August 23, 2020, 12th Sunday after Pentecost

This Sunday’s prelude is on the hymn tune Finlandia. Some might know this as the hymn tune of “Be Still, My Soul.” Others might think of Jean Sibelius’s orchestral tone poem. Please listen to this work here. The intensity of the brass rivals the brass role in Holst’s “Mars” from The Planets. But if you keep listening, a hymn emerges. This tune has been used for a few different hymns (“Be Still, My Soul,” “This Is My Song,” among others) and has been suggested many times as the national anthem of Finland. I find the tune to be uplifting, especially after the music leading up to it in the full work.

Our sequence hymn which will follow the reading from Romans is a familiar one -- “The Church’s One Foundation.” The hymn celebrates unity in Christ --
                        For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function,
                          so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.
​                                                                                                                                                                   Romans 12:4-5

​The hymn tune Chelsea Square with descant will conclude the service. The accompanying text from “Put Forth O God thy Spirit’s Might” encourages us to carry our light into the world.