise God for dissonance in our worship—it makes our harmony all the sweeter!

Finding Jesus in Bach

Prelude: “Lord Jesus Christ Be Present Now” by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Few composers have had as devout a faith or as divine a purpose in their craft as Bach.  Many of his manuscript pages contain the marking “J. J.” (Jesu Juva—Help me, Jesus) or “I. N. J.” (In Nomine Jesu—In the name of Jesus). At the end of his works Bach routinely penned “S. D. G.” (Soli Deo Gloria—To God alone the glory). His numerous Chorale-Preludes are among his most sacred works, if sacred is a quality that can be quantified, for they are meditations on the great Lutheran hymns that formed the core of congregational worship.

Listen to the plain chorale tune for Lord Jesus Christ Be Present Now, followed by an excerpt of Bach’s chorale-prelude based on the same. [LISTEN] Bach transforms this rather four-square tune into a tender, soaring aria heard above an intricate, three-voice accompaniment. At St. Thomas Church in Leipzig Bach may have played this chorale-prelude following the reading of the Gospel as the minister made his way to the pulpit for the sermon.

Prelude and Fugue in G Major by J. S. Bach In 1708 Bach was appointed court organist and chamber musician for Wilhelm Ernst, the Duke of Weimar, and it was a post he held until moving to Cothen in 1717. In Weimar Bach’s duties were relatively light and he had plenty of time for teaching and performing. His reputation as a legendary organist and improviser spread rapidly throughout Germany, and perhaps he was spurred on by another masterful organist in Weimar at the time, Johann Walther (who was also a distant relative).

During this time Bach wrote many of his “secular” works for organ, including several of the Preludes and Fugues. There is a great burst of youthful vigor in this exuberant Prelude in G Major. [LISTEN] It is notable both for its sparkly joy and uncomplicated harmonic writing. The Fugue is a delightfully cheerful theme [LISTEN] which is propelled forward by a series of repeated notes. Towards the end of the fugue Bach briefly shifts into the minor key—a startling juxtaposition. After a brief pause the dark clouds are banished and G Major is again the order of the day, only now it seems even more joyful than before.

So can you really hear the Jesus in Bach, or in any music for that matter? For music to be sacred—that is, the conduit for that which is holy—requires a three-way collaboration between composer, performer, and listener. We know that Bach was writing this music to God’s glory, or at least that’s what he privately and publicly declared time and time again. As I play this music on Sunday I promise it will be with the prayer that God may be glorified through every note and that God’s Spirit may speak through sound and silence alike. The rest is up to you. How will you listen? As the song says, “Open our ears, and help us to listen; open our eyes, we want to see Jesus.”

Please be reminded that the above prelude will begin at 10:45am as the worship hour moves to 11am starting this Sunday.

What’s in a Hymn Tune?

Introit: “When In Our Music God Is Glorified” by Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924), Arr. Kenneth Dake The hymn-tune Engelberg, which will be presented in three versions during Sunday’s service, was composed by Stanford in 1904 and originally published with the hymn text “For all the saints, from who from their labors rest.” However, two years later one of Stanford’s students, a certain Ralph Vaughan Williams, upstaged his teacher by composing an alternate tune for “For All the Saints” (Sine Nomine) which quickly became the preferred hymn and relegated Engelberg to decades of obscurity. 

Stanford’s tune derives much of its strength from the downbeats on which the congregation does not sing; each phrase of the hymn actually begins with a rest. (I strongly suggest taking a good deep breath on those rests!) Furthermore, each verse concludes with a great “Alleluia” which, rather than settling back on the tonic, instead ascends to the dominant of the key, literally launching us forward into each next verse.

Two wonderful texts to Stanford’s strong, majestic hymn-tune will be sung on Sunday. The choir will open the service with British writer Fred Pratt Green’s text, When In Our Music God Is Glorified [LISTEN] which I arranged and recorded with the Marble Festival of Voices on our recent CD, Songs of Simple Faith. Green’s words speak to the transformative power of music in worship. The text recalls that on the very night He was to be betrayed Jesus sang a hymn “...when utmost evil strove against the Light... Then let us sing, for whom He won the fight.”

When we sing ‘Alleluia’ we are joining our voices in a mystical union with the cumulative artistic endeavors of humankind which have sought more fully to express God’s praise. Through our ‘Alleluias’ we unite in spirit with those who have continued to sing God’s praise amidst the gravest of adversity. For, in the words of John Buchanan, editor of The Christian Century: “Music gathers up human hope and passion as no other human activity does.”

Postlude: “Voluntary on Engelberg” by Calvin Hampton (1938-1984) A brilliant organist and himself a major contributor to 20th-century hymnody, Calvin Hampton was asked in 1983 to improvise on the hymn tune Engelberg at the American Guild of Organists’ Convention. Since it was a favorite of his, Hampton instead composed this Voluntary on Engelberg and presented the manuscript as a souvenir to those in attendance. The voluntary opens with a jolly, original theme in the style of a brisk march. This gives way to a brief fugue based on the Engelberg theme, and then, as only Calvin could do, the two themes are combined in an absolutely perfect union of counterpoint and harmony. [LISTEN] In this audio sample you’ll first hear Hampton’s own original tune, and then after a brief pause you’ll hear the two themes—Hampton’s and Stanford’s—in masterful combination.

Our Story, Our Song

In his memoir Once to Every Man, William Sloan Coffin wrote: “When the world seems bent on madness, its music as much as its literature reassures me of its sanity.”

May this Sunday’s music provide you with that blessed reassurance, that foretaste of glory divine, those echoes of God’s mercy and whispers of God’s love. “This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long!”