Rise Up

Rise up, old bones, return to life,
Take sinew, flesh, and breath;
Give witness to the power of God,
A power that overcomes death,
A power that overcomes death.

Rise up, dear friend, return to life,
No longer in the grave;
Give witness to the love of God
That drives a Savior to save,
That drives a Savior to save.

Rise up, old church, return to life,
No longer drowned in fear;
Give witness to the word of God
The world refuses to hear, etc.

Rise up, my heart, return to life,
No longer bound in sin;
Give witness to the grace of God
And let a new life begin, etc.

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, April 2014; MUSIC Tune DOVE OF PEACE, American folk melody 

 

Suitable for Lent 5A, both the dry bones and Lazarus represented. 

 

  

LIve as children of light

Refrain:

 

Live as children of light -

Live no longer in the darkness.

Turn away from the night;

Be no longer cold and heartless.

Live as children of light.

 

Seek to find out how to live

As is pleasing to our Savior;

Seek your whole life to give,

Both in word and in behavior.

 

Refrain

 

Shine a light on shameful deeds,

Things too dark to say or to do.

Sleeper, wake from the dead,

And our Christ will shine upon you.

 

Refrain

 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, March 2026, after Ephesians 5:18-24

MUSIC: Tune WILD MOUNTAIN THYME, Irish melody

 

 

I floundered badly trying to develop a hymn text on the gospel reading for Lent 4A, from John 9. The epistle reading was far kinder to me, as epistle readings often are. The choice of an Irish melody so close to St. Patrick's Day (which is a two-week holiday for someone who grew up in Dublin, GA) was not intentional; it's just a really good tune.

 

A woman who came to the well

A woman who came to the well for some water

found someone she did not know;

a man sitting there all alone with no pail, and

wondered why he sat there so.

As she drew out water and then turned to go,

he said to her "Give me a drink."

The Samaritan woman was thrown for a loss

and she no longer knew what to think.

 

"How do you, a Jewish man, speak to me here,

much less ask me now for a drink?"

"If you knew who I was,!" you surely would ask me

for living water, I think."

"Sir, give me this water, I ask you, so I

would never need come here again!"

But he told her, "Go, call your husband" as if

he did not know her history with men.

 

She knew that he must be a prophet, at least,

yet questioned him more, nonetheless.

He answered her more and with prophetic vision,

and still she continued to press:

"I know the Messiah will come to us all,

and proclaim all things that will be."

And he said, "Do you see I am here talking to you?

Yes, I am the one; I am he."

 

She ran to her village to tell all the people

"There is a man you must see!

He told me of everything that I have done!

Could he the Anointed One be?"

They came and they heard and believed every word,

and asked him to stay two more days.

And so, this one Samaritan town knew the wonder

of Jesus and his saving ways.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, March 2026, after John 4:1-45.

MUSIC: Tune SAMANTHRA (MAJOR), American folk melody, alt.

 

 

A hymn on the "woman at the well" story, tightened up just a little bit (the disciples get left out). Those who pay attention to the tunes chosen for these texts will note that this American folk tune, found in Glory to God at #77, is here flipped to major instead of the minor tune as it appears in the hymnal. Will probably need some polishing in the future, but it does fit to Lent 3A, so here it is just in case.

 

 

  

 

When Jesus, full of Spirit

When Jesus, full of Spirit, came into the lonely wilderness,

He faced a tempter bound to foil his earthly work and true witness.

Not pains of hunger, fame nor power would sway our Christ from standing fast.

Our Jesus, filled with Spirit, showed how we should follow to the last.

 

When filled with Spirit, Christians need not strain for power or for fear,

For God alone is all our power and God will lead us to draw near.

When filled with Spirit, Christians need not put our God unto the test;

We turn to God not for display, we turn for sustenance and rest.

 

When filled with Spirit, Christians need not seek out stones to turn to bread.

So many suffer hungry want, but our work is to share instead;

To lay aside our selfish pride and live so no one else has need,

To end the hoarding plunder wrought by raw, unyielding, selfish greed.

 

See how each testing faced by Christ points deep into our daily life:

When we give in to tempter's wiles, we fill our world with pain and strife.

But filled with Spirit we will live upon the words of God alone

Till all our hearts dwell in God's love with all temptation finally gone.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, March 2025, after Luke 4:1-13.

MUSIC: Tune YE BANKS AND BRAES, Scottish melody.

 

 

Somehow I had written two different texts on Matthew's temptation account, but never either the Mark or Luke stories. In this case the emphasis will fall on how those temptations Jesus faced play out in our own lives and what guidance we might draw from the experience. 

When Israel's people fell away

When Israel's people fell away, complaining and aggrieved,

They begged for Moses then to pray their suffering be relieved.

Like all the serpents on the ground whose poisonous bite did kill,

He made a serpent out of bronze according to God's will.

 

Then Moses placed that snake of bronze upon a pole on high,

So those who suffered serpent-bite could see it and not die.

As Moses lifted up that snake out in the wilderness,

So was the Son of Man raised up, the Son of Righteousness.

 

God loved this fallen world so much his only Son he gave,

So those who followed would not die, but they the Lord would save.

God did not send his Son to earth to punish or condemn,

But so the world in all its fullness might be saved through him.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, February 2024, after Numbers 21:4-9 and John 3:14-17.

MUSIC: Tune KINGSFOLD, English Country Songs, 1893; harm. Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1906.

 

 

So in considering the passage from John I wasn't optimistic about finding a way to a hymn text, but somehow the idea of dipping into the Numbers reading seemed to provide a "running start" to developing the fuller hymn. I never expected to find a way to set verse 16, but there it is. 

This is my Father's house

This is my Father's house, and not a marketplace!

