Hymn of the Day: "Founded on Faith", ACS 1048
Text: Paul D. Weber, b. 1949
Tune: FOUNDED ON FAITH, Paul D. Weber

This hymn by Lutheran pastor and church music professor emeritus Paul Weber encapsulates all the facets of the church. It is founded on faith and sustained by grace. It is the place where the gospel is proclaimed and where the sacraments of baptism and communion are administered. It is where we learn and pray and grow in gifts of the Spirit, which we then carry out into the world to serve God and our neighbors in justice and peace. In the Central States Synod of the ELCA, it was the winning hymn to celebrate the five-hundredth anniversary of the Reformation.

Offertory Anthem: From Hymn of Praise: #5 - “I waited for the Lord,” Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Lobgesang (Hymn of Praise), Op. 52, is an 11-movement "Symphony-Cantata on Words of the Holy Bible for Soloists, Choir and Orchestra" by Felix Mendelssohn. It was composed in 1840, along with the less-known Festgesang "Gutenberg Cantata", to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the invention of Johannes Gutenberg's movable type printing system.

After the composer's death it was published as his Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major, a naming and a numbering that are not his. The work lasts almost twice as long as any of Mendelssohn's purely instrumental symphonies.

I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined to me and heard my supplication.
Blessed is the man whose hope is in the Lord!
Blessed is the man whose hope is in him! (Psalm 40)

Opening Voluntary: “Pastorale” Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877-1933)

Sigfrid Karg-Elert regarded himself as an outsider. Notable influences in his work include composers Johann Sebastian Bach (he often used the BACH motif in Bach's honour), Edvard Grieg, Claude Debussy, Max Reger, Alexander Scriabin, and early Arnold Schoenberg. In general terms, his musical style can be characterised as being late-romantic with impressionistic and expressionistic tendencies. His profound knowledge of music theory allowed him to stretch the limits of traditional harmony without losing tonal coherence.