Five Holy Week and Second Sunday of Easter Hymns

Please let me know if you would like to use one or more of these and I will send you the words embedded in the music.

I Am with You Forever More
tune: CONSOLATION (Southern Harmony) C.M.D.
(Tune of "My Shepherd Is the Living God" in the New Century Hymnal)
text: Matthew 28:20; John 14-17
Holy Week
For a copy of the hymn set in the music email rev.thomas.cary.kinder@gmail.com

I am with you forever more
Until the end of ends.
I dwell within your spirit’s core
And you in mine, my friends.
The bread we break, the cup we share,
Together or apart,
Remind us of the love we bear,
United heart to heart.

Where I am you will always be,
Where you are, there am I.
Believe in God, believe in me,
In what will never die.
Abide in love as God commands
And you will dwell in grace.
God’s mansion spans all time and lands.
We always share that place.

I leave, but give you now my peace.
You need not ever fear.
My care for you will never cease.
My help is always near.
I leave, but offer you this Way
So we may never part:
My love in all you do and say,
My heart within your heart.

Christ Taught Us Love for All the Earth
tune: CONDITOR ALME L.M.
(Tune of "Creator of the Stars of Night" or "O Loving Founder of the Stars")
Holy Week
For a copy of the hymn set in the music email rev.thomas.cary.kinder@gmail.com

Christ taught us love for all the earth,
All people one, all equal worth.
Hear sorrow in his dying voice
To watch us fail to make love’s choice.

Earth may be saved if we change now.
Christ’s life and death have shown us how.
Let go of self, let power and wealth
Be ruled by love to serve earth’s health.

Christ is the way by any name.
All schools of wisdom say the same:
Compassion, love, heart open wide
To let the Spirit be our guide.

Choose emptiness, Christ on his cross.
We gain his heart and mind through loss.
Earth’s oneness rises through that choice,
The joy of new life in our voice.

Again, Christ’s Love Is Crucified
tune: Duke Street L.M.
(Tune of "Jesus Shall Reign")
or Kedron L.M.
(Tune of "God Marked a Line" or "Sunset to Sunrise Changes Now")
text: John 20:19-23
Second Sunday of Easter or Good Friday
For a copy of the hymn set in the music email rev.thomas.cary.kinder@gmail.com

Again, Christ’s love is crucified.
Hope gone, our hearts turn here to hide.
It could be any century
In any church community.

On that first Easter they hid here:
Outside, injustice; inside, fear.
Here later, seeking civil rights,
We sang for courage through such nights.

We gather now within these walls,
Hearts praying Christ will hear our calls:
Come change this world before too late;
Convert to love fierce greed and hate.

Oh lost, confused community,
Oppressed and yearning to be free,
When fear has walled you in once more,
Remember Christ faced walls before.

Christ passes through doors locked for fear
And new communities appear,
New joy, new peace, new Spirit’s force,
Sent out to change the future’s course.

Through centuries, as each church turned
To hide from threats, again we learned
Christ enters hearts where hope has died.
All change we seek starts here inside.

For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free
tune: Duke Street L.M.
(Tune of "Jesus Shall Reign")
text: Galatians 5, John 20:19-31
Second Sunday of Easter
For a copy of the hymn set in the music email rev.thomas.cary.kinder@gmail.com

For freedom Christ has set us free
To lead the world to liberty.
Where fear or grief have held us fast
Christ comes and frees us from the past.

When we feel trapped, unsure or lost,
When freedom’s threshold lies uncrossed,
Christ breathes the Spirit, calms our mind,
Sends us to serve earth unconfined.

No threat of death or fear of pain
Can hold with its enslaving chain.
Christ breaks death’s fear-locked door apart,
Pain turns to joy and peace of heart.

Faith opens us so we receive
The power to leave the place we grieve.
The Spirit guides us, makes us strong,
Frees us to free a world gone wrong.

Christ makes a way out of no way.
Where we are now we need not stay.
No past or future force can hold
Our freeing love that Christ makes bold.

Attachment to Desires
tune: St. Michael S.M.
(Tune of "O Day of God Draw Nigh")
text: John 20:19-31
Second Sunday of Easter
For a copy of the hymn set in the music email rev.thomas.cary.kinder@gmail.com

Attachment to desires
Is what first locks our door,
And then the fears desire inspires
Will bar it even more.

Disciples feared arrest,
Desiring not to die,
And so they hid, confused, distressed,
And let God’s need pass by.

What fear now makes us hide
And locks our heart up fast?
What gifts are wasting here inside
As needs to serve flow past?

Our doors and windows tight,
Our yearnings clenched within,
Serve stifling darkness more than light.
Fear lets the darkness win.

But Christ comes through that wall,
Calms fears and clears our doubt,
Gives power to serve as need may call,
Gives peace, and sends us out.

New resurrection lifts
God’s light from its dark tombs,
As by Christ’s power the Spirit’s gifts
Are freed from our locked rooms.

“For Countless Generations” A Hymn

For a copy of the hymn set in the music email rev.thomas.cary.kinder@gmail.com

For Countless Generations
Tune: Llangloffen  7.6.7.6.D.
(tune of “O God of Earth and Altar” and other hymns

For countless generations
Saints dreamed Christ’s reign of peace,
Love ruling hearts and nations,
Compassion without cease,
When laws of human kindness
Will overrule cruel greed,
And truth of oneness bind us
To serve all earthly need.

We gather here still willing
To dream like saints long past.
But time for its fulfilling
Has come to earth at last.
We hear the cries of science
And those who suffer wrong.
We rise with faith’s reliance.
Christ makes us wise and strong.

