Worship

Dear members of God’s family at Resurrection Church,

This Sunday, our readings once again challenge us and drive us yet again into the loving arms of our merciful and gracious God. If you are able, join the congregation with your own worship at home at 10am on Sunday or otherwise engage our home worship resources in ways appropriate to your circumstances at home.

Worship Service

A pre-recorded worship service, complete with readings, Pastor Linman's sermon, prayers, and music will broadcast at 10am on Sunday, September 27, on our YouTube channel and will be available below:

Worship material for September 27, 2020

The following have been posted to YouTube; here is the YouTube Playlist for September 27, 2020:

Music Notes

Hymn of the Day: “O God, My Faithful God” #806
Text: Johann Heermann (1585-1647), tr. Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878)
Tune: Was Frag Ich Nach Der Welt, Ahauserus Fritsch (1629-1701)

As a text writer Heermann ranks with the beat of his century, some indeed regarding him as second only to Gerhardt. He had begun writing Latin poems when he was 20, and was crowned as a poet in 1608. He marks the transition from the objective standpoint of the hymn text writers of the Reformation period to the more subjective and experimental school that followed him. His hymn texts are distinguished by depth and tenderness of feeling; by firm faith and confidence in face of trial; by deep love to Christ, and humble submission to the will of God. Many of them became at once popular, passed into the hymnbooks, and still hold their place among the classics of German hymnody.

With help from the fam­ily of a young no­ble he tu­tored, Fritsch re­ceived a good ed­u­ca­tion, earn­ing his law de­gree from the Un­i­ver­si­ty of Jena in 1661. He lat­er be­came chan­cel­lor of the un­i­ver­si­ty and pres­i­dent of the Con­sis­to­ry of Ru­dol­stadt. He wrote on num­er­ous sub­jects, in­clud­ing an­ti­qui­ties, law, and re­li­gion, and col­lect­ed hymns. WAS FRAG ICH NACH DER VELT, also known as “Darmstadt,” is his most popular hymn tune.

Musical Meditation: Prelude on “Now”, Michael Helman (b. 1956)

Michael Helman is currently Director of Music/Organist at Faith Presbyterian Church in Cape Coral, Florida. He is an active composer of handbell, organ, and choral music with numerous pieces pieces in print.

Today’s Meditation is based on the hymn tune, “Now” by Carl F. Schalk (b.1929) He is professor of music emeritus at Concordia University, River Forest, Illinois, where he taught church music since 1965. Honored as a Fellow of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada in 1992, Schalk was editor of the Church Music journal (1966-1980), a member of the committee that prepared the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), and a widely published composer of church music.

Choir Anthem: “To Thee, O Lord,” Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

This piece is a movement from the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom with an English translation of the text.

Sergei Rachmaninoff's emergence as a composer coincided with the renaissance of Russian sacred cho­ral music in the late nineteenth and early twentieth cen­turies. After a period of decline in the mid-nineteenth century, during which serious composers did not com­pose for the Church-by and large the result of severe bureaucratic control by Imperial Chapel censors-sa­cred choral music once again came to the attention of leading musicians in Russia, among them, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Balakirev, and the young Rach­maninoff. What resulted was an enormous outpouring of compositional activity, which began in the 1880s, gained strength in the 1890s, and continued until it was abruptly cut off by the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

Text:

To Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
My God, I trust in Thee.

Dear members of God’s family at Resurrection Church,

This Sunday, the readings explore the radical extent of God’s grace that defies and transcends the logic of a human sense of fairness. If you are able, join the congregation with your own worship at home at 10am on Sunday.

Worship Service

A pre-recorded worship service, complete with readings, Pastor Linman's sermon, prayers, and music will broadcast at 10am on Sunday, September 20, on our YouTube channel and will be available below:

Worship material for September 20, 2020

The following have been posted to YouTube; here is the YouTube Playlist for September 20, 2020:

Music Notes

Hymn of the Day: “Voices Raised To You” #845
Text: Herman G. Stuempfle, Jr. (1923-2007)
Tune: Song of Praise, Caroline Jennings (1936)

This hymn was commissioned by the ALCM for its tenth anniversary and first sung on Reformation Sunday in the fall of 1996.

