Past Services

Holy Eucharist Rite II at 10:30 a.m. with chant and hymns, sermon by Postulant Michael Corey.

Worship at Home:

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Service Music:

Voluntary    What star is this?    Alec Wyton (1921-2007)

Opening Hymn 109    The first Nowell the angels did say    The First Nowell

Sequence Hymn    To the Name of our salvation     Regent Square

Gospel, Offertory and Communion Music   Chant for the Feast of the Holy Name, sung by John Nowacki

Closing Hymn 450    All Hail the power of Jesus’ Name!    Coronation

Voluntary    Postlude in F     Eric Thiman (1900-1975)

 

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Holy Eucharist Rite II at 10:00 a.m.  with congregational carols, sermon by the Rev’d Susan Pinkerton.

 

Worship at Home:

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Service Music:

Voluntary    Whence is that goodly fragrance flowing?    Dale Wood (1934-2003)

Opening Hymn 96   Angels we have heard on high    Gloria

Sequence Hymn 79    O Little town of Bethlehem    St. Louis

Offertory   Pastorale   Louis Lefebvre-Wely (1817-1869)

Closing Hymn 100    Joy to the world!     Antioch

Voluntary   In dulci jubilo   Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

 

Full Sermon Text:

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Service Schedule:

3:50 p.m.  Choral Prelude (Youth Choir)

4:00 p.m. Family Eucharist sung by the Youth Choir

10:30 p.m. Choral Prelude (Adult Choir) with string quartet

11:00 p.m. Holy Eucharist sung by the Adult Choir with string quartet

Worship at Home:

Click here for the Service Bulletin: 4:00 – 11:00 ; scroll to read full sermon text.

Full Service Audio (4pm):

Full Service Audio (11pm):

Sermon-only Audio:

Service Music:

Choral Prelude at 3:50 p.m. with Youth Choir

Hymn 102    Once in Royal David’s city    Irby
Stanzas 1 & 2, choir; stanzas 3-6, congregation

Anthem   Jesus Christ the apple tree    Elizabeth Poston (1905-1987)
Words from Divine Hymns of Spiritual Songs, compiled Joshua Smith, 1784

The tree of life my soul hath seen
Laden with fruit and always green
The tree of life my soul hath seen
Laden with fruit and always green
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree

His beauty doth all things excel
By faith I know but ne’er can tell
His beauty doth all things excel
By faith I know but ne’er can tell
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the apple tree.

For happiness I long have sought
And pleasure dearly I have bought
For happiness I long have sought
And pleasure dearly I have bought
I missed of all but now I see
‘Tis found in Christ the apple tree.

I’m weary with my former toil
Here I will sit and rest a while
I’m weary with my former toil
Here I will sit and rest a while
Under the shadow I will be
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.

This fruit does make my soul to thrive
It keeps my dying faith alive
This fruit does make my soul to thrive
It keeps my dying faith alive
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree.

Holy Eucharist Rite II at 4:00 p.m. with Youth Choir; sermon by the Rev’d Susan Pinkerton.

Processional Hymn 83    O come, all ye faithful    Adeste fideles, arr. David Willcocks (1919-2015)

Gloria S280     Robert Powell (b.1932)

Sequence Hymn 101    Away in a manger   Cradle Song

Offertory Anthem   Brightest and Best   Malcolm Archer (b. 1952)
Words: Reginald Heber, 1783-1826
Ted Babbitt, soloist

Brightest and best of the sons of the morning,
Dawn on our darkness and lend us thine aid;
Star of the East, the horizon adorning,
Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.

Cold on His cradle the dewdrops are shining;
Low lies His head with the beasts of the stall.
Angels adore Him in slumber reclining,
Maker and Monarch and Savior of all.

Shall we not yield Him, In costly devotion
Odors of Edom and offerings divine,
Gems of the mountain and pearls of the ocean,
Myrrh from the forest and gold from the mine?

Vainly we offer each ample oblation,
Vainly with gifts would His favor secure.
Richer by far is the heart’s adoration;
Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor.

Sanctus  S130    Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Fraction anthem S164    Jesus, lamb of God     Franz Schubert

Communion Anthem    In the bleak mid-winter    Harold Darke (1888-1976)
Words: Christina Rosetti (1830-1894), found at Hymn 112

Communion Hymn 115    What child is this   Greensleeves

Post-communion Hymn 111     Silent night     Stille nacht

Closing Hymn 87     Hark the herald angels sing     Mendelssohn, arr. David Willcocks (1919-2015)

Voluntary    Joy to the world    Wilbur Held (1914-2015)

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Choral Prelude at 10:30 p.m. with Adult choir and string quartet

String Quartet    Concerto Grosso Op. 6 No. 8 Per la notte di Natale     Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)
I. Vivace – Grave – Allegro

Ave Maria    Franz Biebl (1906-2001)

Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariae et concepit de Spiritu sancto.
The angel of God visited Maria and she conceived of the Holy Spirit. (John Nowacki, soloist)

Maria dixit: Ecce ancilla Domini. Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.
Maria said: See the servant of the Lord. May it happen to me according to your word. (Doug Engwall, soloist)

Et Verbum caro factum est et habitavit in nobis.
And the Word became flesh and lived among us. (Lynn Brooks, soloist)

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Benedicta tu in mulieribus,
Blessed art thou among women,
et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus

Sussex Carol    English Carol, arr. David Willcocks (1919-2015)

On Christmas night all Christians sing, to hear the news the angels bring –
News of great joy, news of great mirth, news of our merciful King’s birth.
Then why should men on earth be so sad, since our Redeemer made us glad?
When from our sin he set us free, all for to gain our liberty?
When sin departs before his grace, then life and health come in its place,
Angels and mortals with joy may sing, all for to see the newborn King.
All out of darkness we have light, which made the angels sing this night:
“Glory to God and peace on earth, now and forevermore. Amen.”

String Quartet    Concerto Grosso Op. 6 No. 8 Per la notte di Natale     Arcangelo Corelli
II. Adagio – Allegro – Adagio

The blessed son of God, from Hodie     Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Words: Miles Coverdale, after Martin Luther

The blessed Son of God only in a crib full poor did lie;
With our poor flesh and our poor blood was clothed that everlasting good. Kyrie eleison.
The Lord Christ Jesu, God’s son dear, was a guest and a stranger here;
Us for to bring from misery, that we might live eternally. Kyrie eleison.
All this did he for us freely, for to declare his great mercy;
All Christendom be merry therefore, and give him thanks for evermore. Kyrie eleison.

No sad thought his soul affright, from Hodie    Ralph Vaughan Williams
Words: Anonymous, second stanza by Ursula Vaughn Williams (1911-2007)

No sad thought his soul affright,
Sleep it is that maketh night;
Let no murmur nor rude wind
To his slumbers prove unkind:
But a quire of angels make
His dreams of heaven, and let him wake
To as many joys as can In this world befall a man. (quartet: Anne Harney, Mary Beth Lamlein, Paul Smith, John Church)

Promise fills the sky with light,
Stars and angels dance in flight;
Joy of heaven shall now unbind
Chains of evil from mankind,
Love and joy their power shall break,
And for a new born prince’s sake;
Never since the world began
Such a light such dark did span.

String Quartet    Concerto Grosso Op. 6 No. 8 Per la notte di Natale     Arcangelo Corelli
V. Largo – Pastorale

Holy Eucharist Rite II at 11:00 p.m. with Adult choir and string quartet; sermon by the Rev’d Susan Pinkerton.

Processional Hymn 83    O come, all ye faithful    Adeste fideles, arr. David Willcocks (1919-2015)

Gloria S280     Robert Powell (b.1932)

Sequence Hymn 101    Away in a manger   Cradle Song

Offertory Anthem    The shepherd’s carol    Bob Chilcott (b. 1955)
Words: Clive Sansom (1910-1981)

We stood on the hills, Lady,
Our day’s work done,
Watching the frosted meadows
That winter had won.

The evening was calm, Lady,
The air so still,
Silence more lovely than music
Folded the hill.

There was a star, Lady,
Shone in the night,
Larger than Venus it was
And bright, so bright.

Oh, a voice from the sky, Lady,
It seemed to us then
Telling of God being born
In the world of men.

And so we have come, Lady,
Our day’s work done,
Our love, our hopes, ourselves,
We give to your son.

Sanctus  S130    Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Fraction anthem S164    Jesus, lamb of God     Franz Schubert

Communion Anthem    In the bleak mid-winter    Harold Darke (1888-1976)
Words: Christina Rosetti (1830-1894), found at Hymn 112

Communion Hymn 115    What child is this   Greensleeves

Postcommunion Hymn 111    Silent night    Stille nacht, st. 3 arr. Wolfgang Lindner

Closing Hymn 87    Hark the herald angels sing    Mendelssohn, arr. David Willcocks (1919-2015)

Voluntary    Joy to the world    Wilbur Held (1914-2015)

 

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The St. John’s Christmas Pageant at 10:30 a.m., sung by the Adult and Youth Choirs, with Jeffrey Higgins and Thomas Hintz, trumpets

Worship at Home:

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Full Service Audio:

Service Music:

Choral Voluntary    Ave Maria    Franz Biebl (1906-2001)

Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariae et concepit de Spiritu sancto.
The angel of God visited Maria and she conceived of the Holy Spirit. (John Nowacki, soloist)

Maria dixit: Ecce ancilla Domini. Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.
Maria said: See the servant of the Lord. May it happen to me according to your word. (Doug Engwall, soloist)

