Songs and Hymns for Proper 13C / Ordinary 18C / Pentecost +8 (July 31 2022)

Hosea 11:1-11
God’s care and kindness even when rejected. Strong parenting images. God as a lion roaring, and his children returning with trembling. God's longing for us.
  • Tune in / Online Resource The God that I Know (Sheree Anderson) A beautiful ballad with female and male images of a loving, embracing God. Free sound samples, sheet music and lyrics.
  • NCH583 / GtG044 / StJ Like a mother who has borne us (Daniel Bechtel) This has very appropriate lyrics. The tune is gentle, soothing and simple. Sound sample
  • TiS 417 / AoV2-133 / ATW 448 / VU387 / StJ / WoV683 / ELW397 / AA94 / HPP237 / GtG293 / PH323 / CP657 / W&R135 / Cha244 / URW203 / StB220 Loving Spirit, Loving Spirit (Shirley Murray). There are about a zillion tunes set for this. I prefer FELICITY (by Colin Gibson TiS 417), but also like RESTORATION and OMNI DIE. Lyrics New words to old tunes (depending on the tune you choose)
  • Taizé / GtG814 / CP563 / PfAS062DIn God alone my soul can find rest and peace / Mon ame se repose (Jacques Berthier) A beautiful healing chant from Taize. Words and music and sound samples for learning the parts Good for kids.
  • TiS 693 / AoV1-031 / GA212 Come as you are that's how I want you (Deidre Browne) This song is beautiful, gentle, simple, and very well known. Lyrics and sound sample. A good song to start the service. 
  • AoVNG55 / Taizé / G(3)959 / SP323 / Lau221 God is forgiveness / Bóg jest miłością (Taize) "God is forgiveness, love and do not fear". A simple Taize chant which seems to suit this reading quite well. Sheet music, lyrics in many languages, sound samples
  • Online Resource As a mother loves her children (David Bjorlin / Swedish Traditional Tune) Words drawing parallels between God's love for us and the love of a mother for her children. Sheet music sample, lyrics and purchasing options
  • ATW 459 I don't believe in a God up in the sky / God Version 1.0 (Robin Mann) An excellent rock song about how we think about God, or not! Lyrics and mp3. Good for kids. 
  • AoV1-030 / GA213 / G(II)282 / GC386 / GC(II)405 / G(3)484 / Lau842 Come back to me / Hosea (Gregory Norbet) Quite beautiful song of return to God. Nice sung sound sample. Lead sheet.
Psalm 107:1-9, 43
God’s steadfast love, satisfying the thirsty and filling the hungry with good things. Provider.
  • TiS 67 Give thanks Give thanks to the Lord (Jenny O'Brien) A cantored Psalm with a response that is actually fun and happy! The verses could also be read, rather than cantored.
  • Taizé / MV016 / StJ / ELW528 / GA430 / SFFS 2157 / HPP410 / GtG466 / G(II)398 / GC570 / GC(II)550 / G(3)637 / CP402 / URW378 / Lau701 Come and Fill our hearts/ Confitemini Domino (Jacques Berthier) Can be sun in English as "Come and fill our hearts with your peace, you alone O God are holy. Come and fill our hearts with your peace, Alleluia". A good song of recommitment. Obviously if you don't sing Alleluias during Lent, this is not for you. You could replace the Alleluia with Hosanna if you really want to sing it. Sound samples and sheet music.
  • ATW 475 Come to the banquet there’s a place for you (Faye White) An excellent song by Melbourne singer and songwriter. Lyrics (scroll quite a bit). Good for kids.
  • AoV1-074 Come To The Water (Frank Andersen) A beautiful song about God providing (from Isaiah 55). Familiar to many, but easy to sing if not. Works well for communion also. Lyrics and sound sample.
  • Tune In / Online Resource / ATAR598 / NCYC 2009 God has laid a feasting table / Invitation (Shawn Whelan). Feminine imagery of God gathering her guests to a feasting table. Fun Cuban rhythm. Sample and free songbook.
  • AoV2-020 / ATAR665 Come to the feast of Heaven and Earth / Table of Plenty (Dan Schutte) “God will provide for all that you need, here at the table of plenty”. I love the positive joy in this song. Lyrics.
  • Emergent Psalter / PfAS107C May those who are wise (Isaac Everett) A good Psalm refrain, with two possible options for alternate refrains. Will need to be taught. Sheet music (refrains only). 
  • Tune In / Online Resource Kingdom Come (Matthew Lees). A song about what the kingdom might be like, with plentiful images from the parables. Sound samples, free sheet music and lyrics.
  • Online resource Your New Shalom (Bruce Harding) A simple song with 4 verses, including “your desert will bloom again”, with a last verse of “We bring in your new Shalom”. This would work well at any point in the service, including the final song.... or even interspersed throughout. Free sheet music. 
  • WCC website Hear the message we now are proclaiming / El mensaje que hoy proclamamos (Eleazar Torregoza) This jubilant Colombian song of liberty and new life for the poor and suffering would fit well with this reading. Good for kids. Free sheet music! 
Alternative Hebrew Scripture: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23
The vanity of human toil, and passing on one's work to the next generation.
I just don't know what to suggest for this reading, except what I've listed for the Psalm!

