Palm Sunday

March 16, 2008 was Palm Sunday, that Sunday one week before Easter on which the church has traditionally celebrated the triumphal entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem. For Year A (for those not familiar with the Lectionary, there is a 3 year cycle of scripture readings labeled Year A, B, and C.) in the Revised Common Lectionary, Matthew 21:1-11 is the Gospel passage that tells the story of this event.

However, I would like to focus on the Psalm reading for the day: Psalm 118:1-2,19-29.

This Psalm begins and ends with the same ascription of Thanksgiving:

O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever. Psalm 118:1

O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Psalm 118:29

Within this Psalm we find the verse that gives us the clue to the reason this passage was selected as a Palm Sunday reading. Verse 26a states: Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

But within this text, we find hints also of the sacrifice that is to come:

- For thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation. (vs. 21)

- The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. (vs. 22)

- Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord. (vs. 25) This appears to be the translation of the Hebrew "Hosanna" - yasha` 'anna' (from the BlueLetterBible).

- Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar. (vs. 27)

And, in the midst of this Psalm of praise and salvation, we find a very familiar text: This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. (vs. 24)

So, we find this Palm Sunday is a day of joy and gladness - a day of celebration and a day of looking forward both to the sacrifice of Christ for our salvation that would occur just a few days later and to the day when Christ appears again in glory and power, when once again He will be hailed as king - King of kings and Lord of lords.

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On this Palm Sunday, I had the privilege of leading the Adult Choir of First Baptist Church, Jefferson, Georgia in three anthems - a mini-musical of sorts. First and most related to the Palm Sunday gospel text we sang the traditional anthem "The Palms" by Faure and arranged by Dudley Buck. Secondly, we recognized the significance of this day as Passion Sunday (hopefully my next posting) by singing the much loved anthem "Written in Red," introduced by reading John 3:16-17. Finally, we closed this portion of the service by reading Psalm 24:7-10 that begins: Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in, folowed by the anthem "Crown Him." I was very proud of the choir and their presentation of this portion of the gospel/good news story.

May we find ourselves always blessing our Lord for the great things He has done for us.

In Christ,
Richard

Good ... and Behind

It is Easter Sunday and I feel I must wish my readers a Happy, Joyous Easter before it passes.

Of course I am behind on my posting, but I do still hope to comment on this past week - Holy Week. It has been a very full week and many wonderful things happened, especially with the choir (this is Music Musings!).

One of my greatest joys is to announce the good news on Easter and I again had that opportunity in our sunrise service this morning. So, one more time before this day comes to an end:

Christ is risen! - He is risen indeed!
CHRIST IS RISEN! - HE IS RISEN INDEED!
CHRIST IS RISEN! - HE IS RISEN INDEED!

And that dear reader is VERY GOOD NEWS!

Blessings,
Richard

The Train Whistle

Imagine you are standing at the station amid the hustle and bustle and then your ears catch a faint sound - are you sure - can it be? Yes, there it is again and clearer than before. You know the train is almost there because you can hear the whistle.

With the text for this past Sunday (again my apologies), we hear the whistle that alerts us that we are almost to the celebration of Christ's death and resurrection. With a different analogy, it is a preview of things to come.

Psalm 130 tells us that there is forgiveness and hope.

A Song of Ascents. Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
(Psa 130:1-8)

You did notice the similar analogy of the watchman waiting for the dawn!

Then in the Old Testament passage of Ezekiel 37:1-14, we have the familiar passage of the dry bones being brought back to life. If there is hope for bones, there is certainly hope for us. This is matched with the Epistle reading from Romans 8:6-11 where we read that it is the Spirit who gives life.

And finally, the Gospel reading of John 11:1-45 gives us the grand preview with the story of the raising of Lazarus - the dead brought back to life - the look ahead to the resurrection of Christ and then through Him our own resurrection from the death of sin and our entrance into eternal life.

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This Sunday, our pastor, Cary Hilliard was back from his trip to Israel, and in keeping with our Lenten theme - deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me - he brought a message on "setting your face to Jerusalem" from Luke 9:51 entitled "A Pilgrim's Progress."

Again, we find that look ahead, that feeling of anticipatiton about what is to occur.

