"A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing / Ride On, Ride On in Majesty (Agincourt)"

This quirky medieval tune called The Agincourt Song (pronounced with with a soft g) was a fun one to work out on guitar. It also seems to me a better setting for the Palm Sunday text, "Ride On, Ride On in Majesty," than Winchester New (Crasselius), the one I have encountered most often. Agincourt aptly depicts the "lowly majesty" of the Lord riding on a plodding donkey, the rhythm almost tracing the hoofbeats themselves, and in this recording, the organ's attempt to urge the beast forward does not quite succeed, as v. 3 remains a step or two behind the organ.

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What else is different or new here? Two verses: the first one borrowed from Bede's ancient Ascension hymn, which seems to fit Palm Sunday just as well, and the last one which is my own. Bede's verse speaks of Jesus' destination and enthronement on high, but the use of that verse here only reminds us that the way upward leads first to and through the final showdown with the arch-enemy, and downward into suffering, dereliction, death, and burial. 

With so many verses — all verses of "Ride On, Ride On" are present and accounted for and surrounded by two others — some sort of break strain seemed in order, so that too is my own. If the blatting lower brass compounds the clumsy, somewhat comical quality of the tune itself and the awkwardness of the donkey ride, the same instrumentation will return with (I think) greater grace and uplift in Track 11, "From Death to Life" (re: which, see previous post).

Here is an excerpt from the liner notes regarding that final verse:

Thinking then of [Jesus'] mission as the fulfillment of the oldest prophecy in the Bible, that of the showdown between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent (Gen 3:15) and with Johann Georg Hamann’s Biblical Reflections of a Christian in mind, along with Chapter 4 of the Scots Confession, I added this verse:

Now Death’s appointment with death has come.

The Lord of life, with true aplomb,

By mortal heel, immortal trust,

The serpent’s head will turn to dust.

 

Return to God: Historical and Modern Confessional Sources for the Renewal and Regathering of the Church

My latest book gathers a number of sources together that (1) are previously unpublished or are translated here into English for the first time, (2) have struck me as important both in their original  time and context and (potentially) for our time and place, (3) share a common confessional conviction (in both the "penitential" and the "professional" sense), and (4) may be of particular value as the Church shakes off it Covid shackles and regathers to pray, sing (!), worship, celebrate the sacraments, and breath in the Holy Spirit together.

Two sermons from the American Awakenings are here: one by Gilbert Tennent (First GA) on how we should listen to sermons, and another by Samuel Miller (Second GA) on the glory of the Gospel. 

Several first-ever English translations are also included (which I mention here in reverse chronological order): 

• the long prayer from the London journal of the brilliant critic of the Enlightenment, Johann Georg Hamann; 
• a prayer of confession "for more difficult times" from Oswald Myconius (the successor to Oecolampadius in Basel)
• three pieces from the Oecolampadius corpus: 
• A Litany to God the Father (a clear attempt to reform the rosary in a more orthodox direction, this is a wonderful tool for commiting the life, work, and ministry of Jesus to memory)
• Questions and Answers for the Examination of Children (a child's catechism)
• Discourse at the Synod of Basel (1531), delivered not long before the Reformer's death and culminating in his own Profession of Faith.
• the opening and closing prayers of confession from the 1520 edition of Jodocus Windsheim's Confession of a Repenting Christian, to which Oecolampadius provided the preface. Earlier editions of this piece have roots going back to at least early 1517. It made a big impression on Oecolamapadius, who later wrote his own attempt to reform the penitential rite. 

These pieces by Windsheim—offered here only in partial translation for its 500th anniversary—surround his nine prayers of confession in response to the Ten Commandments (he responds to the ninth and tenth commandment with a single prayer), and this form in turn inspired my own eleven prayers of confession, offered here in the modern section of the book, in response to the Decalogue (one for the prologue and one each for the commandments) and with the current state of the church and the world in view. 

The modern section also includes four "scripture messages" or postils, if you will, consisting purely of biblical verses arranged in logical sequence and which may prove useful for either outreach or in lieu of a sermon where the services of a preacher are not available. With no pretensions of adding to the authoriatively confessional literature of the church, I have also included my own Twenty-four Theses as a personal confession of faith offered at such a time as this, in view of the social unrest of the age.