This Sunday’s readings are a beautiful reminder that our Creator wants wonderful things for us and offers us forgiveness so that we may move forward unencumbered to offer that same forgiveness to all around us. It is so easy to judge others or hold grudges, and Christ’s example of unconditional forgiveness shines a blazing light on our pettiness and smallness.
The Chancel Choir’s Prelude is another penitential motet by Richard Farrant whose “Call to Remembrance” we sang to open last week’s Worship. “Hide Not Thou Thy Face” sets Psalm 27:9: “Hide not thou thy face from us, O Lord, and cast not off thy servant in thy displeasure; for we confess our sins unto thee and hide not our unrighteousness. For thy mercy’s sake, deliver us from all our sins.”
Unlike last week’s “Call to Remembrance” with it’s staggered entrances by the choir, “Hide Not Thou Thy Face” moves more homophonically in a hymn-like style, with loving emphasis given to the important words in each phrase. Farrant repeats the words “for thy mercy’s sake” in each instance it appears, reminding us that all grace and forgiveness is a merciful gift from God alone.
Isaac Watts’ hymn text “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” was penned in 1707, and has been sung by choirs around the world ever since. Watts penned his first “respectable verses” at the age of 7, and published hundreds of hymn texts in his 74 years of life. Today this powerful text is most often sung to the tune HAMBURG, composed by the American composer Lowell Mason in 1824.
This simple tune is based on a Gregorian Chant and is comprised of only five notes of the F Major Scale. We will sing Gilbert Martin’s lofty setting for organ and chorus which ascends to a new key with each successive verse to achieve a glorious climax at the final words: “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”
In this last week of Lent as we approach the glorious season of Passiontide, may we come to better understand the magnitude of Christ’s sacrifice for our salvation and show that same self-sacrificing love to all we meet.
