This Fourth Sunday after Pentecost we will celebrate the good news that the scriptures teach: we experience an increase in our capacity to love and serve when we have suffered and been healed or when we have done wrong and been forgiven. Paul put it this way: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:19b-20)    This is great news for anyone who has ever suffered or struggled or been lost and turned to God.  We will celebrate it with joy!

The scriptures will be Psalm 32  and Luke 7:36-8:3 as well as the Galatians verses above.  We will enjoy many beautiful favorite hymns.  The congregation will sing the Introit, which will be the Samuel Wesley meditation, Lead Me, Lord.  The three regular hymns will be the beloved Mexican folk hymn, Pues si vivimos (In All Our Living), Jesus, Lover of My Soul (by Charles Wesley, Samuel’s father), and Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah set to the powerful Welsh hymn tune Cwm Rhondda (the same tune as God of Grace and God of Glory).

Janice Blake will sing “Pie Jesu”  by Gabriel Fauré as the Anthem.  Organist John Atwood will play two Preludes and Fugues attributed to J. S. Bach and a Chorale Prelude that is known to be Bach’s.

Below you can hear an Oxford University choir singing Lead Me, Lord, and one of the most prominent Bach performers in the world playing the Chorale Prelude.