Songs, Hymns & Music for Proper 17B / Ordinary 22B / Pentcost +15 (1 September 2024)

Looking for Season of Creation Resources? There are a few suggestions on this page if you are following the 2024 theme of "To hope and act with Creation" I have highlighted songs that are particularly appropriate within the Lectionary with a globe of the Earth 🌏 (there's not many this week!). If you are using the Romans 8 reading, I have also put globes of the earth on my suggestions for that reading (scroll down on this entry from Proper 11A). If you are using the earlier version of Season of Creation, or if you're looking for additional Creation-themed songs click here for Earth Sunday (Season of Creation 1B)!  

 

Song of Solomon 2:8-13 
The coming of the beloved one.

• MV031 Pure Love (Linnea Good) I think this song would be good for reflecting on God as the source of all love. Very simple and beautiful. Sound sample. Good for kids.
• Online Resource / Tune in The God that I Know (Sheree Anderson) A beautiful ballad with female and male images of a loving, embracing God. Free downloadable song book, sound samples.
• Online Resource O great lover who pursues us (Richard Bruxvoort Colligan) Great new words based on this passage, sung to the familiar tune HYFRYDOL. Lyrics, sound sample and purchasing options. New words to old tunes.
• Recorded Music Canticle (Clarion Fracture Zone / Mara / Martenitsa Choir) If you happen to have a recording of "Canticle" a jazz work commissioned by Paddington Uniting Church, first performed in 1997, this would be the time to dig it out and play at some point during the service. Listen or purchase here.
• Sacred Harp I am the rose of Sharon (William Billings) This is not a suggestion for your congregation, but if you happen to have Sacred Harp singers in your area, go join in and see if they sing this (they probably won't!). It's one of the more challenging "anthems" and quite excellent when done well. Listen to them singing it in Ireland. 
• Recorded Music Just (after song of songs) (David Lang / Trio Mediaeval) A long and very beautiful piece of music, with a stunning repetitive litany of love as a metaphor for our relationship with God. Not quite sure how it might be used in a worship service, but it is very beautiful. Sound sample.   
• NCH540 We plant a grain of mustard seed (Mary Bryan Matney) A song about how human love is a taste of divine love. Great words to a fairly standard-sounding (but new) hymn tune. It would also work well with MORNING SONG (the tune for “Awake, awake to love and work”). Lyrics (downloads pdf). New words to old tunes.

Psalm 45:1-2, 6-9 
A psalm of adoration, with overflowing heart and fragrant robes and judgement...

• PfAS045B The throne of God is righteousness (Evangelical Lutheran Worship) A simple Psalm refrain to a familiar hymn tune (EIN FESTE BURG). Lyrics.
  
• Taizé / TiS 731 /  SFFS 2017 / GtG155 / G(II)377 / GC557 / GC(II)535 / G(3)618 / W&R212 / PfAS100G / URW383 / Lau691 Raise a song of gladness / Jubilate Servite (Taize) Glorious, fun round. If your congregation balks at singing in Latin, it can be sung in English as "Raise a song of gladness, all the earth, Christ has come, bringing peace, joy to every heart, Alleluia Alleluia, Joy to every heart (x2)". This is not a Gloria, but it has the feel of one! Sound sample. 
• AoV2-068 / VU695 God is passionate life (Colleen Fulmer) Good simple round with a peace / justice focus. Lyrics and a kind of odd sound sample.  Good for kids.
• Online Resource / TiS 654 / NCH362 / UMH643 / VU489 / WoV749 / G(II)628 / GC865 / GC(II)856 / G(3)966 / W&R612 / Cha499 / Lau416 When love is found and hope comes home (Brian Wren) Lovely words to the tune O WALY WALY celebrating loving relationships through all their changes. While this is often sung at weddings, I think it would also work in the context of a standard service. Lyrics and sample sheet music. New words to old tunes.
• CH115 / MV089 / Iona (Love from Below) / A&M722 / SP292 Love is the touch of intangible joy (Alison Robertson) Great words of different kinds of love – deep friendship, romantic love (love is the lilt in a lingering voice), and the love of God, set to a simple tune. Each verse ends with the affirming phrase: "God is where love is, for love is of God". Lyrics (scroll). Lovely sound sample.
  
