Seventh Sunday after Epiphany: February 23 2014 You are Holy

Seventh Sunday after Epiphany

February 23, 2014

I promised this week a discussion of “music that praises God as Holy” in our worship.  My reason is the opening verse of the first reading we hear today.  The reading from Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18 contains the Holiness Code, which begins “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.”  The Code gives us reason to take action – to care for the poor and to enact justice for our neighbor – as a response to the holiness of God.

Each Sunday in our celebration of Holy Communion, we sing the quintessential hymn of praise to God who is Holy.  The Sanctus (Latin for “Holy”) begins with the thrice repeated “Holy, Holy, Holy” as if to over-emphasize the solemnity of the designation of “Holy Lord.”  The hymn continues:

Lord God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory.  Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  Hosanna in the highest.  

This powerful language praising an awesome God has several scriptural sources.  The first part of the hymn references Isaiah 6:3, which scholar Philip Pfatteicher describes as “Isaiah’s breathtakingly majestic vision of the transcendent otherness of the All-Holy in confounding contrast to the mortality and impurity of humanity.”  Pfatteicher’s thicket of words might be more easily interpreted by referencing the great communion hymn “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” (ELW 490):

Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand; ponder nothing earthly minded, for with blessing in his hand, Christ our God to earth descending, comes full homage to demand.

Isaiah’s majestic vision was paraphrased by Martin Luther in the German vernacular hymn “Isaiah in a Vision Did of Old” (ELW 868).  This hymn, included in Luther’s German Mass of 1526, uses equally colorful and fantastic language to describe the encounter with the Holy one, ending with a phrase “and all the house was filled with billowing smoke,” a reference to the incense sanctifying the space.   

The Sanctus continues with a Hosanna and “Blessed is he” that comes from Psalm 118: 25 – 26.  

Per Harling’s “You Are Holy” (ELW 525) is an expression of God’s Holiness that doesn’t project the same sense of grandeur or remove as the hymns referenced above.  We sing this hymn as our sending hymn, and the sense of dance and celebration implied by the jazz influenced rhythm is perhaps appropriate as a demonstration of our joyful response to God’s holiness.  We are brought back down to earth, to the familiar, and sent out in response, to care for the poor and to enact justice.  The words of the hymn maintain some of the mystery of God, but we sing with a little more spring in our step!

Sixth Sunday after Epiphany

February 16, 2014

The two musical pieces we hear during the offering today are the basis for this week’s blog.  At the 8:15 service, the handbell choir will perform an arrangement of the joyful hymn In Thee Is Gladness.  Later, at the 10:30 service, the Sunday School children will sing Arise, Shine, for your Light has come, a simple song that states Isaiah 60:1.

We encounter the hymn In Thee Is Gladness twice during the early service.  The handbell arrangement emphasizes the ebullience of the hymn through the constant eighth note motion that rambles throughout the entire piece.  Later, the hymn itself (ELW 867) should make you get up and dance!  That’s because it has its musical origins in the light dance rhythms of a late Renaissance genre known as the balleto, or “little dance.”  An Italian, Giacomo Gastoldi, was the primary composer of this gracious style, which features repeated musical phrases, simple harmonies, and a lightness of rhythm that often included the singing of “fa la la’s.”  A contemporary German church musician, Johann Lindemann, adapted this balleto by adding the text of his own hymn, In dir is Freude.   What’s my point for revealing the dance origins of this great hymn?  That the character of the music and the text we sing to it are often remarkably well suited for each other.  The unabashed joy of the hymn text demands that we get up and dance in celebration! 

In thee is gladness, amid all sadness, Jesus, sunshine of my heart.  By thee are given, the gifts of heaven, thou the true redeemer art.

An interesting local connection with this hymn:  the arrangement found in the hymnal is by Jan Bender, 20^th century church musician extraordinaire, who taught at Gustavus for several years (and was well known to many at FLC, including David Fienen.)  I will endeavor to remain true to Bender’s harmony for at least the first stanza of the hymn!

This simple song Arise, Shine emerged out of a movement that calls itself Music That Makes Community.  The goal of this movement is to generate “paperless” music – that is music that can be learned by heart and sung together in worship.  One connection with our local context I’ve talked about with the Sunday School kids is the large blue and white banner that hangs in our nave during the season of Epiphany.  Of course, the text on the banner is the first phrase of the song.  Since this song is meant to encourage community, the kids will invite the congregation to sing along!

Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

Sunday, February 9, 2014

What’s a Kyrie?

Many Sundays, including this Sunday, we sing a “Kyrie” in worship.  What’s a Kyrie and why do we keep singing this odd word regularly?