The choir sang a wonderful anthem, "Even the Heavens Are Weeping" by Joseph M. Martin that emphasized both in the text and the music the emotional impact of Christ's sacrifice for us.

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May God bless as we set our faces toward Jerusalem anticipating the great revelation of God's grace, mercy, and love demonstrated through the cross and the empty tomb.

Blessings,
Richard

The Light of Hope

As I read through the passages for the 4th Sunday in Lent, as always I look for a connecting theme. On first reading there did not seem to be a unifying thread in the readings, but then I realized that each of the passages deals with the hope that there is light in the darkness.

Lent is a time of reflection, a time to recognize our sinfulness and our need for a Savior and here about half way through this season, hope is introduced. It really is a good time for this to appear as we might possibly, if we are honest with ourselves, begin to foster despair.

The Old Testament reading of 1 Samuel 16:1-13 is about the selection of David as the next king of Israel. In those dark, early days of Israel when God had removed His Spirit from King Saul, Samuel is sent to find and anoint a young man who would be a man after God's own heart. A man who would lead Israel into its brightest days. A man who would be the ancestor, by human descent, of our Lord Jesus - the very Light of lights in our sin darkened world.

Psalm 23, although primarily about the Lord being our shepherd includes the passage about God's presence as we go through that dark valley of the shadow of death and the hope that is ours eternally as we deal in the presence of God forever.

The Gospel passage, John 9:1-41, tells us about the man born blind. Jesus gave him sight, taking away the darkness of his world, causing great consternation for the religious leaders of the day, especially when Jesus declared that they themselves were blind because they would not see. This scripture also contains one of the great I AM statements of Christ: I am the Light of the world!

Paul, in the Epistle reading of Ephesians 5:8-14, writes about Christians, once in the darkness of sin, are now light in the Lord and need to walk as children of light having no fellowship with the world of darkness, but reproving it instead. He issues the call: awake, rise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.

On this 4th Sunday, the choir sang (apologies for the tardiness of this article) an arrangement of a "chorus" from just a few years ago, "Here I Am to Worship." I selected this anthem for this time because of "the bridge" - "I never knew how much it cost to see my sin upon the cross." As we consider the First Baptist Church, Jefferson Lenten theme: deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Christ, we have to recognize that we could never die for our own sins and satisfy the righteousness of God. The cost for our sin was not our own death, but the death of Christ who took our sin upon Himself as He hung on the cross and died.

Christ is not the light at the end of our tunnel - He is the Light in our tunnel. The hope that He offers in our darkness is such that our only real response is to put aside our self, take up our cross - our means of death, and follow Him regardless of the road or the destination - in this we find ourselves worshipping Him.

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As our pastor is away completing his trip to Israel, once again Dr. Todd Wilson is our guest preacher. His sermon, "A Disciple or Just One of the Crowd" based on the texts from Matthew 8:18-22 ("I will follow, but ...) and Matthew 13:24-30 (tares sown among wheat) also reinforces the need to examine ourselves - am I truly a disciple (have I denied my self, taken up my cross, following Jesus) or am I just one of the "fickle" crowd who come for any number of reasons.

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Despair because of our sin?

No. Christ is our Light; He is our Hope. Let us follow Him as His disciples.

Blessings,
Richard

How's Your Heart?

On this third Sunday of Lent, we look in on the people of Israel as they journey from Egypt to Canaan and we find them at a place that would be named Massah and Meribah. Here they found no water and true to form they began to grumble and complain. The Old Testament passage in Exodus 17:1-7 bluntly states that by complaining they were actually tempting the LORD.

Psalm 95 begins with the exhortation to sing to the LORD; to come before Him with thanksgiving, making a joyful noise; to come worship and bow down. But, it ends with the admonition to not harden our hearts as in the day of provocation, a reference to the Exodus passage. The grumbling and complaining of the people was evidence of a hard heart.

Then, John 4:5-42 relates the story of a woman who could have had a hard heart, but in her conversation with Jesus, it was softened to the point of belief and salvation that led to a vibrant witness to God's mercy and love. It is the story of the Samaritan woman that Jesus met at the well.

Finally, although the trials, troubles, and temptations of our life could lead us to hardened hearts, the epistle reading in Romans 5:1-11 tells us that the alternate route is for tribulations to work patience, which brings experience, and results in hope.