Et Verbum caro factum est et habitavit in nobis.
And the Word became flesh and lived among us. (Lynn Brooks, soloist)

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Benedicta tu in mulieribus,
Blessed art thou among women,
et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus

Anthem   Sussex Carol    English Carol, arr. David Willcocks (1919-2015)

On Christmas night all Christians sing, to hear the news the angels bring –
News of great joy, news of great mirth, news of our merciful King’s birth.
Then why should men on earth be so sad, since our Redeemer made us glad?
When from our sin he set us free, all for to gain our liberty?
When sin departs before his grace, then life and health come in its place,
Angels and mortals with joy may sing, all for to see the newborn King.
All out of darkness we have light, which made the angels sing this night:
“Glory to God and peace on earth, now and forevermore. Amen.”

Traditional Carols

Voluntary    My spirit be joyful (Cantata 146)     Johann Sebastian Bach, arr. E. Power Biggs

At 3:00 p.m., sung by the Youth and Adult Choirs.

 

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Holy Eucharist Rite II at 10:30 a.m. sung by the Adult Choir, sermon by the Rev’d William Eakins.

Worship at Home:

Click here for the Service Bulletin; scroll to read full sermon text.

Due to a technical issue, the recordings of this service are unavailable.

Service Music:

Voluntary    Savior of the nations, come   Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Processional Hymn 640    Watchman, tell us of the night    Aberystwyth

Kyrie Eleison   from Litany of the Saints    adapt. Richard Proulx (1937-2010)

Sequence Hymn 324    Let all mortal flesh keep silence    Picardy

Offertory Anthem    No small wonder   Paul Edwards (b. 1955)
Text: Paul Wigmore (b. 1925)

Small wonder the star, small wonder the light,
The angels in chorus, the shepherds in fright;
But stable and manger for God – no small wonder!

Small wonder the kings, small wonder they bore
The gold and the incense, the myrrh, to adore:
But God gives his life on a cross – no small wonder!

Small wonder the love, small wonder the grace,
The power, the glory, the light of his face;
But all to redeem my poor heart –  no small wonder!

Paul Edwards began his career as a young chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. His text writer, Paul Wigmore, relays the story of No small wonder, which eventually was included in the famous service of Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge: “One November morning in 1983 the young composer, Paul Edwards, gathered up his week’s bundle of laundry and was about to leave for the local launderette when he opened a letter from me. The letter ended with a new poem – a carol for Advent and Christmas, just three short verses. Paul Edwards had already set a number of my lyrics for choir and this was a new one. He slipped it into his pocket. It would be something to read while he waited for the machine to do the washing, he thought. In the launderette he loaded the machine and sat down, read the poem, grabbed a scrap of manuscript paper and began writing. Trying to imagine how any composer could write this profound music while surrounded by the noise of washing machines is practically impossible.” God at work!

Sanctus    from Missa Emmanuel    Richard Proulx

Fraction Anthem    Agnus Dei   from Missa Emmanuel    Richard Proulx

Communion Anthem     The Lamb    John Tavener (1944-2013)
Text: William Blake (1757-1827)

Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed.
By the stream & o’er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice!
Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee

Little Lamb I’ll tell thee,
Little Lamb I’ll tell thee!
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb God bless thee.
Little Lamb God bless thee.

“The Lamb” is a setting of a poem by William Blake, depicting the innocence of the Christ child, the beautiful creation of God. Part of Blake’s collection “Songs of Innocence” of 1789. Although the original poems were meant to be sung, Blake’s original tunes are lost to the ages. Sir John Tavener set the poem to music, explaining, “ ‘The Lamb’ came to me fully grown and was written in an afternoon and dedicated to my nephew Simon for his 3rd birthday.”

Closing Hymn 72    Hark! the glad sound!    Richmond

Voluntary    Toccata    Scott Lamlein (2010)

Cantor: John Nowacki

 

Full Sermon Text:

Have you ever been disappointed?  Looked forward eagerly to something happening that never appeared beneath the tree, looked forward to a vacation or some occasion that failed miserably to live up to expectation?  Sometimes, we even get disappointed in God when we look at our lives and look at a world and see so much that is painfully broken.  Where are you, God, we wonder?  Have we trusted in you in vain?

 

Take, for example, John the Baptist in today’s Gospel reading.  He was once so confident about what God was up to.  God’s Promised One was about to break in upon the world to establish justice, separating the good folks from the bad like a farmer separates the wheat from the chaff.  “Repent and prepare the way of the Lord,” had been John’s ringing cry.  Furthermore John had been convinced that his cousin Jesus was the very one God had sent to carry out the divine judgment.  John had even heard a voice from heaven saying of Jesus, “This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

 

But now a short time later, John is not so sure he had heard aright.  In the prison cell where John has been locked up after getting himself in trouble with the authorities, John listens anxiously for news about what Jesus, God’s Chosen One, is doing.  And what John hears is not what he had expected.  Where is the promised Day of Judgment?  Where are the thunderbolts of divine intervention, the unquenchable fire of divine punishment?  Jesus isn’t denouncing the tax collectors, harlots, and other sinners; he is sitting down to have supper with them.  What’s going on here?  And so John starts to think: perhaps I was wrong about you, Jesus.  Maybe that voice I heard at your Baptism didn’t come from heaven after all but was merely the whistling of the wind.  So John sends messengers to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come or must we wait for another?”

