By All Your Saints in Warfare

This hymn text is by Horatio Bolton Nelson, 1823-1913.

1. By all Your saints in warfare,

For all Your saints at rest,

Your holy name, O Jesus,

Forevermore be blest!

For You have won the battle

That they might wear the crown;

And now they shine in glory

Reflected from Your throne.

St. Mary Magdalene (July 22)

20. All praise for Mary Magdalene,

Whose wholeness was restored

By You, her faithful master,

Her Savior and her Lord.

On Easter morning early

A word from You sufficed;

For she was first to see You,

Her Lord, the risen Christ.

3. Then let us praise the Father

And worship God the Son

And sing to God the Spirit,

Eternal Three in One,

Till all the ransomed number

Fall down before the throne,

Ascribing pow’r and glory

And praise to God alone.

Thanks to Thee, O Christ, Victorious

Text: Thomas Hansen Kingo, 1634-1703, translated by George A. T. Rygh, 1860-1942.  Tune:  WERDE MUNTER by Johann Schop, c. 1590-1667.

1.  Thanks to Thee, O Christ, victorious!

     Thanks to Thee, O Lord of Life!

     Death hath now no power o'er  us,

     Thou has conquered in the strife.

     Thanks because Thou didst arise

     And hast opened paradise!

     None can fully sing the glory

     Of the resurrection story.

2.  Thou hast died for my transgression,

     All my sins on Thee were laid;

     Thou hast won for me salvation,

     On the cross my debt was paid.

     From the grave I shall arise

     And shall meet Thee in the skies.

     Death itself is transitory;

     I shall lift my head in glory.

3.  For the joy Thine advent gave me,

     For Thy holy, precious Word;

     For Thy Baptism, which doth save me,

     For Thy blest Communion board;

     For Thy death, the bitter scorn,

     For Thy resurrection morn,

     Lord, I thank Thee and extol Thee,

     And in heav'n I shall behold Thee.

All Mankind Fell in Adam's Fall

Lazarus Spengler originally wrote "Durch Adams Fall ganz verderbt Menschlich Natur und Wesen" as a nine stanza text of eight lines.  Matthias Loy freely translated Spengler's text into Long Meter.  Spengler's hymn first appeared in Walter's Geystliche gesangk Buchleyn (Wittenberg, 1524), Johann Walter's choir book.  This text was held in high regard at the time of the Reformation, but during the eras of Pietism and the Enlightenment, it fell into disuse.  Matthias Loy's free translation appeared in The Lutheran Hymnal (1880) of the Ohio Synod and in The Lutheran Hymnal (1941), Lutheran Worship (1982) and now in Lutheran Service Book (2006).

1.  All mankind fell in Adam's fall;

     One common sin infects us all.

          From one to all the curse descends,

          And over all God's wrath impends.

2.  Through all our pow'rs corruption creeps

     And us in dreadful bondage keeps;

          In guilt we draw our infant breath

          And reap its fruits of woe and death.

3.  From hearts depraved, to evil prone,

     Flow thoughts and deeds of sin alone;

          God's image lost, the darkened soul

          Seeks not nor finds its heav'nly goal.

4.  But Christ, the second Adam, came

     To bear our sin and woe and shame,

          To be our life, our light, our way,

          Our only hope, our only stay.'

5.  As by one man all mankind fell

     And, born in sin, was doomed to hell,

         So by one Man, who took our place,

        We all are justified by grace.

6.  We thank You, Christ; new life is ours,

     New light, new hope, new strength, new pow'rs.

          This grace our ev'ry way attend

          Until we reach our journey's end.

Have You Known or Have You Heard

This text was written for the baptism of Edmund Carl Reske, infant son of Peter and Kim Reske.  Edmund was baptized today--April 19th, the Second Sunday of Easter--in St. Louis.  The opening thought of the hymn text is from Isaiah 40:28, which reminds us that the ways of our almighty God, the Creator, are unsearchable.  This seemed like a good starting point when considering God at work in infant baptism, which for many Christians is difficult to grasp.  How can Baptism save? (Baptism saves because it connects us to the death and resurrection of our ever-living Savior! )  Baptism seems so simple...too simple.  So this hymn seeks to answer that unspoken question in the hearts of many people (about God the Recreator), people who may not have  strong faith in the promises connected to Holy Baptism.  Have they known it and forgotten?  Have they heard it but rejected it?  Have they ever known or heard about the efficacy of Holy Baptism as a gracious act of God and an ongoing reality of His presence and power in our lives?  In light of this, the text seeks to instruct about some of the meanings of Baptism.  The first four stanzas go from the more simple to the more difficult biblical teachings on baptism: 1. definition/cleansing/claiming; 2. curing/cleansing/robing;  3. gift of faith/calling/keeping; 4. dying/rising/second birth.  The final stanza is a prayer to God the Holy Spirit to come and breathe His life-giving breath/bring spiritual life/anoint the child with His gracious presence to make him complete.  The text is set the tune THE CALL, which was composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958).  Williams was one of the most prominent English composers of the 20th century.   In writing this text, I strove to keep an open and easily singable vowel on the long melisma in the fourth musical phrase of this tune.  

God's richest blessings to Edmund Carl Reske now and always!  

1.  Have you known or have you heard?

     Here is water with the Word:

          Cleansing us from Adam's vice,

          Claiming us for Paradise!

2.  Have you known or have you heard?

     Here sin's leprous scars are cured:

          Washed by God, who makes us clean;

          Robed in Christ, we are pristine!

3.  Have you known or have you heard?

     Faith in Christ is here conferred:

          Called by God the Paraclete,

          His good work His shall complete!

4.  Have you known or have you heard?

     We with Christ are sepulchered,

          Raised to life from that pure tomb,

          Born again from fontal womb!

5.  Spirit, by Your living breath,

     Breathe Your life where there is death:

          Quicken now this precious soul,

          By Your chrism make him whole.

When Time Was Full, God Sent His Son

This text was written in the Easter season of 1999 and focuses upon Christ as the second and greater Jonah.   Jesus compared Himself to Jonah when He spoke about His forthcoming resurrection triumph.  In 2005, Walter Pelz wrote a tune for this text called VALIANT ONE.

1.  When time was full, God sent His Son

          To save those under Law;

     His destined path, Christ did not shun,

          But faced death's hungry maw.

     As Life was swallowed up and died,

          Creation shook and groaned:

     Its Lord and Maker crucified,

          Deposed, entombed, disowned.

2.  This holy Jonah undecayed

          Lay still with the whale;

     This Lord of Life on death then preyed,

          Hell's titan to impale:

     From gaping jaws came forth this King,

          With death the casualty!

     Colossal foe, where now your sting?

          Where grave, your victory?

3.  God's valiant One, once sacrificed,

          Is high-exalted now,

     That at the name of Jesus Christ

          Each knee should surely bow;

     Each tongue confess and praise the Lamb,

          Our resurrected Lord,

     The First and Last, the great I AM--

          Acclaimed, enthroned, adored!