Lord, our tears are not yet dry

Lord, our tears are yet to dry; 

Still to you we lift our cry.

Open up our eyes to see

What our work for you must be.

 

Come, dissolve these hearts of stone;

Make new hearts for love alone.

Touch minds closed and locked away;

Flood them with your light of day.

 

Lift our souls from dark despair; 

Show your purpose everywhere. 

Take our strength and make it new,

Fit for serving only you.

 

Fit our prayers with strong new feet,

Marching only to your beat

So that lives may yet be freed

From the fear this world does feed.

 

Lord, our tears are yet to dry

As we lift to you this cry:

Heal us now and make us whole,

Strength and mind and heart and soul.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, May 2022.

MUSIC: Given tune SONG 13, Orlando Gibbons, 1623.

Preferred tune TEBBEN, Timothy Hoekman, 1979. Copyright 1985 Faith Alive Christian Resources (hence not give here). 

Another text in response to tragedy, this one takes the shape of a prayer with more lean towards moving forward and doing what God leads us to do. Mark 12:30 becomes a framework for full commitment to the work of making right what is wrong, in this case, as God leads. I became acquainted with the composer of the preferred tune in graduate school (he was actually on my dissertation committee), though I only recently learned this tune (in anthem form) and became interested in making a text for it. This wasn't the prompt I would have chosen, but the two do seem to fit together. As the tune is under copyright it is not reprinted here; hymnary.org lists it as appearing in fourteen hymnals (I do know it's covered under OneLIcense.net at least). For the greater convenience of those who would like to use it quickly and may struggle with copyright issues, it is given here with an Orlando Gibbons tune that is, I feel fairly safe to say, outside the bounds of copyright.

Faith without works is dead

Faith without works is dead, and no more than a lie.

No more let "thoughts and prayers!" be heard when children fall and die. 

What good is such a call, when yet there is no will

To act and do what must be done such violence to still.

 

Faith without works is dead, no more than reckless pride. 

Sheer disobedience to God, and fruitless too beside.

Our words are useless when we will not meet the need; 

Our witness only matters when our word is met with deed.

 

Faith without works is dead, no more than vanity.

Will God's true church act boldly now for all the world to see?

What work now must be done for people all to thrive?

What deeds of love will make our faith become at last alive?

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, May 2022.

MUSIC: Suggested tune DIADEMATA, George Job Elvey, 1868.

 

 

After a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022. Or a church shooting in Laguna Hills, California, on May 15, 2022. Or a supermarket shooting in Buffalo, New York, on May 14, 2022. Or...

 

What things we own cannot give life

What things we own cannot give life;

Possessions will not make us whole. 

Their power cuts us like a knife 

And leaves great hurt deep in the soul.

 

Remember he who laid great claim

To wealth and fortune from the sod; 

In his vain hoarding he became

A pauper in the eyes of God.

 

So be on guard against all greed

That harms us all and brings great strife.

Cling to the Lord who meets your need; 

Hold fast to God who gives us life.

 

 

Text: Charles Spence Freeman, May 2022; after Luke 12:13-21.

Music: Suggested tune ERHALT UNS, HERR, Klug's Geistliche Lieder, 1543.

 

 

A response to the parable within Luke 12:13-21, on greed and the love of possessions, the harm greed  can bring, and the need to choose true life in God.

Christ On the Margins

When Christ was born in Bethlehem, the angels came to sing

Not to the highest emperor or to a mighty king.

To lowly shepherds in the fields those angels did appear,

A witness borne to folks whom most would never choose to hear.

 

When Jesus chose those followers who would his gospel find,

He did not choose the highest-born or those of brightest mind. 

He chose some lowly fisherman (A tax collector too), 

But not the sons of privilege, with whom his work to do.

 

When Jesus named the ones with whom he would identify,

Or those whose lot in life he would be represented by,

He did not name the powerful or those who aimed to please,

But those the well-to-do of us would call "the least of these."

 

When Christ was raised, the angels told the raising of God's Son

Not to the priests or to the scribes, not Peter, James, or John, 

But to the women at the tomb this news they did avail --

This news that men who were not there would call "an idle tale."

 

When Christ's good news is sounded forth, how often is it told

Not to the great, the proud, the rich, the powerful or bold,

But to the cast-aside of life the gospel is unfurled!

