The road of resurrection

The road of resurrection, we walk it every day

As we set out to follow on Jesus's steady way.

From childhood we are learning, with sure and steady stride,

To keep on moving forward and stay at Jesus's side.

 

We walk the road in living a witness as we go,

With words and deeds that honor the One who loves us so.

Our steps may be uncertain, but still our guide is sure

And holds us close for always, to teach us to endure.

 

We walk the road in standing with those the world lays low,

The widow, poor, and orphan, the "least of these" also.

Unflinchingly for justice, with mercy as our call, 

We walk the road in witness to Christ, our all in all. 

 

We walk the road in living in God's community,

With Christ our sole salvation, who gives us eyes to see.

Held in this full communion, rejoicing on the way, 

We walk this road together until our dying day.

 

And yet, though laid to rest wrapped in God's encircling earth,

This is no termination - no ending, but rebirth!

For when this life is over and we no longer roam,

The road of resurrection at last will lead us home. 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, December 2025

MUSIC: Tune AURELIA, Samuel Sebastian Wesley, 1864.

 

 

I have no clue why this hymn happened as it did, when it did. I'ts not exactly Advent-ish, you know? But I think maybe a conference theme got in my head, and then ever-trustworthy AURELIA came along to provide a tune home for all the words that started coming forth. I'm just getting this committed to print (so to speak) before it goes away.

The disciples saw the Temple

The disciples saw the Temple, beautiful, with massive stone.

But their Master spoke of ruin; broken, shattered, razed and gone.

So they questioned Jesus sorely, wondering when such times might be;

And he gave them this in answer, teaching them that they might see:

 

"You see wars and insurrections; these will come, this is for sure;

See these earthquakes, plagues and famines, such disasters to endure.

You will all see persecution, prisons, trial by would-be kings;

I will give you words of answer when you undergo these things."

 

We may read these things and wonder how such times sound like our own;

Scorned by families, friends, and neighbors, feeling lost and all alone.

Still our call is to endurance, pressing on the upward way, 

So that we may still be standing, true and faithful on that day. 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, November 2025, after Luke 21:5-19.

MUSIC: Tune BEACH SPRING, The Sacred Harp, 1884

 

 

Preliminary reading on a forthcoming lectionary reading led to this hymn. It wasn't my intention to observe parallels to our current time, but some such things may have slipped out. And yes, a snippet of the old gospel hymn "Higher Ground" did sneak into the final stanza. 

 

 

Come, holy God, and write your law

Come, holy God, and write your law upon our failing hearts;

Come be our God, yea, you alone,

And let us be your very own,

Down to our inmost parts.

 

Come, living Lord, and to our souls make your true presence known;

No longer bound to teach or call,

For we will know you all in all,

Our distance from you gone.

 

Come, God of covenantal grace, and in your grace forgive;

Wash out our sin forevermore,

To fester in our souls no more.

In hope now let us live.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, October 2025, after Jeremiah 31:33-34.

MUSIC: Tune REST, Frederick Charles Maker, 1887.

 

 

Unlike usual dry spells, between the new church and piecemeal relocation my brain has been overstuffed with hymn ideas that haven't had room to materialize. Finally a bit of time opened up and (as happens only rarely) a scripture from which I am not preaching pulled itself together into a text I could set. Sometimes the hymn-writing impulse has to be pushed just a little bit. 

A man enslaved

A man enslaved, called "Useful,"

In bondage toiled for naught.

He might have been called "Useless"

If his work went all wrong.

But Paul called out his master

And in Christ's love he taught

To call this slave his brother,

Invite him to belong.

 

Our world still sees enslavement

For cruel profit's gain,

Inhuman treatment practiced

For products sold dirt cheap.

Have we no moral center,

To profit from such pain? 

Can we not call out evil? 

Can we not make that leap?

 

In other ways we mangle

Those God has called God's own;

We call them dirty, vagrants,

Or even "useless" too. 

Do we speak such debasement

To those whose hope is gone?

Good God, rebuke us ever

When we such damage do.

 

Dehumanizing others

Who do not look like us,

And yet Christ calls his family;

Have we so lost our way?

Now we must do Christ's bidding,

With nothing to discuss; 

To welcome all around us

Both now and every day.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, September 2025.

MUSIC: Tune LLANFYLLIN, Welsh melody.

Apparently that lectionary reading from Philemon stayed with me beyond the hymn written for it about a month ago. Here Onesimus ("Useful") becomes the starting point for facing the ways such dehumanization is still part of our world today and how the church has not faced up to that.

I give thanks to my God

Refrain:

I give thanks to my God

Every time that I remember

All your love for the saints

And your faith in our Redeemer

I give thanks to my God.

