For several years I've posted a weekly Lenten series on a selected topic. This year, on Fridays, I'll be featuring songs we sing to honor the Cross of Jesus. (Here are links to the first and second and third posts in this series.) The very fact that we sing of the Cross on which Jesus died is a testimony to our faith and belief that in his suffering we find our healing and our life... Tonight's selection is Faithful Cross by fellow Rory Cooney and Tom Kendzia. I find Cooney's lyrics here to be among the finest I've encountered in contemporary church music...
I suggest you pray with the song first, and then move on to my Night Prayer...
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Night Prayer
These lyrics remind us, Lord:
how present is your Cross
in our lives and in the tragic news
that wounds our hearts and yours...
The mighty arm of Caesar
still dares to claim your name
to defend its iron arrows
launched with lusty, lethal power,
mingling human blood and spirit
with the mud of mother earth...
Your kingship, Lord, is humble,
your reign, a life of service:
you stoop to wash our dusty feet
to teach us now to kneel
and tend our neighbors' many needs...
Your prophet's cry still echoes, Lord,
still shouts above the fray:
"Beat your weapons into farm tools
and go out into the fields
to yield a crop of justice
and a harvest of my peace..."
Your Cross reveals your wisdom, Lord,
it's gilded with your love:
it shines with grace,
with light undimmed,
enlightening every heart...
On the Cross you told our story
with redeeming, saving grace:
help us now to lay down our lives,
to let go our greed and pride,
to surrender to your love, Lord,
to the victory you have won...
Protect us, Lord, while we're awake
and watch over us while we sleep
that awake, we might keep watch with you
and asleep rest in your peace...
Amen.
Perhaps you'd like to pray the song a second time...
1. Who shall dare to sing the praises
Of the gallows tree whose limbs
Bore the carpenter of Nazareth,
Tree whose wood was borne by him?
Sing as his dear blood and spirit,
Mingled with the air and earth,
Make the tree a new creation,
Recreate the universe.
2. Mighty is the arm of Caesar
Who to God's own name pretends,
Strong the iron of the arrow,
Stronger still the oak that bends.
Christ's the empire unlike others,
All must put away the sword.
Here the king becomes the servant,
He who washes feet is Lord.
Rising from the earth to heaven,
Stretched between the mud and stars,
Terrible in pain and purpose,
Beautiful the wooden bars.
Rooted in the glades of Eden,
Tree that shaped the saving ark,
Light your frail human burden:
He the light undimmed by dark.
3. "Better one life than the
nation,"
Argue those who plot and arm.
Guarding their civilization:
Violence and threats of harm.
Thus are prophets' voices silenced.
Privilege that fears its loss
Summons servant of the violence,
Forges nails, and builds the cross.
4. Love's astounding transformation
Gilds the instrument of death,
Love confounds sophistication,
Takes away the cynic's breath
Ever shunning power and glory,
Love has stripped the cross of shame,
So God saved the human story,
Taking human flesh and name.
5. Lifted up, his heart laid open,
Robbed of breath, his body torn,
Still his arms recall the rainbow
Promising a world reborn.
Gazing on the cross, look upward,
Til his heart arrests the glance,
And his arms direct us outward
To the world, with healing hands.
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