Now when a grain of wheat

Now when a grain of wheat is severed and falls away into the earth,

It then bears fruit in much abundance; in God’s good care it gives new birth.

And yet before new wheat is thriving, that single grain must fall and die.

So was the fate of our dear Savior, who would be lifted up on high.

 

Now those who love their life above all, and hoard it dear at any cost,

Will find, without our Savior’s leading, that all they treasure will be lost.

But those who yield to God’s own calling, eternal life is theirs to find.

So thus our Lord, to draw all people, was lifted up to humankind.

 

Now who would serve our Jesus truly must follow to the very last,

And those who do will find their Savior to be there too, to hold us fast.

Yes, those who serve our Jesus truly so serve our God, our all in all;  

So was the work of our dear Savior, who, lifted up, did draw us all.

 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, March 2021, after John 12:24-26.

MUSIC: Tune WAYFARING STRANGER, American folk melody.

 

 

A response to the lectionary gospel reading for Lent 5B. I am far more capable of writing a hymn developed from that reading than I am of preparing a sermon on it. The tune is familiar to most, I’d guess, but appears in about a million different versions; adapt as needed. (This is not to be confused with the tune that appears in Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal as #437.)