jesus – Thomas Cary Kinder

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.