Rev. Dr. Herman G. Stuempfle, Jr. lived most of his life in Gettysburg, PA. He served as President of the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg and was the author of several books and numerous articles and lectures on preaching, history, and theology. He was also among the most honored and respected hymn writers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Rev. Dr. Stuempfle was known for his leadership in community and civic projects. Always taking an active stance on social issues, he participated in the creation of day care centers, served on the Gettysburg interchurch social action committee, helped create and support prison ministries and a homeless shelter, and tutored young people in the after school program of Christ Lutheran Church, where he was a long time member.

Carolyn Jennings is a Professor Emerita of Music at St. Olaf College where she taught for many years and also served in administrative roles, including Chair of the Music Department and Associate Dean for the Fine Arts. She also served as a church musician for over thirty years, at St. John's Lutheran Church in Northfield, Minnesota.

Over many years she has been active in promoting the use of inclusive language in texts for singing, and has worked to heighten awareness of how language shapes as well as expresses thought.

Her compositions and arrangements include works for voices, orchestra, and piano. She particularly enjoys composing for voices.

Musical Meditation Meditation on “Spirit”, Michael Bedford (b. 1949)

Michael Bedford, a full-time church musician since 1973, currently serves as organist/choirmaster of St. John's Episcopal Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he plays the organ and supervises a full graded choir program including three singing choirs, one handbell choir and a chamber ensemble. He has held similar positions in Texas and Colorado.

James K. Manley wrote the tune “SPIRIT” for his text of 1978. He served as pastor of Congregational United Church of Christ in San Marino, California, from 1978 to 1988 and then moved to Foothills United Church of Christ in Los Altos, California.

Mighty Moo is still on HAYcation and will be back next week! Here's a video he picked out just for you on Forgiveness.

Dear members of God’s family at Resurrection Church,

This Sunday, we continue Matthew’s explorations of forgiveness and reconciliation in our churchly life together. In the readings, listen for the radical extent of God’s forgiveness, and the high expectations for us to forgive as we have been forgiven. If you are able, join the congregation with your own worship at home at 10am on Sunday.

Worship Service

A pre-recorded worship service, complete with readings, Pastor Linman's sermon, prayers, and music will broadcast at 10am on Sunday, September 13, on our YouTube channel and will be available below:

Worship material for September 13, 2020

The following have been posted to YouTube; here is the YouTube Playlist for September 13, 2020:

Music Notes

Hymn of the Day: “Forgive Our Sins As We Forgive” #605
Text: Rosemund E. Herklots (1905-1987)
Tune: DETROIT, The Sacred Harp, Philadelphia (1844)

Educated at Leeds Girls’ High School and the Un­i­ver­si­ty of Leeds, Eng­land, she worked for ov­er two de­cades as sec­re­ta­ry for a neu­ro­lo­gist, and then at the As­so­ci­a­tion for Spi­na Bi­fi­da and Hy­dro­ce­pha­lus in Lon­don. Herklots had be­gun writ­ing po­et­ry as a child, but did not turn to hymn writ­ing un­til around 1940. In 1968, two of her hymns made it to the fi­nals of the Hymns for Bri­tain con­test and were sung on tel­e­vi­sion. Al­to­ge­ther, she wrote a to­tal of about 70 hymns. This text is based on the petition of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:12, “An forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” The hymn was written in 1966.

The tune, DETROIT, is a shape-note tune that is almost pentatonic. The tune is an anonymous one that was included in the attributed to “Bradshaw,” but we do not know who he was.

Musical Meditation Prelude on “Down Ampney,” David Blackwell (1961)

David Blackwell is an English freelance composer, arranger, writer and editor.

In this piece David uses introductory and accompanying material recalling the very pleasing style of Ralph Vaughn Williams’ composition, “Rosemedre.” And, a further connection, Ralph Vaughan Williams composed the tune for the hymn text "Come Down, O Love Divine" which he titled "Down Ampney" in honor of his birthplace.

Choir Anthen: "Where Charity and Love Prevail", Richard D. Erickson

Where charity and love prevail,
There God is ever found;
Brought here together by Christ’s love,
By love are we thus bound.

With grateful joy and holy fear
God’s charity we learn;
Let us with heart and mind and soul
now love God in return.

Let strife among us be unknown;
Let all contentions cease.
Be God’s the glory that we seek;
Be God’s our only peace.

We now forgive each other’s faults
As we confess our own;
That we may love each other well
In Christian gentleness.

