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Sunday, September 27, 2026

by Joshua L. Mazur, Director of Music

Hymn 435: At the Name of Jesus

This Sunday we sing a hymn taken almost directly from one of the appointed readings. St. Paul writes in Philippians:

“At the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

The hymn begins:

At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow,

every tongue confess him King of glory now.

Caroline Maria Noel wrote At the Name of Jesus in 1870. It appeared in her collection The Name of Jesus and Other Verses for the Sick and Lonely. Noel had suffered from chronic illness for many years, and much of her writing came from that period of her life.

Her hymn is essentially an extended meditation on Philippians 2. St. Paul begins by describing the humility of Christ. Though He was in the form of God, Christ “emptied himself,” took the form of a servant, became human, and was obedient even to death on a cross. God therefore exalted Him and gave Him “the name that is above every name.”

Noel follows the same path. Christ is the eternal Word who becomes human and receives the name Jesus. He bears that name through His earthly life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. The Jesus before whom every knee will finally bow is the same Jesus who humbled Himself and became a servant.

The Name of Jesus

The word name means more here than it usually does in ordinary conversation. A name in Scripture can represent the identity, character, and authority of the person who bears it. When St. Paul says that every knee will bend at the name of Jesus, he is not describing the name as though the word itself were a magic formula. His next line tells us what he means: “every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

Noel eventually brings that confession very close to home:

In your hearts enthrone him;

there let him subdue

all that is not holy,

all that is not true.

It is one thing to confess that Christ is Lord of heaven and earth. It is another to give Him authority over the parts of our own lives that we would prefer to keep for ourselves.

KING'S WESTON

Noel did not write her hymn for the tune we sing today. KING'S WESTON was composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams and first published with this text in Songs of Praise in 1925, more than fifty years after Noel wrote the hymn.

Vaughan Williams had already included At the Name of Jesus in The English Hymnal of 1906, but there he paired it with an older German tune. He later wrote KING'S WESTON specifically for Noel's words. The tune takes its name from Kings Weston, an estate near Bristol where Vaughan Williams had been a guest.

KING'S WESTON has a strong triple meter and a characteristic rhythm that returns throughout the tune. It needs to move. If it is sung too slowly, its long phrases become heavy and the text loses much of its energy. Sung at a good pace, it has exactly the confidence that Noel's words require.

This is also one of those occasions when the tune and text were deliberately joined by the composer. We have seen other possibilities in this series: a poet may write new words for an existing tune, or a hymn text and tune may be paired long after both were written. Here Vaughan Williams knew Noel's text and composed a tune for it.

“Let the Same Mind Be in You”

There is an important sentence immediately before the passage Noel paraphrases:

“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”

Paul is not simply telling the Philippians something about Jesus. He is telling them how Christians ought to live with one another.

Christ did not cling to status or privilege. He humbled Himself and became a servant. Paul has just told the Philippians to do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but to regard others as better than themselves and to look to the interests of others.

Only then does he tell them about Christ.

That gives the great conclusion of the passage some necessary context. The One whom God exalts is the One who humbled Himself. The Lord before whom every knee will bow is the One who became a servant.

Sunday's Gospel also concerns authority and obedience. The chief priests and elders ask Jesus, “By what authority are you doing these things?” Jesus eventually answers them with the parable of two sons. One promises obedience and does nothing. The other initially refuses but then goes and does what his father asked.

That is a useful Gospel to hear on the same morning that we sing:

In your hearts enthrone him.

Calling Jesus Lord is a confession of faith. It also means that He gets to tell us what to do.

As you sing At the Name of Jesus this Sunday, consider this question:

Where is it easier for me to call Jesus Lord than to obey Him?