We rise to fill Christ’s vision,
To build God’s realm on earth.
No church has ever risen
To serve more urgent worth.
God’s power brings transformation
Like Christ’s baptismal dove.
It drives our generation
To give our lives for love.


copyright 2018 Thomas Cary Kinder

“Calm, Confident, Secure” A Spiritual Song for All Traditions

Calm, Confident, Secure
S.M. Tune: Trentham (tune of “Breathe on Me, Breath of God”)

Please let me know if you would like to use this spiritual song and I will send it to you embedded in the music.  It is written in Short Meter.

Calm, confident, secure,
I welcome what is true,
In doubt or fear my steps are sure
Because I walk with you.

You are my golden thread,
Invisible but real,
Revealing hidden paths to tread.
I find your way by feel.

Some voices call me wrong,
And maybe they are right,
But I have chosen all along
To turn and seek your light.

Please show me my next move.
I open heart and hand
To feel what only faith can prove
And love can understand.

Your way may lead through pain,
Through danger, toil and snare,
A life of struggle, stress and strain,
Until I near despair.

But then amazing grace,
The peace your presence brings,
Transforms my lost or hardest place
And all my being sings.

8/7/14

Three Lenten Hymns

Please let me know if you would like to use one or more of these and I will send you the words embedded in the music.

God, This Wilderness Seems Trackless
tune: Wachet Auf 8.9.8.8.9.8.6.6.4.8.8.
Texts: Psalm 25:1-10; Matt. 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13
The tune is the same as “Wake, Awake, for Night Is Falling”
For a copy of the hymn set in the music email rev.thomas.cary.kinder@gmail.com

God, this wilderness seems trackless,
Dark night of soul a starless blackness.
Wounds, wrongs and losses tempt despair.
All my stumbling steps betray doubt.
My flailing mind can find no way out.
At last I fall to humble prayer.
I quiet as I wait.
The swirling sands abate.
Faith, courage, love:
Like stars they rise. Light fills my eyes.
Christ shows the way, his truth makes wise.

Holy Spirit drives and leads me,
It teaches me, its angel feeds me
If I give God my will’s control.
Then when demons come attacking
And tempt with all that I feel lacking,
I turn to God and lift my soul.
Christ takes my outstretched hand.
He, too, has walked this sand.
He leads me through.
Strength to endure, faith’s steps made sure:
God’s steadfast love holds me secure.

Spirit leads to confrontation
With foes of soul and of Creation.
Christ leads us out to serve all earth.
Wilderness is our preparing
For paths of loving, healing, caring.
Dark nights of soul are throes of birth.
We reach the other side
Stripped of self-will and pride.
We rise, all God’s.
We follow on where Christ has gone
Down paths that lead to Easter dawn.

The Wilderness Is Dark Tonight
tune: Woodworth L.M.
This is the tune of “Just As I Am”
For a copy of the hymn set in the music email rev.thomas.cary.kinder@gmail.com

The wilderness is dark tonight,
No path ahead, no star above,
No distant window throwing light
To guide me home to hope and love.

The Spirit’s dove first drove me here.
It left me then, alone and lost
In desert wastes of thirst and fear,
A land faith tells me must be crossed.

The Spirit asks I leave behind
The comforts I have craved and known,
It asks that I renew my mind,
A birth like death, my prayer, a groan.

A wilderness of stone and dust
Can tempt the strongest faith to doubt.
It strips my soul to one last trust:
God led me here, God will lead out.

O God of Moses, God of Christ,
I turn to you to find my way.
I offer all they sacrificed,
Your will the one will I obey.

For you, the smallest step I take,
For you, each work of word or hand,
And then night lifts, light comes, I wake
To find this is the Promised Land.

Lent Insists That We Remember
tune: Calon Lân 8.7.8.7.D.
text: Genesis 1-3
This is one of the most popular hymn tunes in Wales. You can watch a spirited performance of it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYOxBncgmLQ
For a copy of the hymn set in the music email rev.thomas.cary.kinder@gmail.com

Lent insists that we remember
That this life is mortal dust.
All we are we must surrender,
All we have we hold in trust.
refrain:
Dust to dust, one day returning
What we borrowed at our birth.
And whose dust are we, whose yearning?
Dust of God and dust of earth.

Ours to love, and ours to steward,
Ours to move along its course,
Ours to speak our dust’s one true word
On behalf of our life source.
refrain

Born to serve like Christ, our teacher,
Called to tend this dust with care,
Serving God and every creature,
Tending waters, land and air.
refrain

“Are You the One Who Is to Come?” A Hymn

Please let me know if you would like to use this hymn and I will send you the words embedded in music. I suggest Kingsfold as the tune.

Are you the one who is to come
To turn the world around?
To heal the blind, the deaf, the dumb,
Transform the lost to found?
Are you the one, or must we wait,
Still captive, lame or poor?
Will you confront the unjust state
Or must we suffer more?

Are you the one?  What is your choice?
Soft robe or prophet stole?
God’s wilderness awaits your voice.
Will you fulfill your role?
Will you be one who will prepare
the way for Christ, like John?
Will you let Christ’s bold Spirit dare
To shine through you like dawn?

Are you the one, they once asked Christ.
Now Christ is asking you.
He loved, he served, he sacrificed.
What is it you will do?
Christ said, look how the blind now see,
They live who once were dead.
What captives will you work to free,
What world build here instead?

copyright 2013 Thomas Cary Kinder