This Sunday’s readings remind us that Christ is “all in all” and our greatest treasure is investment in what is eternal. My middle-class educator parents gave their four children a life that was rich beyond words, though we never had wealth as the world sees it. We spent time helping neighbors, volunteering for causes we believed in, maintaining a household in which we labored to grow 90% of what we ate, and pursuing beauty in the world through art, ballet, music, opera, and symphony concerts.
My parents could afford to purchase 3 tickets to the Edmonton Opera at Winspear Hall, and each of us would choose which 2 operas in the season we wanted to attend with them. The other 3 children stayed at home, looking forward to hearing all about it at breakfast the next morning. If we had been wealthier, all 6 of us could have attended, but Mom and Dad made sure our lives could be enriched by the greatest variety of beauty possible. One Pastor I remember from my childhood summed up Christ’s parable of the Rich Fool by saying: “He was so poor that all he had was money.”
The music I have chosen for this Sunday’s Worship focuses on the priceless treasure that is Jesus the Christ. My Opening Voluntary is a “Flourish on Lobe den Herren” [Praise to the Lord, the Almighty] by Calvin Hampton, reminding us that Christ is our health and salvation, and the one who gently sustains us. The choir will then sing Ovid Young’s arrangement of “Nearer, Still Nearer, Close to Thy Breast” written for two Christian opera singers in the 1980s, Robert Hale and Dean Wilder. The poignant text speaks of Christ as our “haven of rest” in difficult times.
One of my favorite texts extolling the unmatched beauty and worth of Jesus is “Jesu, Dulcis Memoria” or “Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee”, a meditation on Christ by St. Bernard of Clairvaux from around 1130 AD. The choir will sing an anthem setting of the English text sung to the familiar hymn tune SAINT AGNES in an arrangement by Mormon composer Ronald Staheli. My Communion Music will be from Flor Peeters’ variations on the simple but glorious Gregorian Chant “Jesu, Dulcis Memoria”.
Evelyn Larter’s arrangement of “Here’s One” is the perfect Offertory Music, painting the beautiful Spiritual text “talk about a child who do love Jesus – Here’s One!”. My Postlude is a setting of the great German Chorale “Jesu, Meine Freude” or Jesus, Priceless Treasure, by Johann Gottfried Walther, a contemporary of J. S. Bach, who himself penned the powerful words “I have enough – I have received my Savior” (Ich habe genug) in his Cantata BWV 82.
It is my prayer for each of us that our actions in life and the energies we expend each day help to build up lasting treasure in heaven that no one can steal from us. Each of you are a treasure to me, and I thank God for the treasure of Grace Church and this amazing Family of Faith!
