The Branch That Bends With Clustered Fruit

This text by Thomas Troeger (b. 1945) is based on John 15:1-8, the (Easter 5) Gospel lesson in the 3-year lectionary.   Thank God that in Holy Baptism we were engrafted into the living Vine, Jesus Christ!  God the Father is the vinedresser.  Pruning is never pleasant to undergo, but so necessary if we are to be bountiful branches in our Lord's vineyard.


1.  The branch that bends with clustered fruit
     Still needs the pruner's blade
     To keep it close to vine and root
     Or else its strength will fade.


2.  The spindly, twisted, tangled coil
     Of branches overgrown
     Produces nothing from its toil
     But feeds itself alone.


3.  The pruner's hook with gently play
     Where fruitful growth is seen
     But like an axe will slash away
     The empty net of green.


4.  O God, who fills with rain and sun
     The grapes we press for wine,
     Cut off the growth our fears have spun
     And prune us to your vine.

The Eternal Gates Are Lifted Up

"Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens."  (Hebrews 7:25-26)


This Ascension text is by Mrs. Cecil Frances Alexander (1818-95)


1.  The eternal gates are lifted up,
     The doors are open wide;
     The King of glory is gone in
     Unto His Father's side.


2.  Thou art gone up before us, Lord,
     To make for us a place,
     That we may be where now Thou art,
     And look upon God's face.


3.  And ever on our earthly path
     A gleam of glory lies;
     A light still breaks behind the cloud
     That veiled Thee from our eyes.


4.  Lift up our hearts, lift up our minds,
     And let Thy grace be given,
     That while we live on earth below,
     Our treasure be in heaven.


5.  That where Thou art, at God's right hand,
     Our hope, our love may be.
     Dwell Thou in us, that we may dwell
     Forevermore in Thee.

Spirit, Come With Grace Renew

This confirmation text was written for my son Peter's confirmation in 2007 and is set to the Carl Schalk tune JESUS' NAME.  The tradition here at St. John remains Palm Sunday confirmation and Maundy Thursday first communion.

1.  Spirit, come with grace, renew

     These our children called by You;

     May their souls and bodies be

     Kept by You in sanctity.

           Refrain:   Breathe on them Your living breath;

                          Keep them faithful unto death.

2.  To the font their faith we trace,

      Where You touched them with Your grace,

      Grafting them by love’s design

      As a branch into the Vine.   Refrain

                                   

3.   Help them live, O holy Fire,

      By God’s Word, as You desire;

      Purge away all worthless dross,

      Forge their lives around the cross.   Refrain

4.   In the Eucharistic meal,    

      Your forgiveness to them seal                    

      As they feed on Jesus Christ,                                 

      For their sins once sacrificed.   Refrain

5.   May they fruits of faith display,

      Firm and steadfast till that day

      When all those who Christ confess

      Shall be crowned with righteousness.   Refrain

God's Glorious Way is Hard to See

This text by a Lutheran pastor in Canada, Kurt E. Reinhardt, confesses the theology of the cross: that God did His greatest work in the seeming weakness and foolishness of the cross.  God still hides the glory of His work in weak and common things--Word with water and Word with bread and wine, the preached Word and the Word of Absolution.  He uses common clay people to do His work in our world today.  Truly amazing...how humble is God's chosen way!

God's glorious way is hard to see,
He hides it in humility;
The praise of this world leads astray,
For humble is God's chosen way.

A crown of thorns rests on His head,
He's robed in Roman mocking red,
"Hail, Israel's King," with scorn they say;
How humble is God's chosen way.

Then burdened down with heavy beam,
He stumbles through the jeering stream,
While mournful women weep and pray;
How humble is God's chosen way.

True hatred nails Him to the tree,
He hangs in tortured agony,
While for His clothes the soldiers play;
How humble is God's chosen way.

Now simple words proclaimed and read
With water, wine, and earthly bread,
Bring us the gifts He earned that day;
How humble is God's chosen way.

Dear mothers tend their children's needs,
And farmers sow their precious seeds;
The Lord works good through our poor clay;
How humble is God's chosen way.

A poor saint suffers on his bed
He longs to join the faithful dead,
But for some good he still must stay;
How humble is God's chosen way.

The way of life leads through the night,
So faith must lead instead of sight;
The cross seems humble in its day
But truly is God's glorious way.

I Bind Unto Myself Today

St. Patrick (389-461) brought the Christian faith to Ireland.  Born into a Christian family along the western coast of England, at the age of 16 he was kidnapped by coastal raiders and taken to Ireland as a forced worker.  After six years he escaped to a ship that was bound for France.  There he studied in a French monastery and eventually returned to England.  In 432, now a middle-aged man, Patrick returned to the place of his captivity as a Christian missionary, not a safe thing to do in light of the Irish chieftains and Druid priests. Fully away of the dangers, he wrote in his diary, "Daily I expect either a violent death or a return to slavery or some other calamity...I have cast myself into the hands of the Almighty God, for He rules everything."  Patrick had a long and productive career as a Christian missionary in Ireland.  His famous hymn, "I Bind Unto Myself Today" reminds Christians of the importance of remembering their baptism, that blessed day when they were baptized into the "strong name of the Trinity."  Each day we can recall and reclaim the blessings of our baptism.

