Hymns and Song When We Face an Unknown Future

When We Face an Unknown Future (a free hymn)

Carolyn Winfrey Gillette March 26, 2020 

BEACH SPRING 8.7.8.7 D (“God Whose Giving Knows No Ending”)

When we face an unknown future that we can’t imagine yet,
when the closeness we have treasured turns from blessing into threat—
As we miss our friends and loved ones, as we crave community,
may we look, God, in this season, for a whole new way to be.

Jesus faced the lonely desert as a time to look within.
There he met such trial and conflict; there he knew you were with him.
In this time of separation when we miss the life we’ve known,
may we hear your voice proclaiming: “I am here! You’re not alone.”

May we cherish those around us as we never have before.
May we think much less of profit; may we learn what matters more.
May we hear our neighbors’ suffering; may we see our neighbors’ pain.
May we learn new ways of offering life and health and hope again.

God, when illness comes to threaten, and when so much here goes wrong,
may we know this thing for certain— that your love is sure and strong.
You’re beside us in our suffering— and when times are surely tough,
we may face an unknown future, but it’s filled, Lord, with your love.

Tune: The Sacred Harp, 1844; attributed to Benjamin Franklin White
Text: Copyright © 2020 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved.

 I haven't given any thought to the possibility of hymns written in response to the COVID-19 pandemic until reading a Religion Unplugged piece about the music which has been created over the past year. Here is an excerpt: 

The pandemic has prompted composers to create new sacred music of all kinds — hymns, liturgical music, prayers, praise music and more. These are not limited to one religion, but have cropped up in Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Catholic and Protestant circles.

And they span the globe, leaping cultural and language barriers via social media and the internet:

•       In Japan, a Buddhist priest named Chiba Kenjō from the Rinzai Zen tradition collaborated with electronic musicians to create a piece of sacred music titled “Repel” intended to ritually ward off the coronavirus.

•       In India, a group of Hindu women gathered to sing an “aarti,” a form of sung worship, with a chorus of “coronavirus go away.”

•       In England and Scotland, the Methodist Church is linking home worshippers to newly-written COVID hymns, including “When We Face an Unknown Future” by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette.

These “COVID hymns” are an attempt to cope with uncertain times and express that which may be too painful or difficult to express in plain words.

Here is the link to the Religion Unplugged piece which includes it's own link to an international musical event based on Psalm 147

thttps://religionunplugged.com/news/2021/4/6/jesus-the-essential-worker-and-other-new-hymns-inspired-by-covid

Jesus the Essential Worker

Jesus the essential worker never made a lot of money

Rode a bike and fed the hungry, carrying deliveries.
Jesus the essential worker drove a truck and dropped off boxes,
Ran a shelter for the homeless, caring for the least of these.

Jesus the essential worker made the beds and changed the dressings,
Cleaned another ventilator, wiped another toilet down.
Jesus the essential worker mopped the floor and stocked the freezer,
Waited for a bus to take her to the poorer part of town.

You can see it in the numbers: some lives matter more than others.
Every day it makes me wonder who’s essential, what that means.
We could choose to feed the hungry, heal the sick and love our neighbors.
We could be essential workers, building up the world we dream.