Music for Sunday, 11th March: Lent 4 (Mothering Sunday), Year B

There’s a choice of two lots of lectionary readings in Common Worship this Sunday, depending on where you want your focus to be; but if you’re in England it’s pretty likely that mothers or mothering will be the theme in some way or other.

This is a theme that’s not easy for everyone, and which can bring out strong feelings. These are not neatly or easily sidestepped, but it can help, I think, to focus on mothering more than on mothers, and on the mothering qualities of God.

‘Mothering God, You Gave Me Birth’ is an ideal hymn text for this, and the setting of it by Carolyn Jennings is both simple enough to be used as a congregational hymn in some contexts, and lyrical enough to stand as a simple choir anthem in others. The words, by Jean Janzen, are an adaptation of words by Julian of Norwich, so this is really a collaboration between three women.

Listen on YouTube.

The hymn is in the following hymnals, according to hymnary.org:
Evangelical Lutheran Worship #735
Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #7
With One Voice #769

If you don’t have any of those, though, it’s available to buy (in an arrangement by Zebulon Highben) from JW Pepper.

Many thanks to Jo Kershaw for pointing this one out.

Music for Sunday 14th January: Epiphany 2, Year B

The readings for this Sunday are:

1 Samuel 3:1-10 [11-20]
Psalm 139:1-5, 12-18
Revelation 5:1-10
John 1:43-51

1 Samuel 3:1-10 [11-20] is about God calling Samuel, and Samuel getting all confused and thinking it was Eli. But eventually, with some guidance, he gets the hint, and when he’s called again, he says, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” And in the square bracketed verses, there’s some unpleasant news for old Eli, which he faces with relative equanamity.

Psalm 139:1-5, 12-18 is about the inescapability of God, about God being there with us before we are even formed and no matter where we go.

Revelation 5:1-10 is in full-on visionary mode, with weird creatures and scrolls and harps and incense and elders and a lamb with seven horns and eyes. It’s weird. It’s beautiful. Go read it. I’ll wait.

John 1:43-51 is… back to vocation again. “Follow me,” says Jesus to Phillip. But it’s also about being known by God, in the way that Jesus knows Nathanael, despite his (or our) cynicism. And it’s about what we will see: heaven opened, and angels ascending and descending.

For a congregational hymn about vocation, there’s Ally Barrett’s “Here we are giving” to HILLTOP, which is free to download from CPDL.

For a meditative anthem about seeing God, you could use Truth sees God, Carlotta Ferrari’s setting of words by Julian of Norwich. I couldn’t find a recording, but it’s only in two parts; a bit crunchy but not overly so.

(Administrivia: I wanted to get back to adding new works to the site this week, but due to illness it didn’t happen. I’m looking forward to getting back to it next week!)