Home Worship for July 12, 2020

Dear members of God’s family at Resurrection Church,

We begin now to read for three Sundays in a row the third of the Great Discourses of Matthew: the Parables of Jesus. This Sunday the Gospel is the Parable of the Sower. Together with your congregation, if you are able, join in prayer at 10am on Sunday, using one of the many available ways, to let the seed of the word of God fall into your life again.

Worship Service

A pre-recorded worship service, complete with readings, Pastor Linman's sermon, prayers, and music will broadcast at 10am on Sunday, July 12 on our YouTube channel and will be available below:

Worship material for July 12, 2020

The following have been posted to YouTube; here is the YouTube Playlist for July 12, 2020:

Music Notes

Hymn of the Day: “Almighty God, Your Word is Cast”, #516
Text: John Cawood (1775-1852)
Tune: St. Flavian, English folk tune

Almighty God, Thy word is cast. J. Cawood. [After Sermon.] Written about 1815 in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, and designated for use "After a Sermon". The text is stimulated by Jesus’ parable of the sower. It was reprinted in 1825 and from that date it has grown in importance as a congregational hymn, and its use has become extensive in all English-speaking countries. He published several prose works, but no volume of hymns or poems. His son says, "My father composed about thirteen hymns, which have one by one got into print, though never published by himself, or any one representing him.”

ST. FLAVIAN is an example of an English psalm tune that, like many Genevan Psalter tunes and German chorales, had its original rhythms smoothed out. It is an English tune that has been happily attached to numerous texts.

Choir Anthem: Go Forth Into the World in Peace
Paul Sjolund (b.1935)

Paul Sjolund is a leading composer of American church and choral music. The range of his style includes a wide spectrum of majestic anthems, fanfares and festival hymns, poignant children's music, and exhilarating range of spirituals and folksongs.

Go forth into the world in peace. Be of good courage, hold fast to that which is good, Render to no one evil for evil.

Go forth into the world in love: Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, Help the afflicted, honor all people: love and serve the Lord.

Rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit, go forth into the world in peace.

Musical Reflection: Gift of Finest Wheat
Ron Schmoltze (b. 1936)

Robert E. Kreutz (1922-1996) carefully crafted the tune GIFT OF FINEST WHEAT, or BICENTENNIAL, in 1976 and it is faithfully represented in this organ setting. Though the meter changes frequently, the melody flows very naturally, with the changing meters unified by melodic and rhythmic motifs.

Ron Schmoltze is a church musician working in the San Francisco Bay area.

More in this category: « Ms. Angie's Message: "Mighty Moo and the Yoke" Ms. Angie's Message: "The Sower" »
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