Psalm for the Ecclesiastes Reading: Psalm 49:1-12
  • PfAS049B Come one and all from near and far (Martin Leckebusch)  I think this would be best sung, slowly, by a soloist (or two), with no accompaniment, or very simple rhythm on xylophone. Can also be sung to WINDHAM (a Sacred Harp tune); Sounds great. Sheet music and lyrics
  • Emergent Psalter When the rich die they take nothing (Isaac Everett) A simple Psalm refrain. Sheet music (refrain only).
Colossians 3:1-11
Focus on things above, put to death earthly sins. Neither Jew nor Greek….
  • TiS 398 / AHB 310 / AoV1-118 / NCH289 / CH489 / UMH475 / VU367 / GA375 / A&M238 / LBW508 / ELW804 / GtG282 / PH313 / GC465 / GC(II)471 / G(3)556 / RS617 / CP645 / CP(E) 175 / W&R330 / Cha582 / Srce100 / Lau303 / StF372 / MP089 Come down O Love divine (Ralph Vaughan Williams) Old fashioned, but still inclusive and very well known. Lyrics. Hymnals vary a lot in the lyrics with respect to thees and thys and words like "vesture". Oldy-but-a-goody
  • TiS 610 God you touch the earth with beauty (Mary Susanne Edgar) A bit mushy, but nice.  
  • TiS 387 / CH416 / UMH318 / VU158 / LBW363 / ELW389 / A&M199 / GtG246 / PH108 / CP(E) 140 / W&R312 / 82Hml-182 / Lau272 / StF297 Christ is alive Let Christians sing (Brian Wren) Excellent words of Christ's saving, and still relevant grace. A couple of tunes are offered in different hymn books. I prefer TRURO. Lyrics and sheet music. New words to old tunes.
  • ACS954 / CH355 / VU210 / HPP81 / GtG274 / GC(II)525 / G(3)628 / CP630 / W&R99 / URW098 You Lord Are Both Lamb and Shepherd (Sylvia Dunstan) Beautiful words. Can be sung to many tunes. I like it to PICARDY or WESTMINSTER ABBEY. Lyrics. New words to old tunes.
  • MV 162 Christ within us hidden, Christ in all and each (Michael Leunig) Very simple tune with quite remarkable words. Funny that this in a Canadian song book and not any Australian song books. Verse 4 and 5 are particularly appropriate for this week’s reading “Christ, in bodies broken, Love new crucified. Christ, the Word new spoken, death by love defied; Christ, in love recovered. Christ, in hope revealed. Christ, in faith discovered. Christ in tombs unsealed”. 
  • Tune In / Free Online Resource Making things new (Sheree Anderson). A groovy one. Great for kids, and lots of fun. Reference recording, lyrics and free songbook. Good for kids.
  • Worldmaking.net Hidden with Christ (Richard Bruxvoort-Colligan) "Hidden with Christ, hidden with Christ, all of us deep within God’s love". Tune is simple enough for first-time singers. Sample, songbook and lyrics. 
  • TiS 179 / NCH273 / VU312 / GA379 / StJ / URW073 Praise with Joy the World's Creator (John Bell) One of my favourite hymns - strongly Trinitarian lyrics and excellent imagery. I particularly love the “One God in community” phrase. Some versions change "Son" to "Christ" to make it more inclusive. Lyrics (scroll down). New words to old tunes.
  • AoV1-129 / CH665 / UMH620 / VU467 / ELW701 / HPP525 / A&M461 / GtG530 / G(II)599 / GC830 / GC(II)813 / CP073 / W&R689 / Cha393 / Lau832 One bread, one body (John Foley) A classic. Don't play it too slow or it takes forever! Particularly appropriate if you are celebrating communion. Lyrics and sound sample.
  • SoG 790 / ATW 463 / Iona (T1AU) / ELW721 / SFFS 2219 / A&M835 / GtG750 / GC(II)451 / G(3)528 / W&R296 / URW436 Goodness is stronger than evil (Desmond Tutu / John Bell) Words from Archbishop Desmond Tutu. "Victory is ours, victory is ours, through him who loves us". Some congregations change the last line to "Compassion is ours, compassion is ours...". It depends on the context in which you sing it, I suppose. Lyrics and sound samples. Good for kids. There is also a very moving choral version of these words and more from Desmond Tutu, arranged by Tom Keesecker. Available here (sound sample there too).
Luke 12:13-21
Greed is bad; losing sight of God while hoarding.
  • Online resource: If only I had known (Carolyn Winfrey-Gillette) Powerful lyrics to the familiar Hebrew tune LEONI. Sheet music and lyricsNew words to old tunes
  • Taizé / TiS 739 / AoV2-041 / ATOK 404 / VU290 / GA269 / SFFS 2054 / GtG820 / G(II)451 / GC639 / GC(II)626 / G(3)733 / CP568 / W&R421 / URW388 / Lau947 Nothing Can Trouble / Nada te turbe (Jacques Berthier) Excellent and quite well known Taizé chant. Spanish lyrics are not too hard for non-Spanish speakers. Sheet music, sound samples, lyrics and translations. Good for kids. 
  • Online resource: Bigger Barns (Carolyn Winfrey-Gillette). Really good lyrics, and the tune, a standard, but unfamiliar hymn tune (TiS 211(i) is a really straightforward alternative). Lyrics.
  • GtB / On the Road God is love and love is giving (Ross Langmead) A simple kids' song about God's love. A round. Sound sample. Good for kids.
  • NCH562 / AA127 / Cha381 Take my gifts and let me love you (Shirley Murray) Good words about giving God ourselves, our goods, our money. Can be sung either to the set tune by Colin Gibson (TALAVERA TERRACE) which is quite straightforward, or the more well known tune HOLY MANNA. Lyrics.New words to old tunes
  • AoV2-065 Returning Our Gifts to the giver of life (Phil Porter and Elaine Kirkland) Good as an offering song. Lyrics and sound sample.
  • TiS 599 / AHB 520 / NCH448 / CH502 / UMH399 / VU506 / LBW406 / ELW685 / A&M787 / HPP349 / GtG697 / PH391 / CP435 / CP(E) 581 / W&R466 / Cha609 / Srce633 / 82Hml-707 / Lau874 / StF566 / LUYH863 / MP624 Take my life and let it be (Frances Havergal) An oldy but a goody. Lyrics and sheet music. Thanks for this suggestion Heather. Oldy-but-a-goody
  • NCH590 / CH621 Spirit of Jesus, if I love my neighbour (Brian Wren) Challenging words of offering help from a position of privilege and seeking to be set free from the entrapment of possessions “If I am hugging safety or possessions, uncurl my spirit as your love prevails, to join my neighbours, work for liberation, and find my freedom at the mark of nails”. Could also be sung to the tune PERFECT LOVE if your congregation would have trouble with the newer tune. Lyrics & Sheet music. New words to old tunes.
What will you be singing for these readings? Please join in and add your comments below!
First written in Hong Kong Airport (2016), and updated at home in Fitzroy twice.

