Nothing in life

Nothing in life, nothing in death can separate us

From the love of our God given in our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, November 2022, after Romans 8:38-39.

MUSIC: Tune QUARTET NO. 4, George Whitefield Chadwick, 1896.

 

 

An "acapella shout" (but it doesn't have to be a shout) roughly summarizing Paul's declaration of assurance to the church at Rome. The tune is lifted wholesale from the fourth movement of a string quartet by the composer who most occupied my studies back in my musicology days. 

 

A Night Hymn

Now let the darkness put to flight the shine of daytime's light,

And let our weary bodies keep the rule of night and sleep.

 

Now let the falling evening shade be in our eyes displayed,

And let those eyes then close for rest so we might live our best.

 

Now let the blackness of the sky lift up our souls on high,

And let those souls be thrilled and awed in nearness to our God.

 

Now let us rest until we know the spark of daytime's glow,

And let our rested bodies rise to live as God's own prize.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, November 2022.

MUSIC: Suggested tune TALLIS' ORDINAL, Thomas Tallis, c.1567, alt.

 

 

A hymn for night and going to sleep.

In a time of endless hatred

In a time of endless hatred, playing hard upon our fears,

First one shooting, then another, draining all our store of tears;

Will this always be our fortune, marking all our days and years?

 

Yet we know, when we remember what our history has taught,

That this violence is no new thing; is our living all for nought?

Will we ever learn your justice? Can we live as yet we ought?

 

From the making of false idols, hollow strength and wayward pride,

Claiming slaughter as a birthright with these weapons that divide; 

From such horrifying falsehood, teach us, Lord, to turn aside.

 

In our tears and in our anger, let us never be dismayed; 

You are still our God, no matter how those demons are arrayed. 

Let our hope be founded on you; teach us not to be afraid.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, November 2022.

MUSIC: Tune TRINITY, Peter Cutts, 1983. Copyright 1983 Hope Publishing Company (hence not reproduced here).

I struggle with responses to recent events, especially tragedies or especially crimes of the like that have been too common of late (unlike others whose hymns can be found in these realms). It's too easy to slip into anger, and to paraphrase David Banner you wouldn't like my writing when I'm angry. But eventually something has to come out. This is what came out today. We'll see if it develops.

Two general Advent hymns

Apparently the Advent season is a major inspiration point for my hymn writing thing. These two are more general hymns for the season rather than being tied to specific weeks or events or texts. The first acknowledges the challenge of marking Advent in a time of conflict and division; the second functions almost as an Advent "preview," with a little peek at everything forthcoming.

In time of Advent we await God's son in humble birth.

To angel choirs and shepherds' fame our hearts rejoice and lips exclaim,

"We pray your will be done! O come, Lord Jesus, come!"

 

Yet now, in days of hateful song, the guiding star's light dims. 

As factions thrive on driving fear and threaten those whom you hold dear,

Our hope has come undone. O come, Lord Jesus, come.

 

Amidst the strife and raging fire we long to know you near.

We yearn for holy majesty and pray with longing, "Can we see

Our lives and souls redone?" O come, Lord Jesus, come.

 

So guide our steps and actions here in this unraveling time,

So that your Song born long ago will be the only Lord we know.

We pray your will be done! O come, Lord Jesus, come.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, September 2020.

MUSIC: Tune REPTON, C. Hubert H. Parry, 1888.

 

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’s 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, righteousness 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.

Some lies we tell ourselves

Some lies we tell ourselves because we cannot bear to see

The people that our forbears were, and that we yet could be. 
"They did not really hate," we say, "they didn't, I just know!"

Dear God, please open up our minds, the bitter truth to show.

 

Some lies we tell ourselves because we have a dreadful fear

That those we love would turn aside if that truth they could hear.

Lord, teach us that we're not alone in having things to hide; 

We all have ugly history we'd rather put aside.

 

Some lies we tell ourselves because we deeply dread to face

The bleak and angry sins that so consume the human race, 

And yet we must - we know this, Lord; if we'd be fully true,

To face these sins of history is something we must do.

 

Teach us that facing history's truths is not a prisoning thing;

Indeed, true freedom only comes when, in the words we sing,

We face the sins that we and our ancestors once embraced; 

Those lies we told ourselves can then be banished and erased.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, November 2022.

MUSIC: Tune SALVATION, Kentucky Harmony, 1816.

 

 

This text is basically a first reaction to a ... the best word I can come up with is "pilgrimage" to The Legacy Museum and The National Memorial for Peace and Justice (aka "the lynching memorial") in Montgomery and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta. In a time in which many just won't face the ugly parts of history, some deny them outright, and some even seek to enshrine such forgetting in law and education, such banishing and forgetting seems inimical to a faith that places any value on confession and repentance (which, I think, includes Christianity...?). 

[Note: this does contain a few "sins" of hymn writing, it's true -- contractions!!!??? The tone of this one, as it formed in my head, seemed to demand that some polish give way to a more vernacular and unpolished idiom. I might change my mind eventually. Who knows?]