Sundays After Pentecost
Proper 22[27] |
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Scripture | Theme | Hymns |
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Job
1:1; 2:1-10 -or- Genesis 2:18-24 |
God's Willingness to Risk; "When Bad Things Happen to Good People"
|
467 Trust and Obey 143 On Eagles Wings 512 Stand By Me 133 Leaning on the Everlasting Arms Featured Hymn 130 God Will Take Care of You *** 561 Jesus, United By Thy Grace 646 Canticle of Love (response 2) 549 Where Charity and Love Prevail 642 As Man and Woman We are Made 560 Help Us Accept Each Other Additional Suggestions |
Psalm
26
-or- |
God Honored Integrity; Steadfast in Righteousness *** Human Responsibility in Creation Human Dignity |
464 I Will Trust in The Lord 498 My Prayer Rises to Heaven *** Psalter 743, response 2 148 Many and Great, O God Additional Suggestions |
Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12 |
Jesus' Exaltation; Jesus' Humanity and Divinity |
189 Fairest
Lord Jesus 246 Joy to the World 168 At the Name of Jesus 327 Crown Him With Many Crowns 318 Christ is Alive 626 Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence Additional Suggestions |
Mark 10:2-16 | Marriage, Divorce and Children; The Example of a Little Child |
557 Blest
Be the Tie That Binds 643 When Love is Found 446 Our Parent, by Whose Name 278 Hosanna, Loud Hosanna 277 Tell Me the Stories of Jesus Additional Suggestions |
Seems only fitting, that on a Sunday when two of the Lections specifically extoll the virtues of marriage, the featured hymn should be written by a husband and wife.
Civilla Durfee Martin (1866-1948) taught school for several years and studied music briefly before marrying Walter Stillman Martin (1862-1935). She was the classic "preacher's wife," described as her husband's "helpmate" in his ministry. They were in evangelistic work together for many years, and according to Baptist Hymn lore, she "was a loyal and devoted wife, and was of great assistance to her husband in his work as teacher, evangelist and pastor." She apparently used her considerable music talents in what in modern times would be acknowledged as their joint evangelistic work.
Walter Martin was educated at Harvard, ordained a Baptist minister, later becoming a Disciples of Christ clergyman. In 1916 he was a professor of Bible at Atlantic Christian College in North Carolina. They moved to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1919 where they lived until their deaths.
Throughout their married life they traveled all over the nation holding Bible conferences and evangelistic meetings. They collaborated on the writing of a number of gospel songs.
"God Will Take Care of You," was written in 1904 when Civilla was ill and confined to bed in Lestershire, New York, where they were staying at a Bible School while Walter created a songbook for the president of the school, who was also an evangelist. She wrote the poem one Sunday afternoon while Walter was gone on a preaching assignment. When he returned she gave him the text and he immediately sat down at their Bilhorn organ and wrote the music. That very evening he and two others sang the completed song, and then it was included in the songbook Walter was compiling for the school. This songbook, Songs of Redemption and Praise, was published in 1905 by the founder of the Bible School, John A. Davis.
The tune was first called, GOD CARES. It now carries the name MARTIN, a fitting tribute to their work together.
While long a staple in evangelistic churches, revival meetings, and gospel songbooks, the song was not included in a Methodist Hymnal until 1964. Its return in the 1989 edition bears witness to its effectiveness in giving comfort to many who have borne the heavy burdens of illness, grief and hardship. Take comfort as you read the words:
1. Be not dismayed whate'er betide, God will take care of you; beneath his wings of love abide, God will take care of you. (Refrain) |
2. Through days of toil when heart doth fail, God will take care of you; when dangers fierce your path assail, God will take care of you. (Refrain) | |
3. All you may need he will provide, God will take care of you; nothing you ask will be denied, God will take care of you. (Refrain) |
4. No matter what may be the test, God will take care of you; lean, weary one, upon his breast, God will take care of you. (Refrain) | |
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Contributed by Rev. Linda K. Morgan-Clark
Job: See Index listing, "Trust" p.953; "Afliction and Tribulation"
p.934; see also Hymns 509-536 (Strength in Tribulation)
Genesis: See Index listing, "Church: Community" p.938; see also Hymns
545-566 (United in Christ)
Psalm 26: See Index listing, "Integrity" p.944
Psalm 8: See Index listing, "Creation" p.940; see also Hymns 144-152
(Creation)
See Index listing, "Love" p.947, "Weddings" p.953, "Children" p.936; see also Hymns 642-647 (Weddings)
See Index listing, "Jesus Christ: Incarnation / Lordship" p.945; see also Hymns 153-194 (In Praise of Christ), Hymns 302-327 (Resurrection and Exaltation)
God bless you!
Passages suggested are from The Revised Common Lectionary: Consultation on Common Texts (Abingdon Press, 1992) copyright © by the Consultation on Common Texts (CCT), P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville TN 37203-0003. Reprinted with permission of CCT. |