Once a star shone out on high

Once a star shone out on high,

Blazing ‘cross the eastern sky.

From its shining, seekers knew 

That its light would lead to you.

 

God, we need your guiding star,

For we languish where we are;

Our hearts fail in misery

And we wander aimlessly.

 

How we seek your light to shine

And your fire our souls refine!

Like that star of ages past,

Let your sign be sure and fast.

 

Like those ancient seekers’ deed: 

Toward your light help us proceed.

Let our steps be sure and true,

And our star be only you.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, December 2021

MUSIC: Tune SONG 13, Orlando Gibbons, 1623; alt.

 

 

A hymn suitable for Epiphany, and perhaps other times I suppose. 

 

In the beginning was the Word (alternate tune)

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. Alternate tune O WALY WALY, English folk melody

 

 

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 those churches for whom that's not readily doable, here is an alternative that should be accessible to most.

Child in the Temple

Child in the Temple, hearing and learning,

Asking his questions, living his call;

All there who heard him found him discerning, 

Thoughtful, amazing; so said they all.

 

Joseph and Mary, busy with travel,

Found their son missing, not to be found!

Searching, their minds began to unravel

Till they found Jesus there safe and sound. 

 

“How could you do this? What were you thinking?

We were so worried, fearful for you?” 

But then his answer left their hearts sinking:

“This is my Father’s business I do.”

 

Babe in the manger, child in the Temple,

God on the cross, our Savior is he; 

Let us behold and joyously tremble

And show his greatness for all to see.

 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, December 2021, after Luke 2:41-52

MUSIC: Tune BUNESSAN, Gaelic melody.

 

 

Following after an older hymn, “Child in the manger,” this one takes up the twelve-year-old Jesus’s experience staying behind in Jerusalem as his family returned home. The final stanza offers a reminder of who this child was and will be.

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.

For those who serve as pastors

For those who serve as pastors – a holy, foolish call;

For those who rise in triumph and also those who fall, 

With fearful contemplation we wonder at their task

To preach and teach and listen, and idols to unmask.

 

For those whose fame and glory have led them to betray,

Whose pride and lust for power drive souls into decay;

We pray for these, the fallen, sometimes through gritted teeth,

That your love yet may conquer and surge up from beneath.

 

For those whose souls have broken beneath abuse and scorn,

Whose service is rejected, whose faith is left forlorn; 

We pray, dear God of calling, that hope may bloom anew, 

And holy fire rekindle in service sure and true.

 

For those in times of chaos who struggle just to breathe,

For whom all days of serving with dangers writhe and seethe;

With earnest, pleading sorrow we lift them to your care

So they again are able to hope and do and dare.

 

For those who in their calling can see no path ahead;

No road extends before them, but only empty dread; 

Dear God of all compassion, whate’er their path may be,

In prayer and contemplation, give them a road to see.

 

O God of word and table, of pulpit and of font,

Give strength to these your servants and leave them not in want.

Give them the grace to serve you with heart, soul, strength, and mind,

And help them in their serving new joy in you to find.

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, October 2021

MUSIC: Tune SALLEY GARDENS, Irish folk melody

Not one I really expect to be sung in a church, ever, but one for all the fellow clergy who are up against it one way or another (or maybe many ways) in these freakish and painful times. Perhaps not exactly your typical Clergy Appreciation Month offering, but an offering of appreciation nonetheless.

O love your God, alternate fifth stanza

O love your God with all your heart,

            With all your power to love;

Now show that love to all around

            As to your Lord above.

 

O love your God with all your soul,

            With all your power to feel; 

Give to the world your greatest gifts

            To show your Lord is real.

 

O love your God with all your strength,

            With all your power to do;

Show deeds of holy service now

            To serve your Savior true.

 

O love your God with all your mind,

            With all your power to know;

In word and thought be full of grace,

            The power of God to show.

 

With mind and strength and soul and heart

            The love of God proclaim,

That all the world may know that love

            And call on Jesus’ name.

 

Alternate final stanza:

As you have loved the Lord your God,

            So love your neighbor well; 

There is no rule of greater worth 

            Than in these loves to dwell.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2019; alternate stanza October 2021, after Luke 10:26-28 or Mark 12:28-31.

