Manger scenes and hanging greens

Manger scenes and hanging greens, signals of a season;

Are we, in these festive scenes, searching for a reason?

Have we in our sound and song, ‘hope” and “joy” and “glory,”

Somehow got the meaning wrong? Have we lost the story?

 

Listen to the prophets’ call, pointing to deliverance;

Righteousness for one and all, making hope and difference.

Justice is their constant cry, peace their faithful calling;

Pointing to redemption nigh, warning us from falling.

 

Hear the songs that call us near, pointing to a Savior. 

Zechariah makes us hear of God’s coming favor.

Mary knows God’s blessing true, strength and mercy showing.

John, baptizing, calls anew for repentance growing.

 

See the visions yet to come, sights that leave us reeling.

Yet we see through all of these Jesus’ own revealing. 

Hear the call to stand and wait, watchful and unfailing; 

Never fearing any fate, knowing God’s prevailing.

 

As we make our way ahead, seeking out the stable,

Let us, by the Spirit led, live as we are able:

Doing justice, seeking peace, righteousess fulfilling,

Keeping watch with hope and joy as our Lord is willing.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, November 2021.

MUSIC: Suggested tune TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM, Piae Cantiones, 1582. 

I'm not sure what this one is nor where it came from. I can only surmise that the preparation for Advent this season seems fraught with the urge not to "lose the plot" of the Christian walk in the progress through Advent to Christmas. Maybe that's a particular concern in a time when even the most faithful of us are susceptible to the urge to seek comfort at the expense of faithfulness? I don't know, but make of it what you will. 

In the beginning was the Word

In the beginning was the Word; 

The Word was from the first with God.

In the beginning this same Word,

This Word was God and only God. 

 

All things became then through this Word; 

No thing became, apart from God.

Life came to be all through this Word;

This life, this light that comes from God.

 

Into the world then came this Word,

But yet the world did not know God.

So many welcomed not the Word,

But some became children of God.

 

And in the flesh did come this Word,

With glory, grace, and truth of God.

Receive the fullness of the Word,

And grace upon grace from our God.

 

 

Text: Charles Spence Freeman, after verses from John 1:1-18.

Music: Suggested tune CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM, Sarum plainsong, Mode IV, 9^th cent.

 

 

The Revised Common Lectionary insists upon thrusting John 1 into every Christmas season, so might as well have a hymn that sums it up. As to the suggested tune, this scripture (or its opening line at least) has always seemed like something that needs to be chanted.

 

For such a time as this

For such a time as this, God gives a special call

For leaders in an interim space, when change and loss befall.

 

To hear and understand, to see and to embrace; 

God’s servant, called to feed this flock, is charged to lead with grace.

 

In time of change and doubt, between now and “not yet,”

This shepherd leads the church away from yearning and regret.

 

A church that faces loss, still charged to live in grace,

Must find its way from clinging past to hopeful, growing space.

 

In such a time as this, where fear and conflict fall,

God’s church is called to stand and serve and give itself for all. 

 

 

Text: Charles Spence Freeman, November 2021, at Interim Ministry Training

Music: Suggested tune FESTAL SONG, William H. Walker, 1894.

Written during Interim Ministry Training workshop at Union Presbyterian Seminary, November 15-19, 2021.

The Reign of Christ compels us (alternate tune)

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. Here it is paired to a somewhat more accessible tune.