This final passage is rich in that it uses several of the big, theologically rich words of our faith like justified, reconciled, and atonement. The big three are also found in this passage: faith, hope, and love. And we must not fail to notice the trinitarian nature of the passage with the mention of all three persons of the Godhead: God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

The passage also contains that verse that shows us the vastness of God's love for us:

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

So, as we journey with Christ to the crucifixion during this lenten season, how are our hearts? Are they hardened with grumbling, griping, and complaining, not recognizing the goodness of our Creator God, or are they soft and moldable so that we can receive and experience all that God has for us through the riches of His Son, Jesus?

As we come together in our journey this Sunday, let us lift our eyes to the cross of Calvary and realize that the cross we see and the amazing love portrayed there demand of us our soul, our life, our all. Listen carefully as the choir presents "The Wondrous Cross" a setting of the text of "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" using an Appalachian Folk Melody arranged by Lee Poquette.

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In the absence of our pastor, Cary Hilliard, who is experiencing the wonders of traveling to Israel, Dr. G. Todd Wilson will be presenting the message. Dr. Wilson who is a former pastor at First Baptist Church, Jefferson will be using as his text Acts 20:7-12 and entitling his message, "Sleeping During the Sermon" - we probably should plan to stay awake for this one (SMILE).

Blessings,
Richard

Words from the Past

In going through some items in the cleaning process, I found the following article that I had written many years ago. The thoughts are still appropriate and still of interest, so with the idea of preservation I present them here (with paragraph editing - for some reason, I didn't divide the article into paragraphs back then):

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Dear People...

Why do I like new songs?

Ladies, suppose your husband came home from work for the last 25 years, kissed you at the door, and said, "I love you!"

Now suppose one day he came home at lunch, handed you a rose, and said, "I love you!" It wouldn't make the other way less special, but it would probably make your fountain bubble.

Old songs are wonderful. They speak to my heart and even sometimes give me goosebumps, but sometimes they get so familiar that I don't really pay attention to them. But a new song allows me to say the same thing (or hear the same thing) in a fresh way. My mind becomes more alert and again the truth of God's love and the foundations of our faith are revealed to me.

I love the old songs - they are part of my heritage - but I also love the new songs.

"O sing unto the LORD a new song." (Psalm 96:1)

Blessings,
Richard

Which Way?

In the Old Testament reading for this, the second Sunday of Lent, God tells Abram to get out, to leave, and go to a land that He would show him (Genesis 12:1-4a). God made great promises and the passage ends with Abram's obedience: "so Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him."

The Epistle reading is Romans 4:1-5, 13-17, in which we are told that Abraham's belief was counted as righteousness. Abraham believed, acting in obedience, showing us that the way to travel is by faith and not by works - the promise is not through the law, but through faith.

Psalm 121, a song of ascents or degrees, is believed to be a song that the pilgrims of that day would sing as they approached ("went up to") Jerusalem - a song for the journey. The promise of God portrayed by this psalm is that He is the protector and provider for this journey of life that we find ourselves on.

And then, in the Gospel reading (John 3:1-17), we find the story of Nicodemus, who was told that the journey begins with a new life and that it is because of God's love:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

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So, as we look again at our Lenten theme of "denying ourself, taking up our cross, and following Jesus," we see that this journey began in the heart of God with His love and we enter it and live it by faith. We also recognize that it comes with the promise of God for His provision and protection.

Specifically, this Sunday, we find Christ's own promise for the journey:

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)

The choir supports this message by singing a setting of this text, "Come to Me, All Who Labor" from 1975 by John Purifoy.

Which way? By faith!

Blessings,
Richard

Lent, Love, & Self-Denial

This Sunday is the first Sunday of Lent (2008) on "the church" calendar.

Although a season generally not mentioned among Baptists, it like Advent provides the individual with an opportunity to examine himself/herself in the light of Who God is. For Lent, we recognize our sinfulness and recognize the great love of God, Who gave Himself for us on the cross of Calvary.

For this Sunday, the scripture readings found in the Lectionary are:

(1) Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 - Adam & Eve make that fateful choice that brings sin upon mankind.

(2) Psalm 32 - David's great cry of confession and recognition of God's blessing of forgiveness.

(3) Romans 5:12-19 - As death reigned through the offence of one man, so through the righteousness of One came justification of life.

