Then Jesus came from Galilee

Then Jesus came from Galilee to be baptized by John,

Who in the Jordan's rolling flow did baptize those who came.

But John did question whether this request he should act on;

"You should baptize me here instead, in your own holy name."

 

But Jesus answered "Let this be, for this is right to do

To fulfill this one righteous call for all the world to see."

Then John consented to this task, in trust that Jesus knew

That he should carry out this work and what his role should be.

 

And then once Jesus was baptized and then raised up again,

He saw the heavens opened up and down the Spirit came.

Alighting like a dove, the Spirit cried out through the din,

"This is my Son, Beloved One, who goes forth in my name."

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, December 2025; after Matthew 3:13-17

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

 

 

A reworking of a hymn from almost two years ago, written to suit the account of Jesus's baptism in the gospel of Mark. Matthew's account goes into rather more detail than Mark's but the basic structure still worked. 

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. 

There were two disciples

There were two disciples who took to the road when Jesus their teacher was gone.

Their master had been crucified like a thief and now seemed the time to move on.

But as they were walking, despairing and low, another man came alongside;

When he questioned the two, they told all that happened and how their great teacher had died.

 

Much to their surprise, the man started to teach and opened the travelers' eyes

With words of the prophets that spoke of the one, their Teacher both holy and wise.

They came to Emmaus to stay for the night, invited this man to join in;

But when he broke the bread, something opened their eyes - see, their Teacher was living again!

 

As they were astounded to see Jesus there, he then disappeared from their sight. 

They gathered themselves to go back to the city, hastening with all of their might, 

And there they did hear how their Jesus drew near to Simon and others that day.

Resurrection had come! Now their call was so clear: time to follow their Lord on the way.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, April 2025, after Luke 24:13-35.

MUSIC: Tune SAMANTHRA, American folk melody.

 

 

Apparently being on a plane with no wifi can be a moment when hymn inspiration can happen. This text sits oddly in the Easter cycle, but it's a good scripture text, and I figure it was eventually going to force its way into hymn-text form somehow. 

 

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.

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.

Then Jesus came from Nazareth

Then Jesus came from Nazareth, his home in Galilee,

And was baptized in Jordan's flow by the baptizer John.

On rising up from Jordan's depths his opening eyes did see

Torn-open skies, descending Spirit; God's beloved Son.

 

Immediately he was compelled into the wilderness,

By Satan tested forty days before his trial was done,

With wild beasts in remote terrain of danger and distress;

But angels came and ministered to God's beloved Son

 

Then Jesus, with his testing done, returned to Galilee,

And there began his holy task to spread to everyone

The gospel of God's kingdom drawing near for all to see.

And so began the saving work of God's beloved Son.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, February 2024, after Mark 1:9-15.

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

 

 

A text for the first Sunday of Lent in which the gospel of Mark, in its typical manner, makes quick work of the baptism and testing of Jesus and launches into his ministry with what might be in modern terms described as his "mission statement" or maybe "topic sentence." Mark does make quick work of things.

The nations will gather

The nations will gather when the Son of Man comes, 

From high mighty places, from shelters and slums. 

The Son will then part them on his left and his right, 

They will all stand before him in his endless sight.

 

To those on the right he will call them to come,

"O blest of my Father, come all, not just some!

You fed me and gave me drink to me, welcomed me in! 

The kingdom is for you now; let new life begin!"

 

But those on the left now found the opposite true:

"Get out of my sight now, for you did not do

What those on my right did when you saw me in need!

Begone, you unrepentant in your selfish greed."

 

When do we see Jesus bound in hunger or thirst?

No clothing nor shelter and suffering the worst?

Our Christ bids us listen and he tells us to see:

"What you do unto those is what you do to me."

 

How then shall we live now and what then shall we do? 

Make hunger a relic and homelessness too; 

Care for the imprisoned and the sick whom we see, 

In Christ's own holy name for all eternity.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, November 2023, after Matthew 25:31-46.

MUSIC: Tune COLUMCILLE, Irish melody. (See Glory to God #101.)

