Manger scenes and hanging greens

Manger scenes and hanging greens, signals of a season;

Are we, in these festive scenes, searching for a reason?

Have we in our sound and song, ‘hope” and “joy” and “glory,”

Somehow got the meaning wrong? Have we lost the story?

 

Listen to the prophets’ call, pointing to deliverance;

Righteousness for one and all, making hope and difference.

Justice is their constant cry, peace their faithful calling;

Pointing to redemption nigh, warning us from falling.

 

Hear the songs that call us near, pointing to a Savior. 

Zechariah makes us hear of God’s coming favor.

Mary knows God’s blessing true, strength and mercy showing.

John, baptizing, calls anew for repentance growing.

 

See the visions yet to come, sights that leave us reeling.

Yet we see through all of these Jesus’ own revealing. 

Hear the call to stand and wait, watchful and unfailing; 

Never fearing any fate, knowing God’s prevailing.

 

As we make our way ahead, seeking out the stable,

Let us, by the Spirit led, live as we are able:

Doing justice, seeking peace, righteousess fulfilling,

Keeping watch with hope and joy as our Lord is willing.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, November 2021.

MUSIC: Suggested tune TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM, Piae Cantiones, 1582. 

I'm not sure what this one is nor where it came from. I can only surmise that the preparation for Advent this season seems fraught with the urge not to "lose the plot" of the Christian walk in the progress through Advent to Christmas. Maybe that's a particular concern in a time when even the most faithful of us are susceptible to the urge to seek comfort at the expense of faithfulness? I don't know, but make of it what you will. 

In the beginning was the Word

In the beginning was the Word; 

The Word was from the first with God.

In the beginning this same Word,

This Word was God and only God. 

 

All things became then through this Word; 

No thing became, apart from God.

Life came to be all through this Word;

This life, this light that comes from God.

 

Into the world then came this Word,

But yet the world did not know God.

So many welcomed not the Word,

But some became children of God.

 

And in the flesh did come this Word,

With glory, grace, and truth of God.

Receive the fullness of the Word,

And grace upon grace from our God.

 

 

Text: Charles Spence Freeman, after verses from John 1:1-18.

Music: Suggested tune CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM, Sarum plainsong, Mode IV, 9^th cent.

 

 

The Revised Common Lectionary insists upon thrusting John 1 into every Christmas season, so might as well have a hymn that sums it up. As to the suggested tune, this scripture (or its opening line at least) has always seemed like something that needs to be chanted.

 

For such a time as this

For such a time as this, God gives a special call

For leaders in an interim space, when change and loss befall.

 

To hear and understand, to see and to embrace; 

God’s servant, called to feed this flock, is charged to lead with grace.

 

In time of change and doubt, between now and “not yet,”

This shepherd leads the church away from yearning and regret.

 

A church that faces loss, still charged to live in grace,

Must find its way from clinging past to hopeful, growing space.

 

In such a time as this, where fear and conflict fall,

God’s church is called to stand and serve and give itself for all. 

 

 

Text: Charles Spence Freeman, November 2021, at Interim Ministry Training

Music: Suggested tune FESTAL SONG, William H. Walker, 1894.

Written during Interim Ministry Training workshop at Union Presbyterian Seminary, November 15-19, 2021.

The Reign of Christ compels us (alternate tune)

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. Here it is paired to a somewhat more accessible tune.

For those who serve as pastors

For those who serve as pastors – a holy, foolish call;

For those who rise in triumph and also those who fall, 

With fearful contemplation we wonder at their task

To preach and teach and listen, and idols to unmask.

 

For those whose fame and glory have led them to betray,

Whose pride and lust for power drive souls into decay;

We pray for these, the fallen, sometimes through gritted teeth,

That your love yet may conquer and surge up from beneath.

 

For those whose souls have broken beneath abuse and scorn,

Whose service is rejected, whose faith is left forlorn; 

We pray, dear God of calling, that hope may bloom anew, 

And holy fire rekindle in service sure and true.

 

For those in times of chaos who struggle just to breathe,

For whom all days of serving with dangers writhe and seethe;

With earnest, pleading sorrow we lift them to your care

So they again are able to hope and do and dare.

 

For those who in their calling can see no path ahead;

No road extends before them, but only empty dread; 

Dear God of all compassion, whate’er their path may be,

In prayer and contemplation, give them a road to see.

 

O God of word and table, of pulpit and of font,

Give strength to these your servants and leave them not in want.

Give them the grace to serve you with heart, soul, strength, and mind,

And help them in their serving new joy in you to find.

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, October 2021

MUSIC: Tune SALLEY GARDENS, Irish folk melody

Not one I really expect to be sung in a church, ever, but one for all the fellow clergy who are up against it one way or another (or maybe many ways) in these freakish and painful times. Perhaps not exactly your typical Clergy Appreciation Month offering, but an offering of appreciation nonetheless.

O love your God, alternate fifth stanza

O love your God with all your heart,

            With all your power to love;

Now show that love to all around

            As to your Lord above.

 

O love your God with all your soul,

            With all your power to feel; 

Give to the world your greatest gifts

            To show your Lord is real.

 

O love your God with all your strength,

            With all your power to do;

Show deeds of holy service now

            To serve your Savior true.

 

O love your God with all your mind,

            With all your power to know;

In word and thought be full of grace,

            The power of God to show.

 

With mind and strength and soul and heart

            The love of God proclaim,

That all the world may know that love

            And call on Jesus’ name.

 

Alternate final stanza:

As you have loved the Lord your God,

            So love your neighbor well; 

There is no rule of greater worth 

            Than in these loves to dwell.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2019; alternate stanza October 2021, after Luke 10:26-28 or Mark 12:28-31.

MUSIC: Suggested tune AZMON, Carl Gotthelf Gläser, 1828; arr. Lowell Mason, 1839.

A revision of a text from back in June 2019, found here. Mark's rendering of this encounter adds what seems to me a significant comment from Jesus, the part about how there is no commandment greater than these. With this text approaching in the lectionary, a quick revision to bring this note into the hymn seemed desirable. 

"What must I do to gain life eternal?"

“What must I do to gain life eternal?

How must I live to have this reward?

How can I then inherit, Good Teacher,

All of the blessing this world can afford?”

Jesus replied, “You know what the law says?

Put into practice those words and live.”

Came the reply, “O Teacher, I do this!

Is there no other command you can give?”

 

Jesus beheld the man who so questioned, 

And gave him answer in holy love; 

“Sell what you own and give to the poorest.

Follow me for all the joy you dream of.”

Sorrow took hold, for he had possessions

Many and great, he held as his own. 

Could he then live without all his owning?

What would he be with his fortunes all gone?

 

What must we be to enter the kingdom?

How must we live to be in God’s reign?

What are the things that keep us in bondage,

Holding us back in frustration and pain?

Give it away, whatever constrains us; 

Tear it all down and to Jesus turn. 

Follow our Christ, the true wealth that matters;

Follow our Jesus for whom our hearts yearn.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, October 2021, after Mark 10:17-23

MUSIC: Suggested tune GATHER US IN, Marty Haugen, 1979. Copyright 1982 GIA Publications, Inc.

 

A hymn after the story of Jesus’s conversation with the man who had many possessions (he’s described as neither young nor a ruler in Mark), with the question turned to us at the end. What keeps us from forsaking all and following? (In this case this is the tune that took hold quickly once the opening line was settled; since it is under copyright it is not reproduced here.)