Come, you faithful ones, rejoicing

Come, you faithful ones, rejoicing;

            Come, you seekers of our God!

See the wondrous incarnation;

            Come, be joyful and be awed!

See this infant and behold

            God in human flesh enrolled!

See the wonder of salvation

            Come to us and every nation.

 

With the shepherds watch and wonder

            At this unexpected sight:

See the child with mother Mary,

            Wrapped against the chill of night.

Yet this infant that you see

            Son of God has come to be.

Let your praise be now unceasing

            And with love your joy increasing!

 

Celebrate the child Messiah!

            Celebrate the newborn Lord!

Celebrate with songs of gladness!

            Celebrate with one accord!

Let the good news spread abroad

            Of our incarnated God!

For this saving love endeavor

            Glory to our God forever!

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, January 2022.

MUSIC: Suggested tune GENEVAN 42, Genevan Psalter, 1551.

 

 

A hymn for Christmas Eve/Christmas Day, which I fully expect never to be sung, but it does complete a collection for Advent, Christmas, and the Epiphany event.

 

The road we walk

The road we walk, with Holy Spirit guiding, 

            may take us places we cannot conceive.

The Lord our God, in whom we are abiding,

            calls on us all to trust and to believe.

We may be called to leave our favorite dwelling place;

            we may be called to work that we don’t know; 

But still we trust alone in God’s amazing grace

            and find the faith we need to follow and to go.

 

There may be times in seeking God’s direction

            that we are tempted hard by doubt and fear 

To seek our comfort over new connection,

            to turn from call we do not want to hear.

But God does not abandon us in time of change;

            the Spirit holds us, will not let us fall.

No matter how the path ahead seems dark or strange,

            our Lord will not abandon you in this new call.

 

Friend, do not seek the comfort of familiar - 

            old tasks or roles or places you have known,

But in true faith press on toward what the Lord asks,

            and you may find that yet your faith has grown.

Fight the good fight, keep faith and go complete the race!

            Take one new step, then take another too.

And even more trust only God's amazing grace

            and find the faith you need to follow and to do.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, January 2022

MUSIC: Suggested tune LONDONDERRY AIR, Traditional Irish tune

I'm not entirely certain to whom this hymn is directed. It might apply only to me. Or maybe there are others out there looking at new directions in their calling or career or life in general and perhaps hesitating. Who knows? But here it is; make of it what you will. (Presbyterians: this tune is not in Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal, so you might have to go hunting.)

What child is this, year A verses

What child is this, whose family dear is now to Egypt fleeing? 

What brings this haste? What vision drear is Joseph now receiving?

This, this is Christ the King, to whom those Magi gifts did bring; 

“Flee! Flee!” is God’s command for this, the son of Mary.

 

Why does this king, in his raging, give such a fearful order?

Why shed such blood while one small child is crossing o’er the border?

Fear, fear is Herod’s role; it grips his mind and floods his soul. 

Why, why so fearful of this child, the son of Mary?

 

Now see this family coming home, no longer Herod fearing;

Yet where to go, and where to live? What call is Joseph hearing?

Now, now does Joseph see that Nazareth his home will be,

There, there in peace to raise this child, the son of Mary.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, January 2022, after Matthew 2:13-22.

MUSIC: Tune GREENSLEEVES, English ballad, 16^th cent.; arr. Christmas Carols New and Old, 1871.

 

 

Three verses appropriate for the account in Matthew 2:13-22, the Flight Into Egypt/Slaughter of the Innocents, featured in the RCL for the Sunday after Christmas, year A.

Prophetic voices in our land

Prophetic voices in our land, whose praises now are sung,

Were met with violence in their time, too often shot or hung.

 

Too often church stood idly by in pose of righteousness,

When we are called to shout God’s truth and make a holy mess.

 

Denounce injustice, shout down hate, make faithless leaders hear;

This is our call, and not to cower in craven, fawning fear.

 

Those voices silenced long ago are calling still today; 

To live in truthful justice is the only kingdom way.

 

So let the church, in holy awe, live into God’s command, 

And work for justice everywhere, beginning in this land.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, January 2022

MUSIC: Suggested tune McKEE, African American spiritual; Jubilee Songs, 1884; adapt. Harry T. Burleigh, 1940.

 

 

I don’t think I would call it a hymn for MLK Jr. Day, but maybe a hymn inspired by it?

 

 

Thanks be to God

Thanks be to God, who gives to us the victory,

A victory won in our Lord, Jesus Christ. 

Listen to this! I tell you all a mystery:

We shall be changed, in twinkling of an eye!

Trumpets will sound, the dead be raised undying.

We who die now will rise and no more die.

 

Thanks be to God, who gives to us the victory,

A victory won in our Lord, Jesus Christ. 

What now, O Death? What happened to your triumph?

And tell us now, O Death, where is your sting? 

Thanks be to God, who gives the victory final

In Christ our Lord, whose praises now we sing.

 

Thanks be to God, who gives to us the victory,

A victory won in our Lord, Jesus Christ. 

Now be steadfast, unmoving, and untiring;

Excel in working for our Lord on high.

We know our toil at last will be rewarded.

“Thanks be to God!” be our unending cry.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, January 2022, after 1 Corinthians 15:51-58

MUSIC: Tune FINLANDIA, Jean Sibelius, 1899.

 

 

The noted scripture text is assigned to the eighth Sunday after Epiphany, which technically doesn’t happen this year. I decided to jump it ahead of the seventh Sunday after Epiphany epistle reading and found (perhaps not surprisingly) that it had not received a lot of hymn treatment in any comprehensive way.