Music Notes from Denise, August 2, 2025

The readings for this Sunday continue to challenge us as we travel along our Christian journey. Our Colossians 3 reading begins with: If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

The Processional hymn will be God of grace and God of glory, written by Harry E. Fosdick (1878-1968), who was a well-known and controversial preacher in the early 20th century. After Fosdick left his position at one church, John D. Rockefeller asked him to become pastor of Park Avenue Baptist Church in New York City, but Fosdick thought the church was too wealthy, and agreed only on condition that a new church would be built in a less fashionable place. The site selected for Riverside Church was on the banks of the Hudson, not far from Harlem. Fosdick wrote this hymn at his summer home in Maine in 1930 for the opening service of Riverside Church that fall. It was sung as the processional hymn for that service on October 5 and again at the dedication service on February 8, 1931. This hymn is a prayer, in which we ask for God's wisdom and courage to face the problems of our day. We beg for God's power, confess our fear and pride, and affirm a desire to seek social justice. (Tiffany Shomsky, Hymnary.org)

For our Sequence hymn we will sing the popular hymn, Seek Ye First by Karen Lafferty. Karen has become what she likes to call herself, a Musicianary. “I’m grateful for my Christian parents and the Baptist church where I took my first steps with Christ. I’m also grateful for relationship with a Christian friend who in 1970 helped me understand the glorious truth of walking daily with Jesus. I was working as a nightclub entertainer at the time and began to witness to people in the bars. As I grew in the Word and became active in my church, Calvary Chapel, in Costa Mesa, California, I felt a call from God on my life to ministry… God has called me to be a ‘Musicianary’; to seek those places where others aren’t going and to disciple the national musicians, who can then reach their own nations. I believe there are other Christian musicians with that calling too. MFMI’s goal is to work with the local church to facilitate these musicians into ministry, especially missions.” (musiciansformissions.com)

This week we are again happy to welcome the Senior ensemble from Parkway Central High School, who sang here this past May. The Seniors have graduated now and will soon be Freshmen once more, attending several area universities in a few weeks! Their Offertory will be Amazing Grace arranged by Rollo Dilworth in 2018. The classic hymn was written in the weeks preceding John Newton’s 1773 New Year’s Day sermon at St. Peter and St. Paul Church, Olney, England. His sermon was based on David’s humble prayer in 1 Chronicles 17:16-27. Newton continued in ministry and writing into his eighties and became a strong supporter of William Wilberforce and his campaign to end slavery. Near the end of his life, he was known to have said, “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior.”  (Mark Edwards, Celebrating Grace Music published in 2022) Dilworth writes about the end of this arrangement: “Prior to a modulation into the last verse, the interpolated words “Hallelujah! Bound for Glory, bound for Glory Land” appear. These words are meant to represent the voices of African slaves, whose pentatonic-based musical traditions may have influenced the melody of this well-known song.” (Copyright 2018 by Hal Leonard LLC, all rights reserved) During communion, the ensemble will also sing Moses Hogan’s arrangement of another classic spiritual, He’s got the whole world in his hands.