These cows and sheep stand far too deep; this is a rank disgrace!

This is my Father's house, not moneychangers' grounds!

These cannot stay; clear all away 'til God's true grace abounds.

 

This is our Father's house, a place of earnest prayer; 

And those who truly seek our God are surely welcome there.

This is our Father's house! No more with worldly things.

Let sacred space be filled with grace as all God's family sings.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, February 2024, after John 2:13-22.

MUSIC: Tune TERRA BEATA, Franklin L. Sheppard, 1915.

 

 

Somehow, Jesus's exclamations about the corrupted Temple as "my Father's house" evoked this tune, after some struggle, and the text took off as the second stanza became one for the church today to sing. 

Three Ash Wednesday Hymns

Three possible hymn texts for Ash Wednesday. The first, from about a decade ago (!!!), not based on any particular scripture, has something of a childlike quality to it (and yes, a slant reference to a fictional boy wizard in that first stanza). The second includes one of the principal scriptures assigned to Ash Wednesday in particular set to a tune I can only imagine is familiar, even if my mind hears it a little differently than most churches will. The final one takes up another Ash Wednesday text with a little more resoluteness, and reminds me that Charles Gounod, the nineteenth-century French composer of operas and other classical works, actually did spend some time in England composing hymn tunes for English use. 

These ashes marked upon the brow in strokes both dark and fine--

No lightning bolt, no magic spell found in this cross of mine.

But what, then, does this marking do? These faces that I’ve seen

Marked with that sooty, smudgy cross; what do these ashes mean?

They tell me I’m a child of God, yet made of dust and clay,

And that in time this mortal form returns to dust some day.

And yet the cross reminds me, too, this life is not in vain;

That any day lived in my Lord is never loss, but gain.

Though years be short, and life be quick to flee our feeble hold,

Oh, let me live in God’s good will in years both young and old,

And when this mortal body takes its final, dusty rest,

My soul will not be without hope, but be forever blessed.

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, 2014
MUSIC: Tune: CAITHNESS, Scottish Psalter, 1635

You teach us, if in union with you we choose to live, 

In sweet and sure communion with all the love you give, 

Our gifts should not be posing or full of false display; 

But in your love disclosing you give us words to say.

 

To hallow and adore you and seek your reign to come,

You bid us pray, and then do for all, not only some; 

To seek you in a still space, a quiet room to pray – 

Not public noisy, loud place of vain, coarse show and play.

 

Teach us in time of fasting to lay earth’s pleasures down

With hope and smile yet lasting, not sore or gloomy frown.

Lead us to lay aside here those treasures we adore,

But cling to gifts you hold dear and give to make us more.

 

Wipe out our preening bluster, reject our prayers of pride; 

Refuse vain words we muster with no true faith inside.

Forgive our rude transgression, and lead our prayers to be

Full sure and true confession that only you we see.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, February 2021; after Matthew 6:1-21

MUSIC: Suggested tune PASSION CHORALE, Hans Leo Hassler, 1621. 

Rend your hearts and not your garments, let repentance never cease.

Fast with weeping and with mourning, let your cries to God increase.

Turn to God with all your heart, so that sin and wrong depart.

 

Let your heart be broken fully for the sin we all have done.

Swayed by fear and filled with hatred, webs of wrong that we have spun; 

Turn from such indulgence now! Our God longs to show us how.

 

Let your heart be broken also for the right we have not done;

Works of love and life-repairing that we still have not begun.

Let us turn to God aright and do justice in God’s sight.

 

Now return to God Almighty all of your allegiance due; 

Slow to anger, sure in loving, gracious, merciful, and true,

Turn to God with all your heart, so that sin and wrong depart.

 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, March 2021; after Joel 2:12-13

MUSIC: Tune LUX PRIMA, Charles Gounod, 1872.

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. 

Rise up, rev. 2023

Rise up, old bones, return to life,

Take sinew, flesh, and breath; 

Give witness to the power of God,

A power that conquers death                     

(A power that conquers death).

 

Rise up, dear friend, return to life,

No longer in the grave; 

Give witness to the love of God

That drives the Christ to save                                 

(That drives the Christ to save).

 

Rise up, old church, return to life,

No longer drowned in fear; 

Give witness to the Word of God

The world declines to hear                         

(The world declines to hear).

 

Rise up, my soul, return to life,

No longer lost in sin; 

Give witness to the grace of God

And let new life begin                                  

(And let new life begin).

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, 2014, rev. 2023, after Lent 5A texts

MUSIC: Tune CHRISTMAS, G.F. Handel, 1728; arr. Lowell Mason, 1821.

 

The combination of Ezekiel’s “valley of bones” vision and Jesus’s raising of Lazarus (Lent 5A) became a prompt for considering new life in institutions (such as churches) or people struggling to stay afloat. (The repeated phrases in parentheses correspond to the suggested tune; they can be left out if a different tune is used.)

 

A serpent so wily

A serpent so wily and set to deceive; 

A man and a woman who could not perceive;

A fruit plucked and eaten, the Lord's word maligned;

Now sin was the fortune of all humankind.

 

The Tempter, come boldly to stark wilderness;

The Teacher, sore troubled in hunger's distress;

Temptations rebuffed and the Tempter resigned;

And so came redemptions for all humankind.

 

As sin came through one, so redemption the same - 

But bringing new righteousness in place of blame.

The one who obeyed broke humanity's bind,

And brought God's free gift unto all humankind. 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, February 2023, after Lent 1A verses

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

 

 

The texts for the first Sunday of Lent in year A give us Adam and Eve in the garden, Jesus in the wilderness, and Paul trying to draw the connection between the two. 

 

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.