 

There’s a very good reason why we need to hear this story of John the Baptist’s bewilderment and discouragement as we head into the Christmas season.  Truth be told, we sometimes are very much like that puzzled, questioning servant of God of long ago.  We too know what it is like to feel disappointed, let down, and depressed even at this very time of the year when we are supposed to be full of Christmas cheer.

 

Christmas is a season of great expectations.  We know the Christmas angels proclaim peace on earth and good will among men and women.  We would dearly like to experience that peace and good will in our hearts and in our homes.  And we go to great lengths, cooking special foods, trimming trees, putting up wreaths, shopping for just the right presents for everybody on our list – all in hopes of having the best Christmas ever.  But our actual experience often falls short of what we had hoped for.  We get exhausted and irritable, the relatives and family get into squabbles, fuss over what they will eat and not eat; not everybody is grateful for what you have given them.  Then we turn on the news and hear about threatened government shutdowns, angry dissent over the recent election, wars and rumors of ears, political gridlock in Washington, crazy people shooting innocent people in bars.  And we start to wonder if Christmas and the Good News it proclaims is really all it’s cracked up to be.  “Are you the One we expected, Jesus, or should we look for someone else?”

 

Now when John the Baptist asks his question, the answer Jesus gives is simple.  He tells John to look at what was going on.  There are amazing things happening that John is not noticing: blind people are receiving sight, people who haven’t walked in years are skipping and running, deaf folks are swapping stories, untouchable lepers are hugging their children, and the poor are hearing sermons that make them smile.  It was all straight out of the Book of the prophet Isaiah, the promise of what happens when God’s power is stirred up and comes among us with great might.

 

In effect Jesus is saying to John:  Think again, my friend.  You don’t understand the big picture of what God is doing.  You, John have focused on a message of repentance, and repentance is necessary because it opens people’s hearts to recognize their need of God’s love and mercy.  And God’s love and mercy is just what I, Jesus, have come to bring.   As God’s Chosen One, I have come to fulfill God’s promises of old: I have come to give sight to the blind, to open deaf ears, to bring the dead to life, and to preach the Good News of God’s love to all who are poor in spirit.  So, John, the word of God is not as you supposed, “Repent, lest you be judged,” but “Repent and receive with joy God’s redeeming work.”  Could it be that we, and not just John the Baptist, need to grow in our understanding of the new order that Jesus Christ ushers in?

 

There are Christians who seem more ready to sound the note of God’s judgment than to herald the good news of God’s compassion and mercy.  Last month a man in the city of Decatur, Illinois, was refused permission to sing at his grandmother’s funeral because the priest had seen the man’s picture in the newspaper participating in a Gay Pride rally.  A few years ago, the parents in Newtown received letters from avowedly Christian people telling them that the children were shot as God’s punishment for the sins of their parents. Putting such extremists aside, however, we must all learn to appreciate more fully, as the old hymn reminds us, that “there’s a wideness in God’s mercy like the wideness of the sea…. For the love of God is broader than the measure of [our] mind and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind.”

 

Why does God allow war and injustice to continue?  Why does God allow innocent people to suffer and evildoers to prosper?  Perhaps it is because God is incredibly more patient with the creation than we can imagine.  Perhaps in divine forbearance, God’s timetable of redemption is slow but nonetheless sure.  And perhaps we would do better to focus more closely on the signs of God’s Kingdom breaking into our world than on the evidence of human sinfulness.

 

There are signs of God’s Kingdom all around us if we would open our eyes, ears, minds, and hearts.

 

“Look,” Jesus tells John, “the poor have good news brought to them.”  Well the good news today is that the number of people living in extreme poverty is in steep decline.  So says a recent study published by the World Bank.  In 2013, less than 11% of the global population was living in extreme poverty, a dramatic decrease from 35% only 25 years ago.  Thanks to better education, better health care, improved rural infrastructure, especially roads and electrification, and employment opportunities brought on by the growth of the global economy, billions of the world’s poorest people have been given new life.

