Pentecost

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act V, Scene 2, Hamlet says to Horatio, “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will.” Hamlet’s statement reflects the notion that our lives are shaped by both a divine influence and by human agency. No matter how hard we try to control it, simply put, there is a higher power that has a say in our lives. Pentecost is a moment in our liturgical calendar where we recognize that truth, manifested in God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, or to use Rite I language, the Holy Ghost.

When I was in my early 20s, I became friends with an organ builder and technician named Grahame Davis. He is Australian by birth and an Anglican by right, and when he was doing work in Phoenix, he and I would often meet for dinner and conversation. He is a bit of a casual philosopher, and our conversations covered a wide range of topics. Over the course of the evening, he would always remark, at least once, the following expression, “Ah, Homer, you see that is the work of Missy Spirit.” Grahame likes to use a feminine title when referring to the Holy Spirit as a balance to the more traditional masculine descriptors of the divine. I, too, have adopted this practice. The women in my life seem to share a deeper wisdom and my experience as a married man confirms time and time again, that my wife is always right. So, while Grahame’s determination of the work of the Holy Spirit was wide ranging, it was his comfort in recognizing the Holy Spirit that integrated into my own psyche. 

It is in John 14 that Jesus promises the Holy Spirit, a helper, an advocate, who will be with us forever. The evidence of this gift is more clearly defined in the opening chapters of the extension of Luke the Evangelist’s Gospel, otherwise known as the Book of Acts. While I may not subscribe to the biblical interpretations that those of the Pentecostal movement of the early 20th century embraced, I enjoy the yearly celebration and the study of the mystery of Pentecost, and I take great comfort in the last words of the Gospel of St. Matthew: “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” 

It is that knowledge, that confirmation, as outlined in the stories of Pentecost, that brings peace to me, to you, and to all who walk in “the way.” This week, I witnessed the knitting of men and women, boys and girls, into community through the work of the Holy Spirit. On Wednesday, the members and families of the Cherub Choir and the Choristers gathered for an end of the programmatic year pool party at Pinehurst Country Club. For four and a half hours, we played and laughed and ate and conversed. Through our choirs, the Holy Spirit has formed an extended community, one that surpasses just a single moment in time. I was reminded of that on Wednesday, as our time of relationships, ideas, love, and fellowship included Adrien Lammers, a Pinehurst Country Club employee who, as a child, sang as a chorister at Emmanuel. 

On Thursday, members of the Red Door Ringers and their families gathered at Brixx Pizza. Marilyn Neely organized the event, but it was one that formed out of the deep need of that community of musicians to be together, even though our weekly rehearsals are suspended in the summertime. There were more than 25 people sharing a meal and laughing in joy. I was seated at one end of the table, having a conversation with Sandy, the wife of our newest handbell ringer Tom. She told me her story of her recent health struggles, and the miracles worked by those at the new FirstHealth Cancer Center. As she spoke, I could see in the background of my vision the many conversations taking place at that long table. As she told her story, I thought of the people I know who were foundational in the development of the new cancer center. I thought of the people I know who volunteer there or work there or have received care there. As all these thoughts about interconnectedness swirled in my mind, I felt that even though I was in the moment, I was observing it from the outside too. I smiled and thought of Grahame. The work of “Missy Spirit.”

“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will.” This Sunday we will don our red attire and celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit. We will recognize the movements of the divine in our lives. While we may not speak in tongues, we will certainly sing of the Spirit. In that celebration, we will sing hymns specific to the feast. As we worship, may you find the following information about Sunday’s hymnody as a way to deepen your spirit this Sunday.

The opening hymn, #505 O Spirit of Life, O Spirit of God, is a text that comes from the German Lutheran tradition, first appearing in 1651 in the third collection of the Lutherischen Handbüchlein. Wilhelm Nelle considers this hymn among the best and most powerful of the Pentecost hymns of its day. The translation that appears in The Hymnal 1982 is by John Caspar Mattes and first appeared in the Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church, published in Philadelphia in 1917. The tune first appeared in Auserlesene Catholische Geistliche Kirchengesäng in 1623. Johann Sebastian Bach included this tune in a 1736 publication for which he served as editor. It is best known by many Americans because of its association with a text often used at Christmas, “O little one sweet, O little one mild.”

Sunday’s gradual hymn is #516 Come down, O Love divine. The hymn comprises three of the four stanzas that R. F. Littledale included in The People’s Hymnal (London, 1867), prepared for Anglicans who felt, as he did, that they might benefit from many Roman Catholic teachings and practices without quitting their own church. The tune DOWN AMPNEY was composed to these words by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and is so named for Vaughan William’s birthplace. Today deemed a masterpiece, the tune has a very satisfying rhythmical structure typical of the composer, with the poise of the longer notes in the short lines and the sweep of melody in the long lines. 

In addition to two Pentecost themed choral anthems, the choir will assist in leading the congregation in the singing of two other Pentecost hymns during the distribution of communion. To conclude the service, our recessional hymn will be #511 Holy Spirit, ever living. The music for this hymn is the tune ABBOT’S LEIGH, one of the most successful English tunes to appear since World War II. Canon Cyril Vincent Taylor, a priest of the Anglican Church, composed the tune on a Sunday morning in 1941, while Assistant to the Head of Religious Broadcasting of the BBC in their wartime headquarters in Abbot’s Leigh, a village across the Clifton suspension bridge from Bristol, England. The tune was originally conceived to be sung to the hymn, “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken.” That hymn had usually been sung to the tune AUSTRIAN HYMN (Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser), but since the national anthem of then-enemy Germany was also sung to that tune, new music was needed in wartime Britain.

ABBOT’S LEIGH first appeared in the United States in the American Presbyterian Worshipbook (Philadelphia, 1972) and has subsequently been included in almost every major internationally used English-language hymnal. Erik Routley writes of the tune as:

The archetypal example of a hymn tune taught to the whole of Britain through broadcasting. Its secret, which gives it a sort of timeless authority that makes one feel as soon as one has heard it that one knew it all one’s life, comes from the fact that its composer remembered what it was like to be in a pew singing. It has exactly the kind of universal appeal that one attributes to Dykes’ NICAEA (Holy, Holy, Holy), and for the same reason.

The tune is also used for #379 God is Love, let heaven adore him and #523 Glorious things of thee are spoken. Other hymns texts now commonly sung to the same tune also include, “Father Lord of all creation”, “God is here”, “Go My children, with my Blessing”, and “Lord, you give the great commission.”

Dr. Homer A. Ferguson III

Organist & Choirmaster