Prelude — Sonata in A major, Op. 2 No. 2 — II. Largo appassionato
Ludwig van Beethoven (1795) · piano
This music has the bearing of a string quartet at prayer — solemn, hymn-like, each voice answering the next with grave courtesy.
We begin worship in this register because today is a day of farewell, and farewells deserve gravity. The disciples on the mountain stood in exactly this kind of silence — gathered, attentive, not yet aware that the world was about to change.
Introit — Flight from the City (from Orphée)
Jóhann Jóhannsson (2016), arr. Dr. Greg · organ & choir
Jóhannsson wrote Orphée about thresholds — the death of old relationships, the birth of new ones. Flight from the City is its emotional thesis: the moment of leaving, the held breath between two lives.
The disciples watched Jesus rise. Listen as this music rises with him.
Hymn of Praise — Crown Him with Many Crowns
Matthew Bridges & Godfrey Thring · tune: DIADEMATA (George J. Elvey, 1868) · HPP #58, vv. 1, 3, & 4
Sir George Job Elvey set this text to the tune DIADEMATA — Greek for crowns. Ascension is the moment the resurrection becomes coronation.
The one who washed feet is the one we now crown; the one who knelt is the one before whom every knee bends.
We sing the diadems onto his head.
Anthem — On Eagle’s Wings
Michael Joncas (1979) · piano · Deb Bokum, solo
Joncas wrote this hymn in 1979 as a gift of comfort in a time of loss. The text is drawn from Psalm 91, with its promise that God will bear us up on eagle’s wings.
On Mother’s Day, on Ascension Sunday, the same image works in both directions: the love that lifts us, and the love we have to learn to trust when the visible presence is no longer in the room.
Sermon Interlude — Flight from the City (reprise)
Jóhann Jóhannsson (2016), arr. Dr. Greg · organ
The introit returns, now as reflection — a held breath inside the sermon.
Hymn of Reflection — O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go
George Matheson (1882) · tune: ST. MARGARET (Albert L. Peace, 1884) · HPP #350, vv. 1, 2, & 4
George Matheson wrote this text — by his own account, in just five minutes, during a night of severe suffering. Albert Lister Peace wrote the tune ST. MARGARET and said afterward that “the ink of the first note was hardly dry when I had finished the tune.”
Two artists working with full inspiration, each finishing in a single sitting.
This is the hymn of the ones left behind.
Offertory — Keep Me, Lord (MIKTAM)
John L. Bell · choir & organ
Every Miktam Psalm is a prayer of trust spoken from inside troubled times. Bell’s hymn carries that ancient instinct forward.
As you bring your offering, consider that the disciples on Ascension morning needed exactly this — a hiding place in God they could trust to hold them after the cloud closed.
Closing Hymn — Lord, You Give the Great Commission
Jeffery Rowthorn · tune: ABBOT’S LEIGH (Cyril V. Taylor) · HPP #542, vv. 1, 4, & 5
The Great Commandment — love God, love your neighbor — is folded directly into the Great Commission — go and make disciples. This is the hymn for the moment after the Ascension, when the disciples finally turned and walked back down the mountain.
The cloud has closed. The commission remains.
Postlude — Rocket Man
Elton John & Bernie Taupin (1972) · piano
On a day when we mark both the Ascension and Mother’s Day, this song lands precisely on the bruise: the one who rises, and the ones who remain looking up.
It is the right music to leave by — tender, honest, and somehow already turning toward home.