MUSIC: Suggested tune AZMON, Carl Gotthelf Gläser, 1828; arr. Lowell Mason, 1839.

A revision of a text from back in June 2019, found here. Mark's rendering of this encounter adds what seems to me a significant comment from Jesus, the part about how there is no commandment greater than these. With this text approaching in the lectionary, a quick revision to bring this note into the hymn seemed desirable. 

"What must I do to gain life eternal?"

“What must I do to gain life eternal?

How must I live to have this reward?

How can I then inherit, Good Teacher,

All of the blessing this world can afford?”

Jesus replied, “You know what the law says?

Put into practice those words and live.”

Came the reply, “O Teacher, I do this!

Is there no other command you can give?”

 

Jesus beheld the man who so questioned, 

And gave him answer in holy love; 

“Sell what you own and give to the poorest.

Follow me for all the joy you dream of.”

Sorrow took hold, for he had possessions

Many and great, he held as his own. 

Could he then live without all his owning?

What would he be with his fortunes all gone?

 

What must we be to enter the kingdom?

How must we live to be in God’s reign?

What are the things that keep us in bondage,

Holding us back in frustration and pain?

Give it away, whatever constrains us; 

Tear it all down and to Jesus turn. 

Follow our Christ, the true wealth that matters;

Follow our Jesus for whom our hearts yearn.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, October 2021, after Mark 10:17-23

MUSIC: Suggested tune GATHER US IN, Marty Haugen, 1979. Copyright 1982 GIA Publications, Inc.

 

A hymn after the story of Jesus’s conversation with the man who had many possessions (he’s described as neither young nor a ruler in Mark), with the question turned to us at the end. What keeps us from forsaking all and following? (In this case this is the tune that took hold quickly once the opening line was settled; since it is under copyright it is not reproduced here.)

Make this, God, a place of welcome (Dedication hymn)

Make this, God, a place of welcome for all those who come this way;

For those who need sanctuary just to make it through the day.

For your children facing trouble in dark places of the mind, 

May this be a place of healing where good hope we all can find.

 

For your children in addiction far beyond their own control,

May this be a place of wholeness both in body and in soul.

For your daughters who seek learning, yet in poverty and need,

May this be where, through our sewing, they can open doors indeed.

 

For your children long in seeking who they’re truly meant to be,

May this be a place for finding home and hope to know and see.

For your children, wounded, broken, who have nowhere else to turn,

May this be a place of healing not bound to what they can earn.

 

For the hopes of saints before us who once dreamed these faithful dreams,

We give thanks for all these centers through which that dear vision beams.

Make this, God, a place of welcome for all those who come this way;

In this place may your good pleasure be our mission every day.

 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, September 2021, for the rededication of the Highlands Regional Ministry Center, Gainesville, Florida.

MUSIC: Tune ODE TO JOY, Ludwig van Beethoven, 1824; adapt. Edward Hodges, 1842; alt.

When Christ's own body comes to table

When Christ’s own body comes to table,

When all God’s children gather there,

The grace of sacramental living

Is given freely, everywhere.

 

Now bread we break and wine we offer,

Though not our own, but Christ’s we give.

In nations found the whole world over

God’s people take this feast and live

 

In every place, at every table,

Our Lord presides at every feast.

No gates, no walls are there to hinder

All those who seek, from great to least.

 

As now we gather, we look forward

To days to come, when we shall see

Our Christ alone at one great table 

To serve God’s children, loved and free.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, September 2021, toward World Communion Sunday

MUSIC: Tune ST. CLEMENT, Clement Cottewill Scholefield, 1874.

 

 

Not much to say besides the aim for something that points somehow to why World Communion Sunday might matter.

We welcome you, O Christ

We welcome you, O Christ our Lord;

            We lift our praise in one accord.

We give you thanks in everything;

            We honor you as now we sing.

 

Yet your own word has called us out;

            The very welcome that we shout

Is called in question – doubt, indeed – 

            By how we turn from those in need.

 

The hungry stranger at our door,

            The one who scrubs our dirty floor,

The migrant, homeless; yes, our call

            Is always to receive them all.