 

“Look,” says Jesus, the dead are raised.  Well, it happened over in Glastonbury just this week.  I read about it in the Hartford Courant.  Pastor Nancy Butler of the Riverfront Family Church, who for the past year has been dying of ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, made a decision to go off her feeding tube and breathing vent and let herself die.  She did so trusting that God did not want her to suffer any longer and trusting that in dying, she would in her words, “go home to God.”  Last Wednesday, Nancy Butler passed away peacefully at home.  A note announcing Pastor Butler’s death posted on her church’s Facebook page reads, “We are deeply saddened by her loss but also share her joy in Christ, trusting that she is rejoicing in God’s presence and dancing with the saints.”

 

“Look,” says Jesus, “the lepers are cleansed.”  Well haven’t we seen this right here in West Hartford?  The Kattoubs, a refugee family from Syria, are in many ways modern-day lepers, exiled from their own country, homeless, and dependent on the charity of others.  And we at St. John’s, along with people from St. James’s Parish have welcomed them to our community and done everything we can to give them a fresh start in life in a new land and culture.  And thanks to the Max Restaurant Group, Mr. Kattoub, a former auto mechanic, now is earning a living making pizza on LaSalle Road.

 

“Do you hear what I hear?  Do you see what I see?”    These are questions from a Christmas song that, I imagine, we will hear many times in the days ahead.  They might serve to remind us to be alert, attentive, looking for the signs of God’s reign breaking into our world.  The song concludes, “the Child, the Child, sleeping in the night He will bring us goodness and light.”  Yes, there will be times when we will doubt whether that is true.  But as God promised long ago by the prophet Isaiah: “as the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return there until they have watered the earth making it bring forth and sprout, so shall my word be … it shall not return empty but it shall accomplish that for which I purpose and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”  And isn’t that Good News!

Holy Eucharist Rite II at 10:30 a.m. sung by the Youth and Adult Choirs, sermon by the Rev’d Hope Eakins.

Worship at Home:

Click here for the Service Bulletin; scroll to read full sermon text.

Full Service Audio:

Sermon-only Audio:

Service Music:

Voluntary     Two settings of Es ist ein ‘Ros     Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Emma Lou Diemer (b. 1927)

Processional Hymn 56 (st. 1, 2, 6, 7, 8)    O come, O come, Emmanuel    Veni, veni Emmanuel

The origins of “O come, O come, Emmanuel” date to medieval times. In the 800s, a series of Latin hymns were sung, called the “O” Antiphons. Over time, these were restructured, and the first draft of the beloved hymn we know came from Anglican priest John Mason Neale, in 1851. Born to a family of clergy, Neale wanted to become a parish minister, but his poor health prevented this. He instead became the director of Sackville College, a home for elderly men. This proved to be a good match, as Neale was compassionate with a great heart for the needy. A traditionalist, he was outspoken against the change that other hymn writers like Isaac Watts stood for, but today we find Neale and Watts side-by-side in our hymnals. We owe Neale our gratitude for this great hymn, as well as “Good King Wenceslas,” “Good Christian Men, Rejoice,” and “All Glory, Laud, and Honor.”

Kyrie Eleison   from Litany of the Saints    adapt. Richard Proulx (1937-2010)

Sequence Hymn 597    O day of peace that dimly shines    Jerusalem

Offertory Anthem    Jesus Christ the apple tree    Elizabeth Poston (1905-1987)
Words from Divine Hymns of Spiritual Songs, compiled Joshua Smith, 1784

The tree of life my soul hath seen
Laden with fruit and always green
The tree of life my soul hath seen
Laden with fruit and always green
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree

His beauty doth all things excel
By faith I know but ne’er can tell
His beauty doth all things excel
By faith I know but ne’er can tell
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the apple tree.

For happiness I long have sought
And pleasure dearly I have bought
For happiness I long have sought
And pleasure dearly I have bought
I missed of all but now I see
‘Tis found in Christ the apple tree.

I’m weary with my former toil
Here I will sit and rest a while
I’m weary with my former toil
Here I will sit and rest a while
Under the shadow I will be
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.

This fruit does make my soul to thrive
It keeps my dying faith alive
This fruit does make my soul to thrive
It keeps my dying faith alive
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree.

Sanctus    from Missa Emmanuel    Richard Proulx

Fraction Anthem    Agnus Dei   from Missa Emmanuel    Richard Proulx

Communion Anthem    Lo, how a rose e’er blooming    Michael Praetorius (1571-1621), Hugo Distler (1908-1942)
Words: Hymn 81

Closing Hymn 616    Hail to the Lord’s anointed    Es flog kleins Waldvögelein

Voluntary    Fantasy on Veni, veni Emmanuel     Wilbur Held (1914-2015)

Cantor: Daaé Ransom

 

Full Sermon Text:

“The wolf shall lie down with the lamb,” says the prophet Isaiah, “and the leopard with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together.”  But this is not reasonable, we say.  We know that if you put a lamb in a wolf’s lair, all we have done is to provide lunch for the wolf.  A little child cannot lead wild animals without being in grave danger and probably soon dead.  And since we are all reasonable people, we interpret Isaiah’s words as unreasonable, as poetry, as a dream outside of reality.

