Faithful to the Spirit's Prompting
Music by Scot Crandal • Text by Michael Joncas
TEXT
Faithful to the Spirit’s prompting,
Noah and his kinsfolk sailed
on an ark through threat’ning waters
till in safety they prevailed.
When the killing flood receded,
stretched across the radiant sky,
glowed the rainbow of God’s promise:
nevermore would all life die.
Faithful to the Spirit’s prompting,
Jesus left his home behind,
journeyed deep into the desert
forty days and forty nights.
There he faced the wiles of Satan.
There he dwelt with feral beasts.
There he chose to preach the Kingdom
till his life on earth would cease.
Faithful to the Spirit’s prompting
we have gathered here to pray.
Teach us, Lord of flood and desert,
how to hear what you may say
then to act as you command us
fasting from our selfish greed,
following our Master’s teaching
giving alms to those in need.
Text: 87 87 D, © 2014, Jan Michael Joncas Trust. Published by OCP. All rights reserved.
USE
Lent, Christian Life, Conversion, Creation, Discipleship, Love for Others, Petition/Prayer
FORCES
Two-part Choir, Descant, Keyboard, Guitar, Solo Instrument in C, Assembly
DESCRIPTION
Text writer Michael Joncas states that this piece “seeks to tie together Noah’s transforming experience surviving the Great Flood, Jesus’ transforming experience during forty days of desert-dwelling, and our transforming experience by giving ourselves to the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that mark the Christian Lent.” Featuring a new hymn tune, PREVAIL, this intricate-sounding setting is scored modestly: two-part choir, descant, keyboard and/or guitar, and a solo instrument part in C. An accessible piece that can be quickly prepared by most ensembles, the third and final verse may be sung with the descant and the basses doubling the melody for a full, balanced texture.
TEXT WRITER NOTES
The Genesis and 1 Peter readings for the First Sunday of Lent, Year B, in the Sunday Lectionary offer first a narrative of God’s covenant made with all living things (the rainbow image stretching from horizon to horizon) to refrain from their total destruction and then a theological reflection on how that covenant promise is fulfilled and transcended in Christian Baptism. The psalm emphasizes the covenant dynamics in both readings, calling to mind God’s faithfulness to his covenants, manifest in compassion, love, kindness, and humanity’s “education” in likewise acting as the covenant demands. The Gospel reading, a spare account of Jesus’ temptations in the desert from Mark, paralleling Jesus’ forty day experience in the wilderness with the Israelite people’s forty year post-Exodus wandering; in both cases they come out of this conflict equipped with a message—the Sinai Covenant in the case of the Israelites and a kerygma proclamation (“The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent!”) in the case of Jesus. Jesus’ call for metanoia (total transformation of life direction and values) continues to confront us, centuries after his original preaching.
“Faithful to the Spirit’s Prompting” seeks to tie together Noah’s transforming experience surviving the Great Flood, Jesus’ transforming experience during forty days of desert-dwelling, and our transforming experience by giving ourselves to the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that mark the Christian Lent. Stanza one is a fairly straightforward retelling of God’s blessing of humanity through Noah and his family’s preservation from the waters of death by means of the Ark. Stanza two suggests that one of the outcomes of Jesus’ temptation in the desert was his commitment to further his Father’s reign by his words and actions. Finally, stanza three articulates the Christian understanding of God as Triune, by acknowledging the “Lord of flood and desert” (YHWH = God the Father), the Master’s example (Jesus = Son of God), and the Spirit’s prompting to align us with Father and Son, especially through the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
—Michael Joncas
COMPOSER NOTES
In this powerful text, Michael Joncas calls attention to the transformative experiences lived by Noah, Jesus, and us (if we so choose). When I set out to compose a tune for this text, I knew that I wanted to capture this sense of journey-through-experience, a feeling of arriving somewhere new and good, while honoring our roots with a hint of our beginning in the final phrase.
—Scot Crandal