JUNE 24, 2007

12^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Preparation for Worship

. . . for in Jesus Christ you are all children of God through faith.

Galatians 3:26

We extend a warm Westminster welcome to Craig Howard, who fills the pulpit this morning. Craig is a candidate for Ministry of Word and Sacrament, under care of the Presbytery of Chicago. Craig currently serves as a Senior Development Officer at McCormick Seminary in Chicago, although he is deployed in Madison. He will be ordained to this position in July. Craig and his wife, the Rev. Marilyn Gamm, live in Madison where Marilyn is the pastor of Dale Heights Presbyterian Church.

     As we continue our exploration of Paul’s letter to the small community of disciples in Galatia, our worship today celebrates the uniqueness of our individual identities within the larger body of Christ. The Galatians passage, which serves as our central scripture lesson for today, is often used to blend our identities. However, this text actually affirms the value and significance of our racial, ethnic, and gender identities within the body of Christ.

     The music through which we worship highlights these various identities and illustrates the richness of our Christian musical heritage.  For example, the prelude is a jazz improvisational setting of the tune McKee, which is the tune to which we will sing the hymn text “In Christ There Is No East or West.” The tune McKee is based on an African American spiritual tune that was adopted by famous baritone soloist Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949). Burleigh was a student of Anton Dvorak and his passionate singing of spirituals is attributed with greatly influencing Dvorak’s composition of many of the themes in his “New World Symphony.” Burleigh named this tune after Elmer McKee, rector of the church where Burleigh was the soloist for 52 years.

     Our responsive setting of Psalm 42 is taken from the psalm settings composed by Father Joseph Gelineau (b. 1920) of France . Because of their careful treatment of English patterns of speech, which is much like the poetic stresses used in Hebrew linguistic forms, the Gelineau psalms have been adopted by many Western churches as a means of enabling congregational singing of the psalms. Similarly, our pastoral prayer response, “Live in Charity ”, also reflects a spirit of serenity and peace that well reflects its text. This response is from the Taize Ecumenical Community, which unites the individual identities of the many thousands of diverse believers who gather daily for worship and prayer at their sanctuary in France.

     In addition to displaying our cultural diversity, our service music today features pieces from two women hymn writers. The text of the anthem, “O God, We Bear the Imprint of Your Face” was written by New Zealand musician Shirley E. Murray. The Presbyterian Hymnal includes five hymn texts by Murray and in this setting, she illumines the themes of racism and human rights.  The harmonization chosen by Murray for this text is by English composer Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625). The tune of the sending hymn, “Help Us Accept Each Other”, was composed by American composer Doreen Potter in 1975 especially for this text and used by Church Women United in the 1983 World Day of Prayer service.

     The postlude by German organist Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707) incorporates a fugue. In classical music forms a fugue involves the weaving of a musical theme, called a “fugue subject,” into a more elaborate context. In playing a fugue, the musician pays utmost respect to the consistent treatment of the fugue subject each time it is introduced. In this way, the individual identity of the fugue subject is maintained even amidst the confluence of other musical ideas. This is a musical metaphor expressing our worship focus on the affirmation of the individual identity within the body of Christ.