 But the very reason we come to church is to hear the dreams of God, not just to sing wonderful hymns and see our friends.  The very reason we come to church is to hear prophets like Isaiah tell us that things don’t have to be the way they have always been, that God’s dream for us is bigger and better that a dog-eat-dog world.  We come here to see things from God’s point of view, a peculiar way of seeing that is anything but reasonable.

 If we believe that this world is designed for nothing more than the survival of the fittest, then the vision of lions and lambs lying down together is only a foolish imagination.  And yet Isaiah’s words have a certain ring to them; Edward Hicks painted over sixty versions of the Peaceable Kingdom of pacified wolves and child leaders.  So maybe Isaiah is pointing us to something important, to a bigger and better and holier reality than the one we’ve got.

 There shall be an abundance of peace, says the Psalmist, and the mountains shall bring prosperity to the people.  St. Paul tells us that Christ has come to confirm these promises of peace on earth, good will to all.  At the center of Christian belief is the conviction that there is an omnipotent God with whom all things are possible, who really can make wolves lie down with lambs.  And the way we live and the way we will die depend on whether or not we believe this.

 If we don’t believe that there can be peace on earth, if we continue to trust in the power of our guns and bombs more than we trust in the power of God, we will always be at war.  If we don’t believe that God can build the bridges that are too hard for us to build, we will continue our family feuds and vendettas against our neighbors and hostilities toward our boss.   If we don’t believe Jesus promise that sins can be forgiven we will keep our secrets and harbor shame.  If we don’t repent because we fear God’s harsh judgment, we will live with despair and anxiety and never feel the “God of hope filling us with all joy and peace in believing.”

 If we don’t believe in God’s possibilities we will be stuck with our own convictions and live like the two brothers who once owned Manganaro’s grocery store in New York City.  Let me tell you the story.  Their shop had been around for a hundred years or so until Sal and Jimmy dell’Orto had an argument and split the business in two.  Although they worked right next door to each other, they never again spoke to each other nor did their children speak to each other because the feud extended through three generations.  At issue in their battle was which shop had the right to take phone orders for Hero-Boy sandwiches.  Jimmy said “to have a reconciliation, one of the parties has to say ‘I’m sorry,’ and I won’t.  I don’t feel the need to apologize to him for anything and I don’t think he is going to apologize to me.” After years of court battles and petty retaliations, both shops closed.  Over a hundred years of family business died with him because a wolf couldn’t lie down with a lamb, because one dell’Orto couldn’t lie down with another.

But in Isaiah’s words, when “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea,” then hope and justice and peace can flourish.  I have seen it happen.  I have seen a husband hurt a wife in a way that left her demeaned and embarrassed and so angry that she could barely stop shouting.  She wanted him to grovel and he was so afraid to admit his wrongdoings he couldn’t speak.  He wanted her to forgive him, and she was afraid that forgiveness would diminish the issue so that he would feel free to do it again.  Realistically, there was no hope.  But they were people of faith, these folks.  They remembered their wedding vows and prayed that God would rescue them.  And they waited in their shame and anger until the Spirit of the Lord, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, came upon them, and they began the long task of rebuilding trust and making love – and now, at least one wolf and lamb are lying down together.

I have known it to happen.  I have seen a man who embezzled from his business and got away with it.  He thought he was clever and he was.  He also had no self-respect because he knew he was a sinner.  He wasn’t caught by the law, but he was caught by his guilt. It took quite a while for him to figure out what he needed to do.  He started by making his confession to a priest and then realized that he had to give the money back and admit his wrongdoing.  And he did.  His partners didn’t condemn him and they commended his honesty and let him keep his job, and he now knows that “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy like the wideness of the sea.” 

You have seen it happen in this world too.  In our country, slavery and civil war threatened to divide us and oppress us all, but we found a way to live as one people committed to liberty and justice for all.   In Germany, the Berlin Wall finally fell after thirty years of division and separation.

God sent Jesus to show us that dreams like these can be more than dreams, that we need not give up and live in tired resignation, that we are not limited to what WE can imagine because God’s dream for us is more than we can ask or imagine.  John the Baptist shouted it in the wilderness, proclaiming that if we turn and say we are sorry and admit that we are wrong, we will see the Kingdom of heaven staring us in the face.  Paul wrote it to the Romans, that we CAN live together in harmony, that walls can tumble down, that Gentiles and Jews and Christians and Muslims and Afghans and Americans can live together in love.

When I was ordained many years ago on a cold day in December, the Bishop gave me a charge.  He said, “Live up to your name, Hope, and be an Advent priest so that Christmas may come to pass in unlikely lives and unlikely seasons and unlikely places.”

If we open our hearts to God’s love and dream big, it just may be so.

