Glossop Parish Church of All Saints

Sunday, 25th July 2021

Life is a journey, and not always a comfortable one where we are sat in ‘first class’ with a nice cup of coffee and slice of cake! We don’t always feel safe in the knowledge we know where we are going. There are times when we may feel our journey is in a little boat, in the middle of a storm, in danger of being overwhelmed by the waves! For many, the last 18 months has been that way. The legal changes and shift in focus on responsibility, which our government recently announced, may not have made the ‘journey’ feel any less dangerous. We must be cautious we are told; we must keep each other safe as we continue to journey through this summer. The storm is easing but it is yet to pass.

A common theme in our hymns this month is the Glory of God, as we are blessed to encounter Him through His son, let us join our voices with the saints and angels and sing our praises to God our Heavenly Father.

The Revd Claire Mitchell

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Hymn Our first hymn this month, ‘Go tell it on the mountain’, has been chosen by Valerie Upton. In many hymn books this hymn is shown as ‘traditional’, it is an African-American spiritual song, compiled by John Wesley Work, Jr., dating back to at least 1865, that has been sung and recorded by many gospel and secular performers. It is often considered to be a Christmas carol because its lyrics celebrate the Nativity of Jesus.

Refrain: Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere; go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born!

1. While shepherds kept their watching o’er silent flocks by night, behold throughout the heavens there shone a holy light.

2. The shepherds feared and trembled when lo! above the earth rang out the angel chorus that hailed our Saviour’s birth.

3. Down in a lowly manger the humble Christ was born, and God sent us salvation that blessed Christmas morn.

- 2 - Hymn Our second hymn this month, ‘Jesus shall reign where’er the sun’, has been chosen by Ann Hampson. It was written by Isaac Watts. The number of Watts' publications is very large. His collected works, first published in 1720, embrace sermons, treatises, poems and hymns. The first hymn he is said to have composed for religious worship, is “Behold the glories of the Lamb”, written at the age of twenty. It is as a writer of psalms and hymns that he is everywhere known. Some of his hymns were written to be sung after his sermons, giving expression to the meaning of the text upon which he had preached. Montgomery calls Watts “the greatest name among hymn-writers”, and the honour can hardly be disputed. His published hymns number more than eight hundred.

1. Jesus shall reign where’er the sun does his successive journeys run; his kingdom stretch from shore to shore, till moons shall wax and wane no more.

2. To him shall endless prayer be made, and praises throng to crown his head; his name like perfume shall arise with every morning sacrifice.

3. People and realms of every tongue dwell on his love with sweetest song, and infant voices shall proclaim their early blessings on his name.

- 3 - 4. Blessings abound where’er he reigns: the pris’ners leap to lose their chains; the weary find eternal rest, and all the humble poor are blest.

5. Let every creature rise and bring peculiar honours to our King; angels descend with songs again, and earth repeat the loud Amen.

Hymn Irene White has selected our third hymn, ‘To God be the glory’, written by Fanny Crosby in 1875. Frances Jane Crosby, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born on 24th March 1823 at South East, Putnam County, New York. When six weeks old she lost her sight. About 1835 she entered the New York City Institution for the Blind. On completing her training, she became a teacher. She wrote poetry before writing hymns. Her songs and hymns number some 2,000 or more, about 60 have come into common use in Great Britain.

1. To God be the Glory! great things he hath done; so loved he the world that he gave us his Son; who yielded his life an atonement for sin, and opened the life-gate that all may go in.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord! let the earth hear his voice, praise the Lord, praise the Lord!

- 4 - let the people rejoice: O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son, and give him the glory, great things he hath done.

2. O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood! to every believer the promise of God, the vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.

3. Great things he hath taught us, great things he hath done, and great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son; but purer, and higher, and greater will be our wonder, our rapture, when Jesus we see.

Bible Reading On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Mark 4.35-41

- 5 - Prayer A prayer for when we’ve lost our way again.

Merciful Lord, sometimes it seems like we can’t help but lose our way again and again.

Our hearts long to follow you but you know the way of the human heart. You know how in our misguided longings we veer off our journeying to you and begin to chart our own ways by false stars and distorted visions.

Forgive us.

Forgive us for all the times we are tempted by the hints of light instead of remaining steered by the assurance of Light.

Forgive us when we forget that we are already claimed by you, loved by you, and purposed for you.

Forgive us when we allow ourselves to shape and be shaped by voices and words that do not bring life, create life, nurture life, sustain life or resurrect life.

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Merciful God, help us find our way again. Turn us back towards the road spotted with your other pilgrims, wayfarers, and repentant servants.

Remind us that your Way is the way of returning. Guide us by your Spirit and by your Light. Make us remember the power of the Spirit within us. Make us remember the gifts of our minds, our hearts, and our bodies that you have bestowed on us, that we would use them to honour the directives and the invitations you lay upon us. We know that our ways are not your ways. And we thank you for this.

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Help us trust your ways over our ways. Remind us of your faithfulness as you forgive us our short memory. In your immeasurable love, grace, mercy, and wisdom do not abandon us regardless of how often we lose our way.

Place your wounded hands upon our broken hearts and turn us towards you.

