by the Rev. William P. McLemore
SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS: Our first Bible reading is Genesis 2:15-17;3:1-7 which tells the story of the temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Psalm 32 records the joy associated with those who are forgiven by God. Romans 5:12-19, here Paul recounts the sin of Adam and its relation to Jesus’ love and forgiveness. The Gospel reading, Matthew 4:1-11, records the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.
THE HYMNS:
PROCESSIONAL HYMN: No. 143. “The Glory of These Forty Days.” This Latin hymn emerges from the 10th century and has been attributed to St. Gregory the Great but it’s true origin is unknown. The current translation was made by Maurice F. Bell for the 1906 Episcopal Hymnal and it has been in the hymnals ever since. The tune, “Erhalt uns, Herr,” and is a hymn tune traced back to Martin Luther and a hymn that he wrote against the papacy and heretics, “Preserve us, Lord, by thy dear Word; from Turk and Pope defend us Lord.”
THE SEQUENCE HYMN: No. 150. “Forty Days and Forty Nights.” This is one of the three Lenten poems by George Hunt Smyttan published in the “Penny Post VI” (1856). The original version had nine stanzas and our hymnal includes the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th of the nine, though greatly altered over the years. The tune called “Heinlein” in the 1940 Hymnal is “Aus der Tiefe rufe ich” in our new 1982 Hymnal, the actual melody attributed to Martin Herbst (1654-1681) and later harmonized by William Monk (1823-1889)
PRESENTATION HYMN: No. 441. “In The Cross of Christ I Glory.” This hymn is based on Galatians 6:14 and was first published in John Bowring’s “Hymns, 1825.” When Bowring died, the opening line was inscribed on his tombstone. The tune, “Rathbun,” was composed for this hymn by Ithamar Conkey in 1849 while organist at the Central Baptist Church in Norwich, Connecticut. My favorite anecdote for this hymn was a very elderly woman leaving the church and telling me at the door, “I am a visitor and I’m one of those ‘wrecks of time’ we sing about in that hymn.” (I think of her every time we sing this hymn.)
COMMUNION HYMN: “Sweet Hour of Prayer.” Our communion hymn is taken from “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” This hymn was reputedly written by a blind English preacher named W. W. Walford and discovered by a Congregational minister, Thomas Salmon, during his stay in Britain from 1838-1842. Fifteen years later, a New York composer, William Bradbury, composed the tune for the hymn.
RECESSIONAL HYMN: No. 149. “Eternal Lord of Love.” This hymn was written by Thomas Henry Cain, born 1931, and is based upon the image of the church as a people on a journey towards the God of glory. The tune is the Old 124th composed or adapted by Louis Bourgeois for the Geneva Psalter of 1551. The present harmonization is by Dr. Charles Winfred Douglas (1867-1944).