Mighty Moo is away for the "HoliHAY weekend" and left you with his favorite song to enjoy!

Dear members of God’s family at Resurrection Church,

This Sunday, we continue to read Matthew’s instructions for the church. Today we hear about the importance of reconciliation, mutual forgiveness and love. Even more, we hear the promise of the risen Christ to be with us. If you are able, join the congregation by your own prayer at home at 10am on Sunday..

Worship Service

A pre-recorded worship service, complete with readings, Pastor Linman's sermon, prayers, and music will broadcast at 10am on Sunday, September 6, on our YouTube channel and will be available below:

Worship material for September 6, 2020

The following have been posted to YouTube; here is the YouTube Playlist for September 6, 2020:

Music Notes

Hymn of the Day: “Draw Us in the Spirit’s Tether,” #470
Text: Percy Dearmer (1867–1936)
Tune: Union Seminary, Harold Friedell (1905-1958)

Harold Friedell (1905-1958) was an American organist, choirmaster, teacher, and composer. At an early age, he served as organist at First Methodist Episcopal Church (Jamaica, Queens) and studied organ with Clement Gale and David McK. Williams. He later served as organist at Calvary Church (New York), organist and choirmaster at Saint John’s Church (Jersey City, N.J.), organist and choirmaster at Calvary Church (New York), and finally organist and master of the choir at Saint Bartholomew’s Church (New York). Friedell also taught on the faculty of the Union Theological Seminary School of Sacred Music (New York).

Percy Dearmer (1867–1936) was an English priest and liturgist best known as the author of The Parson's Handbook, a liturgical manual for Anglican clergy, and as editor of The English Hymnal. Dearmer, with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw, is credited with the revival and spread of traditional and medieval English musical forms. His ideas on patterns of worship have been linked to the Arts and Crafts Movement, while Dearmer and Vaughan Williams' English Hymnal reflects the influence both of artistic and folkloric scholarship and Christian Socialism. Dearmer ended his life as Canon of Westminster Abbey, from where he ran a canteen for the unemployed.

Named for the School of Sacred Music at Union Seminary in New York City, UNION SEMINARY is a gently robust congregational tune illustrating Romantic tendencies that managed to continue in the twentieth century. It began in an anthem by Harold Friedell, who wrote it in 1957 for Percy Dearmer’s text. It was extracted as a hymn tune and published like that in 1970.

Dearmer’s text is a celebration of Christ’s presence among those who are tethered by the Spirit at the Lord’s table and who pray that as disciples they may make their meals and living “as sacraments” by caring, helping, and giving.”

Musical Reflection: “Union Seminary,” James Biery (1956)

James Biery is an American organist, composer and conductor who is Minister of Music at Grosse Pointe Memorial Church (Presbyterian) in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, where he directs the choirs, plays the 66-rank Klais organ and oversees the music program of the church. Prior to this appointment Biery was music director for Cathedrals in St. Paul, Minnesota and Hartford, Connecticut.

Biery’s setting of UNION SEMINARY is in 3 parts, or ABA. The A sections are based on a melody that he constructed from the hymn tune. He has changed the rhythm sligfhtly, and has built the melody on the inverted form of the original tune.

The middle section, combining the tune in its original key and rhythm with the tune a fifth below and a half-note apart, creates a delightfully off-center canon. Enjoy!

Ms. Angie has a new message for the Children of RELC! Click below to view:

Dear members of God’s family at Resurrection Church,

If we are faithful, the church is to follow Christ in the life-giving way of the cross. Paul helps us see today that this way includes rejoicing and weeping with those who rejoice and weep and therefore together persevering in prayer for them. If you are able, join the congregation of Resurrection church at 10 AM this Sunday to lis- ten to the word of God and to include such joy and sorrow in our common prayer.

Worship Service

A pre-recorded worship service, complete with readings, Pastor Linman's sermon, prayers, and music will broadcast at 10am on Sunday, August 30, on our YouTube channel and will be available below:

Worship material for August 30, 2020

The following have been posted to YouTube; here is the YouTube Playlist for August 30, 2020:

Music Notes

Hymn of the Day: “Take Up Your Cross, The Savior Said” #667
Text: Charles W. Everest (1814-1877)
Tune: BOURBON, Freeman Lewis (1780-1859)

Charles W. Everest was an Eposcopal priest. He published this hymn text when he was 19 years old in his Visions of Death, and Other Poems in 1833. The original text of this hymn differs very materially from that which we usually find in the hymn-books. The most widely known form of the text is that in Hymns Ancient & Modern, where it appeared in 1861. It was copied by the Compilers from another collection, but the originator of the alteration is unknown. The nearest approach to the original is in Horder's Congregational Hymn Book, 1884. Original text in Biggs's English Hymnology, 1873.