(4) Matthew 4:1-11 - The temptation of Jesus by the devil.

How fitting as we begin this season of Lent that the celebration of love (St. Valentine's Day) follows by just a few days. We know from scripture that love is of God for God is Love. So, on this first Sunday of Lent, the choir sings "God Loves" by Phillip Langrave.

In the first stanza, we acknowledge God's love in sending His Son, Jesus and working His work of love through Him so that even I, though undeserving of His love, can know His love and be set free by it.

Then, in the second stanza, we sing of our need to love God in return for His great love and to show that love in all of our life: "in what I think, in what I do, in how I live."

And finally, there is a world that needs to know of this great love. How awesome that God would use the time and talents that He has given us in such a way that our very lifes should bear witness to those who are lost in sin and that His love through us can show that He cares for them. Yes, God loves!

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So, we come at last to the Lenten Theme for First Baptist Church, Jefferson, Georgia: Take Up Thy Cross.

For this first Sunday of Lent the scripture reading is the passage that contains those very words: Matthew 16:24-27

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul.

For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

And in the sermon, we are challenged by the words of Jesus that he who would be great, must be a servant.

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How is God to use us as His servant, His conduit of love unless we deny ourself, take up our cross, and follow Him?

Blessings,
Richard

The Majesty and Glory of Your Name

Sometimes you think you know someone and then, at some instant in time, you realize that you didn't truly know them at all. Imagine with me how Peter must have felt that day.

Peter "knew" that Jesus was special; different shall we say. Peter knew that Jesus could heal the sick, blind, and lame - even raise the dead. Peter knew that Jesus could feed a vast multitude of people with just a few loaves and fish. Peter even knew that Jesus could walk on water and calm a storm with just a word. Why, Peter even "knew" that Jesus was the Messiah. But, on this day, Peter was challenged with the realization that he didn't really know Jesus at all.

Together, Jesus, Peter, James, and John climbed the mountain, then suddenly Jesus' appearance was changed - He was shining with a glory far beyond any earthly glow. And with Him appeared Moses and Elijah - the apostles were looking at a heavenly scene.

Peter, not knowing how to handle this new revelation, talked of building 3 tabernacles to honor the three. Then there was the Voice, the Voice that spoke out of the cloud - the cloud of glory with images of the dedication of Solomon's temple, where those who ministered could no longer stand - and said, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; hear Him."

Jesus was not only Peter's Master and Friend. "Messiah" and "Son of God" were no longer words of a Spirit revelation. Jesus was revealed positively to be God, the Creator, the Lord of life and death. This was so life changing that years later, Peter wrote of this startling revelation:

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. (2 Peter 1:16-18)

This coming Sunday is Transfiguration Sunday on "the church calendar." The Adult Choir of First Baptist Church, Jefferson, Georgia is scheduled to sing the contemporary classic by Tom Fettke "The Majesty and Glory of Your Name."

With this anthem, we recognize and acknowledge the majesty, glory, and authority that Christ had from the Beginning. Christ is the Creator of heaven and earth, yet in all of His glory, He was mindful of man. He has shown His love for man by becoming lower than the angels, becoming a bond slave, giving Himself in death on a cross that you and I, mere humans in comparison with the great God of glory, might know Him and dwell with Him eternally.

What else can we say but "Alleluia! - Praise the Lord!"

O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Psalm 8:1-9

Blessings,
Richard

Schedules Galore

Dear People,

I thought it might be helpful to post some of the schedules that I am working from in planning our worship at First Baptist Church, Jefferson, GA. All are in .pdf format and therefore require that your computer have Adobe Reader which most computers have on them and which is available as a free download from Adobe.com.

I have included Pastor Cary's Sermon Themes (please note that all schedules posted are tentative and subject to change at any time). It would enhance your worship experience if you are able to read the posted scripture passages each week and prepare your hearts through prayer.

Also included are the First Quarter of 2008 Anthem Schedule and the Solo Schedule.

I hope that these schedules will aid you in your planning and in your worship experience.

Blessings,
Richard

Opening Statement

In this blog, I hope to post items relating to the music ministry at the church I currently serve, as well as tidbits and musings about the music that we will be singing and sharing.
Blessings,
Richard