Music Spotlight! (Palm Sunday, April 10, 2022)

Palm Sunday is a Sunday of transition. It often carries us on an emotional rollercoaster from jubilation to contemplation. In the first half of worship, we celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, one week before His resurrection. In the second half, we shift our gaze towards the cross, and prepare our hearts and minds for the crucifixion. 

We begin worship with an outburst of adoration, "Hosanna!"--appropriate for the arrival of Jesus. Hosanna, Loud Hosanna" is like our Palm Sunday theme song! You'll hear it in the children's anthem, "Blessed Is He" by Tom Fettke, and you will get to sing it as the opening hymn. 

The English author Jenette Threlfall (1821-1880) had a positive outlook on life despite many struggles. At an early age, her parents died, leaving her in the care of various relatives. Two accidents severely disabled her and eventually led to bed confinement. In spite of hardship, Threlfall praises Christ as Redeemer in her hymn, "Hosanna, Loud Hosanna," from the perspective of excited children as Jesus enters the city.

In stanza one, the children sing in the temple, following Jesus’ entry into the city (Matt. 21:15). It is possible that these children are the same ones that Jesus blessed earlier in Matthew’s account when he said, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 19:13-14, KJV). The unpretentious and authentic praise of children illustrates the childlike faith that Jesus demands of those who follow him (Matt. 18:1-4). Jesus welcomed the praise of children (Matt 21:16) quoting Psalm 2:1-2 (NIV), “…through the praise of children and infants…”. [Source]

The hymn invites us into thought... Do we invite the voices of children in our worship today and help them feel welcome? How can children teach us to better share our faith and proclaim praise to God our Savior? 

We continue to focus on Jesus entering the city with "All Glory, Laud, and Honor," an incredibly ancient hymn in the Western tradition. Theodulph of Orleans wrote the Latin text in the 9th century. It was translated into English by John Mason Neale (1818-1866) and subsequently set to Melchior Teschner's 17th-century German tune. 

Interestingly, the line "To whom the lips of children Made sweet hosannas ring" is not actually Biblical. (This applies to "Hosanna... above as well.)

The accounts of Matthew and Luke include a reference to children, but these have nothing to do with children singing specifically during the triumphal entry. Matthew 21:16 notes, “Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” This mention of children takes place several verses after the narrative of the triumphal entry. [Source]

We may not find an exact account of children singing during the triumphal entry of Jesus, but, I think it within our creative license to imagine such an occurrence! It is often the little children who lead the way for us adults! 

With the Scripture readings and singing of Douglas Wagner's anthem "And No Bird Sang," we turn towards the cross. The hymn "Go to Dark Gethsemane," written by English printer James Montgomery (1771-1854), follows the sermon about Judas. 

[The hymn] takes us on a journey from the Garden of Gethsemane where we are charged to stand and watch, to the judgment hall and our denial of him, to the cross where we witness his death and his grace, and finally to his glorious resurrection and our redemption. We become part of the drama of Christ’s passion and resurrection. [Source]

I find the last line, "learn of Jesus Christ to die," especially poignant, as it reminds us of Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

During the offertory, you will hear the African-American spiritual, "Were You There?" It is not literally asking us if we were there when Jesus was crucified, but if we can "bring these historic events to bear on the now and make them part of our story." The song has been sung by African American communities for generations to protest, lament, and comfort. David Bjorlin comments... 

As mass incarceration, discriminatory drug policies, and police brutality continue to disproportionately target African Americans and other people of color, the song continues to give comfort to the oppressed that they serve a suffering Savior especially present in their suffering. Yet, it also asks those of us in privileged positions of comfort not only if we “were there” at the cross of Christ, but if we are there in the suffering of the oppressed where Christ’s cross still stands. [Source]

Our closing hymn is "My Song Is Love Unknown," by Samuel Crossman (1624-1684), an Anglican minister. The first-person perspective emotes tenderly, "O who am I, That for my sake My God should take Frail flesh and die?” The author echoes George Herbert's 1633 poem "The Sacrifice," in which each stanza concludes "Was ever grief like mine?" Crossman dares to answer that rhetorical question in his final stanza by stating "Never was grief like thine!"

As we absorb the story of Judas's betrayal this Sunday and walk through the shadows of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday this week, keep this final stanza in the back of your mind:

“Here might I stay and sing, No story so divine: Never was love, dear King, Never was grief like thine! This is my friend, In whose sweet praise I all my days Could gladly spend.”