Hymns for September 6, 2026
This week’s epistle reading (Romans 13:8-14) includes Paul’s meditation on the pinnacle of Levitical law, Leviticus 19:18 “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” Jesus, of course, paired this as “the Greatest Commandment” with the Sh’ma, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
I am sure you have heard countless sermons over the years on loving God and loving neighbor as yourself. I am sure that Lauryn will have some new insights for us this Sunday on these beloved phrases. At some point in my life, I can’t recall when, a preacher asked us to look at these not as two sides of a coin, but rather a three-legged stool of love for God, Neighbor, and Self. After all, if you treat yourself like crap, and your being asked to love your neighbor as you love yourself, then that probably defeats the purpose of what Jesus, Paul, and the Law, are trying to say. The preacher probably put it more eloquently than I just did, but I’m going to love myself anyways 😛
When choosing hymns for this Sunday I wanted to highlight each leg of that stool. Love of God (and I included love of God in Jesus, here), love of neighbor, and love of self.
We will start by singing “one of the old hymns,” and by that I mean about 900 years old, Chalice Hymnal 101 Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts. Okay, it isn’t exactly 900 years old, but it is a paraphrase of the poetry of 12th century abbot Bernard of Clairvaux. Saint Bernard had a complex history, and modern eyes hardly see his spurring of the Second Crusade as saintly, but he wrote beautiful sermons on the Song of Songs. He left us with a number of poems later translated into English language hymns, the most famous likely being this and O Sacred Head, Now Wounded (Chalice Hymnal, 202). The words we will sing, translated by Ray Palmer shortly before the Civil War, point the singer towards Communion with Jesus.
Our second hymn turns us to “love ourselves,” and I am taking that literally here. Hannah Brown has a number of beautiful, fully human and embodied hymns, including Love These Human Bodies. Hannah writes:
“Our bodies are gifts of God, but cultural messages, practical challenges, aging, and loss can complicate our relationship with this holy gift. This text is a reminder to care for ourselves and one another.”
You can hear it sung here by my friend, and GIA Vice President, Kate Williams:
It is paired with the hymn tune, CRANHAM, by Gustav Holst, most commonly associated with Cristina Rossetti’s poem In the Bleak Midwinter. This recalls Rossetti’s words on the incarnation of Christ, born to a human mother:
Enough for Him, whom cherubim
Worship night and day,
A breastful of milk
And a mangerful of hay;
…
But only His Mother
In her maiden bliss
Worshipped the Beloved
With a kiss.
And who can forget what is probably the most beloved description of responding to God’s love in the English language:
What can I give Him,
Poor as I am? —
If I were a Shepherd
I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man
I would do my part, —
Yet what I can I give Him, —
Give my heart.
Our Call to Communion hymn, 426 The Voice of Jesus Calls His People, brings together all three stool legs and puts them in relationship together. Self, Neighbor, and God coming together at the table, and reminds us of who our neighbor is.
Lastly, we will sing hymn 600, Jesu, Jesu, a Ghanaian folk tune collected by missionary Tom Colvin, that reminds us of how Jesus showed his love, and asks us to do the same..
Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love,
show us how to serve
the neighbors we have from you.
1 Kneels at the feet of his friends,
silently washes their feet,
Master who acts as a slave to them. [Refrain]
2 Neighbors are rich and poor,
varied in color and race,
neighbors are near and far away. [Refrain]
3 These are the ones we should serve,
these are the ones we should love;
all these are neighbors to us and you. [Refrain]
If that wasn’t enough, this love-filled Sunday will have a special performance, as Katie Rogers will sing All Belong Here, a new song performed by The Many. We will get to hear these deeply meaningful words as we partake in communion, together:
When you’re not sure who you really are
When all you feel is the shape of your scars
And you have more wounds than you can count
Open your eyes, look all around
You aren’t alone, this is your home
Chorus:
Come and remember who you are here
Do this to remember who I am
Come and remember you belong here
All belong here.
When you don’t know how to forgive
When locked doors seem like the only way to live
And you’ve got more questions than you can count
Open your eyes, look all around
You aren’t alone, this is your home.
(Chorus)
Bridge: At this table come as you are
Broken and bleeding’s ok
At this table eat and be filled
Come and drink in this grace.
(Chorus)
All belong here. All are neighbor. All are loved, including ourselves.
Amen.
PS Two beautiful recordings of In the Bleak Midwinter that are worth a listen if you need to be settled (and then roused and settled again in the case of the cello video) for a moment.
All Belong Here #63fe4b91ea67c Words by Lenora Rand and Music by Hannah Rand, As recorded by The Many, ©2017 Plural Guild LLC. Used with permission under OneLicense.net #A-720486, and the Convergence Music Project.
Love These Human Bodies #U01800 Words by Hannah Brown ©2023 GIA Publications, Inc. Used with permission under OneLicense.net #A-720486.