When Christ's own body comes to table

When Christ’s own body comes to table,

When all God’s children gather there,

The grace of sacramental living

Is given freely, everywhere.

 

Now bread we break and wine we offer,

Though not our own, but Christ’s we give.

In nations found the whole world over

God’s people take this feast and live

 

In every place, at every table,

Our Lord presides at every feast.

No gates, no walls are there to hinder

All those who seek, from great to least.

 

As now we gather, we look forward

To days to come, when we shall see

Our Christ alone at one great table 

To serve God’s children, loved and free.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, September 2021, toward World Communion Sunday

MUSIC: Tune ST. CLEMENT, Clement Cottewill Scholefield, 1874.

 

 

Not much to say besides the aim for something that points somehow to why World Communion Sunday might matter.

We welcome you, O Christ

We welcome you, O Christ our Lord;

            We lift our praise in one accord.

We give you thanks in everything;

            We honor you as now we sing.

 

Yet your own word has called us out;

            The very welcome that we shout

Is called in question – doubt, indeed – 

            By how we turn from those in need.

 

The hungry stranger at our door,

            The one who scrubs our dirty floor,

The migrant, homeless; yes, our call

            Is always to receive them all.

 

While we your church have argued loud

            For power, for strength, for status proud,

You welcome these whom we’ve reviled

            As once you welcomed one small child.

 

Recall us to true welcome, Lord, 

            That all in you may be restored

To health and hope in everything,

            And we true praise to you might bring.

 

 

Text: Charles Spence Freeman, September 2021, after Mark 9:30-37.

Music: Suggested tune ROCKINGHAM, Second Supplement to Psalmody in Miniature, 1783; harm. Edward Miller, 1790.

Still fighting through the dry spell, turning to the week's scripture reading became the next step. A simple reading of the Mark passage will make clear this is no paraphrase, but a response from a world seemingly more distant from Jesus's call to welcome than ever. Those represented in the third stanza are but a small sample of those to whom our welcome must extend, if we are truly seeking to follow what Jesus teaches here.

Jesus, you loved us first

Jesus, you loved us first, and love us still; 

Lead us to live within your holy will. 

Guide us to live with care, and yet with hope to dare,

In all things everywhere, your love fulfill.

 

Teach us to live within your wisdom true,

Not choosing foolishly in what we do.

Making the most of time, led by your grace sublime, 

May we in all things rhyme our lives to you.

 

Let songs of praise resound, our voices ring;

Let melodies abound in everything.

Lead us in holy psalm, loud praise or healing balm;

In conflict or in calm, lead us to sing.

 

Place in us grateful hearts; teach us to say

All of our gratitude in every way.

To You our Lord on high our praises multiply;

Let thanks be our reply here, now, today.

 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, August 2021 (after Ephesians 5:15-20)

MUSIC: Tune SOMETHING FOR JESUS, 6.4.6.4.6.6.6.4., Robert Lowry, 1871.

 

 

One thing I’ve adopted when nothing works for an extended time is to take up a tune from my past (one that doesn’t appear much in the hymnals most present in my experience nowadays) and create a text for it. This quiet Robert Lowry tune somehow cooperated with the Ephesians reading for the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost of this year, though this text is far from a close paraphrase. 

Live in the love of Jesus

Live in the love of Jesus; be rooted in his love! 

Take strength in your whole being with power from above. 

With riches of God’s glory, with Holy Spirit’s power,

Live out the love of Jesus in this and every hour.

 

Live in the love of Jesus; be grounded in his love!

Know Christ in your whole being with power from above.

Let Christ’s own holy presence through yearning faith draw near,

And fill you with his deep love, the love that casts out fear.

 

Live in the love of Jesus; live ready for his love!

Know deep in your own being this power from above. 

This love beyond all knowing, God’s fullness holding sway;

Live out the love of Jesus in this and every day.

 

 

Text: Charles Spence Freeman, July 2021 (after Ephesians 3:14-21)

Music: Tune WEBB, George J. Webb, 1837.

 

 

I have sometimes compared my writing process to cooking in a crock pot, one that involves getting all the ingredients together and giving them plenty of time to cook into the desired result. In this case, the cooking period more resembled that of a barbecue pit (where “low and slow” is key) than a crock pot. As with my cooking experiences with slow smoking, this text only came together after I had largely given up.

Live lives worthy of your calling

Lead lives worthy of your calling; 

            Live in humble gentleness.

Live with love for one another,

            Slow to anger, swift to bless.

Strive for unity in Spirit,

            Joined in bonds of sacred peace.

Know the one hope of your calling,

            Hope that will not ever cease.

 

For we live in grace first given

            In the gifts of God alone,

Gifts Christ gave to build the body – 

            Gifts of grace we do not own.

Gifts of teaching and proclaiming,

            Gifts of challenge and of care;

All these gifts our Christ has given

            To his people everywhere.

 

So we live in sacred body,

            Speaking truth in holy love,

Growing always in our Savior,

            Into Christ our Head above.

Let us all praise our Creator;

            Let us praise our Savior true;

Let us praise the Holy Spirit

            In all things we say and do.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2021, after Ephesians 4:1-16.

MUSIC: Suggested tune EBENEZER, Thomas John Williams, 1890.

Other possible tune: BEACH SPRING (but watch out for copyrights on different harmonizations).

 

So I took a liturgy writing workshop at the same Music & Worship conference that set off “The reign of Christ compels us” and "So Jesus came to Bethany," and got moved to write a hymn based on the noted scripture (epistle reading for Ordinary 18B, coming up August 1). What can I say? Hymns are liturgy, as far as I’m concerned.

So Jesus came to Bethany

So Jesus came to Bethany when his dear friend had died,

And Martha, Mary, all their friends, and even Jesus cried.

So those who watched his sorrow flow knew how he loved the man,

But when the tears had shed their last, the miracles began.

 

Then Jesus told those standing there, “Now roll the stone away.”

Poor Martha’s fears he brushed aside; such doubt could not betray. 

Then, lifting up a prayer above that all could see and hear,

Jesus called out to his dear friend, “Oh, Lazarus, come out here!”

 

Now Lazarus heard the Lord’s command and from his bier did rise.

His body once bound to the earth now stretched out toward the skies.

But still his hands and feet were bound; he could not walk away. 

His yearn to flee the yawning tomb the graveclothes did betray.

 

So Jesus told those standing there to tear those bonds aside.

They loosed the graveclothes, freed the man, his life now open wide.

So when you find the bonds of sin are all you feel and see,

Remember risen Lazarus; remember you are free.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, July 2021, after John 11.

MUSIC: Tune SALVATION, Kentucky Harmony, 1816.

 

 

Another hymn provoked by another worship service (same preacher) at the Presbyterian Association of Musicians Worship & Music Conference. I don’t know if it’s the mountain air or what, but things are coming forth this week. The scripture is part of the gospel for Lent 5A, I think, which might be helpful in the future. 

The reign of Christ compels us

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 LLANGLOFFAN, Welsh folk melody; Llwybrau Moliant, 1872.

 

 

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.