In our scriptures for this Sunday, the Holy One calls us to give up our old, unhealthful ways of doing things [repent] and remain steadfast in our desire to live more and more like Christ each day. The Chancel Choir’s anthems this week illuminate the ways we can live our Christian promises to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our Creator.
Our Choral Prelude is Phillip Dieterrich’s arrangement of Ralph Vaughan Williams best known hymn, Come Down, O Love Divine. This memorable tune is named after the English town of Down Ampney where RVW was born when his Father, Arthur Vaughan Williams, was Vicar of All Saints Church. The text by the Italian Mystical Poet Bianco da Siena (c1367) is a timeless prayer for the Holy Spirit to ignite our hearts and burn off our earthly desires so our hearts may “become the place wherein the Holy Spirit makes her dwelling.”
The Choir’s Anthem I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say sets a folksong loved by Vaughan Williams and set in his “Five Variants of Dives & Lazarus”. The tune in our hymnals is KINGSFOLD, and Lloyd Larson has crafted a lively, dance-like setting of the tune with Horatius Bonar’s comforting text calling us to find our rest in Christ. The phrases that speak most powerfully to me are: “I came to Jesus as I was; I had no gifts to bring. He took my stubborn will, my pride, and taught my heart to sing!” and “I looked to Jesus, and I found in Him my star, my sun; And in that light of life I’ll walk till traveling days are done.”
It is my prayer that we daily find our guiding star and glorious sunlight in Christ and His loving ways, so that we may show that light in our darkened world through all that we say and do.
