The reign of Christ compels us, four-part version

The reign of Christ compels us to bear a witness true

To glorify our Savior in all we say and do.

The Lord, who in our living is sovereign above all, 

Compels and draws us always to live into this call. 

 

As Christ first bore good witness to God’s almighty power, 

So we are charged to sound forth in this and every hour.

With calls to truth and justice, with words of peace and love,

We give our testimony to our good God above.

 

By Spirit’s power unyielding we bear that witness true,

Not just with words but actions that we are called to do.

In work that lifts up God’s own that this world calls “the least,” 

We call the world to gather at God’s own holy feast.

 

For God our king and ruler, all that we have, we give. 

Our witness is embodied in every way we live.

So let us join our living to words of love and grace,

That Christ’s own holy justice may reign in every place.

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2021.

MUSIC: Tune AURELIA, Samuel Sebastian Wesley, 1864.

 

 

This text was provoked by a sermon by Rev. Cecilia Armstrong and service given at the Presbyterian Association of Musicians Worship and Music Conference at Montreat Conference Center in North Carolina on June 29, 2021. The scripture from Revelation 1:4b-8, in particular the reference to Christ as “the faithful witness” in verse 5, provided the starting point for the sermon (at least as I understood it) and this hymn as well. With some references to the Parable of the Sheep and Goats added as the hymn kept developing, it also can be used for Christ the King/Reign of Christ Sunday, Year A. 

A vineyard owner

A vineyard owner came to call for workers to attend his vines.

He sent them out into the field according to his own designs.

But then again, 'tween nine and ten, he called more workers to the field;

Again at three he called for more. What could so many workers yield?

 

But even at the close of day some laborers had not yet been hired.

He sent them to the field to work although the day was near expired.

When pay time came, he gave the same to late and early laborers all!

Those early workers did complain at such unfairness and such gall.

 

"How were you cheated? Did you not receive the wage we did agree?

Are your eyes evil just because I pay with generosity?

Take what is yours, that which assures that you can feed your family.

But what is mine is mine to give for those whose need I hear and see."

 

When Jesus says "the last shall be the first, and then the first are last," 

He says that heaven's kingdom is not like how we have lived the past.

Those workers all, who hear God's call, will grace and welcome truly find,

And all God's called will come to know the peace that our Lord has designed.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, September 2023, after Matthew 20:1-16.

MUSIC: Suggested tune YE BANKS AND BRAES, Scottish melody.

 

 

Some of Jesus's parables don't necessarily sound like stories that make for good hymns. They do, however, generally make for good stories, and making stories into songs has been the work of those who sing folk melodies and ballad tunes for generations. At least that idea has me thinking of how such tunes might adapt into carriers of hymns, as many already have through the work of John L. Bell and others. Suddenly I'm starting to imagine Jesus as a ballad singer...(Note: in stanza three, "are your eyes evil" comes from a more literal translation of the idiom used in the Greek, more typically translated as "are you envious". One doesn't normally want to translate idioms literally, but in this case it's rather illuminating, don't you think?)

See the children of God

Refrain:

See the children of God, and of Christ the body living!

See the Spirit among them in receiving and in giving!

See the children of God!

 

When the people share Christ's work with no barriers stood between them, 

Neither age, race, nor gender can keep any servant from him.

 

Refrain

 

(See the church of early Rome, women, men, enslaved and noble;

From such humble beginnings see the church flung wide and global.)

Refrain

 

Country roads or city streets, anywhere that lives are troubled,

May the church be the bearer of Christ's love and joy redoubled.

 

Refrain

 

Can we be such church today, in the world with joy and flavor?

Siblings all joined together, all alike in God's true favor?

 

Refrain

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, September 2023, ref. to Romans 16:1-16.

MUSIC: Tune WILD MOUNTAIN THYME, Irish melody. 

(note: tune is public domain but arrangements or harmonizations are likely copyrighted)

I am the weirdo who tries to extract a sermon out of Romans 16:1-16, Paul's extra-long greetings to members of the church at Rome that, though he had not visited yet, he still somehow knew or at least knew about. It's an interesting bunch in these greetings, from evangelists and even apostles to possibly enslaved or formerly enslaved people. There's at least a tiny little lesson for the church today in all of these names Paul calls out; if nothing else, this church and other similar congregations of the era are our ancestors in the faith, well before anybody was building cathedrals or megachurches.

On the other hand, if one isn't taking in that scripture, leaving out verse 2 should still hopefully be a useful hymn for the church, maybe even an aspirational one?

For ourselves we do not live

For ourselves we do not live,

Nor to ourselves do we die; 

If we die or if we live,

We belong to God on high.

 

To this end our Jesus died,

And yet also lives again.

Why then do you judge and chide

As if you were without sin?

 

God alone will judge us all, 

And before God we will be.

To our knees then shall we fall,

There to praise eternally.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, August 2023, after Romans 14:7-12.

MUSIC: Tune AUS DER TIEFE RUFE ICH, attr. Martin Herbst, 1676.

 

 

For this final hymn in the Romans cycle, the latter half of the reading bears the weight of song; a hymn about eating or not eating meat was frankly beyond me. The warning against judgment, not turning non-essential matters into "essential" tests of faith, and the like quite wanted to be sung, so to speak. Plus, I have now used the word "chide" in a hymn text.