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With the Fourth Sunday of Advent the excitement is rising. We’re weary of watching and waiting! “Lord, let us see your kindness” is our psalm refrain; the introit proclaims, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and the King of glory shall come in!”; we sing, “Come, thou long-expected Jesus”; Mary sings her song magnifying the Lord; we hear a less-familiar birth narrative from Matthew; and our final hymn ends, “O come to us, abide with us, our Lord, Emmanuel.” Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!
The season of Christmas begins on Christmas Eve and stretches through the Baptism of the Lord. Be sure to come to church to sing all your favorite Christmas carols. Christmas Eve music begins at 2:45 with the singing of “Once in Royal David’s City.” If you have a favorite carol that is less familiar, please be sure to let me know and I’ll see if we can work it into one of these four Christmas services. Merry Christmas to one and all.
The hymn of the month is a beautiful setting of “Ye Who Claim the Faith of Jesus.” The words were written by the English Anglican priest and educator, Vincent Stuckey Stratton Coles (1845-1929). The original title and first line was "Ye Who Own the Faith of Jesus," but most more-recent publications have used the word "Claim" instead.
The lovely tune JULION was composed by David Hurd (b. 1950) in 1974. (Some of you may be familiar with his tune for the hymn, “A Stable Lamp Is Lighted.”)
“Ye Who Claim the Faith . . .” encourages us to honor Mary, the mother of Jesus. In the third stanza, we are called to join in her song, the Magnificat, as we remember that God has cast down the mighty and raised up the lowly. The fourth stanza, a masterful paraphrase of the Magnificat text, was not in the original hymn but was supplied by English hymn writer Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000), a Methodist minister. Hurd includes a descant for the fourth stanza that uses the Latin text of the Magnificat.
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