149. Visitation Hymn

The Feast of the Visitation is July 2 in the historic Lutheran lectionary. The Epistle, for want of a better term, is Isaiah 11:1-5. The Gospel, really the text of this hymn, is Luke 1:39-56, in which the Virgin Mary (while pregnant with Jesus) visit her kinswoman Elizabeth (who is pregnant with John the Baptist). It's a text I have used before as the basis of a hymn, but to a different purpose. The tune is HOLY DAY, which I previously wrote for my "Third Commandment Hymn" - though the musical joke I worked into it doesn't have any relevance to this text.

Blessed shall all kindreds call her
In all ages yet to come,
Though sharp anguish would befall her
And the issue of her womb:
Mary, mother of our Lord,
Who believed the angel’s word,
Nor let maiden shame appall her
As she neared her cousin’s home!

How is it that flesh was able
To enclose our Lord and God?
Sooner may our supper table
Bear the flesh of Him we laud!
Can a womb become the shrine
Of the infinite divine?
Can a narrow manger cradle
Him who spans the heavens broad?

As the angel spoke, believing
Mary knew it would be so.
So Elizabeth, receiving
Her with joy, had felt the throe
Of the unborn prophet’s leap.
Can our hearts remain asleep,
Nor with her rejoice, perceiving
God incarnate here below?

May such faith as theirs be granted
In our time to such as us!
May Christ’s presence be implanted
By the Spirit even thus!
When as kinsmen of God’s Son
To His dwelling-place we run,
May our joyful hail be chanted
To His name in praise profuse!

148. Ash Wednesday Hymn

Here I go again, way out of season, just filling another gap in my hymn tour of the church year! Ash Wednesday, forty days before Easter (not counting Sundays, because they're all Easter), is the beginning of the Lenten season, which focuses on repentance and a spirit-over-flesh sort of discipline. The Epistle, which in this case would better be called the First Lesson, is Joel 2:12-19. It's actually not the only time this Old Testament prophet's slender, three-chapter book pulls Epistle duty in the historic lectionary; the other is Pentecost, with a selection from the end of the same chapter. The Gospel (for Ash Wednesday, mind you) is Matthew 6:16-21. The tune is UNCTION, which I wrote in 2003 for a hymn by N.F.S. Grundtvig.

Fast, dear children, mourn and tremble;
Rend your heart and not your clothes!
Solemnly come forth, assemble
Your transgression to expose!
Turn with all your heart, repenting
That the Lord might hear, relenting
From His just and wrathful oaths!

For your Lord is kind and gracious,
Slow to wrath, in mercy swift;
Prayer with Him is efficacious,
Turning curse to precious gift.
Gather young and old together,
Brides and husbands, seeking whether
He our bill of shame might lift!

Ministers and congregations,
Gather to be purified,
Lest our woes incite the nations
To blaspheme our Lord who died!
God will answer and take pity,
Saying, “O beloved city!
What boon will I not provide?”

Fast indeed, lest fleeting pleasure
Rule your heart with charms that cloy;
Rather seek eternal treasure
None can pilfer or destroy!
Fast to tame your vicious members
Till your frame its Head remembers:
Christ your fullness, Christ your joy!

Fast in freedom; fast in spirit,
Not as to be seen by men,
Nor by fasting to gain merit
Lest by pride you sin again!
Rather fast with Him whose dying,
All God’s justice satisfying,
Made you righteous there and then!

Fast in faith, yet feast on pardon
In Christ’s name these forty days,
Who from wilderness to garden
Walked by self-denying ways;
Lest His agony be cheapened,
Rather be your hunger deepened
For the love His cross displays!

147. Hymn to Depart

I wrote this hymn to fill a use in my planned collection of "useful hymns." It goes to the tune GENESIS, which I wrote a little while back for a hymn on creation.

Go in grace, dear sisters, brothers!
Go in peace, your souls restored!
Go in love toward one another!
Go in faith toward Christ our Lord!
May God bless your meditation!
May He answer all your prayers!
May He strengthen your vocation!
May He lessen all your cares!