 

While we your church have argued loud

            For power, for strength, for status proud,

You welcome these whom we’ve reviled

            As once you welcomed one small child.

 

Recall us to true welcome, Lord, 

            That all in you may be restored

To health and hope in everything,

            And we true praise to you might bring.

 

 

Text: Charles Spence Freeman, September 2021, after Mark 9:30-37.

Music: Suggested tune ROCKINGHAM, Second Supplement to Psalmody in Miniature, 1783; harm. Edward Miller, 1790.

Still fighting through the dry spell, turning to the week's scripture reading became the next step. A simple reading of the Mark passage will make clear this is no paraphrase, but a response from a world seemingly more distant from Jesus's call to welcome than ever. Those represented in the third stanza are but a small sample of those to whom our welcome must extend, if we are truly seeking to follow what Jesus teaches here.

Jesus, you loved us first

Jesus, you loved us first, and love us still; 

Lead us to live within your holy will. 

Guide us to live with care, and yet with hope to dare,

In all things everywhere, your love fulfill.

 

Teach us to live within your wisdom true,

Not choosing foolishly in what we do.

Making the most of time, led by your grace sublime, 

May we in all things rhyme our lives to you.

 

Let songs of praise resound, our voices ring;

Let melodies abound in everything.

Lead us in holy psalm, loud praise or healing balm;

In conflict or in calm, lead us to sing.

 

Place in us grateful hearts; teach us to say

All of our gratitude in every way.

To You our Lord on high our praises multiply;

Let thanks be our reply here, now, today.

 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, August 2021 (after Ephesians 5:15-20)

MUSIC: Tune SOMETHING FOR JESUS, 6.4.6.4.6.6.6.4., Robert Lowry, 1871.

 

 

One thing I’ve adopted when nothing works for an extended time is to take up a tune from my past (one that doesn’t appear much in the hymnals most present in my experience nowadays) and create a text for it. This quiet Robert Lowry tune somehow cooperated with the Ephesians reading for the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost of this year, though this text is far from a close paraphrase. 

Live in the love of Jesus

Live in the love of Jesus; be rooted in his love! 

Take strength in your whole being with power from above. 

With riches of God’s glory, with Holy Spirit’s power,

Live out the love of Jesus in this and every hour.

 

Live in the love of Jesus; be grounded in his love!

Know Christ in your whole being with power from above.

Let Christ’s own holy presence through yearning faith draw near,

And fill you with his deep love, the love that casts out fear.

 

Live in the love of Jesus; live ready for his love!

Know deep in your own being this power from above. 

This love beyond all knowing, God’s fullness holding sway;

Live out the love of Jesus in this and every day.

 

 

Text: Charles Spence Freeman, July 2021 (after Ephesians 3:14-21)

Music: Tune WEBB, George J. Webb, 1837.

 

 

I have sometimes compared my writing process to cooking in a crock pot, one that involves getting all the ingredients together and giving them plenty of time to cook into the desired result. In this case, the cooking period more resembled that of a barbecue pit (where “low and slow” is key) than a crock pot. As with my cooking experiences with slow smoking, this text only came together after I had largely given up.

Live lives worthy of your calling

Lead lives worthy of your calling; 

            Live in humble gentleness.

Live with love for one another,

            Slow to anger, swift to bless.

Strive for unity in Spirit,

            Joined in bonds of sacred peace.

Know the one hope of your calling,

            Hope that will not ever cease.

 

For we live in grace first given

            In the gifts of God alone,

Gifts Christ gave to build the body – 

            Gifts of grace we do not own.

Gifts of teaching and proclaiming,

            Gifts of challenge and of care;

All these gifts our Christ has given

            To his people everywhere.

 

So we live in sacred body,

            Speaking truth in holy love,

Growing always in our Savior,

            Into Christ our Head above.

Let us all praise our Creator;

            Let us praise our Savior true;

Let us praise the Holy Spirit

            In all things we say and do.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2021, after Ephesians 4:1-16.

MUSIC: Suggested tune EBENEZER, Thomas John Williams, 1890.