6 comments:

Lynn said...

Hi! I found this 19th century hymn when searching something like "all is vanity" from the Ecclesiastes passage on hymnary.org ( http://www.hymnary.org/hymn/SHCP1899//page/52 ):

"How vain is all beneath the skies! How transient ev'ry earthly bliss!
How slender all the earthly ties That bind us to a world like this!"

and then 2 or 3 other verses depending on the hymnal source and tune. The author is David E. Ford, text published 1868.

Brigid Coult - Vabcouver, BC said...

Common Praise 177 - A Spendthrift Love Is The Lord - great imagery for Hosea

Heather said...

Take my life and let it be (TIS 599) would also be appropriate for the Luke reading. I'm using it as our last hymn to send them out in the right frame of mind!

Unknown said...

Thanks for this resource! From TiS I selected 459 In Christ there is no east or west (Tune i very nice), 473 Community of Christ, 547 Be thou my vision, 473 Community of Christ
611 God of grace

Brendan said...

I am thinking of "Love is his word" which has the chorus "Richer than gold is the love of my Lord, better than splendour and wealth". It links in to the OT & Gospel readings.

Lars said...

I would suggest "Humble Thyself in the Sight Of The Lord" for the Ecclesiastes passage. It's a Maranatha! song by Bob Hudson. It's easy to learn and can be done as a call and response.

Guitar and piano chords are on this songsheet. https://www.rainbowtrail.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/2016-Ambassador-songsheet.pdf

Example from YouTube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpdybTlTfHo&ab_channel=jeff838311