Live with patience, kind and gentle,
Humble, self-controlled and meek;
Be not haughty or judgmental,
But the mind of Jesus seek!
As you would be seen by others,
Be in truth, at inmost heart;
So build up your sisters, brothers,
As God’s temple, set apart!

Parents, tell your children truly
All that Christ would have them know;
To His presence bring them duly,
That their faith may thrive and grow!
By your teaching and example
True disciples will arise;
For the Spirit’s pow’r is ample
And God’s kingdom is the prize.

Come again, repentant sinners,
Knowing pardon is your need;
Whether experts or beginners,
Come, receive the gospel seed!
You who hunger for salvation,
Come and take the living Bread,
Every member in his station
Growing up in Christ our Head!

Go with joy, returning often
To be filled again with joy!
Let each planned reunion soften
Our regret at each goodbye!
And should triumph intercept us
Or the grave’s dividing veil,
Go to Christ, who will accept us
With His joy-perfecting hail!

146. Disability Hymn

This hymn is in memory of my dear sister in Christ, Alexis Wernsing, who died recently after a 40-year lifetime in which she bore physical disability with amazing cheerfulness and strong faith. I've had the sniffles the last few days, but at times when I catch myself complaining about it I am struck by the thought of the constant pain and weakness Alexis lived with every day of her life, when doing things I can do without a thought required total effort on her part. Her death is a sharp loss to the small congregation I belong to, but her freedom from the disability she experienced in this life, together with her inheritance in heaven, is a great gain to her. For the tune, I am going with DEDICATION, which I wrote in 1993 for another hymn.

Behold! The weak and the afflicted
Look to You, almighty Lord,
Trusting in Your healing word,
Wherein Your mercy is depicted
In the person of Your Son,
For all flesh the Stricken One.

Look down, O Lord, upon our blindness!
Shine into our haze and night
With the gospel’s healing light!
Our eyes of faith fix on Your kindness,
Waiting for the day we see
All as it was meant to be!

Give ear, O Lord, unto our crying!
Let Your voice our deaf ears reach;
Loose our tongues for faithful speech!
Keep us upon Your word relying,
Till we hear the signaled rout
And reply with ready shout!

Make haste, O Lord, to banish Satan,
Who delights in withered limb,
Failing organ, sullied skin!
The broken heal; the crooked straighten,
That when we have run our race
We may stand before Your face!

Help us to run and not grow weary,
Even should our road require
Double tolls and trouble dire!
Show us, when all seems vain and dreary,
Bracing gifts You left in store
When You passed this way before!

With Your pierced, risen body feed us,
And with Your shed blood refresh
Both our soul and feeble flesh!
At last to perfect wholeness lead us,
Raising us from peaceful rest,
In Your splendid image dressed!

145. Hymn for the 10th Sunday after Trinity

The Epistle for this service is 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, a passage concerning spiritual gifts. The Gospel is Luke 19:41-48, Jesus weeping over Jerusalem and driving the merchants out of the temple. The tune I selected is FINNISH SONG from Suomen Koraalikirja, 1738, which interests me as a sort of major-key twin to the chorale DER AM KREUZ.

Howsoever you be gifted,
Fellow saints, be not deceived;
Some with kindred gifts were lifted
When dumb idols they believed,
Yet in helpless darkness drifted
Till the Spirit they received.

Oracles and tongues may flower
Though there be no Christian seed;
Only by the Spirit's power
Can we honor Christ indeed.
Therefore faith, at any hour,
Is our first and greatest need.

None can say, who has the Spirit,
That Christ Jesus is accursed,
Nor confess His name and fear it
Had He not confessed them first.
Other gifts we may inherit
Once on Him our hopes are nursed.

Though our gifts may greatly vary
God, who works in all, is one;
One is Jesus, born of Mary,
Though He also is God's Son.
Shall His members work contrary
To the body, on their own?

Gifts of grace like tongues and healing
May serve all, or may divide
Saint from saint with party feeling;
Better were they set aside!
Fix your eyes on Christ, so dealing
That His church be edified!