Holy Eucharist Rite II at 10:30 a.m. sung by the Adult Choir, sermon by the Rev’d Susan Pinkerton.

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Service Music:

Voluntary    Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme    Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Processional Hymn 57    Lo! He comes, with clouds descending    Helmsley

Kyrie Eleison   from Litany of the Saints    adapt. Richard Proulx (1937-2010)

Sequence Hymn 61   “Sleepers, wake!” A voice astounds us    Wachet auf

Offertory Anthem    Let all mortal flesh keep silence    Gustav Holst (1874-1934)
Text: Liturgy of St. James, found at Hymn 324

Gustav Holst is best known for his 1919 orchestral suite The Planets. But church musicians know that Holst wrote a large body of very effective music for choirs. He grew up idolizing Wagner, and in 1895 while a student at the Royal College of Music met Ralph Vaughan Williams where the two became good friends. His choral works are supremely crafted miniature masterworks with a profound sense of harmony and finely planned dramaticism. (Notes courtesy John W. Ehrlich)

Sanctus    from Missa Emmanuel    Richard Proulx

Fraction Anthem    Agnus Dei   from Missa Emmanuel    Richard Proulx

Communion Anthem    The blessed son of God     Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Text: Miles Coverdale, after Martin Luther

The blessed Son of God only in a crib full poor did lie;
With our poor flesh and our poor blood was clothed that everlasting good. Kyrie eleison.

The Lord Christ Jesu, God’s son dear, was a guest and a stranger here;
Us for to bring from misery, that we might live eternally. Kyrie eleison.

All this did he for us freely, for to declare his great mercy;
All Christendom be merry therefore, and give him thanks for evermore. Kyrie eleison.

The Communion Anthem is an a capella choral hymn from Vaughan Williams’ Oratorio, Hodie. Late in life, the composer had always wanted to write a large-scale Christmas work, and here he fused the religious spirit of the festival with British overtones, with associations to English countryside carols. Vaughan Williams used no specific folk tunes in this work, but by this point in his career he had so synthesized their character that his folk tune-like themes sound fully authentic.

Closing Hymn 68    Rejoice! rejoice, believers    Llangloffan

Voluntary    Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme    Paul Manz, 1987

 

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Holy Eucharist at 10:00 a.m. with hymns; sermon by the Rev’d Susan Pinkerton.

Worship at Home:

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Service Music:

Voluntary   All Things Bright and Beautiful    Scott Lamlein, 2014

Opening Hymn 397   Now thank we all our God   Nun danket

Sequence Hymn 433   We gather together   Kremser

Music at the Offertory    Great is thy faithfulness   William Runyan (1870-1957)
         Cleveland Williams, soloist

Closing Hymn 290   Come ye thankful people   St. George’s, Windsor

Voluntary   Nun Danket Alle Gott    Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877-1933)

 

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Holy Eucharist Rite II at 10:30 a.m. sung by the St. John’s Schola, sermon by the Rev’d William Eakins.

Guest Organist: Kari Miller

Worship at Home:

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Service Music:

Voluntary    Prelude in G Major, BWV 541    Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Processional Hymn 494    Crown him with many crowns    Diademata

Gloria in excelsis S278     William Mathias (1934-1992)

Sequence Hymn 441   In the cross of Christ I glory   Rathbun

Music at the Offertory    Meditation    Jacob Arcadelt (c.1505-1568)

Sanctus S128    William Mathias

Fraction Anthem S166   Agnus Dei     Gerald Near (b. 1942)

Communion Motet    Ave verum corpus   Stephanie Martin (b. 1962)

Communion Hymn 433   We gather together   Kremser

Closing Hymn 290    Come, ye thankful people, come    St. George’s, Windsor

Voluntary    Grand Chœur    Théodore Salomé (1834-1896)

 

Full Sermon Text:

 “The nations make much ado, and the kingdoms are shaken…”

These words from today’s Psalm are an apt description of the current time.  Certainly the “kingdom” in which we live has been shaken severely by the recent presidential contest.  First there was a seemingly endless and exceedingly bitter election campaign with both parties and both candidates hurling invective at each other.  Then there was the election itself, which has revealed a deeply divided nation where one candidate won the popular vote while losing to the other in the all-important electoral vote.  The winning candidate ran on a platform promising to drain the political swamp in Washington and make widespread changes in the domestic and foreign policies of the outgoing president and his administration.  The political party of the new president-elect has won control of both houses of congress and potentially, at least, can enact whatever changes the president-elect wants to make.   Not only we Americans but the citizens of other nations are making “much ado” over the shaking up of our nation’s political order.  We are all left wondering what to expect in the months and years ahead.

