Voices Found: WLWC Feast of the Holy Name C: VF 106, Many Voices, Many Names, 135

 

 Many Voices, Many Names

Voices Found # 106

Bring many names, beautiful and good,

celebrate in parable and story,

holiness and glory, living, loving God.

Refrain: Hail and hosanna! Hail and hosanna, bring many names!

Strong mother God, working night and day,

planning all the wonders of creation,

setting each equation, genius at play:

Hail and hosanna! Hail and hosanna, strong mother God!

Warm father God, hugging every child,

feeling all the strains of human living,

caring and forgiving til we're reconciled:

Hail and hosanna! Hail and hosanna, warm father God

Words: Brian Wren

Music: Robert A. M. Ross

Reflection:

I will sing of the faithful love of the Fount of Life forever;

with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness from across generations.

When I declare that your faithful love is established forever;

your faithfulness is established in the heavens,

[you responded]"I have inscribed a covenant with my chosen one;

I have sworn an oath to the descendants of Bathsheba:

'I will establish your line forever,

your throne that I build, will be for all generations.' "

The heavens confess your wonders, O Womb of Creation, 

and your faithfulness in the congregation of the holy ones;

for who in the skies can be compared to the Womb of Life?

who is like the Mother of All among the children of the gods?

Psalm 89:1-6. tr. Gafney

Psalm 89:1-8, 14, and Philippians 2:5-11 are appointed for the Feast of the Holy Name, January 1, Year C

Meditation:

Voices Found # 135 and Hymnal 1982 #435

At the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow,

every tongue confess him King of Glory now;

'tis the Father's pleasure we should call him Lord,

who from the beginning was the mighty word.

Words: Caroline Maria Noel (1817-1877)

Music: King's Weston, Ralph Vaughn Williams (1872-1958)

This hymn by Caroline Maria Noel is a poetic setting of the lesson appointed from Philippians 2.  It is one of the few hymns by a  woman in the Hymnal 1982.  Noel uses traditional patriarchal names for God: King of Glory, Lord, Mighty Word.  It is important to remember that as we expand our images to include God's feminine dimension, we must not exclude the powerful Majestic visions of the mighty King of Glory.  

 Meditation:

Rabbi Karyn D. Kedar, in her essay, "The many names of God," writes of  mixed metaphors when we ponder feminine imagery of God.  She says, "when you mix metaphors--father and mother, for example--you realize the truth is that God is neither."   Only in recent memory have we forgotten the  female imagery.  Rabbi Kedar shares a prayer from a Jewish prayer book that is juxtaposed with a prayer to “Our Father, Our King.” It is a prayer to the  Shechinah, which she translates as “Mothering Presence.”  

Shechinah, Mothering Presence,--hear our prayer and have compassion for us.

Shechinah, Mothering Presence-- the source of our life--remember that we are Your sons and daughters.

Shechinah, Mothering Presence, source of our life--turn our mourning to joy and our sadness to happiness.

Shechinah, Mothering Presence, the source of our life--bless our land and the work of our hands.

from The Women's Torah Commentary, "The many names of God," by Rabbi Karyn Kedar. (ed. Rabbi Elyse Goldstein, 2000, Jewish Lights Publishing)

Voices Found  Prayer: 

Great living God, never fully known,

joyful darkness far beyond our seeing,

closer yet  than breathing, 

everlasting home.

Hail and hosanna! Hail and hosanna, great, living God!

Words: Brian Wren, Voices Found # 106 

Thank you, Gracious Mother and Father, for revealing your glory.  Turn our mourning into joy and lead us as we sing your eternal praise together.