If you be uniquely gifted,
Fellow saints, be not puffed up!
Some God favors to be sifted,
Pouring pain into their cup.
By one grace we all are lifted;
On one living Bread we sup.

Let us glorify the Father
For His gifts of life and grace,
And the Son, our Lord and Brother,
Who gave all to save our race;
Nor neglect the Spirit - rather
Laud each Person in His place!

Nor let any be mistaken
What the Spirit's mission is:
Faith in Jesus to awaken,
Giving us of what is His,
Till with confidence unshaken
We cross over into bliss!

144. Hymn for the 9th Sunday after Trinity

The Epistle for this service is 1 Corinthians 10:6-13, the passage directly following the Epistle for Septuagesima. The Gospel is Luke 16:1-9, widely known as the Parable of the Unrighteous Steward. The tune is ST. ALBINUS by Henry J. Gauntlett, 1852.

When the stewards of God's word
At His bidding pledge remission,
Dare we doubt what we have heard
Or despise their sacred mission?
Lord, have mercy!

Though they be but sinful men,
Christ has called them for our blessing
To rebuke our sins, and then
Cover them beneath the dressing
Of God's mercy.

God's forgiveness they pronounce,
And as here so too in heaven
What in His name they announce
Is securely sealed and given:
Oh, what mercy!

What God speaks is always done,
Though through angel or apostle;
His name as the Holy One
Marks His promise with colossal
Truth and mercy.

Though His love they spend in haste,
As imprudent stewards acting,
God will not recall their waste
Nor rescind His word, detracting
From His mercy.

Sealed to us when Jesus died,
Borne to us in blood and sighing,
God's forgiveness is applied
By His mighty, never lying
Word of mercy.

Though they speak with lips unclean,
His called stewards speak with warrant
As though Christ Himself were seen,
Pouring out a drenching torrent
Of His mercy.

Jesus' risen breath we thank
For this promise, never broken!
We confide, as in a bank,
In His valid steward's spoken
Act of mercy.

We are thus in debt to those
Who commit God's pardon to us,
That to them He may disclose
Ample means of living through us
Heirs of mercy.

We have tasted such great love;
God forbid we should so harden
As to think ourselves above
Granting one another pardon,
Borrowed mercy!

Rather, let us more and more
Count it, Lord, our sweetest pleasure
One another to restore,
For we have no higher treasure
Than Your mercy!

143. Hymn for the 8th Sunday after Trinity

Again I'm skipping over a Sunday, since I wrote a hymn in 2007 that answers for the 7th Sunday after Trinity. As for the 8th ditto, the Epistle is Romans 8:12-17, the paragraph immediately preceding that of the 4th ditto. The Gospel is Matthew 7:15-23, near the end of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. I know of two tunes that could be used for this hymn: HEILGER GEIST, DU TRÖSTER MEIN, a 15th century German melody published in Bremen in 1633, and here placed above the following hymn; and ST. PHILIP by William H. Monk, 1823-89, below it.

Little children, be alert
Lest false guides your way pervert!
For the foe designs your hurt.

Clad as Jesus' little lambs,
They are hungry wolves; their shams
Tear the flock; their teaching damns.

You shall know them by their fruit,
Bad or good, as with the root;
Therefore, brethren, be astute!

No good comes if you imbibe
Teachings of that wicked tribe;
Only to sound words subscribe!

Even some who call Christ Lord
Shall on His day be abhorred;
Faithfulness He will reward.

So then are we, ransomed host,
Debtors to the Holy Ghost
For the gift we need the most:

Faith, by which He comes to dwell
In us, leading our steps well,
Changing us from sons of hell.

By His witness in our heart
We receive a second start
As God's children, set apart;

And if children, also heirs
With His Son, who gladly shares
Peace to soothe our daily cares.

Little lambs, your Lord is great;
Though in woe you walk and wait,
He will keep your footsteps straight.

Christ will make you truly wise,
Armored from the devil's lies,
Till you taste of Paradise.

Amen, Jesus! Quickly come,
Lest to wolves your flock succumb!
Bear us, Savior, safely home!