Our current turmoil offers a powerful reminder of the Bible’s warning about the ultimate unreliability of human rulers.  “Put not your trust in princes, nor in any child of earth, for there is no help in them.”  The writer of those verses from Psalm 146 must have been well acquainted with political upheaval, with unexpected power changes, and with leaders who say one thing but do another.  The Bible teaches that though human leaders are to be respected as agents of justice and order, we must never forget that only God is entitled to our ultimate loyalty.  Human rulers can be misguided, ignorant, and sinful; they can also make mistakes and be evil.  And human rulers are transitory.  They come and go; they rise and fall.  Only God endures and can be trusted no matter what.

This last Sunday in the church year, the feast of Christ the King, is an annual reminder of where our ultimate loyalty and confidence need be placed.  Christ the King is a feast of comparatively modern origin, introduced by Pope Pius IX in 1925 as an antidote to the godlessness of contemporary culture and in particular to the rise of Fascism.  Benito Mussolini had been head of Italy for three years.  The Nazi Party and a rabble-rouser named Adolph Hitler were rapidly growing in popularity in Germany.  The new feast of Christ the King was a critique of the rise of 20^th century totalitarian dictatorships.   It remains a critique of earthly potentates to this day.

Christ the King is a powerful statement about who is really in charge of the world and who is deserving of our obedience and trust.  To some it may appear that there is no one in charge and that we live in a world of chaos, random accident, and anarchy.  To many it may seem that money and might make the world go round.  To others it may appear that the world in in the hands of evil forces and bent on destruction.  Over against these views, the Christian faith asserts that it is God who is in charge of the universe and that God is like the King Jesus we see in today’s Gospel reigning from a cross. 

Jesus hangs on the cross, naked and powerless, mocked, rejected, suffering, dying, and wearing a crown of thorns.  He has nothing that the powers of this world hold out to their devotees – comfort, success, popularity.  All Jesus has is his trust in God’s love and God’s power.  This trust refuses to give up; it becomes his dying prayer, “Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit.”  By his steadfast trustfulness, by his refusal to serve any of the gods of this world in order to serve God alone, Jesus robs the gods of this world of their power to rule and proclaims the sovereignty of God.  Jesus’ trust in God alone is vindicated when on Easter morn God raises Jesus from the dead.   Jesus outstretched on the cross becomes the sign of God’s triumph and God’s rule.  If that Good News is true, if God really is in charge of this world, it makes a huge difference in the way we live.  This Gospel bids us live thankfully, responsibly and hopefully.

First.  Be thankful.  Thanksgiving is not just a day on November when we eat turkey.  Thanksgiving needs to be an attitude and a practice that is a part of our everyday lives.  Cultivate an awareness of how much God has blessed us, so that we do not begin to think that what we have and who we are are all our own doing.  Pausing when we awake and when we sit down to eat and when we go to bed to say “Thank you, God, for all that you have given me” keeps our lives centered on God and makes us conscious of how much we have,

Second.  Be responsible.  The more we are conscious of God’s gifts to us and God’s presence in our lives, the more we shall want to use what God has given us for Godly purposes.  God has given us the planet Earth not to have its resources selfishly exploited by one people or one generation but to have its resources treasured and shared by all the people of the earth, for generations to come.  Be a responsible steward of what God has given us.  That also means being a responsible citizen.

When the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia in 1787, its proceedings were held in strict secrecy.  As a result anxious folks gathered outside Constitution Hall when the Convention ended in order to learn what had been decided.  A woman asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Dr. Franklin, what kind of government have you given us, a republic or a monarchy?”  Without hesitation Franklin responded, “A republic, Madam, if you can keep it.”

Franklin was right.  A republic like the United States only works if its citizens do their part, informing themselves about the issues of the day, engaging in civil conversation with their fellow citizens and expressing their opinion by voting.  A republic does not work if citizens abdicate these responsibilities out of apathy or a mistaken belief that political leaders can govern effectively without the vigilance and active participation of all citizens.  If we believe representative democracy is one of God’s gifts to us as a nation, we had better show our gratitude by being responsible Americans.

Finally, we must be hopeful.  If God is ultimately in charge of the world, if Christ is indeed King, then we can face the future with confidence.  The nations may make much ado and the kingdoms of this world may be shaken but God is still ruler over all and slowly but surely is restoring the creation to the way God has always intended it to be.  With this as our confidence, God expects us to labor on in good times and bad times, always seeking to do what is just and what is right, supporting Godly leadership ands speaking out when our leaders go astray.

Too often we Christians forget or fail to live up to the Good News that God reigns.  Confronted by daunting realities like political upheaval and uncertainty, we sit on our hands or pull up the bedcovers and hide in fear and despair.  If we really believe what we proclaim today, that it is God’s will to restore all things in Jesus Christ who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, then we must never give up doing our part to make God’s great dream come true.  And God whose power brought a universe into being put of nothing, God whose love raised Jesus from the dead, God will weave our lives and feeblest efforts into God’s unconquerable purpose.

 So be thankful.  Be responsible.  And always be hopeful.