Wedding Hymn

As more couples want congregational singing at their nuptials, here's one you might suggest and/or encourage. It's designed with straight-forward language set to a tune that everybody knows ("Joyful, joyful..."), so only the text needs to be printed.

I did this for the wedding of dear friend Goeun (Lee) to Everett Minshall in the James Chapel at Union Seminary in New York in January 2019.

I decided a year later it was time to post it. I had to change one line; see parenthesis.

Wedding Hymn

Text: R. G. Rg Huff

Tune: HYMN TO JOY

With great joy and celebration

we have gathered in this place,

standing here with friends and fam’ly   (on this day in January)

in this holy, sacred space.

Come, Creator of all beauty,

of all music, craft and art.

Play your music, paint your portrait

clearly in each open heart.

Bless the two who stand before us

now to join their lives as one.

Give them hope for bright tomorrows;

may your will in them be done.

Ever shine your light upon them

in your mercy, by your pow’r.

Hear these vows, these words, this music,

ev’ry promise made this hour.

(Interlude)

 

Heart of God, with love surround us,

here embrace us as we sing.

Smile upon us, show your favor,

harmony and pleasure bring.

Source of love, O fount of goodness,

keep this couple ever true;

with respect for one another,

hold them ever close to you.

Amen.

© 2019 by WorshipRx.com

Permission granted for duplication and use

"Come, peasant, king to own him. The King of kings salvation brings. Let loving hearts enthrone him."

Rubens - "Adoration of the Magi"

Carol: “What Child Is This?” – William C. Dix (1827-1898)
Tune: GREENSLEEVES

This hymnline from a familiar carol does three things:
    1. It calls everyone from every social strata to believe that “this, this is Christ the King.”
    2. It tells us that THIS King comes bearing salvation from the throne of his Father.
    3. It inspires all people whose hearts are capable of loving to make a place in their hearts for the King to sit enthroned – in control.

I’d like to do that as we celebrate the Epiphany season (the arrival of the Magi). I would call everybody everywhere to forget about their ‘place’ in this world’s societal hierarchy to come to Jesus… to take ownership of their place in the Kingdom. I’d like to remind them that this salvation is brought to them as a free gift from the hand of Almighty God through the pierced hands of his Redeeming Son. Then I would encourage them to invite Christ into their heart as controller of their thoughts and actions; I might even go off-season here with another hymn text: “If you are tired of the load of your sin, let Jesus come into your heart.”

I’ve never cared for canned evangelistic presentations: those ‘plan of salvation’ gimmicks. But in this case, these three sentences from a Christmas carol give us an outline for leading people into the Kingdom… moving them from darkness to light, from death to life.


Hear violin solo on this tune by Lindsey Stirling

"Deep within our hearts now shine; there light a flame undying."

Carol: “O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright” – Words & Music by Philip Nicolai (1556-1608)
Tune: WIE SCHON LEUCHET (Harmonized by J. S. Bach)

Now that Christmas Day has moved past us, as move into Epiphany, this old German carol seems an appropriate text to land on. Cherished by Lutherans, this may be one with which you are not all that familiar… as has been true with many things during the Advent/Christmas seasons – because there’s such a vast amount of hymnody attached to these times of the Christian calendar.

The first lines of this carol read as follows:
    "O Morning Star, how fair and bright!
    You shine with God’s own truth and light,
    Aglow with grace and mercy."

Sometimes used as one of the anticipation songs of Advent, this one often looks back at the fair and bright Christ child, calling on us to look at the visage of the newborn King. If we approach today’s hymnline (from the second stanza) in that way – as looking into the Baby’s face – we may “see” him from a different angle.

From the second stanza:
     "Come heavenly brightness, Light divine
      And deep within our hearts now shine.
     There light a flame undying."
              [or "There make yourself an altar."]

After all the hoopla of Christmas, this hymnline is also a great prayer to face the new year. If indeed Christ shone brightly at the center of who we are – that part that controls us – becoming in us an undying flame, we SHOULD be better people for it, shouldn’t we?

The flame is already aglow. Perhaps it needs some fanning!

A men’s group sings only the first stanza

A Paul Manz organ setting

"So may we with holy joy... all our costliest treasures bring, Christ, to thee."

Matthias Stom - "Adoration of the Magi"

Carol: “As with Gladness Men of Old” – William C. Dix (1837-1898)
Common Tune: DIX

We're still in the season of Epiphany - that time in the church year when we talk about Magi, wise men, travelers from afar, etc. We are still fascinated with this scripturally un-numbered group’s seeking of the Christ Child. Part of that fascination comes from the fact that they must have been people of great means to make this long trek from east Asia; after all, we’ve learned from pictures that they traveled with quite the entourage… like the Crawley family at Downton Abbey! We’re also caught up in their star-gazing hobby or profession that actually panned out for them; they studied the star alignments and deciphered their meaning… ultimately leading them to the prophesied One whose star had gone before them. If you are like me, you may be enamored of their desire to worship the King born at Bethlehem in the land of Judah.

We like their haggling with Herod, their continuing their search, their being warned in a dream, etc. But most of all, we marvel at the moment when their worship culminates in their bowing down on their faces before the Christ Child, offering their costliest treasures. It’s one of the most awe-invoking moments in the telling of the birth event – maybe in all of scripture!

When we make our offerings with holy joy – not begrudgingly or by force – then it truly is an act of pure worship: nothing held back. As we sing this carol, we are saying that we want to be true worshipers like the Magi – people who go to great lengths to find God, and who act appropriately and generously when he is found.

Many times after we have that kind of close encounter of the highest kind, we are led by “another way” for our own protection and our own good.


Hear this carol from an English cathedral 

"Ours the path of faith, not fear."

In case you need to sing your way into 2020...

If you're not a music reader, this tune is "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing."