Voices Found: Singing of Jerusalem

 

Voices Found #157

A Song of Jerusalem Our Mother

All you who love Jerusalem, be

glad and share her cheer. all you who mourn for 

her sad state will have no cause for fear.

For God has said, my peace will flow, and 

treasures of the earth.  Like banks of waters

past their fill, her comfort will pour forth.

Her gentle arms will cradle you, as

mother comforts child.  Your heart will sing as

you grow strong, like grasses in the wild.

Words: Patricia B. Clark, para.

 Music: Edmonton, from Harmonica Sacra, ca. 1760

Reflection:

Psalm 147:7-14 is appointed for Proper 6 (closest to June 15) in The Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church, by Wilda C. Gafney.

Psalm 147 offers a  reflection on the "Song of Jerusalem Our Mother."  Gafney's rendering of this Psalm  begs for a musical setting.  Composers, take note!

Sing to the Glorious One with Thanksgiving:

make melody to our God on the lyre.

She covers the heavens with clouds,

she provides rain for the earth,

she makes grass grow on the hills.

She gives to the animals their food,

and to the raven chicks when they cry.

Not in strength of the horse is her delight,

nor is her pleasure in human thighs.

The Holy One of Old takes pleasure in those who revere her,

in those who hope in her faithful love.

Praise the Ever-Living God, O Jerusalem!

Praise your God, O Zion!

For she strengthens the bars of your gates;

she blesses your children within you.

She sets peace at your border;

she satisfies you with the finest wheat.

Meditation:

Mark 6:30-44 is also appointed for Proper 6 B: 

Then taking the five loaves and the two fish Jesus looked up to heavens and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples to set before everyone, and  he divided the two fish among them all.  So all ate and were filled.  And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fish.  Now there were five thousand men who had eaten the loaves.  (Mark 6: 41-44.

In her notes,  Gafney, points out that here only men are fed.   It is difficult to believe that Jesus did not also feed women and children since we know many women  followed him.  Perhaps the women have been erased by the male gospel writers, as Gafney suggests. Or perhaps Jesus understood that the men needed more encouragement to believe in God's  love and provision.   In this Voices Found  communion hymn,  Mary Lathbury offers a woman's  meditation on Jesus as he reveals himself in the breaking of the bread.   

Meditation

Break thou the bread of life. dear Lord to me,

as thou didst break the loaves beside the sea;

beyond the sacred page I seek thee, Lord;

my spirit pants for thee, O living word!

Bless thou the truth, dear Lord, to me, to me,

as thou didst bless the bread by Galilee;

then shall all bondage cease, all fetters fall,

and I shall find my peace, my all in all.

Teach me to live, dear Lord, only for thee,

as thy disciples lived in Galilee;

then, all my struggles o'er, then, victory won,

I shall behold thee, Lord, the living one.

Words: Mary A. Lathbury (1841-1913)

Music: William F. Sherwin (1826-1888)

Mary Lathbury, the daughter of a Methodist minister,  taught art and French, and was known as the "Poet laureate of Chautauqua, in New York.  As a youth, Mary said that she heard a voice she believed was God saying, "Remember my child that you have a gift with the pencil of producing visions that come to your heart; consecrate these to Me as thoroughly as you do your inmost spirit." Thus, she began to write.

Prayer

O Gracious God, Teach me to consecrate my gift with the pencil and vision of song, to You, O Loving Mother, as you lead and guide my inmost spirit.