 

Verses:

Let the sharing of your faith

Be effective for our Savior

When you see how that faith

Works for good in all endeavor

 

Refrain

 

Now in love you know to do

For the "useless" ones among you

How to love and accept

As a sibling, not a stranger

 

Refrain

When we welcome those who come

With no status, power, or favor

Then our faith shows that love

Is the way of Christ our Savior

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, August 2025

MUSIC: Tune WILD MOUNTAIN THYME, Irish melody

       (Note: The tune is public domain but harmonizations or arrangements may vary 

        and may be under copyright.)

Yep, it's a hymn on the book of Philemon. Not an exact paraphrase, by any means (I mean, I hope you don't have people in your pews who have to be told to set their slaves free), but hopefully drawing a lesson from it. The word in quotation marks refers to Paul's play on the name Onesimus in verse 11. 

A Hymn for Resistance

Resistance is a holy act when empire now holds sway,

Like that empire with iron fist, which ruled in Jesus's day.

To feed and clothe and shelter those once called "the least of these"

Will anger tyrants bent on power, but will our Jesus please.

 

Resistance is a sacred work in times when hatred thrives,

When those who seek supremacy crush holy human lives.

To care for those of different skin gets punished as a crime,

But Jesus lifts up human folk of every race each time.

 

Resistance is in every age our mandate and our call,

Until the day when, like our Christ, love is from all, for all.

Until that day we feed and clothe, we shelter, care, and love,

To live as Jesus lived on earth, to love like God above. 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, August 2025

MUSIC: Tune KINGSFOLD, English Country Songs, 1893; 

              harm. Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1906.

 

 

This is a hymn very unlikely to be sung on a Sunday morning, unless the congregation is headed out to a march or protest immediately after worship. 

When teaching for the Sabbath

When teaching for the Sabbath in synagogue one day,

Our Lord did see a woman who could not make her way.

Bent over and unable to stand up straight or tall, 

For eighteen years she lived so, with no hope seen at all.

 

When Jesus saw her waiting, he called her out and said,

"See, woman, you are free now," with hands placed on her head.

Immediately she straightened and cried out earnest praise,

Rejoicing in renewed health to last her all her days.

 

The synagogue's own leader was vexed and wroth and sore

That healing work had happened on Sabbath, not before.

Our Lord called out his error and challenged his false ways,

And all the people mocked him, but Jesus heard their praise.

 

Is healing ever wrong or somehow out of place?

Are there some circumstances to turn away God's grace?

When Jesus, on the Sabbath, did help her stand up tall,

He showed that healing comes forth in any time and all.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, August 2025, after Luke 13:10-17.

MUSIC: Preferred tune MERLE'S TUNE, Hal H. Hopson, 1983 Copyright 1983 Hope Publishing Company. 

Alternate tunes: 

AURELIA, Samuel Sebastian Wesley, 1864.

VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN, Melchior Teschner, 1614; harm. William Henry Monk, 1861.

MUNICH, Neuvermehrtes Meiningisches Gesangbuch, 1693; adapt. Felix Mendelssohn, 1847. 

 

The hymn-writing impulse might be back; having some clarity about my future apparently helps, as this is one of two hymns I wrote in one day after being unable to write much all summer. Since the preferred tune is under copyright I don't print it here; the given tune, VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN, is one most congregations sing on Palm Sunday. 

A "good trouble" hymn

When Jesus came to temple grounds,

His heart was vexed most sore

To see the merchants in their stalls 

As if this was a store.

 

He drove the moneychangers out

And set God's creatures free; 

He saw this sacred, holy space

Should not a market be.

 

The temple priests were horrified;

The sellers, filled with fear.

For Jesus, this act told the world

Good trouble time was here.

 

When church gives up its guiding star

To business or to state, 

Good trouble is our holy call,

Before it is too late. 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, 17 July 2025 (fifth anniversary of the death of John Lewis)

MUSIC: Tune McKEE, African American spiritual; Jubilee Songs, 1884; adapt. Harry T. Burleigh, 1940. 

Today was the fifth anniversary of civil rights legend and Congressman John Lewis, and several protest events (billed under his phrase "good trouble") were held around the country today. My schedule didn't allow for one (none were nearby) but this text, derived from one of Jesus's acts that might well be the antecedent of "good trouble," arrived today. As is often the case, the tune helped set the text free in my head. The "underground hymns" aren't dead yet, sir...

Holy and beloved

Holy and beloved, chosen ones of God:

Kindness and compassion and humility,

Also patience, meekness; so to serve your God,

Clothe yourselves in these things for the world to see.