Other possible tune: BEACH SPRING (but watch out for copyrights on different harmonizations).

 

So I took a liturgy writing workshop at the same Music & Worship conference that set off “The reign of Christ compels us” and "So Jesus came to Bethany," and got moved to write a hymn based on the noted scripture (epistle reading for Ordinary 18B, coming up August 1). What can I say? Hymns are liturgy, as far as I’m concerned.

So Jesus came to Bethany

So Jesus came to Bethany when his dear friend had died,

And Martha, Mary, all their friends, and even Jesus cried.

So those who watched his sorrow flow knew how he loved the man,

But when the tears had shed their last, the miracles began.

 

Then Jesus told those standing there, “Now roll the stone away.”

Poor Martha’s fears he brushed aside; such doubt could not betray. 

Then, lifting up a prayer above that all could see and hear,

Jesus called out to his dear friend, “Oh, Lazarus, come out here!”

 

Now Lazarus heard the Lord’s command and from his bier did rise.

His body once bound to the earth now stretched out toward the skies.

But still his hands and feet were bound; he could not walk away. 

His yearn to flee the yawning tomb the graveclothes did betray.

 

So Jesus told those standing there to tear those bonds aside.

They loosed the graveclothes, freed the man, his life now open wide.

So when you find the bonds of sin are all you feel and see,

Remember risen Lazarus; remember you are free.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, July 2021, after John 11.

MUSIC: Tune SALVATION, Kentucky Harmony, 1816.

 

 

Another hymn provoked by another worship service (same preacher) at the Presbyterian Association of Musicians Worship & Music Conference. I don’t know if it’s the mountain air or what, but things are coming forth this week. The scripture is part of the gospel for Lent 5A, I think, which might be helpful in the future. 

The reign of Christ compels us

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 LLANGLOFFAN, Welsh folk melody; Llwybrau Moliant, 1872.

 

 

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.

God of the psalmists

God of the psalmists, who calls our hearts to sing, 

We lift our praises to you in everything.

In days of joy and times of mirth and even in sorrow’s shade,

We sing our songs of gratitude for all of the world that you have made.

 

Yes, God, we praise you with voices and with more; 

Horn, flute, and trumpet your praises will outpour.

With resonating of the bells and clashing cymbals high

We lift to you, our living Lord, all praise from the land and sea and sky.

 

Pipes of the organ and bright piano strings,

Loud stirring drums, too, and quiet, softer things,

All strings now plucked and strummed and bowed resound in praise to you,

Our God, the source of all good gifts and giver of songs both old and new.

 

Music we offer in praises and in prayer,

Even as we yearn for the time that you prepare,

When all our song and all our praise we offer face to face

In time unending that you give in all of your mercy, love, and grace.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2021.

MUSIC: Suggested tune SYMPHONY, Johannes Brahms, 1877; arr. Fred Bock, 1976. Arrangement copyright 1976 Fred Bock Music Co. All rights reserved. (Therefore, not reprinted here.)

 

The text came forth after the happy accident of hearing the Brahms Symphony No. 1 finale (from which this tune is adapted) on the radio.

 

There are no walls around this table

There are no walls around this table,

No fence to climb, no gate to bar.

The One who calls us all is able

To welcome all from near and far. 

See how Christ calls us all together

To take the bread and share one cup!

He draws us in the Spirit’s tether

To hold us fast and lift us up.

 

As Jesus shared at that first table

With those he called and then called friends,

So now he leads us to enable

All folk to share this meal that mends.

There is no guard or sentry posted,

No keeper there to block the way; 

There’s just one table that is hosted

By One who bids us come and stay.

 

And there’s no border ‘round this table; 

All whom the Spirit calls may come. 

Whatever color, love, or label,

Our Lord calls all and not just some.

There are no walls around this table,

No fence to climb, no gate to bar. 

The One who calls us all is able

To welcome all from near and far.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2021.

MUSIC: Tune WAYFARING STRANGER, American folk melody. 

A week of listening to headlines about religious authorities of differing-yet-similar types working as hard as they can to exclude some people – even from the table – produced this admittedly radical statement about who exactly is welcome at the table, and who I as pastor have the authority to turn away.