NOTE: This was “MUSIC SUNDAY”— i.e.: there was no sermon but there was a lot of music. Below is the order for this service of worship followed by a series of quotes about music. the URL for the video is just below.

VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE:
https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/896546859

ELIJAH KELLOGG CHURCH WORSHIP
12/17/2023
Third Sunday of Advent
The Sunday in Advent on Which We Commemorate Love
Music Sunday

THOUGHTS FOR MEDITATION — “All music is folk music. I ain’t never heard no horse sing a song.” — Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong

“Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. But a song makes you feel a thought.” — Harold Arlen, composer of Over the Rainbow

“Music… can name the un-namable and communicate the unknowable.” — Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), composer, conductor.

“Next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise.” — Martin Luther

Welcome and Announcements

Passing of the Peace…

• Call to Worship —

CANTICLE
O God of Love, show us Your way,
Let love be now our guide, we pray.
Let joy and hope and peace abide,
O God of love be at our side.

ONE: Through the prophets, God promised a Messiah. We are in awe of the birth of Jesus, the incarnation, the Word of God made flesh, God’s message of the in-breaking of the fulness of the will of God into our world. Jesus came to us as a weak and vulnerable baby, the one called Emmanuel. The name Emmanuel means “God is with us.” And surely, the love of God visits us in the presence of Jesus, the Messiah.

ALL: The first Advent candle reminded us to have hope for a better world. The second reminded us that God’s dreams for peace can become real in our world. The third candle reminds us when we show forth the love of God to each person we meet the possibilities of hope and peace become tangible, real.

Prayer of Invocation

• HYMN — Sing All Creation INSERT

A Time for All Ages —

Lord’s Prayer (debts and debtors)
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

OFFERTORY INVITATION

*OFFERING RESPONSE (DOXOLOGY)
Old One-hundredth

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him all creatures here below;
Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

*PRAYER OF DEDICATION

Prayers of the People – PETITIONS AND SILENCES

• HYMN — Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart INSERT

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE

A READING FROM THE SCROLL OF THE TWELVE — Micah 5:2-5a [ILV]

[2] “As for you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,”
says Yahweh, God,
“small as you are among
the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for Me
one who is to rule in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days.”

ANTHEM — We Are Waiting
Words by Sally K. Albrecht and Charles Wesley
Music by Jay Althouse

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE
The assigned lectionary readings for Advent are both wonderful and challenging. This is a section of one of those assigned readings from the Scroll of the Prophet Isaiah.

A READING FROM THE SCROLL OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH —
Isaiah 61: 8-9

[8] For, I, Yahweh, God— I love justice;
I hate robbery and wrongdoing;
I will faithfully compensate,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you.
[9] Your descendants shall be renowned
among the nations,
and you offspring among the people;
all who see you shall acknowledge
that you are a people whom Yahweh has blessed.

• HYMN — O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee INSERT

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE

A READING FROM THE GOSPEL — Luke 1:39-45, (46-55) [ILV]

[39] Within a few days after the Angel Gabriel visited, Mary set out and hurried, went with haste, into the hill country to a town of Judah.  [40] There she entered the house of Zechariah and Elizabeth and was greeted by Elizabeth.  [41] As soon as Elizabeth heard Mary return the greeting the child she was carrying leaped in her womb.  And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.  [42] With a loud voice she exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!  [43] And why has this happened to me?  Why am I so favored that the mother of the Messiah should come to me?  [44] For the moment I heard the sound of your greeting reach my ears, the child in my womb leaped for joy.  [45] And blessed is she who believed what our God said to her, what was spoken to her would be fulfilled, would be accomplished.”

• HYMN — All the Beautiful March of Days INSERT

ANTHEM — Angus Dei Words and Music By Michael Smith
With How Great Thou Art, Adapted by Stewart K. Hine
Choral Setting by Joel Raney

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE

A READING FROM THE GOSPEL — Luke 1:46-55

[46] Then Mary said,
“My soul proclaims Your greatness, O God,
[47] and my spirit rejoices in You, my Savior.
[48] For You have looked with favor
upon the lowliness of this servant.
And from this day forward,
from now on,
all generations
will call me blessed;
[49] for the Almighty One
has done great things for me,
and holy is Your name.
[50] Your mercy reaches from age to age
for those who are in awe of You
from generation to generation.
[51] You have shown strength with Your arm;
You have scattered the proud
in the thoughts of their hearts,
in their conceit.
[52] You have brought down
the powerful,
deposed the mighty
from their thrones,
and raised the lowly to high places;
[53] You have filled the hungry
with good things,
while You have sent
the rich away empty.
[54] You have helped,
have come to the aid
of Your servant, Israel,
mindful of Your mercy—
[55] Your mercy— which is the promise
You made to our ancestors,
to Sarah and to Abraham—
and to their descendants forever.”

• HYMN — Out of God’s Great Love Begotten INSERT

SPECIAL MUSIC — SPECIAL MUSIC — An Die Musik (To Music)
By Franz Schubert
Duet – Kate Gray, violin – Elizabeth Cromwell, piano

Note: if the lyric to this music was sung today, these would be the words:

        Beloved art, in how many a bleak hour,
        when I am enmeshed in life’s tumultuous round, 
    have you kindled my heart to the warmth of love, 
        and borne me away to a better world!

Often a sigh, escaping from your harp,
    a sweet, celestial chord
has revealed to me a heaven of happier times. 
        Beloved art, for this I thank you! 

• HYMN — When in Our Music God Is Glorified INSERT, v. 1, 2, 3

A READING FROM THE TALMUD AND A BENEDICTION

The Torah is the first five books of the Bible. This is a reading from the Jewish commentary on the Torah, known as the Talmud.

