Moravians have long been renowned for their love of congregational singing and their practice of letting hymns and liturgies reveal their theology. This heritage is carried on in the Singstunde. Literally translated as "hour of song," the Singstunde is a service consisting almost entirely of hymns -- more specifically, of hymn stanzas, carefully chosen to develop a theme.

Most Moravians in the 18th and early 19th century had several hundred hymn stanzas committed to memory, and thus the Singstunde was executed in this way: the pastor would select stanzas from many different hymns, place them in order, and the service would proceed without printed program or announcement. The pastor would simply begin singing a stanza, and the congregation joined in, by memory. Upon conclusion of that verse, the pastor began another, then another; the theme of the service was thus revealed through the selected texts.

Holding a Singstunde today is necessarily different, as the participants do not all have the same hymn stanzas memorized. Often now the specific hymn stanzas are printed in a bulletin, as for this occasion, so that we still avoid the "page-flipping" from one hymn to another; and still often just one or two stanzas of a hymn are used. Hymns are also often interspersed with Scripture readings and anthems. The purpose remains the same: the revelation of a theme or concept, through carefully-chosen and ordered texts, sung by the entire assembly. Each person becomes part of the message, and messenger to his/her neighbors, as well as recipient. May you be blessed through this Singstunde.

Prelude

Tune: IN BABILONE

Son of God, eternal Savior,
source of life and truth and grace,
Word made flesh, whose birth among us
hallows all our human race,
you, our Head, who, throned in glory,
for your own will ever plead;
fill us with your love and pity,
heal our wrongs, and help our need.

Come, O Christ, and reign among us,
King of love and Prince of peace;
hush the storm of strife and passion,
bid its cruel discords cease.
By your praying, by your willing
that your people shall be one,
grant, O grant our hope’s fruition:
here on earth your will be done.

Prayer

Tune: BUNESSAN

Visions of glory, visions triumphant,
bright wonders dance, Lord, charming our eyes;
yet, Lord, you call us to humble service,
doing your will, Lord, in the real world.

Still, Lord, too often we miss your vision;
that we have failed you we must confess:
we confuse service with our ambition;
only your leading brings true success.

Help us to balance all of our choices;
help us to look both forward and back;
help us to hear you in all your voices
which sing the wisdom our voices lack.

© C. Daniel Crews (1999). Used by permission.

Old Testament Lesson: Isaiah 44:1-8

Responsive Reading: Psalm 33

Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous. Praise befits the upright.

Praise the LORD with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.

Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

For the word of the LORD is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.

He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD.

By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.

He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle; he put the deeps in storehouses.

Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.

The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.

The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.

Happy is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.

The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all humankind.

From where he sits enthroned he watches all the inhabitants of the earth--

he who fashions the hearts of them all, and observes all their deeds.

A king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.

The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might it cannot save.

Truly the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love,

to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.

Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and shield.

Our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.

Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you.

Epistle Lesson: 1 Peter 1:3-9

Tune: SCHMÜCKE DICH, O LIEBE SEELE

Deeply moved and duly heeding
my Good Shepherd’s kindly leading,
bowed with reverence before him,
I would praise him and adore him.
Jesus, heed me, lost and dying,
unto you for shelter flying,
all my sin and sorrow feeling,
I now come for help and healing.

If we now but had the power
Christ to praise in ev’ry hour
as we wish for his true caring,
his great mercies all declaring,
then the peal of our glad singing
to the heavens would be ringing
from this house where we may savor
all the blessings of his favor.

Tune: COENA DOMINI

Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?
The blood of Jesus whispers peace within.

Peace, perfect peace, with loved ones far away?
In Jesus’ keeping we are safe and they.

Peace, perfect peace, our future all unknown?
Jesus we know, and he is on the throne.

Peace, perfect peace, death shadowing us and ours?
Jesus has vanquished death and all its powers.

Tune: RHAW

When human passions blind the mind,
and human arms must rule the day,
when on this earth no hope we find,
be then our only hope and stay.

When all we’ve known must fade away,
and all our joys dissolve to pain,
when firm foundations turn to clay,
we can but trust the Lamb once slain.

© C. Daniel Crews (1998). Used by permission.

Gospel Lesson: John 1:1-5, 10-14

Tune: OMNI DIE

Following God demands our stillness.
Rushing to employ our powers,
even with the best intentions,
we confuse God’s will with ours.

Every human effort falters.
We can never win the race
trusting our own strength and wisdom,
leaning not upon God’s grace.

Matters of the soul and spirit
are not won by storm and stress.
Rather they with God’s own patience
point us to creative rest.

Let us ever in our living
through each fleeting day and night
walk in calm and growing brightness,
Lord, as you are in the light.

N. L. von Zinzendorf, trans. C. Daniel Crews & Nola Reed Knouse. © 1996 by Moravian Archives, Southern Province, and Moravian Music Foundation. Used by permission.

Prayer

Tune: OLD HUNDREDTH

Before the Lord’s eternal throne,
you nations, bow with sacred joy;
know that the Lord is God alone;
he can create, and he destroy.

His sov’reign pow’er without our aid
formed us of clay and gave us breath;
and when like wand’ring sheep we strayed,
he saved us from the pow’r of death.

Wide as the world is his command,
vast as eternity his love;
firm as a rock his truth must stand,
when rolling years shall cease to move.

Tune: ST. PETER

In Christ there is no east or west,
in him no south or north,
but one great fellowship of love
throughout the whole wide earth.

Join hands, disciples of the faith,
whate’er your race may be.
All children of the living God
are surely kin to me.

In Christ shall true hearts ev’rywhere
their high communion find;
his service is the golden cord
close binding humankind.

In Christ now meet both east and west,
in him meet south and north,
all Christly souls are one in him
throughout the whole wide earth.

Benediction