• SgTJ1029 / MV094 Love knocks and waits (Daniel Damon) Lovely words of assurance and a simple lilting melody. Lyrics and sheet music.
• NCH540 We plant a grain of mustard seed (Mary Bryan Matney) A song about how human love is a taste of divine love. Great words to a fairly standard-sounding (but new) hymn tune. It would also work well with MORNING SONG (the tune for “Awake, awake to love and work”). Lyrics (downloads pdf). New words to old tunes.
• VU769 God has blessed you forever and ever (Russian Orthodox) A lovely simple response to this Psalm. Can be sung with a responsive reading as set out in VU. Nice if you can build in the harmonies, but fine if you can't. 
• MV085 / StJ / ELW814 / HPP319 / GtG698 / GC(II)692 / G(3)795 / SP130 / PfAS045B / URW441 / Lau395a / StF781 / LUYH741 Take O Take Me As I Am (Iona Community) A lovely simple chant. PfAS uses it as a refrain to a reading of the Psalm. Sound sample.
• AoVK-12 God is our shelter truly a friend indeed (Chris O'Hara) Groovy little round / more like a call and response really. Good for kids. Lyrics

Alternative Hebrew Scripture: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
The importance of keeping the law

• ATA 184 Spring follows winter (love is the law) (Robin Mann) Lovely words to a familiar traditional English (?) melody. There is a Father in the last verse, but is inclusive other than that. Lyrics. Particularly good for the Southern Hemisphere, as it will just be Spring.
• God Gives 1 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and love all humankind as you would love yourselves and (Unknown author)…  I really like this old Sunday School round, with a groovy 50s feel to it. Lyrics and some mostly pretty bad Youtube videos. Great for kids.
• MV008 And on this path (Linnea Good) An energetic gospel style song. Here's a youtube video. We sing it much slower than this and as a gospel style song with big chords and a groovy bass part. I thought I'd never say that we sing something slower than anyone!
• MV108 I know your word / Tua Palavra é lâmpada (Simei Monteiro). A simple Brazillian rhythm and a catchy tune. Great for kids, and a good song for adults too. “I know your word, your word is a lamp to my feet O God. I know your word is a lamp, O God, to light my path forever”.   Lyrics (downloads a PDF). Good for kids.

Psalm for the Deuteronomy reading: Psalm 15 
Only those who live right will live with God.

• Online Resource That's how we walk (Richard Bruxvoort-Colligan) This very simple chorus would be great to sing with kids, either during the service or in a Sunday School setting. Good for kids. Sheet music, sound sample and lyrics.
• VU575 / SFFS 2153 / GtG700 / PH369 / SP&P139 / W&R574 / Cha614 I'm Gonna Live So God Can Use Me (African American traditional) Good simple tune and meaningful words. Easy to sing and play around with. Good for kids, non-readers and for people for whom English is a second language. Sound sample.Alternatively: PfAS015C I'm Gonna Live So God Can Use Me (African American traditional) A version of the same song, used as a Psalm refrain. Good for kids Oldy-but-a-goody.
• TiS 657 / CH263 / VU700 / A&M559 / AA50 / CP(E) 447 / Cha656 / SP242 God of freedom God of justice (Shirley Murray) Powerful lyrics. Can be sung to either TREDEGAR (new, but not too hard) or PICARDY (very familiar). Lyrics and sheet music sample. New words to old tunes. There is also a nice tune from Douglas Simper in his book if you'd like something quite new, but still hymn-like.
• Online Resource We want to be close to your heart (Richard Bruxvoort-Colligan) This is another song that would be simple enough for the congregation to sing the first time they hear it. It's great for kids too. Good for kids. Sheet music, sound sample and lyrics.
• Iona (M&G, T1AU) / MV099 / GC(II)673 / G(3)763 / Lau996 Stand O Stand Firm (Cameroon) I love having an excuse to sing this simple and powerful song. Very easy for your congregation. You can make up cantor parts too “Oh my sisters…. Oh my brothers… Oh my children….” or you can name countries you are praying for in your intercessions. Good for kids. Scottish sound sample. Lead sheet,
• PfAS015A Lord who are they that may dwell (James Seddon) A hymnlike paraphrase of the Psalm. Fairly formal, but inclusive words. Sheet music.
• PfAS015B Lord who shall be welcome (Steven Warner) A nice contemporary sung paraphrase of the Psalm. Easy to sing. Sound sample.
• CH008 Lord who may enter your house? Whoever leads a blameless life (John Bell) A lovely simple psalm response to a chanted or read paraphrase of the Psalm. 
• Emergent Psalter Who may abide on your holy hill? (Isaac Everett) Simple response with read Psalm. Sheet music.
• TiS 5 Justice alone is the way of the Lord (S.T. Kimbrough / Carlton Young) Good cantor and response. Also in UMH Psalter. 
  
• Cha729 Let justice roll down like the water (Lon Oliver) Responsive psalm with sung refrain.
• ATW 505 Whatever you do (John Ylvisaker) Simple and fun. Good for kids.

James 1:17-27  

Good advice on living faithfully. Care for orphans and widows in their distress, and keep unstained by the world.