 

 

The third of the Matthew 25 parables is in place, though (as with any of these hymns) revision is somewhere between possible and likely. It's a loaded parable, and some streamlining seemed to help the hymn live. This tune was not one with which I was familiar, but it shares a propulsive quality with a number of traditional tunes that will hopefully help keep any singing of this test moving and energetic.  

The reign of Christ compels us, four-part version

The reign of Christ compels us to bear a witness true

To glorify our Savior in all we say and do.

The Lord, who in our living is sovereign above all, 

Compels and draws us always to live into this call. 

 

As Christ first bore good witness to God’s almighty power, 

So we are charged to sound forth in this and every hour.

With calls to truth and justice, with words of peace and love,

We give our testimony to our good God above.

 

By Spirit’s power unyielding we bear that witness true,

Not just with words but actions that we are called to do.

In work that lifts up God’s own that this world calls “the least,” 

We call the world to gather at God’s own holy feast.

 

For God our king and ruler, all that we have, we give. 

Our witness is embodied in every way we live.

So let us join our living to words of love and grace,

That Christ’s own holy justice may reign in every place.

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2021.

MUSIC: Tune AURELIA, Samuel Sebastian Wesley, 1864.

 

 

This text was provoked by a sermon by Rev. Cecilia Armstrong and service given at the Presbyterian Association of Musicians Worship and Music Conference at Montreat Conference Center in North Carolina on June 29, 2021. The scripture from Revelation 1:4b-8, in particular the reference to Christ as “the faithful witness” in verse 5, provided the starting point for the sermon (at least as I understood it) and this hymn as well. With some references to the Parable of the Sheep and Goats added as the hymn kept developing, it also can be used for Christ the King/Reign of Christ Sunday, Year A. 

We sing of God, Creator High

We sing of God, Creator High, the Sovereign on whom we rely

For life and breath and everything that makes the faithful heart to sing.

 

We sing of God, redeeming Son by whom all victory is won, 

Who showed us love and taught us prayer and charges us his truth to share.

 

We sing of God, the Spirit free, sustaining us so we might be,

From tongues like fire to wordless sighs, upheld in faith and rendered wise.

 

We sing of holy mystery, this undivided Trinity,

And praises give in everything to this one God of whom we sing.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, May 2021.

MUSIC: Suggested tune WAREHAM, William Knapp, 1738.

Indeed, a hymn for Trinity Sunday, written a couple of years ago and tweaked so 

mildly as to go unnoticed. We can speak of God in three persons, and then we're best

advised to acknowledge the mystery that is the Trinity.

Two Ascension hymns

When Jesus knew his time had come, his followers he drew near

And gave this word to comfort them and drive away their last fear.

 

“The Holy Spirit’s guiding power will surely come upon you,

And to the world my Word you’ll take; my witness lives within you.”

 

When this he said, they watched, and lo! their Lord was lifted upward!

In holy cloud he was caught up and no more was his voice heard.

 

While this their eyes were following with wonder and amazement,

Two bright-robed men had drawn nearby to bear a witness heaven-sent: 

 

“Why do you stand here looking up? This Jesus you have witnessed

Will yet return in this same way, all sanctified and heaven-blessed.”

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, May 2021, after Acts 1:1-11

MUSIC: Suggested tune ST. COLUMBA, Irish melody.

See our Jesus now ascending, heaven-bound for us to plead! 

Now, his earthly work completed, he for us will intercede

For our pains and for our sufferings, for our want and daily need.

 

See his body lifted upward, wounded hands and feet and side!

Every scar is now exalted, every wound is sanctified.

Crucified and then arisen, now forever glorified!

 

His disciples upward gazing, mute in wonder at the sight;

Now their Friend and true Companion from their side has taken flight.

Now his call is their commission as he takes to holy height.

 

Praise to God the great Creator; praise to God, redeeming Son;

Praise to God, sustaining Spirit, one in three and three in one.

So it was in the beginning, and shall be ‘til time is done.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, May 2021, after Luke 24:36-53.

MUSIC: Suggested tune WESTMINSTER ABBEY, Henry Purcell, 1680; adapt. Ernest Hawkins, 1843.

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.