Prepare the way, O people, revised

Prepare the way, O people! Your Christ is drawing near!

Cry out to this great city, so all can see and hear!

A borrowed colt he's riding, God's holy reign betiding.

Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna in the highest!

 

Spread out your coats, O people! Make clear your Teacher's way!

Make smooth the road before him on this great joyous day!

Sing out and shout with gladness! This is no time for sadness!

Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna in the highest!

 

Blessed is the one, O people, the one who comes to save;

The one who comes in God's name, who saves us from the grave!

Here on this colt proceeding, even now for us he's pleading;

Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna in the highest!

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, March 2024, after Mark 11:1-11.

MUSIC: Tune BEREDEN VÄG FÖR HERRAN, Then Swenska Psalmboken, 1697; arr. American Lutheran Hymnal, 1930.

 

 

This might be a bad habit, but I have a tendency to find a hymn suited to a particular season or occasion and create a hymn in parallel to it but tied to a different season or occasion. Here the original, a good lively Advent hymn, provides the model for a Palm Sunday text, another occasion when "preparing the way" was the call of the day. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like sometimes it might be a good thing to make connections across the different seasons of the liturgical year. This was written last year for the reading from Mark's gospel; changing two words made it suitable for this year's Luke reading. 

Prepare the way, O people

Prepare the way, O people! Your Christ is drawing near!

Cry out to this great city, so all can see and hear!

A borrowed colt he's riding, God's holy reign betiding.

Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna in the highest!

 

Spread out your coats, O people! Make clear your Teacher's way!

Make smooth the road with branches on this great joyous day!

Sing out and shout with gladness! This is no time for sadness!

Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna in the highest!

 

Blessed is the one, O people, the one who comes to save;

The one who comes in God's name, who saves us from the grave!

Here on this colt proceeding, even now for us he's pleading;

Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna in the highest!

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, March 2024, after Mark 11:1-11.

MUSIC: Tune BEREDEN VÄG FÖR HERRAN, Then Swenska Psalmboken, 1697; arr. American Lutheran Hymnal, 1930.

 

 

This might be a bad habit, but I have a tendency to find a hymn suited to a particular season or occasion and create a hymn in parallel to it but tied to a different season or occasion. Here the original, a good lively Advent hymn, provides the model for a Palm Sunday text, another occasion when "preparing the way" was the call of the day. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like sometimes it might be a good thing to make connections across the different seasons of the liturgical year. (While the Mark account is used as the starting point fot this text, it might be non-specific enough to be sung on any Palm Sunday.

At the morning's silent dawn

At the morning's silent dawn lies a body in a tomb.

Body broken, flesh all torn, lifeless at the break of morn.

See the grave now closed and drawn, silent in the morning gloom.

 

As the morning light shines out, Sabbath time is now observed.

He who died the previous day hastily was sealed away

Before Sabbath, have no doubt. See this death most undeserved.

 

As the sunlight dims and fades, what will happen none could know:

God will raise this man aright, trumping death with life and light.

Still, for now, in evening shades, Jesus's body still lies low.

 

 

Text: Charles Spence Freeman, April 2023.

Music: Tune REDHEAD 76, Richard Redhead, 1853.

Holy Saturday has become, over the past several years, become more of a provocation and challenge in any Holy Week observances I have led. If anyone else feels the need to live in this in-between day a bit more, maybe this hymn will be some help. 

Still cloaks and branches scattered

Still cloaks and branches scattered on the ground,

Donkey and colt now safely taken home. 

No more "hosannas" from the people sound;

Wondering and watching where will Jesus roam.

 

Jesus then turns to face the Temple walls;

Heart of the faith, but what there does he see?

"This house of prayer you make a den of thieves!"

Buyers and sellers forced in shock to flee.

 

Then came the ones who sought again to walk,

And those who yearned for sight for blinded eyes; 

Healing and saving, Jesus welcomes all! 

