HYMN FOR ADVENT 4 To A Maid Whose Name was Mary/The Visitation

Text: Gracia Grindal                                        Tune: Rusty Edwards   To A Maid whose Name was Mary, The Angel Gabriel Came . Text: Gracia Grindal                                        Tune: Amanda Husberg or Daniel Damon   VISITATION Somewhere I hear the church bells ringing From cities, towns and countryside, And every cell within me singing A song that cannot be denied. The bells are telling with their sound Good news to everyone around.   For as they ring, I feel my body Leap up with joy to hear the news. For now we know that youthful Mary Is certain that the news is true. The time has come—she is with child Ring out wild bells, ring, joyful, wild!   For Mary, blest among all women, Is bearing God within her womb. Through her our Lord is fully human In her divinity makes room. And comes to us as long foretold, Ring in the new, ring out the old!   Look up and see the sun is shining The bells are telling bright as noon For in this joyful noonday chiming We know that Christ is coming soon. Through Mary’s body, heaven nears, Ring out wild bells, ring out with cheer!   REFLECTION One of the hymns recommended for this Sunday is To a Maid Engaged to Joseph, my text on the annunciation but the main body of Sunday's lesson is the Visitation.)   Although the Visitation is officially celebrated on May 31, the lesson for this Sunday is the story of Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth in Juda. It is one of my favorite days in the church year. Like the Annunciation which precedes this account, artists have painted it many times, some of them, the most beautiful paintings of all time. In addition, it is so filled with biblical allusions, it can hardly be well mined in a short blog! The reference to John’s kicking in his mother’s womb in recognition of his Lord comes straight from the story of David leading the ark into Jerusalem, and dancing for joy. Mary is like the ark of the covenant carrying in her womb as she does the fulfillment of the prophecies of the past thousand years. The ark housed the two tablets of the Law, fragments of manna, the staff of Aaron, images of who Jesus will be--the word made flesh, the bread of life, the kingly priest forever.   And yet it is such a homely story. A girl, pregnant out of wedlock, fleeing the gossip of her home town, goes for refuge to her old cousin who sees in her the fulfillment of prophecy and greets her with what we now know as the rosary prayer. "Hail, Mary, full of grace, blessed art thou among women." There is divinity in this simple moment. It is the way God works through all of the biblical story through Revelation.   The Angelus by Francois Jean Millet The church made it part of what became the Angelus prayer—repeated three times a day, morning, noon and especially in the evening when the vesper bell rang. It was part of the rhythms of the day in Christian Europe for centuries. One of the most famous paintings from late 19th century France of two peasants in a field praying is called the Angelus. We can see by the church spire in the back of the painting that the picture is about prayer. And can almost hear the bell ringing.   There is nothing in Scripture that doesn’t echo previous events. Here we have the fulfillment of the hope for Messiah told with the richest set of biblical images. They ring in our minds like the Angelus bells. Listen to them, search for them reverberating all through your celebration of the coming Christmas event! As they ring out, let them bless you.   HYMN INFO This text on the Visitation was part of my hymn text series on the B series of the Revised Common Lectionary. Close readers will hear echoes of Tennyson's section from his great poem In Memorian , "Ring out Wild Bells." Dan Damon wrote a tune that is part of Hope Publishing House' treasury. The other, by Amanda Husberg, was published by Wayne Leupold Editions. Wayne Leupold the owner and publisher asked me now twenty years ago to write texts on all of the Revised Common Lectionary texts, excluding the psalms. which I did happily. It was a new way to revel in the Word and try to make the texts speak to our time. I would write a text for the Sunday on Saturday night and then spend the rest of the week working it over. He asked me to do so when I was beginning to think my writing career was over. His request opened a door in my life that was full of blessings and surprises. Thanks.   LINKS (There are no links to the Visitation text, but the annunciation text was set by Rusty Edwards, a student of mine at Luther Seminary. During my hymn writing class I began writing hymn texts as examples for my students and began a series on the women in the Gospels. He, a brand new composer, set them to tunes, some of which have become popular and included in succeeding hymnals. A wonderful surprise!   Schola Cantorum of St. Peter https://youtu.be/CmkozmrNWn4?si=zfAGgj6xMqq_zJ1p   John Wesley Slider https://youtu.be/gC1Kv7WxVQY?si=zFWJuFYmGJuaSsNP   First United Methodist Church (a dialogue between the angel and Mary) https://youtu.be/CmkozmrNWn4?si=zfAGgj6xMqq_zJ1p