Where have I heard that one?
Choosing music for worship is both my favorite and least favorite task. I love when it goes well, and it’s clear that I’ve chosen the best option both for the message of the sermon, the familiarity and immediacy of the piece, and its execution during worship. Having said that, it’s awful when I realize half way through the message, or the reading, or whatever I actually chose, that some other piece (or pieces) would have been equally as good or better.
Having said all of that, Chancel Choir will present some glorious music on Sunday, November 16th that will hopefully hit the bullseye. As I was preparing for that service, I read the scripture that was appointed as part of the sermon series and immediately asked myself the question at the top of this article – “where have I heard that one?”
Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
I’ve sung that, but where and when? Actually it’s been a couple of times. I first sang it in the bass section of the Boston University Symphonic Chorus directed by Dr. Ann Howard Jones. We performed the “Dona Nobis Pacem” composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams, a large-scale work for choir and orchestra based on text of the ordinary of the Latin Mass, poetry of Walt Whitman and John Bright, and wisdom from the Old Testament, including the sentence above from the 9th Chapter of Hagaii. Since that time I’ve taught and performed it as a staff member of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists’ Vocal Program and watched a chorus of people lots younger than me grapple with the piece. Though more than a decade transpired between those two performances (and a couple more since), it continues to seem like a necessity – that we who can should beg for peace.
Chancel will be joined by Chad Sonka, baritone, and Shelby VanNordstrand, soprano, both members of the voice faculty at Iowa State, along with our beautiful opus 1357 Reuter pipe organ which has seen six decades of our mere human attempts to worship, beg for peace, and bring a bit of heaven on earth.
Open to me the gates of righteousness, I will go into them.
Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled; and let them hear, and say, it is the truth.
And it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues.
And they shall come and see my glory. And I will set a sign among them, and they shall declare my glory among the nations.
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, so shall your seed and your name remain for ever.’
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward all.
