Wide Open Stand the Gates

This translation by Herman Stuempfle of Wilhelm Loehe's communion text is a wonderful addition to Lutheran Service Book! 

Wide open stand the gates adorned with pearl,

    While round God’s golden throne

The choirs of saints in endless circles curl,

    And joyous praise the Son!

They watch Him now descending

    To visit waiting earth.

The Lord of Life unending

    Brings dying hope new birth!

He speaks the Word the bread and wine to bless:

    “This is My flesh and blood!”

He bids us eat and drink with thankfulness

    This gift of holy food.

All human thought must falter—

    Our God stoops low to heal,

Now present on the altar,

    For us both host and meal!

The cherubim, their faces veiled from light,

    While saints in wonder kneel,

Sing praise to Him whose face with glory bright

    No earthly masks conceal.

This sacrament God gives us

    Binds us in unity,

Joins earth with heav’n beyond us,

    Time with eternity!

Mark How the Lamb of God's Self-Offering

This text is by Carl P. Daw, Jr. (b. 1944), former president of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada.  In the first stanza, Daw points the worshiper to Christ's baptism in the Jordan.  In stanza 2, he points to what took place after the Jesus' baptism, when the Spirit led our Lord to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for forty days. Halfway through the second stanza, Daw transitions to application for the life of the Christian and then concludes the hymn with a prayer for the baptismal life of the Christian in the third stanza.  This hymn is 600 in Lutheran Service Book.

Mark how the Lamb of God’s self-off’ring

    Our human sinfulness takes on

In the birthwaters of the Jordan

    As Jesus is baptized by John.

Hear how the voice from heaven thunders,

    “Lo, this is My beloved Son.”

See how in dovelike form the Spirit

    Descends on God’s Anointed One.

From this assurance of God’s favor

    Jesus goes to the wilderness,

There to endure a time of testing

    That readied Him to teach and bless.

So we, by water and the Spirit

    Baptized into Christ’s ministry,

Are often led to paths of service

    Through mazes of adversity.

Grant us, O God, the strength and courage

    To live the faith our lips declare;

Bless us in our baptismal calling;

    Christ’s royal priesthood help us share.

Turn us from ev’ry false allegiance,

    That we may trust in Christ alone:

Raise up in us a chosen people

    Transformed by love to be Your own.