423. Proper 8 (Series B)

The lessons for this service, a Sunday after Trinity during June 26-July 2, are Lamentations 3:22-33, 2 Corinthians 8:1-9 skipping to 13-15, and Mark 5:21-43, the raising of Jairus's daughter and the healing of the woman with the flow of blood. I've previously alluded to Jairus's daughter in hymns here and here. The tune is OLD 107TH from Clément Marot's 30 Pseaumes de David, a Calvinistic psalter of 1541; it was paired with "Your hand, O Lord, in days of old" in LBW and LW and, again in LBW, with "The Lord will come and not be slow." To paraphrase a saying attributed to Martin Luther, "Must the Calvinists have all the good tunes?" Or even some of them, all to themselves? (Fun fact: John Adams, not the president but the composer, used Luther's alleged epigram as the title of a piano concerto.)

Wait on the Lord! For ev'ry morn
His mercies are renewed.
With calm hope let your lot be borne;
Your yoke, with fortitude.
Though you be made to kiss the dust,
Though your tormentor scoff,
In God's compassion put your trust:
He will not cast you off.

He does not willingly give grief;
That the believer knows.
Yet pain may exercise belief,
As Jairus' daughter shows:
Her father was obliged to wait
While Christ another healed.
They seemed to reach her bed too late;
Yet death its spoils would yield.

The woman suffered full twelve years,
Her patience tested much,
Till her uncleanness disappeared
At Christ's unwitting touch.
God's power through His garment flowed,
While He, caught unawares,
All honor on her faith bestowed;
Will He not hear your prayers?

Can death make futile Christ's return?
Can distance or late hour
Or laughter or loud wails concern
The Author of such power?
A little word brings death undone;
A light touch stops a bleed.
Wait, therefore, on God's saving Son;
Entrust to Him your need.