I bind unto myself today

    The strong name of the Trinity

By invocation of the same,

    The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this day to me forever,

    By pow’r of faith, Christ’s incarnation,

His baptism in the Jordan River,

    His cross of death for my salvation,

His bursting from the spiced tomb,

    His riding up the heav’nly way,

His coming at the day of doom,

    I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself today

    The pow’r of God to hold and lead,

His eye to watch, His might to stay,

    His ear to hearken to my need,

The wisdom of my God to teach,

    His hand to guide, His shield to ward,

The Word of God to give me speech,

    His heav’nly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,

    The vice that gives temptation force,

The natural lusts that war within,

    The hostile foes that mar my course;

Or few or many, far or nigh,

    In ev’ry place and in all hours,

Against their fierce hostility

    I bind to me those holy powers.

I bind unto myself the name,

    The strong name of the Trinity

By invocation of the same,

    The Three in One and One in Three,

Of whom all nature has creation,

    Eternal Father, Spirit, Word.

Praise to the Lord of my salvation;

    Salvation is of Christ the Lord!

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.

In Faithful Silence Take Your Stand

This text by Lutheran Church-Canada pastor, Kurt E. Reinhardt, speaks of the power of God at work in Holy Baptism to defeat our enemies and enable us to walk through life's terrible circumstances on dry ground.   "In Faithful Silence Take Your Stand" is found in a book of Pastor Reinhardt's texts entitled "My Light and My Salvation," (ISBN:  978-1-934328-02-6) published in 2008 by Redeemer Press.  (Go to www.redeemer-fortwayne.org for additional information and to order.) For permission to use this text in worship, please contact Pastor Kurt Reinhardt at prkreinhardt@gmail.com

1.  In faithful silence take your stand,

     Be still and watch My saving hand,

          As surging waters heed My cry

         That you might pass and never die.

2.  The Prince of Hell is at your back,

     With hatred straining to attack,

          My mighty arm keeps him at bay;

          He shall not conquer you today.

3.  Pass through the water, do not fear;

     I will not fail you, I am near.

          Though sin and death will follow in,

          The distant bank they shall not win.

4.  A thund'rous wave will charge them down

     And they will flounder, they will drown;

          Yet you shall stand upon the shore

          To sing My praise forevermore.

5.  The edge of these baptismal seas,

     All littered with dead enemies,

          Throughout your life shall daily stand

          A tribute to My saving hand.

Christ is With Me

St. Paul writes in the sixth chapter of Romans, "Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  We were therefore buried with Him through baptisn into death in order tha, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."   The hymn text below was written by Gerald Patrick Coleman, copyrighted by Concordia Publishing House in 1992.  It is very much a paraphrase of a few pasages in Holy Scripture in a free verse style, in which the lines do not rhyme.  Coleman also wrote the tune for this text, a tune called CHRIST IS WITH ME.  The text and tune appear in the recently published WELS hymnal supplement, Christian Worship Supplement.

1.  We were buried with Him into death,

         That as He was raised by God's glory,

             We might walk in life made new by grace.

                 Having died with Christ, we shall live with Him.

      Refrain:  Christ is with me ev'rywhere I go.

                       Never to leave me, this I know.

2.  I have now been grafted to the Vine,

         Drawing life from roots rich in mercy,

             Bearing fruit as I abide in Him:

                 Fruit forever fresh, glorifying God.   Refrain

3.  I have now been crucifed with Christ.

         I no longer live; Christ lives in me.

             Now I live by faith in God's own Son,

                 One who loved me so--gave Himself for me.   Refrain  

Water, Blood, and Spirit Crying

Artist Ed Riojas of Byron Center, Michigan, recently completed this iconic crucifix for me which illustrates, in part, the words of "Water, Blood, and Spirit Crying." The text in Greek above the image of our suffering Lord is from 1 John 5:6a, "This is he who came by water and blood--Jesus Christ..." The water and blood rushing from the wounded side of our Savior flow into the life-giving font of Holy Baptism and the life-sustaining chalice of the Holy Supper. The symbols on the linen covering Christ's naked shame say, "Jesus Christ, Conqueror." The theology of the cross states that God accomplishes His greatest work in the seeming weakness and foolishness of the cross. To look for God we need look no further than the cross. There we see in stark revelation the depth of His love for a fallen humanity. The subtitle on "Water, Blood, and Spirit Crying" is The Three Witnesses. One of the Scripture passages upon which this hymn text is based is 1 John 5:6-8: "This is he who came by water and blood--Jesus Christ; not by water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree." The precious means of grace--Holy Baptism, the Lord's Supper, and the Word of God--indeed testify to all that God has done for us and for all by Christ's death on the cross, by which He brings life to our dying world, defying and defeating death itself!


1. Water, blood, and Spirit crying,
    By their witness testifying
    To the One whose death-defying
       Life has come, with life for all.


2. In a wat'ry grave are buried
    All our sins that Jesus carried;
    Christ, the Ark of Life, has ferried
       Us across death's raging flood.


3. Dark the way, yet Christ precedes us,
    Past the scowl of death He leads us;
    Spreads a table where He feeds us
      With His body and His blood.


4. Through around us death is seething,
    God, His two-edged sword unsheathing,
    By His Spirit life is breathing
       Through the living, active Word.


5. Spirit, water, blood entreating,
    Working faith and its completing
    In the One whose death-defeating
       Life has come, with life for all.