• CH683 / VU420 / A&M491 / GC(II)469 / G(3)546 / GtG295 / CP598 / W&R553 / SP156 / URW132 / Lau426 / StF402 Go to the world Go into all the earth (Sylvia Dunstan) Great words of sending out. Can be sung to a couple of different tunes. SINE NOMINE is the easiest and best known. Sound sample. Sheet music sample. New words to old tunes.
• TiS 697 All the sleepy should have a place to sleep (Rusty Edwards) Great chorus "Make love happen by God's grace and by God's power. Let God move you on this day and in this hour. New creations will then blossom like a flower for together we can be the hands of God". Lyrics.
  
• TiS 687 God gives us a future (Elizabeth Smith) Great words to a very easy hymn tune. Careful not to let it get the tune get too pompous; the words are not! "God gives us a future, daring us to go into dreams and dangers on a path unknown. We will face tomorrow in the Spirit's power, we will let God change us for new life starts now!". Lyrics here (scroll down). The hymn has been split into to two parts to include the blessing and words of mission. New words to old tunes.
• TiS 774 / GtG717 / W&R684 For the life that you have given (Carl Daw) Excellent words for the offering. If your congregation, like ours, doesn't have a song to sing when the offering is presented, it would be good to try singing this for a couple of weeks. It's short and meaningful, and the tune is a quite straightforward hymn tune. Lyrics & sheet music. 
• ATOK 390 Put on love every day, never hide your love away (Mary Lou Walker) A fun song for kids!  I confess that I suggest this whenever I cannot think of a better song for kids, because it's a lot of fun. Sound sample. Good for kids.
• TiS474 / AoV1-012 / ATE 295 / CH623 / SFFS 2236 / HPP553 / A&M363 / GtG401 / G(II)539 / GC839 / GC(II)743 / G(3)848  / CP465 / W&R649 / Cha284 / SP175 / URW054 / Lau475 / LUYH529 Here in this place new light is streaming / Gather us in (Marty Haugen). Excellent words, very well known. “Nourish us well and teach us to fashion lives that are holy and hearts that are true”. Lyrics and lead sheet.  
• NCH565 / LBW408 / ELW678 / GtG716 / PH422 / CP601 / W&R572 / Cha606 / URW091 God whose giving knows no ending (Robert Edwards) Excellent more formal words of thanks for God's many good gifts to us. Can be sung to a range of tunes including BEACH SPRING, HYFRYDOL, AUSTRIAN HYMN, RUSTINGTON. Lyrics. New words to old tunes.
• 🌏 TiS 626 / AHB 557 / CH500 / GA423 / Lau869 / StF449 / MP440 Lord of creation to you be all praise! (Jack Winslow) A wonderful traditional, and quite inclusive, hymn to the familiar tune SLANE. Lyrics. New words to old tunes.
• 🌏 NCH401 / GtG308 / W&R388 O god in whom all life begins (Carl P Daw) Excellent words of living as a community of faith. Sung to a simple English melody (NOEL). Lyrics and sheet music. New words to old tunes.

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Honour God, rather than tradition

• TiS 643 / UMH206 / StJ / WoV649 / GtG377 / ELW815 / G(II)352 / GC508 / GC(II)513 / G(3)593 / W&R248 / 82Hml-490 / LUYH730 I want to walk as a child of the light (Kathleen Thomerson) Lyrics here.
• Taizé / TiS 747 / ATE 214 / Iona (M&G) / GtG842 / PfAS027A / URW393 The Lord is my light, my light and salvation (Jacques Berthier) A simple and very popular Taize chant. Note that this is really easy on recorder if you have a kid in your congregation who is learning it. Good for kids. Youtube.
• AoV1-034 Create in me O Lord a heart that is pure / I'll Sing Your Song (Erica Marshall) Good honest song. Simple to sing. Accompaniment sound sample and lyrics. 
• TiS 712 / AoV2-021 / ATE 269 / The tide has turned songbook Create in us a clean heart O God (Digby Hannah) Good. A big favourite in our congregation. Lyrics & sound sample.
• AoV1-158 / GA438 Create a new heart Holy Lord / A new heart for a new world (Monica O'Brien / Trish Watts) Very simple melody, excellent words "Create a new heart Holy Lord, beckon our lives through your word, open our eyes to your call, United as one for your world". Sound sample.
  
• AoV1-053 / AoVK-82 / GA256 Receive The Light of Christ (Erica Marshall) Simple round "Receive the light of Christ, May (it) shine within our hears, May the Christ Light fill us with joy and peace". Good for kids.Lyrics & sound sample.

Got any ideas of your own for any of these readings? Please add them in the comments below!