This Sunday we will remember the baptism of Jesus. John the Baptist was attracting crowds and becoming quite popular, but he knew that he was just the forerunner. Jesus patiently waited with the others for his time of baptism when the affirmation from God and the Spirit was received, and this love would flow out to all of us.
Our Processional hymn will be Songs of thankfulness and praise, written by Christopher Wordsworth in 1862. Wordsworth lived in England and was nephew of the great Romantic poet William Wordsworth. He described the text as follows: “a recapitulation of the successive manifestations of Christ…throughout the season of Epiphany; and anticipation of that future great and glorious Epiphany, at which Christ will be manifest to all.” (Psalter Hymnal Handbook, hymnary.org)
Our Sequence hymn will be Christ, when for us you were baptized by Bland Tucker in 1979. Tucker was rector of the historic St. John’s Church in Georgetown, Washington DC and John Wesley’s parish in old Christ Church of Savannah, GA. After retirement, he served on the Joint Commission on Church Music to prepare the Hymnal 1940 and then used his poetic talent to provide new phrases to obsolete texts for the Hymnal 1982, including this hymn. (hymnary.org)
St Martin’s Choir will sing This Baptizing Day, an arrangement using the tune of the American folk hymn Down to the River to Pray and the text from Martin Luther’s hymn Christ Our Lord to Jordan Came. It was arranged by William Allen Pasch for St James Music Press in 2011.
Jesus went down to the Jordan one day, his Father's calling to obey.
Then John baptized him, and the Lord God said, This is the way! This is my own dear son,
Follow him; his work's begun. Sin's drowned, the victory's won! River, wash guilt away!
This water flows as the promise of grace for all God's children in this place, It's not our doing;
Christ has done it all. Give God the praise!
Now let this flood of love wash us clean, all fear remove. From earth to heaven above,
loud thanksgiving we raise! When I go down to the river to pray, thinking on my baptizing day,
the Holy Spirit tells me I'm newborn, Old Sin, away! My savior died for me.
Resurrection set us free, Grace reigns eternally, through this baptizing day!
The Communion hymn will be another baptism hymn, Crashing waters at creation by Sylvia Dunstan. The poem recasts the Prayer of Thanksgiving over the Water in Baptism with references to water at the Creation, the parting of the Red Sea, and the River Jordan. Stanza 4 adds an allusion to the story of the Samaritan woman in John 4 as Jesus offers her living water. And Isaiah 43 “for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people”. (2004 Leader’s Guide to Voices Found hymnal supplement by Marilyn L Haskel and Lisa Neufeld Thomas, Church Publishing)
Our final hymn is new to us but was written in 1980, When Jesus came to Jordan by Fred Pratt Green. He described the creation of the hymn: “The hymn began life in 1973 at a time when Fred was having extensive correspondence with Dirk van Dissel, an Anglican theological student at Trinity College, Melbourne, Australia…seeking a hymn of the Baptism of Jesus.” It covers Christ’s mission to share repentance, speak good news, share temptation, and invokes the Holy Spirit to help us keep the vows we make. It concludes by pointing toward the Resurrection and Pentecost which is the fulfillment of Christ’s ministry. (Fred Pratt Green, The Hymns and Ballads of Fred Pratt Green Hope Publishing 1982; C. Michael Hawn, umcdiscipleship.org)