大象传媒

Please note:

This script cannot exactly reflect the transmission, as it was prepared before the service was broadcast. It may include editorial notes prepared by the producer, and minor spelling and other errors that were corrected before the radio broadcast.

It may contain gaps to be filled in at the time so that prayers may reflect the needs of the world, and changes may also be made at the last minute for timing reasons, or to reflect current events.


Continuity opening announcement:
大象传媒 Radio 4.听 Time now for Sunday Worship, live from Edington Priory in Wiltshire, which this morning reflects on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's 鈥業 have a dream鈥� civil rights speech.听 The service is led by the Reverend Dr Cally Hammond and hymn-writer John Barnard and begins with Michael Tippett's arrangement of the African-American spiritual, Deep River.


Consort: Deep River (Tippett)



The Revd Dr Cally Hammond:

Welcome to Edington Priory 鈥� a magnificent fourteenth-century church, nestled in the rolling Wiltshire countryside - where, this past week, singers and music directors from cathedrals and collegiate foundations from across the United Kingdom have gathered for the 58th Festival of Music within the Liturgy.

This week sees the 50th anniversary of Dr Martin Luther King's 鈥業 have a dream鈥� civil rights speech and this year also marks 150 years after President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the emancipation of slaves in the United States of America 鈥� moments which heard the cry for freedom echo around the world 鈥� a cry so often exclaimed by God鈥檚 people from the earliest Biblical times.听

There鈥檚 always been an intimate connection between music and freedom.听 In the Hebrew Bible we hear how Miriam raised her voice in triumph as God led his people Israel from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.听 The strains of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony sounded at the Brandenburg Gate as the Berlin Wall came tumbling down in 1989.听 And, five years later, those long lines of first-time voters in South Africa sang 鈥楪od bless Africa鈥� as they took part in the nation鈥檚 first democratic election.听 Music has always expressed the deepest yearning in the human soul for that freedom which is God's wish for all people, everywhere, without exception.

John Barnard:

When Martin Luther King stood at the Lincoln Memorial fifty years ago this Wednesday, it was the music of words at their most poetic which rang out across Washington DC and found echoes in the hearts of the oppressed across the whole globe.听 Like all great music his speech transcends time and space.听 Its singing phrases have that eternal quality which we find in the prophetic tradition of Amos, Jeremiah and Isaiah, on which it was built, as Dr King seeks to lift his listeners from the valley of despair onto the hill of Zion.听 But first and foremost it has its roots in human need - in the reality of segregation, still in place in 1960s America, separating men, women and children on the basis of their colour alone. Dr King knew this had to end. That was God's will.听 And he knew it would indeed end; for one hundred years before 鈥� in 1863 - Abraham Lincoln had signed the famous Emancipation Proclamation, bringing freedom to over 3 million slaves in the United States.听 Here鈥檚 how Booker T Washington, aged nine at the time of the proclamation, later described what happened.

Reading:

As the great day drew nearer, there was more singing in the slave quarters than usual.听 It was bolder, had more ring, and lasted later into the night.听 Most of the verses of the plantation songs had some reference to freedom.... Some man who seemed to be a stranger (a United States officer, I presume) made a little speech and then read a rather long paper鈥攖he Emancipation Proclamation, I think.听 After the reading we were told that we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased.听 My mother, who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children, while tears of joy ran down her cheeks.听 She explained to us what it all meant, that this was the day for which she had been so long praying, but fearing that she would never live to see.

The Revd Dr Cally Hammond:

Help us, O Lord, to pray with all who fear that freedom will never come, and for those who live in fear of their lives.听 Teach us that only when we work to end misery and oppression will you kingdom come and your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

ALL: Amen.


Hymn: Mine eyes have seen the glory


John Barnard:

鈥楳ine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord鈥�.听 That was the hymn people sang as they cheered Lincoln following the emancipation proclamation one hundred and fifty years ago.听 Both the proclamation and the hymn refer to the Exodus narrative of freedom for God's people, and the Washington Chronicle picked up on the imagery, declaring that the proclamation would be a 'shrine at which future visionaries will renew their vows, a pillar of fire which shall yet guide other nations out of the night of bondage'.听 But for the pillar of fire to lead God's people, for truth to go marching on its way, God needs a home.听 The divine vision needs to be owned. God must be recognised.听 Divine glory lived.

Across the church's history music has played a critical role in this.听 Sing and we pray twice said St Augustine.听 The music we sing thus represents our faith seeking understanding.听 We reach out to God as we encourage and inspire one another.听 In the best words and music we hear the cadence of divine love, the language of freedom itself.

Reading:

A reading from the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 40

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.听 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord鈥檚 hand double for all her sins.

A voice cries out: 鈥業n the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.听 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.听 Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.鈥�

The Revd Dr Cally Hammond:

At the heart of the Christian faith lies the conviction that God's home takes human form in the incarnation of Jesus; that the glory of God is revealed, that injustice is upended by the one who takes our flesh upon him to right all wrong, to put down the mighty from their seat and to exalt the humble and meek.听 It's this music that bursts from Mary's heart as she sings the song of coming salvation - Magnificat 鈥� as she awaits her son鈥檚 birth and dreams of the consequences.

Nave Choir: Magnificat from Jackson in G


The Revd Dr Cally Hammond:

A setting of the Magnificat by Francis Jackson.

