Prelude — Mad Rush
Philip Glass (1979) · organ
Philip Glass composed Mad Rush in 1979 for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, on the occasion of the Dalai Lama’s first public address in North America. Because no one knew exactly when His Holiness would arrive, Glass built the piece to expand or contract on the spot — alternating between passages of quiet contemplation and sudden, agitated rushing.
We begin Pentecost here because the disciples did not know when the Spirit would arrive, either. They waited. The air went still…
Then it broke open.
Introit — Brethren, We Have Met to Worship (HOLY MANNA)
arr. Randolph Currie · choir & organ
HOLY MANNA is a shape-note tune from the American frontier, sung at outdoor camp meetings where revivals could last for days. The text opens with an invitation that is also a dare:
Brethren, we have met to worship and adore the Lord our God. Will you pray with all your power while we try to preach the word?
Hymn of Praise — On Pentecost They Gathered
Jane Parker Huber, tune: MUNICH · HPP #252
Very few hymns actually tell the story of Pentecost, so Jane Parker Huber wrote one — the mighty wind, the tongues of fire, the people startled and amazed. The tune MUNICH is a 17th-century German chorale, lifted into Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah. Sing out, and carry that fire into this morning’s service.
On Pentecost they gathered quite early in the day, A band of Christ’s disciples, to worship, sing and pray. A mighty wind came blowing, filled all the swirling air, And tongues of fire glowing inspired each person there.
The people all around them were startled and amazed To understand their language, as Christ the Lord they praised. What universal message, what great good news was here? That Christ, once dead, is risen to vanquish all our fear.
O Spirit sent from heaven on that day long ago, Rekindle faith among us in all life’s ebb and flow. O give us ears to listen and tongues aflame with praise, So people of all nations glad songs of joy shall raise.
Anthem — Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
arr. Lloyd Larson · piano four hands · Sharon Nelson & Margaret Dodson-Buhl
This spiritual was sung by enslaved people who knew the Bible by heart and found in it a story that mattered: the prophet Elijah, lifted to heaven in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2). They sang about that chariot for many reasons — hope, homesickness, and the promise of freedom. On this Pentecost Sunday, the chariot of fire is what comes down to meet the disciples.
Hymn of Reflection — Breathe on Me, Breath of God
Edwin Hatch · HPP #227, vv. 1, 3, & 4
Edwin Hatch built this hymn around the Greek word pneuma — a word that means breath, wind, and Spirit, all at once. “Breathe on me, breath of God, fill me with life anew.” Unlike our chariot of fire, this is Jesus exhaling on the disciples and saying receive the Holy Spirit.
Offertory — The Kiss
Judee Sill (1973) · choir & organ
Judee Sill was a singer-songwriter steeped in Bach and Christian mysticism, writing what one critic called hymns for a church that did not yet exist. Listen for the opening line:
Holy breath touching me like a wind song, Sweet communion of a kiss.
Holy breath like a wind song is Pentecost in six words. The Spirit’s arrival is about the moment two breaths become one.
Closing Hymn — Every Time I Feel the Spirit
African American spiritual · HPP #235
Sung first in the brush arbors and hush harbors of the enslaved South — sanctuaries built in the woods — where worship happened in the only language that mattered: the body, the breath, and the moving Spirit. Every time I feel the Spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. The Spirit is arriving; every time it does, we pray.
Postlude — Oh Happy Day
arr. Edwin Hawkins (1968) · piano
When he was just 24 years old, Edwin Hawkins took an 18th-century hymn by Philip Doddridge — O Happy Day, That Fixed My Choice — and rearranged it for the 46 young singers of the Northern California State Youth Choir. They recorded it as a church fundraiser. It was never supposed to leave that congregation. But it did, and it climbed the charts around the world, becoming one of the best-selling gospel songs ever recorded.
Oh happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away.
This is what Pentecost sounds like — the fire is in the room and we can’t stop singing. Go in joy.