After all creation was formed, God called the angels together and asked them what they thought of it. One of them said, “Something is lacking: the sound of praise to the Creator.” So God created music. And music was heard in the whisper of the wind, in the chirp of the birds, in the tympani of the thunder. But that was not enough, so God gave humanity the gift of song. And down through the ages this gift has blessed, comforted and inspired many souls. This gift is a part of the covenant; we have the blessings and wonder which the gift from God bestows on and in us and God is pleased when a joyful noise is heard.

Let us go forth with hope. Let us be led in peace. Let us find places of love. Let us know the joy of God’s presence. And, indeed, as the Psalmist states: all the mountains and hills shall break into singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands because God reigns! Amen.

CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE —
When in Our Music God Is Glorified INSERT, v. 4

Postlude

OTHER QUOTES ABOUT MUSIC

“Music… will help dissolve your perplexities and purify your character and sensibilities, and in time of care and sorrow, will keep a fountain of joy alive in you.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flock, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace… to make music in the heart.” — Howard Thurman, American author, civil rights leader, and theologian (1899-1981)

“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.” — Victor Hugo

“Every once in a while we have feelings so deep and so special that we have no words for them. Music names them for us, only in notes instead of in words. It’s all in the way music moves— we must never forget that music is movement, always going somewhere, shifting and changing, and flowing, from one note to another; and that movement can tell us more about the way we feel than a million words can.” — Leonard Bernstein, Young People’s Concerts— January 18th, 1958.

“Music is the most physically inspiring of all the arts” — Frank Zappa

“Music is God’s gift to man, the only art of Heaven given to earth, — the only art of earth we take to Heaven.” — Walter Savage Landor (1775 – 1864)

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” — Henry David Thoreau

“Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

“Music is only love looking for words.” — Lawrence Durrell

“Music is the sole art which evokes nostalgia for the future.” — Ned Rorem

“Musicians don’t retire; they stop when there’s no more music in them.” — Louis Armstrong

“Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” — Ornette Coleman

“To study music, we must learn the rules. To create music, we must forget them.” — Nadia Boulanger, teacher of music composition

“Good music is very close to primitive language.” — Denis Diderot, philosopher (1713-1784)

“Music, of all the arts, stands in a special region, unlit by any star but its own, and utterly without meaning… except its own.” — Leonard Bernstein

“So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning.” — Aaron Copland

“It is as impossible to translate poetry as it is to translate music.” — Voltaire, writer (1694-1778)

“We hide ourselves in our music to reveal ourselves.” — Rock Musician Jim Morrison.

“…talking about music is like dancing about architecture.” — Frank Zappa.

“There is something about music that keeps its distance even at the moment that it engulfs us. It is at the same time outside and away from us and inside and part of us. In one sense it dwarfs us, and in another we master it. We are led on and on, and yet in some strange way we never lose control.” — Aaron Copland, composer.

“A song without music is a lot like H2 without the O.” — Ira Gershwin.

“The first condition for making music is not to make a noise.” — José Bergamín (1895–1983), Spanish writer.

“Utopians, puritans and totalitarians have always sought to regulate music, if not forbid it outright.” — Richard Taruskin, NY TIMES, 12/9/2001.

“Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast, / To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.” — William Congreve, dramatist (1670-1729)

“Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water bath is to the body.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., US Supreme Court Justice (1841-1935)

“Music is an important way for us to express praise and worship to God. It was instituted by God before the creation of the earth and is referred to some 839 times in the Bible. The Psalms, for instance, continually exhort us to ‘praise the Lord in song.’ Ask the Lord to give you a new song (noël) with which to honor God”. — from Christ in the Carols by Christopher and Melodie Lane

“The Church knew what the psalmist knew: music praises God. Music is well or better able to praise him than the building of the church and all its decoration; it is the Church’s greatest ornament.” — Igor Stravinsky, composer.

“Life is notes right underneath our fingers. All you’ve got to do is take the time to play the right notes.” — Ray Charles, musician

“When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flock, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace… to make music in the heart.” — Howard Thurman, American author, civil rights leader, and theologian (1899-1981)

“Prayer does not use up artificial energy, doesn’t burn up any fossil fuel, doesn’t pollute. Neither does song, neither does love, neither does the dance.” — Margaret Mead, in Jane Howard’s book, Margaret Mead (1984)

“Could there be anything more blessed than to imitate on earth the ring-dance of the angels and at dawn to raise our voices in prayer and by hymns and songs to glorify the rising Creator?” — St. Basil, Bishop of Caesarea (4th Century of the Common Era)

“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“A book is a story for the mind. A song is a story for the soul.” — Eric Pio, poet

“Those who wish to sing always find a song.” — Swedish proverb

“Old songs are more than tunes. They are little houses in which our hearts once lived.” — Ben Hecht, playwright

“No one imagines that symphony is supposed to improve as it goes along, or that the whole object of playing is to reach the finale. The point of music is discovered in every moment of playing and listening to it. It is the same, I feel, with the greater part of our lives, and if we are unduly absorbed in improving them we may forget altogether to live them.” — Alan Watts (1915-1973)

“Every man’s work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.” — Samuel Butler (1612-1680)

“Music is capable of going directly to the source of the mystery. It doesn’t have to explain it. It can simply celebrate it” — Marsha Norman

“There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent.” — Michel de Montaigne

“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.” — Abraham Maslow

“Music comes first from my heart, and then goes upstairs to my head where I check it out.” — Roberta Flack

“Nothing recalls the past like music.” — Madame de Stael, Corinne (1807)

“If you do not love what you do and do what you love, you have chosen mayhem over music.” — Wayne Dyer

“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” — Harper Lee

“This World is not Conclusion. / A Sequel stands beyond— / Invisible, as Music— / But positive, as Sound.” — Emily Dickinson (1862)