Mary sings of God's dream and it represents nothing less than a revolution in the way human beings interact; a call for justice to be born, for power to be redistributed in each and every human society.听 As a theologian, the Magnificat speaks to me in two contrasting ways.听 It's an ancient cry for freedom, rooted in the Hebrew Bible, given a fresh expression for a new time; and it also shows me Mary, the mother of Jesus, as a woman from Scripture in a powerful role 鈥� as the channel of divine grace, as 'freedom-bearer', the one who could have said 'no', the Mother of God 鈥� but exercising that power through the most ancient and fundamental nurturing role of all 鈥� motherhood.

John Barnard:

The section of Martin Luther King's speech that gives it its colloquial name - I have a dream - was a peroration; it wasn't part of Dr King's original script.听 But, as the beauty of its imagery suggests - sons of slaves and slave owners sitting together and children not being judged by their skin colour, each of us seeing ourselves as brothers and sisters - the vision Dr King annunciated as he stood at the Lincoln Memorial was no peroration to the divine dream鈥� it was and is its core.

It鈥檚 a theme taken up in our next hymn, with words by Pamela Pettit: 鈥樷�淚 have a dream鈥�, a man once said鈥�.


Hymn (to tune - Repton): I have a dream 鈥�, a man once said,


The Revd Dr Cally Hammond:

Towards the end of his speech 鈥� largely improvised on the day - Dr King expressed the hope (quoting a passage from Isaiah we heard earlier): that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.听 It鈥檚 still now the hope for freedom and peace for which we live and long.听 But a freedom, as the Fourth evangelist reminds us, that, from the time of the Exodus onwards, has always been costly for God and for humanity.


Reading:
A reading from John's Gospel, chapter 3

No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.听 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.


John Barnard:

The dream of freedom that transfigures all human sinfulness is the most cherished of all human dreams precisely because it's God's dream.听 Which makes it the most costly of all dreams to fulfil.听 God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son - our freedom cost his life - that everyone who believes in him should not perish but may have eternal life

It's easy to turn the cost of Calvary into a heavenly hope that's just too susceptible of transformation into religious clich茅.听 Clich茅 that is laid bare in the face of contemporary Egypt or the reality of Syria鈥檚 conflict 鈥� or, indeed, what happened just a few years after Dr King's speech in Memphis, Tennessee, when bullets - not freedom - rained on the preacher of God's dream.

In too many places in our world, freedom dawns at a cost too devastating to contemplate.听 Yet contemplate that cross we must, as words of another poet-preacher, RS Thomas remind us, as he sits at a concert and sees in the playing of the violinist Fritz Kreisler, a metaphor for the divine music of freedom and redemption we are to echo in our own lives.


Reading: 听听听 [copyright]


Schola Cantorum: In paradisum (plainsong)


The Revd Dr Cally Hammond:

鈥楳ay the angels lead you into paradise, may the martyrs receive you and, with Lazarus, once a poor man, may you have eternal rest鈥�.听 The plainsong 鈥業n paradisum鈥� from the Requiem Mass takes us into our prayers.


Prayer leader 1:

We hold before the eyes of our mind a vision of ultimate unity and peace: God, help us to pray without ceasing for that peace which passes all understanding to reign in this world: in Cairo and Syria, where civil strife is tearing apart the fabric of society; and in our own hearts, where bitter prejudice too often lurks, scarring the body of Christ.
听
Prayer leader 2:

God our Father, we pray for liberation from outer oppression and inner grief as we remember those who suffer in body, mind and spirit: who grieve for their dead, who are traumatised by abuse or neglect, debt or oppression;听 we pray too for those who are trapped in relationships or situations from which they long to be free.听 Let those who are 鈥榲eterans of creative suffering鈥� make known their wisdom to those in need.
听

Prayer leader 1:

God our Father, teach us to seek the gift of human freedom; to strengthen all institutions which support it: and, whenever we pray 鈥榯hy kingdom come鈥�, make us to ask for good governance, and justice, and access to education and health care, and an end to prejudice of every kind; and freedom: freedom from all that impoverishes the world, and us.

Prayer leader 2:

God our Father, you have touched us with your Spirit, and taught us, young and old, to dream our dreams: make us tellers of your story, partakers of your nature, sharers of your divine likeness, and companions at your heavenly banquet with all the saints: so that we can unite and sing 鈥淔ree at last; thank God almighty, we are free at last!鈥濃��


Consort: A prayer of St Th茅r猫se of Lisieux, Matthew Martin


The Revd Dr Cally Hammond:

Living bread of faith, Heavenly Nourishment.听 O mystery of Love!听 My daily bread.听 Jesus, it is you.听 With that prayer of St Th茅r猫se of Lisieux, set to music by Matthew Martin, still resonating in our hearts, let us pray that the dream of God's kingdom may come in all its fullness, as we say the words that Jesus himself taught us:听 Our Father鈥�

ALL:
which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
forever and ever.
Amen.


John Barnard:

So we look to God alone to inspire and transform us.听 Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.


Hymn: Amazing Grace


The Revd Dr Cally Hammond:

May the God of all grace keep us firm in faith, strong in hope, and fervent in love, that blessed with the divine gift of freedom we may share this gift with all God's people, this day and evermore.

ALL: Amen.


Organ: Praeludium in D, BuxWV139 (Dietrich Buxtehude)