If you missed the Flute Extravaganza with our Artist in Residence Dr. Christie Beard and students from her Flute studio at UNO, it is available on demand by clicking HERE.
If you missed the Mister Rogers Sing-Along, it is on demand by clicking HERE.
Be sure to tune in for Countryside Jazz on the Stream, this Friday, July 31st, at 7pm on our YouTube channel or www.countrysideuccc.org/concerts
The first two songs are the prelude for today’s service, the first of which features Dr. Christie Beard. If you are watching on KMTV and would like to view the prelude, you can do so on our YouTube page by viewing today’s service video. The prelude will take place live on YouTube at 10:50 each Sunday.
Cafe 1935 from Histoire du Tango – Astor Piazzolla
It’s You I Like – Fred Rogers
It’s you I like, it’s not the things you wear, it’s not the way you do your hair
But it’s you I like
The way you are right now, the way down deep inside you, not the things that hide you,
Not your toys, they’re just beside you.
But it’s you I like, every part of you.
Your skin, your eyes, your feelings whether old or new.
I hope that you’ll remember even when you’re feeling blue
That it’s you I like, it’s you yourself, it’s you.
It’s you I like.
Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy
At Countryside, we like to take hymns from the Southern Harmony style and reclaim them from the reactionary contexts with which they are often associated. Many of these are great tunes with powerful (even if sometimes flawed) messages. Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy was often used as an “Altar Call” invitational hymn (similar to Just As I Am in many traditions). The refrain references the Prodigal Son and the verses are partly based on Matthew 11:25-30:
At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (NRSV).
Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus ready stands to save you, full of pity, love, and power.
Refrain:
I will arise and go to Jesus; he will embrace me in his arms.
In the arms of my dear Savior, O there are ten thousand charms.
Come, ye thirsty, come, and welcome; God’s free bounty glorify,
true belief and true repentance, every grace that brings you nigh. [Refrain]
Come, ye weary, heavy laden, lost and ruined by the fall;
if you tarry till you’re better, you will never come at all. [Refrain]
We Wait the Peaceful Kingdom
At first glance, this text might look like a message for Advent – based on its scriptural references to Isaiah – but it also conveys a strong message for troubled times. This hymn ties into each line of the Lord’s Prayer. From “Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven” to “forgive us our trespasses” to “lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil,” it takes Isaiah’s prophetic message of the Kingdom of God that is to come, and ties it into a more contemporary theology of the Kingdom of God being here today, and how we must respond.
We wait the peaceful kingdom, when wolf and lamb shall lie
in gentleness and friendship without a fear or sigh,
when lion shall be grazing, when snake shall never strike;
a little child shall lead us both strong and weak alike.
Where is the peaceful kingdom? When will this new day start?
We long for peace and comfort to reign within each heart.
Yet not in our lives only, nor simply in our home:
we pray that all creation will one day find shalom.
When wars of desolation and hate come to an end,
when nation meets with nation and calls the other “friend,”
still peace in all its fullness will only have begun:
shalom for all creation begins with justice done.
That little child shall lead us to walk the chosen way,
to share the peaceful kingdom, to greet God’s newborn day.
The child born in a stable is sent to break our chains,
to bring through word and table the day when justice reigns.
Amazing Grace
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed!
Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come;
‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.
When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.