Included in Columbian Harmony (1825), BOURBON was credited there to Freeman Lewis and set to "Twas on that Dark and Doleful Night," a text often attributed to Isaac Watts. The tune appeared in several other nineteenth-century songbooks, among them Hauser's Hesperian Harp (1848). The tune title presumably refers to the aristocratic French family whose descendants included Henry IV, Phillip V, and Charles III, and after which a Kentucky county is named. It is also interesting to note that this county is more popularly known for its association with a particlar type of corn whiskey.

Musical Meditation: “St. Brendan’s” by David Schelat

David Schelat is Minister of Music at First & Central Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware. He has performed as organist, conductor, or composer for five regional conventions of the AGO, as well as for conferences of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, and National Association of Pastoral Musicians.

Peter Scholtes (1938–2009) wrote the hymn text "They'll Know We Are Christians by Our Love" and the hymn tune “St. Brendan’s” while he was a parish priest at St. Brendan's on the South Side of Chicago in the 1960s. The idea for the hymn was born when he was leading a youth choir and was looking for an appropriate song for a series of ecumenical, interracial events. When he couldn't find such a song, he wrote the now-famous hymn in a single day. His experiences at St. Brendan's, and in the Chicago Civil Rights movement, influenced him for the rest of his life.

Dear members of God’s family at Resurrection Church,

For the next four Sundays we read from the Gospel according Matthew about the church, about its foundation and its way of life. Though it may be hard for us to see during this pandemic, we are indeed the church, founded on the mercy of God in Christ, rightly waiting until we can visibly gather again as a body. This Sunday, if you can, join the gathering in your heart, by reading and praying together at 10 am.

Worship Service

A pre-recorded worship service, complete with readings, Pastor Linman's sermon, prayers, and music will broadcast at 10am on Sunday, August 23, on our YouTube channel and will be available below:

Worship material for August 23, 2020

The following have been posted to YouTube; here is the YouTube Playlist for August 23, 2020:

Music Notes

Hymn of the Day: “Built on a Rock” #652
Text: Nicolai F. S. Grundtvig, 1783-1872; tr. Carl Doving, 1867-1937, adapt
Tune: KIRIEN DEN ER ET GAMMELT HUS, Ludvig M. Lindeman, 1812-1887

Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig most often referred to as N. F. S. Grundtvig, was a Danish pastor, author, poet, philosopher, historian, teacher and politician. He was one of the most influential people in Danish history, as his philosophy gave rise to a new form of nationalism in the last half of the 19th century. It was steeped in the national literature and supported by deep spirituality. The hymn text “Built on a Rock” is well known throughout Scandinavia and beyond and is sometimes viewed as second only to Luther’s “A mighty Fortress.” Carl Doving translated it into English in 1913.

Ludvig M. Lindeman was a Norwegian composer and organist. He is perhaps best known for his arrangements of Norwegian folk tales; over the course of his life he collected over 3000 folk melodies and tunes. Composed for this text, KIRKEN is among the first tunes he wrote. A bar form (AAB) tune in the Dorian mode, it is a suitably rugged, folk-like tune for this text. What it may lack rhythmically, it makes up harmonically. It is a compelling and sturdy tune “built on a rock”.

Musical Meditation: “Adagio” from Sonata #2 in C Minor by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor. As a composer he was one of the most influential of the German Romantic period. As an organist, Mendelssohn was well known and respected for his diversified organ improvisations with seemingly endless varieties of new ideas, and this added new dimensions to what one normally heard played on the organ at the time. As one might expect, these qualities are evident in the organ sonatas, which were commissioned in1844 as a set of voluntaries, or preludes, and published in 1845. In fact, all of the music in these Sonatas was composed between August,1844, and January,1845, so it is not surprising to find certain general characteristics appearing, almost like a recurring theme, throughout all six sonatas, which unifies the whole collection

Ms. Angie has a new Children's Message! Click below to view:

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