Once more "hosannas" from the children rise. 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, April 2023.

MUSIC: Suggested tune TOULON, Genevan Psalter, 1531; adapt. from GENEVAN 124.

 

 

A text that takes the long view of what we call Palm Sunday, as recorded in Matthew 21, where the action doesn't stop with the triumphal entry. 

Take and eat

"Take and eat this and remember me."

Bread he gave, both blessed and broken, as an everlasting token:

"Take and eat this and remember me."

 

"Take and drink this and remember me."

Jesus gave the cup, revealing covenant and new life sealing:

"Take and drink this and remember me."

 

Take and live this and remember him.

Show his death till his returning, blessed hope of all our yearning.

Take and live this and remember him.

 

 

 

Text: Charles Spence Freeman, March 2023, after 1 Corinthians 11:24-26.

Music: Suggested Tune RANDOLPH, Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1906.

 

 

 

The confluence of two separate but overlapping events - a presentation on this hymn tune and preparation for a service using this scripture - somehow merged the two into one in my head, so to speak, and then into print. Could be a useful Maundy Thursday hymn.

 

Crosses

Crosses stand against a gray sky, seen by all of those who pass by.

Cruel imperial creation, made for full humiliation.

From such there is no escaping, fear and acquiescence shaping.

Hear the spite and mocking shaming, crowds caught up in fear and blaming.

 

Crosses, meant for pain unyielding, power imperial now wielding, 

Here become a scene of wonder where such power is torn asunder.

Jesus hangs there, bruised and bleeding, in our lives now interceding.

One who dies there for his nation, seeking only our salvation.

 

Crosses could not thwart his love new; to his final breath he stayed true.

We behold in awe and wonder as our bonds are torn asunder.

You who gave so to regain us, may your Spirit now sustain us, 

So that, in your love undying, we might live, all sin defying.

 

Crosses now abound around us, though their uses may confound us:

Waving like a sign of empire, wielded with such anger and fire.

God forbid! Does this not grieve you? Do they think this will deceive you?

May we never so betray you or so falsely thus display you.

 

Crosses now are not for hatred, lest our God's own grace be wasted; 

Not for God's whole world reviling, nor for lists of wrongs compiling;

But for steadfast love revealing, and the power of sin repealing.

Let this cross be now the token of God's love that is not broken.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, April 2022.

MUSIC: Tune SCHMÜCKE DICH, Johann Crüger, 1649.

 

 

Aside from a reference to John 11:49-50 in stanza 2, this is not bound to any particular scripture on the Passion. It is a reflective text, on what crosses were used to do then and what they sometimes are used to do now. The first three stanzas might stand OK for a hymn on their own, but I hope the fourth and fifth stanzas will be heard.

Now Jesus sent Peter and John

Now Jesus sent Peter and John on their way

To find a room where the disciples might stay.

He gave them instructions and sent them ahead,

And there they found everything just as he said.

 

And so they prepared for the Passover meal, 

Where Jesus would to his disciples reveal, 

In bread and in cup, his great gift to us all, 

Which in this true sacrament we do recall.

 

But Jesus was troubled, his heart was dismayed,

For truly he knew that he would be betrayed. 

He also knew Peter, before the night's end, 

Would yet deny knowing his teacher and friend.

 

Still Jesus did give them this meal and this sign,

That we might remember in bread and in wine

The One who, despite how we fail and betray,

Sustains us and saves us in every new day.

 

To Jesus, Redeemer, we offer our praise,

And Spirit, Sustainer through all of our days,

And Holy Creator we praise and adore:

We worship the triune God forevermore.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, March 2022, after verses from Luke 22:7-34.

MUSIC: Tune ST. DENIO, Welsh folk melody; adapt. in Caniadau y Cyssegr, 1839.

