This week’s offertory is King’s Weston, a tune by Ralph Vaughan Williams. It’s frequently associated, and associated in our hymnal, with the hymn “At the Name of Jesus”, by Caroline Noel.

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.

Noel wrote her hymn following the theme of Paul’s writings in Philippians 2:10-11:

…so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

We Plow the Fields is a traditional hymn sung during the Autumn.  In the United States, it is generally used to commemorate Thanksgiving. In a culture that has largely forgotten agrarianism, outside of those who work in agriculture or read Wendell Berry, we generally don’t think about what it means for God to bless the land and give us our food.  

We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the land,
But it is fed and watered by God’s almighty hand;
He sends the snow in winter, the warmth to swell the grain,
The breezes and the sunshine, and soft refreshing rain.

Refrain:
All good gifts around us are sent from heav’n above;
Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord for all his love.   

For our church, as we leave a season of reflecting on how all good gifts come from God (the EXTEND campaign) and move towards Christmas, when we celebrate the good gift that God has given to us, it is a good time to reflect on his provision for things that we often overlook in our modern lives like food or running water.

All good gifts around us are sent from heav’n above;
Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord for all his love.

Choir members, O Come, O Come Emmanuel is now available online.  You can access it from the choir page.  We will rehearse Sunday, November 18 at 5:30.

CTKMusic.com is now live and updating.  We will be working out the kinks over the next few weeks.