Let our hearts be broken, alternate tune

Let our hearts be broken, let our souls be torn;

For the chaos 'round us, let us weep and mourn.

Violence and hatred, practiced in your name?

Your true gospel twisted into fear and shame?

 

Refrain:

Let our hearts be broken, let our souls be torn;

For the chaos 'round us, let us weep and mourn.

 

How have we stood silent for so many years

While this anti-gospel stoked up angry fears?

Why did we not speak out until so, so late?

When the lie was shouted, why did we still wait?

Refrain 

 

Now our call to answer will no longer wait:

Speaking truth to falsehood, speaking love to hate;

Ev'n amidst such violence, injuries and pains,

Bearing witness only to the Christ who reigns.

Refrain 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2026.

MUSIC: Tune WYE VALLEY, James Mountain, 1876.

 

 

One of those inevitable attempts to express in a hymn some kind of response to <gestures around wildly> all this. Set to the alternate tune, with refrain.

 

 

 

 

God, our Creator

God, our Creator, all of life creating,

You bless your people and our needs provide!

Yet we still groan, as if our lives were lacking;

In your abundance, put our fears aside.

 

God, our Creator, heaven declares your glory.

See how the sun shines out across the sky!

Yet we befoul and cloud its shine and splendor;

Show us anew your glory from on high.

 

God, our Creator, by your word creating,

In whom our hope is founded and made real,

Still we betray you, spoiling what you give us;

Set our minds right, restore us with your zeal.

 

God, our Creator, bountifully blessing,

Lavishly giving for our needs each day!

Still we complain that all is insufficient.

Teach us in love to seek your holy way.

 

God, our Creator, all you make we squander;

Heaven, earth, and seas we plunder and destroy.

Set us aright to live within creation

With adoration, wonder, hope, and joy.

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, July 2026.

MUSIC: Tune DONNE SECOURS, Genevan Psalter, 1551. 

 

 

 It hasn't even been two weeks but I already can't remember what prompted this one. Probably something at the Worship & Music Conference I had attended that week. Since I took it down on the Notes function on my phone, I clearly wasn't planning to write a hymn at that particular moment, but it happens that way sometimes. 

 

 

 

When creatures meant to roam the wild

When creatures meant to roam the wild

find freedom snatched away,

in cages locked or bound in chains

and suffering from our wounds and pains,

forgive us, God, we pray.

 

Stout lions, meant to roam in grasslands

free and unrestrained,

or tigers of the forest lands

are captured by foul human hands,

for human fun detained.

 

Sleek panthers, cougars, leopards, and

bobcats and cheetahs too,

were made by God for roaming free,

not held as "curiosity,"

bound in a "roadside zoo."

 

Those who exploit our human yen

for entertaining sights

breed creatures such for human gaze

in painful and unnatural ways,

all for our vain delights.

 

For creatures bound in such conditions,

God, we humbly pray;

but even more, strike down our yen

for painful fun, and teach us then

to hate such harmful play.

 

Teach us respect for all of life

in each and every way;

teach us to love them in their place,

not snatch them from their sacred space;

Good God, change us today.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, July 2026

MUSIC: Tune REST, Frederick Charles Maker, 1887

 

 

Prompted by a discussion at this morning's Routley Lecture at the PAM Worship & Music Conference, on creation (specifically "critters") in hymnody (short form: there's not much). I do have "All creatures of our God on high" on the record, but the discussion provoked another text, on a darker side of human fascination with wild cats.

  

 

Let our hearts be broken

Let our hearts be broken, let our souls be torn;

For the chaos 'round us, let us weep and mourn.

Violence and hatred, practiced in your name?

Your true gospel twisted into fear and shame?

 

How have we stood silent for so many years

While this anti-gospel stoked up angry fears?

Why did we not speak out until so, so late?

When the lie was shouted, why did we still wait?

 

Now our call to answer will no longer wait:

Speaking truth to falsehood, speaking love to hate;

Ev'n amidst such violence, injuries and pains,

Bearing witness only to the Christ who reigns.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2026.

MUSIC: Tune KING'S WESTON, Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1925;

            other possible tune WYE VALLEY, James Mountain, 1876.

 

 

One of those inevitable attempts to express in a hymn some kind of response to <gestures around wildly> all this, especially when you realize you should have been speaking up long, long ago...

 

 

 

The stones that struck the deacon down

The stones that struck the deacon down

         came not from soldiers' hands,

For neither law nor government

         did issue such commands.

No, those who seized and dragged him out

         to crush his life away

Are given no name or title here;

         the scripture calls them "they".

 

How often since, in centuries gone,

         have deeds of violence

Been done by those unnamed, unknown;

         the darkness their defense.

Our history hides in darkened doors

         while we still look away

While nameless, faceless, masked-up hate

         is killing still today.

 

Enslaving barons stealing lives

         across the distant seas

To hold in chains, to whip and shame

         and bring down to their knees;

Indigenous children taken, too,

         from family and from names;

And garment girls locked in the shop

         to perish in its flames.

 

No, Stephen likely was not first

         and certainly not last

To be struck down by mindless rage

         while we still stand aghast.

Lord, give us righteous anger now

         to make such violence cease,

And kneel before your holy throne

         and yield before your peace.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, April 2026, after Acts 7:55-60.

MUSIC: Tune RESIGNATION, USA folk melody, Lewis's Beauties of Harmony, 1828.

 

 

References in verse 3: kidnapping, trafficking, and enslaving Africans in North America; kidnapping of Indigenous children and inserting them into "Indian schools" to strip away all Indian-ness; the death of over one hundred workers at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory by fire with the factory doors locked.

 

 

  

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.

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.

Our Christ is not a weapon

Our Christ is not a weapon

For spewing hate and fear.

His name is not for smashing 

Those whom the Lord holds dear.

Christ's enemies may hasten

To injure whom they please,

But those who follow truly

Will love "the least of these."

 

Internments or invasions,

Lies meant to harm or kill,

Or massive deportations

With hatred raging still; 

Those who commit such violence

May reap great power and fame,

But in truth cannot ever

Do these in Jesus's name.

 

The work of Christ can only

Be done in holy love,

Relentless and unyielding

Like that of God above.

Our Christ is not a weapon

For spewing hate and fear;

Let such lies be forever

Denounced for all to hear.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, February 2025.

MUSIC: Suggested tune VALET WILL ICH DER GEBEN, Melchior Teschner, 1614; harm. William Henry Monk, 1861.

Something had to be said.

In caves of hopelessness

In caves of hopelessness drawn close

Like uninvited fear,

We struggle with bleak emptiness 

And cannot sense you near.

 

Yet in a moment unforeseen

Your wonders new unfold!

Even in the shadows, in the depths,

Your grace flows manifold.

 

From troughs of flailing and despair

When we must let all go

Comes waves of new embodiment

When God's true path we know.

 

Revive us now, O God of grace;

Restore each withered soul.

From depths and voids of bleak despair

Lift us and make us whole.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, December 2024.

MUSIC: Tune CAITHNESS, Scottish Psalter, 1635; harm. The English Hymnal, 1906, alt.

I don't even know if I can make a useful comment on this. It's been like pulling teeth over a month and a half to get this to a semi-finished place, but apparently I wasn't going to be able to do anything else until this was done.