 

 

A new hymn text developed from Luke's account of the Last Supper. He seems to emphasize particularly how Jesus goes forward with the sharing of bread and cup despite knowing that two of the disciples will turn against him before the night is over, which hopefully comes across in the hymn. It certainly can be sung without the Trinitarian doxology at the end, but a note of praise at the last seemed appropriate.

 

  

See our Jesus, alternate tune

See our Jesus at the Temple, turned into a marketplace.

See his sadness and frustration; see the anger in his face.

“This is not a place for robbers! This is called a house of prayer

For the peoples of all nations to be gathered and to share.”

 

See our Jesus passing by a barren fig tree on the way.

His disciples saw it withered, wondered at the sad decay.

Jesus taught them to stay faithful and to cast all doubt aside, 

So that God’s unending giving would with them in full abide.

 

See our Jesus at the table, souls and bodies to be fed;

See the woman with the fragrance pouring out on Jesus’ head.

‘Gainst the grumbling and complaining, Jesus did rebuke and scold,

“Do not mock her; she has praised me! Let her deed be always told.”

 

See our Jesus, with disciples gathered in the upper room. 

Hear him giving last instruction, even against impending gloom:

“Take this bread, this is my body; take this cup, it is my blood.

Hold these fast until God’s mercy comes in overwhelming flood.”

 

See our Jesus, now uplifted, raised in shame and left to die.

Hear the scornful, mocking watchers; “save yourself!” their taunting cry.

Hear his breath at last exhausted; Jesus’ earthly life is done, 

But one soldier sees his glory: “Truly this was God’s own son.”

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, March 2021, after readings from Mark 11, 14, 15.

MUSIC: PLEADING SAVIOR, Leavitt’s Christian Lyre, 1830/31.

Other possible tunes:

            JEFFERSON, Alexander Johnson’s Tennessee Harmony, 1818.

            NETTLETON, Wyeth’s Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second, 1813.

The hymn posted last week, now posted with the tune I actually decided to use with it this week (and with some embarrassing typos cleaned up, hopefully).

See our Jesus

See our Jesus at the Temple, turned into a marketplace.

See his sadness and frustration; see the anger in his face.

“This is not a place for robbers! This is called a house of prayer

For the peoples of all nations to be gathered and to share.”

 

See our Jesus passing by a barren fig tree on the way.

His disciples saw it withered, wondered at the sad decay.

Jesus taught them to stay faithful and to cast all doubt aside, 

So that God’s unending giving would with them in full abide.

 

See our Jesus at the table, souls and bodies to be fed;

See the woman with the fragrance pouring out on Jesus’ head.

‘Gainst the grumbling and complaining, Jesus did rebuke and scold,

“Do not mock her; she has praised me! Let her deed be always told.”

 

See our Jesus, with disciples gathered in the upper room. 

Hear him giving last instruction, even against impending gloom:

“Take this bread, this is my body; take this cup, it is my blood.

Hold these fast until God’s mercy comes in overwhelming flood.”

 

See our Jesus, now uplifted, raised in shame and left to die.

Hear the scornful, mocking watchers; “save yourself!” their taunting cry.

Hear his breath at last exhausted; Jesus’ earthly life is done, 

But one soldier sees his glory: “Truly this was God’s own son.”

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, March 2001, after readings from Mark 11, 14, 15.

MUSIC: Suggested tune NETTLETON, Wyeth’s Repository of Sacred Music, 

Part Second, 1813.

Other possible tunes:

            JEFFERSON, Alexander Johnson’s Tennessee Harmony, 1818.

            PLEADING SAVIOR, Leavitt’s Christian Lyre, 1830/31.

 

 

This hymn is tied to Holy Week and events following the triumphal entry, leading up to the crucifixion. The hymn’s basis in Mark’s gospel accounts for certain characteristics of the verses, such as an anonymous woman anointing Jesus’s head instead of Mary anointing Jesus’s feet. It is not a hymn I see as likely sung all in one service, but rather one verse sung each day of Holy Week; nonetheless, do what works for your worship service.