The phrase Kyrie eleison is Greek, and translates as “Lord, have mercy.”  We also sing Christe eleison, which translates as “Christ, have mercy.”  A common pattern we often use is Kyrie/Christe/Kyrie; this three-fold repetition is symbolic of the Trinity, yet the whole gesture is directed toward Christ.

While the phrase “Lord, have mercy upon us” can be found in the Bible, the particular phrase Kyrie eleison has its origins in pre-Christian use.  In Asia Minor, it was an acclamation or gesture of praise and respect shouted at the passing of the emperor, an important ruler, landowner, or “lord.”  More a shout of respect than a penitential plea, the phrase does suggest subservience. 

In its earliest forms, Christian worship began with a silent entrance into the room by the bishop, deacon, or minister, followed by a short greeting and the reading of the scripture texts.  By the fifth century, some sources indicate that Christians had adopted the Kyrie into the liturgy for a couple of reasons.  One, the phrase, which carried the connotation of pagan sun worship, was being shouted by some Christians despite attempts to suppress it and church leaders adopted it and gave it some theological justification.  Its common use was as a response to a litany, or series of prayerful supplications.  Two, as worship in Rome became more grandiose, a need arose for an extended entrance procession rite that would allow the bishop to enter the large Basilica at the beginning of worship.  In this case, the Kyrie was repeated more times, with a nine-fold repetition common.  The extended rite was necessary, since with the growth of Christianity, the bishop of Rome was expected to visit and preside at a number of services within the city.  The procession from one Basilica to another became a grand spectacle.

Even as the language of worship in the west changed from Greek to Latin, the Greek phrase persisted.  In meaning, the phrase took on the character of a penitential plea for forgiveness.  The individual petitions of a litany, or prayer disappeared, and the simple three-fold repeated phrase remained.   

In the twentieth century, a renewed interest in liturgical studies yielded the development of another form of the Kyrie that we often encounter in our Sunday worship.  This form, which begins with the petition “In peace let us pray to the Lord,” followed by the response “Lord, have mercy” combines the Greek phrase with a Byzantine Litany of Peace. 

Even though the Kyrie is one of the parts of the Mass “Ordinary” – the historic form of Western liturgy – it is a part of our worship that can be used with some flexibility.  It may be omitted at times when an emphasis upon the celebratory nature of a season is desired, such as during Easter when the gathering rite usually includes the hymn of praise “This is the Feast.”  Or the traditional Kyrie may be replaced by another rite of supplication, such as the Great Litany, or a penitential hymn . 

The question of “why” remains.  Perhaps a simple answer is this:  at the beginning of our worship, this text directs our focus toward Christ, with the acclamation “Lord” and often the prayer for “peace.”  

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

Sunday, February 2, 2014


How does music 'color' our worship today?  I use the word 'color' as a way to recognize that music adds a new dimension to our experience, in a way that is symbolic or associative.   Almost all would agree that music has an emotive dimension - that is, that it is expressive of a feeling, or even manipulative in producing a feeling.  But music that is Gospel oriented, or carries the Word, is more than simply emotive.  And thus, I ask this question:  How does music 'color' our worship today?  Or how does music reveal something new about the Gospel we encounter in worship?

Olivier Messiaen is a great composer to consider when entertaining the notion of 'color.' In a literal way, it is helpful to know that he saw certain color patterns visually when hearing certain musical patterns.  In a more abstract way, he was very interested in how his music could be exegetical, or in other words, a vehicle for carrying and expressing a biblical message.  His composition Le Banquet celeste, composed in 1928, is prefaced by the text from John's Gospel "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in Him" (John 6:56).  The music is a contemplative and quiet meditation on the mystery of the Eucharist, selected to highlight the celebration this morning with the second-grade children of First Communion. Listen how the slow-moving chords and the 'tear-drop' melody transport us to a place of calm and mystery.  The Word is being 'colored.'

Other hymns this morning emphasize the Eucharist theme.  In terms of 'color,' think about how the energy of the Welsh folk tune THE ASH GROVE combines with the compelling text of "Sent Forth by God's Blessing" (ELW 547).  The text emphasizes how the nourishment we receive in Holy Communion prepares us, and "incites us" to be sent forth from our worship to "work for your kingdom and answer your call."

Last note for the morning:  We continue to encounter some of the music from ELW Setting Six in our liturgy.  Today, I will play the "Lamb of God" setting on the piano, as a way to familiarize our gathering with this new music.  This setting presents an African American gospel style of music.  One of the characteristics about this style that I've learned is to not play too fast - think about how the tempo of the piece 'colors' your impression about the text.  My personal image is of a certain richness, or depth to the expression.