Blow the trumpet in Zion;

sound the alarm on my holy hill.

Let all who live in the land tremble,

for the day of the Lord is coming.

It is close at hand.

Come, let us worship God.

—based on Joel 2:1, NIV

The Lord be with you.

As we enter this season of Advent,

may the love of God the Father, and the grace of Jesus the Son,

and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be and abide with us all.

O God,

you give us your good news

and call us into a new covenant relationship with you.

Help us to prepare the way of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let the valleys be lifted up!

[Silent prayer]

Through humble people, prepare your world, O God.

Let the mountains be leveled off!

[Silent prayer]

Through faithful people, prepare your world, O God.

Let the crooked be made straight!

[Silent prayer]

Through saved people, prepare your world, O God.

Let the rough be made smooth!

[Silent prayer]

Through sanctified people, prepare your world, O God.

Let all people see the salvation of our God.

[Silent prayer]

Keep us humble and faithful.

Save us and sanctify us, O God.

The days are surely coming, says the Lord,

when I will fulfill the promise I made

to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

In those days and at that time I will cause

a righteous Branch to spring up for David;

and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety.

And this is the name by which it will be called:

“The Lord is our righteousness.”

People of God: Jesus Christ, our Lord,

whose coming we announce in this season, is our righteousness.

In Christ, we are made right with God.

—based on Jeremiah 33:14-16, NRSV

O King of nations,

your reign spreads through all the lands,

you defend the cause of the poor

and plead for the wretched of the earth.

Fashion us into an obedient people,

that we may spread the good news

of your reign of perfect peace and justice,

until all creation will finally rejoice in your perfect will,

until all bend the knee to the King of kings and Lord of lords,

in whose name we pray, even Jesus Christ, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Covenant God,

you heard your people yearning for a Savior.

Thank you for sending your Son so long ago.

We now rehearse your promise

that Christ will come again,

that death and suffering will end

and every tear will be wiped away.

Come, Lord Jesus, come.

As you fulfilled Israel’s hopes long ago,

so we long for all these promises to be fulfilled. Amen.

Shaped in rounded bar form (AABA), FOREST GREEN has the cheerful characteristics of folk tunes. Those characteristics help to support the humanness of this text: We are to be the children (folk) of God! Sing in unison or in harmony, but given the tune's many eighth notes, do not rush. Congregations used to certain rhythmic patterns in hymn tunes will be challenged by the new rhythms at the transition from line 3 to line 4; accompanists should give leadership there. 

Also commonly known by the Latin title “Benedictus,” this is one of the Lukan canticles that the Christian church has used for matins (morning prayers), given Zechariah’s reference to “the rising sun.” Ralph Vaughan Williams turned an old ballad melody into this cheerful hymn tune in the English Hymnal (1906).

 

The tune FOREST GREEN is a traditional English tune associated with several texts, including “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” Its AABA form makes it simple to learn, and the moving eighth notes infuse it with joy. At the end of the third line, watch for the two half notes—not the dotted half and a quarter one might expect. Play with a hopeful bounce. For a descant, see Sing! A New Creation (Faith Alive Christian Resources, 2002), #104.

 

Carl P. Daw, Jr. (b. Louisville, KY, 1944) is the son of a Baptist minister. He holds a PhD degree in English (University of Virginia) and taught English from 1970-1979 at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia. As an Episcopal priest (MDiv, 1981, University of the South, Sewanee, Tennesee) he served several congregations in Virginia, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. From 1996-2009 he served as the Executive Director of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada. Carl Daw began to write hymns as a consultant member of the Text committee for The Hymnal 1982, and his many texts often appeared first in several small collections, including A Year of Grace: Hymns for the Church Year (1990); To Sing God’s Praise (1992), New Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1996), Gathered for Worship (2006). Other publications include A Hymntune Psalter (2 volumes, 1988-1989) and Breaking the Word: Essays on the Liturgical Dimensions of Preaching (1994, for which he served as editor and contributed two essays. In 2002 a collection of 25 of his hymns in Japanese was published by the United Church of Christ in Japan. His current project is preparing a companion volume to Glory to God, the 2013 hymnal of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  

 

Through his composing, conducting, collecting, editing, and teaching, Ralph Vaughan Williams (b. Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, England, October 12, 1872; d. Westminster, London, England, August 26, 1958) became the chief figure in the realm of English music and church music in the first half of the twentieth century. His education included instruction at the Royal College of Music in London and Trinity College, Cambridge, as well as additional studies in Berlin and Paris. During World War I he served in the army medical corps in France. Vaughan Williams taught music at the Royal College of Music (1920-1940), conducted the Bach Choir in London (1920-1927), and directed the Leith Hill Music Festival in Dorking (1905-1953). A major influence in his life was the English folk song. A knowledgeable collector of folk songs, he was also a member of the Folksong Society and a supporter of the English Folk Dance Society. Vaughan Williams wrote various articles and books, including National Music (1935), and composed numerous arrange­ments of folk songs; many of his compositions show the impact of folk rhythms and melodic modes. His original compositions cover nearly all musical genres, from orchestral symphonies and concertos to choral works, from songs to operas, and from chamber music to music for films. Vaughan Williams's church music includes anthems; choral-orchestral works, such as Magnificat (1932), Dona Nobis Pacem (1936), and Hodie (1953); and hymn tune settings for organ. But most important to the history of hymnody, he was music editor of the most influential British hymnal at the beginning of the twentieth century, The English Hymnal (1906), and coeditor (with Martin Shaw) of Songs of Praise (1925, 1931) and the Oxford Book of Carols (1928).