 

Bear with one another; take this call to heart:

As our Lord forgives you, so you must forgive.

So now clothe yourselves in love and do your part

That in joyful harmony we all might live.

 

Let the word of Christ dwell in you heart and soul, 

As his peace lives in you, showing grace to all. 

So you teach other, striving towards the goal, 

Living in God's wisdom as our Lord does call.

 

Singing psalms and hymns and spirit-songs as well, 

All with gratitude and praise for every day,

In the name of Jesus let our lives now tell

In word and in deed how we will seek God's way.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2025, after Colossians 3:12-17.

MUSIC: Tune KING'S WESTON, Ralph Vaughan Williams, 2025.

 

 

First of all, I've wanted to set this passage (with its "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs" hook having been in my head for many years). This week being at the Worship & Music Conference at Montreat, with this larger passage as the "theme scripture," provided extra emphasis. I don't know what brought this tune to my mind, but it was the key that unlocked things. I'll probably need to do some fixing up (and definitely learn some better notation software), but at least it's here and ready to be fixed. (Oh, and this passage really does show up in the RCL ... for the first Sunday after Christmas, year C.) 

For a king the people clamored

For a king the people clamored

To the prophet Samuel.

"Other nations have such rulers,

And we want a king as well."

So the prophet, grieving sorely,

Asked of God what he should do.

God replied, "Give them an answer,

Tell them all that I tell you."

 

"Now the king who will reign o'er you 

Will declare his right to claim

All your sons and all your daughters

To serve only in his name

As his soldiers, cooks and servants,

Serving at his will alone;

So much of your grain and cattle,

What your worked for will be gone."

 

Still the people would not hear him;

For a king was all their cry.

God told Samuel so to give them

What they wanted in reply.

Saul was tall in human stature,

But he was not strong of heart;

David did win many battles,

But his family fell apart.

 

Solomon did tax them sorely,

All for his own selfish gain; 

At the last the kingdom sundered;

Conquered, exiled, doomed to pain.

No king is for God's own children 

Who must follow God alone!

No kings can claim our allegiance,

No king but our God alone!

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2025, after 1 Samuel 8.

MUSIC: Tune EBENEZER, Thomas John Williams, 1890.

Let the reader understand.

For those who laid down life itself (A Memorial Day Hymn?)

 For those who laid down life itself'

Our thoughts are given today; 

Who breathed their last on foreign shores

Or fell at distant gates or doors,

O Lord, teach us to pray.

 

For those who answered nation's call,

And gave their lives away

In wars both noble and unjust,

Who placed in us their dying trust:

Forgive us, Lord, we pray.

 

For families torn by raging grief 

When sorrow comes to stay, 

When loss pervades both soul and mind

And on the heart begins to grind,

Bring healing, Lord, we pray.

 

We give so much to waging war

But peace ne'er gets its say.

May all these lives rebuke us now,

And Lord, we plead, some way, somehow,

Undo our warring way.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, May 2025 (Memorial Day)

MUSIC: Tune REST, Frederick Charles Maker, 1887.

 

 

Memorial Day has haunted me for some time even though my family has not known any losses in military service. Hearing a speaker today (5/26/25) at the Memorial Day observance at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City describe the day as a kind of secular holy day prompted some further reflection. As awkward as it may be, the church cannot keep its distance from the loss of life in the very secular exercise of nations at war. If nothing, this is hopefully a start for ... something.

When Mary went out to the tomb

When Mary went out to the tomb alone in darkness, burdened sore,

She saw the tomb was standing open, guarding stone in place no more.

She ran to tell what she had seen and two disciples made their way;

They saw the grave clothes lying there and wondered, but they did not stay.

 

But Magdalene remained in place, now even more consumed with grief,

Then in the tomb she saw two angels - wondrous sight beyond belief!

She turned and saw the gardener, or so she thought this man must be;

So sore confused and still in shock that Jesus there she could not see.

 

When still she could not see her Jesus, he then stopped and said her name;

Both strong and clear, it stirred her sight so she would never be the same.

He had to tell her not to cling, but gave her this as her reward;

To bear the news to his disciples, saying "I have seen the Lord!"

 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, April 2025, after John 20:1-18.

MUSIC: Tune YE BANKS AND BRAES, Scottish melody.

 

 

Various necessities have slowed hymn-writing, but after a few weeks of intermittent work an Easter hymn is finally here. Somehow I have written two hymns on Mark's minimalist Easter account but none on any other gospel reports, so the text from John's gospel - the scripture the RCL always recommends - was chosen, with Mary Magdalene's role as first witness brought forward.