Lord of Light, Lord of Life, Lord of Resurrection.

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Hymn Our next hymn, ‘Teach me, my God and King’, has been chosen by Hilary and Dermot Foster and is the work of George Herbert. He was a Welsh-born poet, orator, and priest of the Church of England. His poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognised as “one of the foremost British devotional lyricists”. He was born into an artistic and wealthy family and largely raised in England. He received a good education that led to his admission to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1609. He went there with the intention of becoming a priest, but he became the University's Public Orator and attracted the attention of King James I. He served in the Parliament of England in 1624 and briefly in 1625.

After the death of King James, Herbert renewed his interest in ordination. He gave up his secular ambitions in his mid-thirties and took holy orders in the Church of England, spending the rest of his life as the rector of the rural parish of Fugglestone, St Peter, just outside Salisbury. He was noted for unfailing care for his parishioners, bringing the sacraments to them when they were ill and providing food and clothing for those in need.

- 9 - 1. Teach me, my God and King, in all things thee to see; and what I do in anything to do it as for thee.

2. A man that looks on glass, on it may stay his eye; or, if he pleaseth, through it pass, and then the heaven espy.

3. All may of thee partake; nothing can be so mean which, with this tincture, ‘For thy sake’, will not grow bright and clean.

4. A servant with this clause makes drudgery divine; who sweeps a room, as for thy laws, makes that the action fine.

5. This is the famous stone that turneth all to gold; for that which God doth touch and own cannot for less be told.

- 10 - Hymn Dorothy Marbeck has selected our next hymn, ‘Shine, Jesus, shine’, written by Graham Kendrick in 1987. ‘Shine, Jesus, shine’, is Graham’s best known song, proving to be enduringly popular not just in the UK but all round the world. It deposed ‘Jerusalem’ from the BBC’s Songs of Praise Top Ten Hymns survey and consistently appears as one of the top songs in the CCL chart both in the UK and USA. Graham, in an interview, said of this song; “This song is a prayer for revival. A songwriter can give people words to voice something which is already in their hearts but which they don’t have the words or the tune to express, and I think ‘Shine, Jesus, shine’ caught a moment when people were beginning to believe once again that an impact could be made on a whole nation.”

1. Lord, the light of your love is shining In the midst of the darkness, shining Jesus, Light of the world, shine upon us Set us free by the truth you now bring us Shine on me, shine on me

Shine, Jesus, shine Fill this land with the Father's glory Blaze, Spirit, blaze Set our hearts on fire Flow, river, flow Flood the nations with grace and mercy Send forth your word, Lord, and let there be light

- 11 - 2. Lord, I come to your awesome presence From the shadows into your radiance By the blood I may enter your brightness Search me, try me, consume all my darkness Shine on me, shine on me

3. As we gaze on your kingly brightness So our faces display your likeness Ever changing from glory to glory Mirrored here may our lives tell your story Shine on me, shine on me

Hymn Our final hymn, ‘The Church’s one foundation’, has been chosen by Enid Jones. It was written by Samuel Stone. Samuel was born in Staffordshire in 1839. Samuel took Holy Orders and was a curate of Windsor in 1862 but he served many churches during his ministry. He wrote in excess of 50 hymns and his style was noted as being “essentially dogmatic and hopeful”

1. The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ, our Lord; she is His new creation by water and the Word. From heav’n he came and sought her to be His holy bride, with His own blood he brought her, and for her life he died.

- 12 - 2. Elect from every nation yet one o’er all the earth; our charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith, one birth; one holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food, to one hope she presses, with every grace endued.

3. Though with a scornful wonder men see her sore oppressed by schisms, rent asunder, by heresies distressed. Yet saints their watch are keeping; their cry goes up, “How long?” And soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song.

4. ‘Mid toil and tribulation, and tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace for evermore; till with the vision glorious her longing eyes are blest, and the great Church victorious shall be the Church at rest.

5. Yet she on earth have union with God, the Three in One, and mystic, sweet communion with those whose rest is won. Oh, happy ones and holy! God, give us grace that we, like them, the meek and lowly, in love may dwell with Thee.

Ending We have journeyed together through the months since March 2020 when the first lockdown began, offering Songs of Praise as one way of continuing to worship together in the isolation imposed on us. We have shared favourite hymns, learned about their authors and what was their inspiration. We have made this available through emails and our website to a much wider ‘congregation’. As restrictions are being lifted, we will eventually be able to meet together more freely. However, the future is still uncertain. For the present we are suspending the monthly Songs of Praise in this form. We pray that our experiences from the past 15 months will help us shape together the ‘new’ normal for ‘being and doing church’ not only at Glossop Parish Church of All Saints but alongside the other churches in Glossopdale.

- 13 - May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore.

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Words of hymns and songs are printed under the terms of the Christian Copyright Licence number 221802.

‘A prayer for when we have lost our way again’ by Enuma Okoro, taken from ‘A Rhythm of Prayer’ Ed. Sarah Bessey.

https://mailchi.mp/057797d7f0c6/a-songs-of-praise-style-service-to-say-sing-at-home-july-2021

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