Music Notes from Denise, October 4, 2025

This Sunday we will follow Jesus as he talks with his disciples about faith. According to the RSCM Sunday by Sunday magazine, Jesus reminds them that “it is not great faith but a great God in whom to have faith that is important. A great God can do a great deal with but a little faith. Yet we must not take pride in our faith, for we are called to serve and not to expect reward nor count the cost.” (2016 The Royal School of Church Music, Issue 77 of Sunday by Sunday, rscm.com)

Our final Season of Creation hymn will be All creatures of our God and King that comes from the writings of St Francis of Assisi, whose feast day we are also celebrating. In the year 1225, completely blind and nearing death, St. Francis arrived at the Convent of St. Damian to bid goodbye to his dear friend, Sister Clara, the first woman to follow the call of St. Francis and take vows of the Order. Clara built him a small reed hut in the garden of her little monastery. It’s said that at times St. Francis could be heard singing faint melodies from within the hut. It was at a meal with the sisters after having stayed for some time at the monastery that he wrote his famous text, “Canticle of the Sun,” later paraphrased into the beloved hymn we sing today. As we sing this hymn, we join with Christians throughout the ages and with all of Creation to sing our praises to God the Creator. Psalm 145 says, “My mouth will speak in praise of the LORD. Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever.” This is our call and our invitation, and now, using the words God has given us through the voice of a Saint, we answer that invitation with a joyful “Alleluia!” (hymnary.org) Here’s a statue of St. Francis that I saw in Santa Fe, New Mexico!

Our Sequence hymn will be a hymn written in 1974 by Carl P Daw, Jr.: Faith begins by letting go. Daw is an Episcopal priest serving congregations in Virginia, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. He was the Executive Director of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada and has written numerous hymns as well as Liturgical Music for the Revised Common Lectionary with Thomas Pavlechko, that I use every week for hymn and music selections. (hymnary.org) Faith begins by letting go affirms that faith is not a state of being but a process of becoming what we are called to be in relationship to God, to others, and the world. (hopepublishing.com)

This Sunday is also celebrated as World Communion Sunday across the globe and our Communion hymn: We gather at your table Lord was written in honor of this by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. In her commentary, Carolyn writes, “If you look up the word “heart” (as in the 1 verse) you will see that in the scriptures this word represents the whole of one’s being. The 2 verse states that God uses the ordinary to remind us of extraordinary things. The bread and the wine are visible signs of God’s love. We ask for the presence of God’s Spirit in the 3 verse…along with our understanding that Christ is uniquely present for us in this sacrament. The hymn concludes with the image that this meal is a unifying one and a foretaste of the heavenly meal we all will share. It gives us strength to serve God here and now, even as we wait for a new heaven and a new earth.” This hymn is particularly appropriate for this time, and has been used for Eucharist in our National Cathedral. (Gifts of Love, New Hymns for Today’s Worship by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, 2000 Geneva Press)

Our final hymn will be The Church of Christ in every age, written by Fred Pratt Green in 1969. Green was a British Methodist minister who loved poetry and wrote many hymns to serve the liturgical needs of the modern church with special emphasis on social justice. The Rev. Carlton Young, editor of the UM Hymnal, notes, “This hymn calls the church to be the agent of change and reconciliation in the struggle against injustice and hunger.” (umcdiscipleship.org/history-of-hymns)