Patterico's Pontifications

9/1/2019

Sunday Music: Bach Cantata BWV 47

Filed under: Bach Cantatas,General,Music — Patterico @ 12:01 am



It is the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost. Today’s Bach cantata is “Wer sich selbst erhöhet, der soll erniedriget werden” (Whoever exalts himself, will be abased). This recording is from a live performance:

Today’s Gospel reading is Luke 14:1, 7-14:

Jesus at a Pharisee’s House

One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. There in front of him was a man suffering from abnormal swelling of his body. Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him on his way.

Then he asked them, “If one of you has a child or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull it out?” And they had nothing to say.

When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

The text of today’s piece is available here. It contains these words:

Whoever exalts himself, will be abased, and whoever abases himself will be exalted.

Who wishes to be called a true Christian
must diligently practice humility;
Humility originates from Jesus’ kingdom.
Arrogance is like the devil;
God teaches everyone to hate it,
so that pride does not prevail.

Happy listening! Soli Deo gloria.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

3 Responses to “Sunday Music: Bach Cantata BWV 47”

  1. Thanks for posting the reading, not just today but for the other Sundays as well.

    I can’t think of a substantive comment on today’s reading that would add to anyone’s appreciation for or understanding of it. But reflecting on it has been good for me already today, so please keep posting these.

    RL formerly in Glendale (40f5aa)

  2. Thanks for posting the reading, not just today but for the other Sundays as well.

    I can’t think of a substantive comment on today’s reading that would add to anyone’s appreciation for or understanding of it. But reflecting on it has been good for me already today, so please keep posting these.

    RL formerly in Glendale,

    I’m no pastor. I have no particular insight. But Jesus did, and Bach did in his own way, and I am here to spread the good news of the four Gospels of Christ and the Fifth Gospel of Bach. I never thought of myself as an “evangelist” in the sense the word is so often used these days, but really, it just means someone who spreads the good news of the Gospel, and we can all do that.

    I’m very pleased today to be offering something that musically fits the day’s Gospel so well.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  3. And thanks for the music as well. I can sense the quality of Bach although it surpasses my understanding and my own taste in classical music runs more to emotion-drenched pieces like “Scheherazade”(sp?) or most anything by Beethoven.

    Anyway, thanks for spreading the Gospel. Even though we can all find it in many places, you never know when someone who needs it will find it on your blog, which is how it hit me on Sunday. The person who presides over a monthly Bible study group that I try with middling success to attend noted recently that he has a large email list for the group, but only a few people usually show up. Yet when he asked one person who never came if he should take her name off the list, she said no, getting the monthly emails reminded her she should read the Bible even if she couldn’t attend the meetings. So the good effects of your posts may be greater than you know.

    RL formerly in Glendale (40f5aa)


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