We gather here, Lord Jesus

We gather here, Lord Jesus, to give you thanks and praise

For this, your faithful servant now at the end of days.

We know, even in dying, that this one yet shall live;

Now for this full assurance, to You our thanks we give.

 

And yet, our hearts are broken, and yet our souls still grieve;

This loss is yet so painful, this loss without reprieve.

We weep and mourn, dear Savior, not out of rank despair,

But since, when next we gather, this friend will not be there.

 

So hear our prayers, Lord Jesus, so hear our thanks and praise,

And hear, as well, our sorrow, the cry that we upraise.

Hold close our grieving hearts, Lord, and your dear comfort give,

So that, in your sustaining, we who survive might live.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2022.

MUSIC: Suggested tune WIE LIEBLICH IST DER MAIEN, Johann Steurlein, 1575.

 

 

In my time in the pastorate, I've performed far more funerals (excuse me, Services of Witness to the Resurrection in PCUSA-speak) than baptisms or weddings. I've had more than a few occasions to consider that balance between the hope in that witnessing to that resurrection and the mourning and sorrow that is not negated by that hope, unless you're some kind of unfeeling something. After all those times, this is finally the result.