And so Christ's call is sounded from the margins of the world.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, April 2022.

MUSIC: Suggested tune NOEL, English melody; arr. Arthur S. Sullivan, 1874.

 

 

It was stanza four of this text that came first, in this case; the dismissal of the women's report as "an idle tale" provoked the reflection that led to the rest of the hymn. Though an Easter gospel text started the story, the Nativity story is also alluded, and thus the use of a tune commonly associated with a Christmas text (one tune used for "It came upon the midnight clear") seemed like a fun idea. 

Crosses

Crosses stand against a gray sky, seen by all of those who pass by.

Cruel imperial creation, made for full humiliation.

From such there is no escaping, fear and acquiescence shaping.

Hear the spite and mocking shaming, crowds caught up in fear and blaming.

 

Crosses, meant for pain unyielding, power imperial now wielding, 

Here become a scene of wonder where such power is torn asunder.

Jesus hangs there, bruised and bleeding, in our lives now interceding.

One who dies there for his nation, seeking only our salvation.

 

Crosses could not thwart his love new; to his final breath he stayed true.

We behold in awe and wonder as our bonds are torn asunder.

You who gave so to regain us, may your Spirit now sustain us, 

So that, in your love undying, we might live, all sin defying.

 

Crosses now abound around us, though their uses may confound us:

Waving like a sign of empire, wielded with such anger and fire.

God forbid! Does this not grieve you? Do they think this will deceive you?

May we never so betray you or so falsely thus display you.

 

Crosses now are not for hatred, lest our God's own grace be wasted; 

Not for God's whole world reviling, nor for lists of wrongs compiling;

But for steadfast love revealing, and the power of sin repealing.

Let this cross be now the token of God's love that is not broken.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, April 2022.

MUSIC: Tune SCHMÜCKE DICH, Johann Crüger, 1649.

 

 

Aside from a reference to John 11:49-50 in stanza 2, this is not bound to any particular scripture on the Passion. It is a reflective text, on what crosses were used to do then and what they sometimes are used to do now. The first three stanzas might stand OK for a hymn on their own, but I hope the fourth and fifth stanzas will be heard.

See the new Jerusalem

See the new Jerusalem, coming down in glory!

All adorned in splendor bright, as in ancient story.

Now the throne of God is here, midst the whole creation;

God will call all people home, home from every nation.

 

Tears no more shall strain the eye, nor shall death be found there;

No more mourning, no more pain; sorrow will be nowhere.

All these things have passed away, banished all forever.

Suffering there will have no place and will be felt never.

 

See the One upon the throne, hear the words he speaks true:

"I am first and I am last, and all things I make new." 

All adorned in splendor bright, as in ancient story,

See the new Jerusalem coming down in glory!

 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, April 2022, after Revelation 21:1-6.

MUSIC: Tune TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM, Piae Cantiones, 1582.

 

I was not expecting to write any new hymn texts for a forthcoming series of sermons from the book of Revelation, but here you go.

Now Jesus sent Peter and John

Now Jesus sent Peter and John on their way

To find a room where the disciples might stay.

He gave them instructions and sent them ahead,

And there they found everything just as he said.

 

And so they prepared for the Passover meal, 

Where Jesus would to his disciples reveal, 

In bread and in cup, his great gift to us all, 

Which in this true sacrament we do recall.

 

But Jesus was troubled, his heart was dismayed,

For truly he knew that he would be betrayed. 

He also knew Peter, before the night's end, 

Would yet deny knowing his teacher and friend.

 

Still Jesus did give them this meal and this sign,

That we might remember in bread and in wine

The One who, despite how we fail and betray,

Sustains us and saves us in every new day.

 

To Jesus, Redeemer, we offer our praise,

And Spirit, Sustainer through all of our days,

And Holy Creator we praise and adore:

We worship the triune God forevermore.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, March 2022, after verses from Luke 22:7-34.

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

 

 

A new hymn text developed from Luke's account of the Last Supper. He seems to emphasize particularly how Jesus goes forward with the sharing of bread and cup despite knowing that two of the disciples will turn against him before the night is over, which hopefully comes across in the hymn. It certainly can be sung without the Trinitarian doxology at the end, but a note of praise at the last seemed appropriate.