“Brave Shepherds Quaked”
This month we continue our Hymn of the Month series in which one or more hymns drawn from collections published by Leupold Editions will be posted on the opening page of the website for consideration by pastors and musicians who may wish to introduce the hymn to their congregations the following month. The Hymn of the Month will often be thematically appropriate for a particular season of the church year or it may be related to a more general theme about the church’s mission in contemporary society. Thus, pastors and/or musicians may wish to have the choir introduce the hymn on the first Sunday of the month or season and then invite the congregation to join with the choir in singing the hymn on each of the remaining Sundays. Additional hymns will occasionally be suggested for a particular Sunday in the church year or for annual commemorations, such as the liturgies of Holy Week; such hymns may only be appropriate on the designated day, or they might be used as a Hymn of the Month in anticipation of or in response to the particular day observed on the church calendar.
HYMN OF THE MONTH FOR MAY 2024:
Text: “Brave Shepherds Quaked,” by Mary Nelson Keithahn, set to the tune: CAST AWAY FEAR, by John D. Horman,
The Hymn of the Month for May 2024 “Brave Shepherds Quaked”, might more aptly be considered a Hymn of the Season for Late Easter. For both Christmas and Easter, there are hymns that work only on the day because of their specificity, e.g., Silent Night for Christmas and Jesus Christ Is Risen Today for Easter. However, there are others that are less specific that work well throughout the season. Such is Brave Shepherds Quaked, a text focused on the topic of fear, or rather deliverance from fear, by Mary Nelson Keithahn (b. 1934). Beginning with a stanza about the shepherds who “quaked with fear” in the presence of the angel choir who announced the birth of Jesus, only to hear the angels sing, “Be not afraid,” might seem a strange opening for an Easter hymn. However, after the second stanza about Jesus’ constant message to his disciples not to “be anxious,” but rather “not fear,” the third stanza focuses on the resurrection account of the disciples being fearful to find the empty tomb, only to be reassured by angel that, “He is not here. The Christ has risen! Do not fear!” The final stanza quotes the Second Reading on the Fifth Sunday of Easter in Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary: “O perfect Love that casts our fear.” However, the theme of love permeates the epistle readings from 1 John on Easter 4, 5, and 6. Thus, this hymn could well be introduced on Easter 4 and sung on the following three Sundays as a Hymn of the Season for Late Easter. The accompanying tune by John D. Horman (b. 1946) is typically well-crafted for the text and readily accessible to the average congregation, especially if sung every Sunday for the final four weeks of the Easter season.
Mary Nelson Keithahn (b. 1934) is a United Church of Christ pastor and educator, now retired in Rapid City, South Dakota, where she still works out of her home as a freelance writer, lyricist, and hymn writer. John D. Horman (b. 1947) is a composer, clinician, and former public school music teacher who serves as organist and director of music at First Congregational Church (UCC) in Washington, DC, and has over 250 published anthems to his credit. Collaborators for over thirty years, Keithahn and Horman they have written over a hundred hymns together, half of which appear in Faith that Lets Us Sing: Fifty New Hymns and Short Worship Songs, published in 2017 by Leupold Editions.
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