Music to end the Day for Sunday, 11 October 2020

‘Music to end the day’ begins tonight with a charming and sprightly Prelude in C, one of the ‘Eight Short Preludes and Fugues’ formerly attributed to J.S. Bach, but now thought more likely to be the work of his finest pupil, Johann Krebs. Krebs was a brilliant performer, second only to Bach, but he found it difficult to obtain patronage or a cathedral post because his compositional style was considered to be rather old-fashioned. Eventually he was appointed court organist of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg under Prince Friedrich.

URC Minister Brian Wren is one of the great hymn writers of our age. Over the years he has published seven collections totalling 250 hymns, as well as many worship songs, created with his wife, Revd Susan Heafield. He was runner-up in the international Millennium Hymn Competition, and his entry, ‘Hidden Christ, Alive for Ever’ was sung at St Paul’s Cathedral in January 2000 as part of the Cathedral’s Millennium gift to the nation. Wren strongly believed that hymns are poetry and theology, not just vehicles for singing. He has said ‘A hymn is a poem, and a poem is a visual art form. The act of reading a hymn aloud helps to recover its poetry and its power to move us – the power of language, image, metaphor, and faith-expression’. He explores these ideas in greater depth in his book ‘Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song!’ Another important aspect of Wren’s work has been his promotion of the use of inclusive language in hymn writing.

One of Wren’s finest texts is the Communion hymn ‘I come with joy to meet my Lord’, written to summarize a series of sermons on the meaning of the Lord’s Supper. Why not take time to read the words carefully and to ‘pray’ the hymn, before listening to – and joining in – the sung version?

I come with joy to meet my Lord,
forgiven, loved, and free;
in awe and wonder to recall
his life laid down for me.

I come with Christians far and near
to find, as all are fed,
the new community of love
in Christ’s communion bread.

As Christ breaks bread and bids us share,
each proud division ends;
the love that made us, makes us one,
and strangers now are friends.

And thus with joy we meet our Lord;
his presence, always near,
is in such friendship better known:
we see and praise him here.

Together met, together bound,
we’ll go our different ways;
and as his people in the world,
we’ll live and speak his praise.

To conclude, a prayer….

We thank you, O Father, for that life which you have made known to us by Jesus your Son,
by whom you made all things, and take care of the whole world.
You sent him to become man for our salvation.
You allowed him to suffer and to die.
You raised him up, glorified him, and set him at your right hand,
and in Him you have promised us Resurrection and eternal life.
O Lord Almighty, eternal God,
gather together your Church from the ends of the earth into your Kingdom,
as grain was once scattered and now has become one loaf.

For through him glory is to be given to you for ever.

Amen

Goodnight everyone.

Adrian Boynton